We heard the mōhua before we saw them. Like our experiences with their cousins, they were most often spotted high above us in the trees peering down and chattering to one another.
Tag: Birds
Mātātā: The New Zealand Fernbird
A Secretive Onlooker While tramping in the Kaweka & Kaimanawa Forest Parks, New Zealand, (see our previous blog post on that adventure here) we came across a curious sound emanating from some scrub within the wetland we were walking through. In between calls, the foliage would shake gently as it made its way to a new vantage…
The Atlantic Puffin: Fun Facts Edition!
Did you know that ‘Puffinus puffinus’ is not the Latin name for any of the three puffin species?
How many Sandeels do you reckon a puffin can hold in its beak at once?
What is the oldest recorded lifespan of an Atlantic puffin on Skomer Island?
Read our blog post to find out. 🙂
Our Local Green Woodpecker Family
We have had the builders in putting up an extension to the house since our last post about our resident female Green Woodpecker. As a result of the building works, we haven’t been able to get into the garden as much as we would normally. We haven’t even been able to hear the ‘yaffling’ of…
A Day on Skomer Island, West Wales
Click to zoom in Around this time last year, Tom surprised me with a birthday trip to Skomer Island. Man, did he earn himself some brownie-points that day! Well done, Tom. I’ll keep you on. 🙂 I started reminiscing about this little adventure after reading Jean Mackay’s blog post about her trip to see the…
Blue Tits and Their Chicks
When it comes to wildlife photography and knowing about your local species, it really pays to spend a lot of time outdoors. Whilst Emma was off working away and single-handily saving European protected species, I, left to my own devices, decided to go for a afternoon stroll. I was sat on a hill watching the world with…
The Baya Weaver (One Way to Please Her: Become a Master Weaver)
After an adventurous Malaysian jungle experience, we were back in the 4×4 heading out of the forest and soon bouncing our way down the dusty tracks surrounded by oil palm plantations. I had one more ask of our extremely patient guide and friend, Mr Lam. Several days earlier on the way into Endau Rompin National Park, we…
The Rhinoceros Hornbill : Malaysia’s National Bird
…Their most striking feature, their casque (the head ornament that looks like a second bill, or rhinoceros horn) is thought to have a similar function to that of hadrosaur’s head crest.
Exploring the Malaysian Jungle: Endau-Rompin National Park
Tom and I spend the southern hemisphere’s summer in New Zealand, my home country, and the northern hemisphere’s summer in England, Tom’s home country. We follow the summer because it is also the ecology season when we get most work. The flight can be pretty long when you have to travel half-way around the globe, so…
Takahē: The World’s Largest Living Rail
The takahē’s story is quite amazing. Between 1849 and 1898, only four individuals were ever sighted… By the early 1900’s takahē were considered to be extinct.
New Zealand’s Smallest Endemic Bird isn’t a True Wren, it’s the Rifleman
Despite being known as one of the New Zealand wrens, of which it is one of only two surviving species, the Rifleman actually belongs to the ancient Acanthisittidae family. They are often called “wrens” due to similarities in appearance and behaviour to the true wrens of the family Troglodytidae.
Booby Trapped
To see this individual was remarkable. Not just because it is the only known bird to have ever landed on mainland New Zealand, but because, by chance, we managed to stumble onto its location before its seaward departure at sunrise.