Tom and I recently entered a photography competition put on by the Entomological Society of New Zealand. A family friend of ours, knowing our love for wildlife photography, saw it advertised in the local paper and gave us the article. It was only a couple of days before the closing date, so we both chose two…
Category: Whanganui
The Silver Orb Spider (Leucauge dromedaria)
Click to zoom in Much like our previous spider post, the spider under the spotlight today (Leucauge dromedaria) is an Australian import that we found on one of our bush walks here in New Zealand. Its common names are ‘Horizontal Orbweb Spider’, ‘Silver Orb Spider’ and ‘Humped Silver Orb Spider’. The first described specimen was misidentified…
Lake of the Blag Shags: A Few Faces From Whanganui’s Virginia Lake
If you are ever in Whanganui (North Island, New Zealand), make sure you take a wander around Virginia Lake. We headed out there for a walk a few weeks ago and took some snaps of the birdlife we saw. We’ll share those photos with you in today’s post along with a few key facts. The…
A New Zealand Category I Threatened Species: The Flightless Spiny Longhorn Beetle
A Night at Bushy Park Sanctuary Tom and I joined our friend and natural history curator of the Whanganui Regional Museum, Mike Dickison, and fellow naturalist, Lisa, for a night out at Bushy Park light-trapping for insects. Whilst waiting for the trap to draw in the local residents, we took a stroll along one of…
A New Zealand Tūī Feeding on Flax Nectar
Click to zoom in New Zealand’s Endemic Tūī Tūī (Prosthemadera novaeseelandiae) are an endemic New Zealand bird found across almost all of New Zealand. They range from the subtropical Kermadec Islands to the sub-Antarctic Auckland Islands. Tūī are noticeably absent from the Canterbury region although they were found there historically. With native planting, predator control,…
Nice to Bee back in New Zealand: Hive Audits
Beeing Employed Click to zoom in Within a week of being back in the country, we had somehow landed a short-term contract working with honey bees. Emma and I had put on bee suits before and photographed a friends bees but that was the extent of our experience. For this work, we essentially drove around…
Plague Skinks (Lampropholis delicata) at Gordon Park Scenic Reserve, Whanganui, NZ
This Tuesday, Tom and I joined a team of volunteers to tackle some of the invasive plant species at Gordon Park Scenic Reserve, Whanganui. Whilst we were there, we came across a clutch of skink eggs and a number of skinks basking in the sun in a newly-planted area. Gordon Park Scenic Reserve Gordon Park…
New Zealand’s Longest Beetle: the Giraffe Weevil (Lasiorhynchus barbicornis)
The New Zealand giraffe weevil is endemic to our country, and is in fact our longest beetle. It is also the longest beetle in the world of its family.
A Native New Zealand Centipede
Recently, whilst weeding one of these gardens in residential Whanganui, we came across this beautiful centipede. It was about 4cm in length, and bared its forcipules AKA ‘fangs’ when we disturbed it under a log in the flowerbed. The blue antennae were stunning, so we took the chance for a quick photo-shoot.
New Zealand Falcon in Bushy Park
On a recent exploit to Bushy Park, Whanganui, we heard, and consequently hunted down two New Zealand falcon (karearea) perching high up in a tree amongst the epiphytes. This was a first for me and a great chance to get some photographs.
New Zealand’s Sacred Kingfisher
Now that I am in New Zealand, I’ve been looking out for kingfishers. I often hear a ‘keh-keh-keh’ as I go about my daily business, and even see the silhouette of New Zealand kingfishers perching, at height, on telegraph wires near waterways.
Captured on Film: Hihi Nesting in Tawa Tree
At Bushy Park, despite knowing that hihi have used natural cavities before, no nests in natural cavities have actually been found. That is why, when walking through the bush on Wednesday, we were very excited to spot a female hihi emerge from a hole in a tawa tree.
