The Tui bird is unique to New Zealand. They mostly eat nectar from native trees and plants such as kowhai, pohutukawa, flax and puriri, though they do like the odd insect. They are found throughout New Zealand. Click on the link to hear their song.
Tui on flax/harakeke. Taken in our back garden in this spring. I like the its challenging stance. They move so fast as they feed from the flax flowers and I end up taking so many images till I get one I like.
I really love working in black and white. The first image is of Cathedral Cove, on the east coast of the Coromandel Peninsula and the other three are all at Te Mata beach on the Thames coast.
I took many shots in this amazing area. By standing in the water I could get the best compositions and after sometime I realized my feet were becoming numb, so had to be happy with what I had taken and get out of the water. It was a long walk to the nearest cafe at Waiomu, where I was grateful to warm up with a delicious hot chocolate while scrolling through my images. Taken on the kauri bush walk at Waiomu.
I took this image of buds on the tree in its natural surrounds. I searched for sometime for these buds and waited for the momment when the light was right and no wind. There are many varieties of Pohutukawa trees and the buds vary in shades of red and in size. I like taking images as I see them and do very basic post processing.
Macro image of a single pohutukawa bud. The Pohutukawa tree is known as New Zealand's Christmas tree as it blooms along our coast lines leading up to Christmas.
Pohutukawa tree in full bloom. Coromandel New Zealand.