Motuihe Magic

I have this Summer had two camping expeditions to this wonderful Island and this time the aim was to mainly concentrate on some bird photographs. Each time I visit this Island there appear to be more birds and interesting animals due to the growing forest of many thousands of trees that have been planted by volunteers and also the trans location of species to the Island. This time I was particularly pleased to see flocks of whiteheads/popokotea and two  tuatara, one  just peeping its head out of its burrow about an hour after dusk.

Please see attached web galley for more photos. http://creativemomentsimages.co.nz/library/motuihesummer2013/

Off the Rails

Its been for some time a standing joke that whenever I visit anywhere that is meant to have plenty of banded rails (Moho-pereru) they suddenly become very scarce and are nowhere to be seen.
Well today was my lucky day at Tuff crater and I managed to also get a couple of very quick photos too as this very furtive bird quickly disappeared again.

This is urban ecology at its best. It doesnt get much better than this to see a rare bird enjoying it's habitat surrounded by a city.