I spent the day in the Brook Waimārama Sanctuary yesterday, doing my part of our thrice-yearly sanctuary-wide survey (checking to see that no unwanted predators have invaded) and brought along my camera of course (I always do). I carried it all day, and although saw plenty of birds (robins, tomtits, bellbirds, and of course kākāriki in the canopy), I never got my camera out of my pack. So I carried 4kg of camera gear for nothing. No problem, it happens, and I'd rather have it and not use it than leave it behind and miss a golden opportunity for a special photograph or two.
[By the way, I also spent the day in the Brook last Saturday, took about 150 photographs of birds, some were nice enough but didn't think any were worth posting. Very bright sunny day, so extreme contrast issues (sun vs shade), or real lack of light in the shade as all light was coming from one point (the sun), and no reflected light from clouds.]
Then I was about 2m from my car on the way out and this friendly wee fella stopped by to say "Hi". The black colour morph of the pīwakawaka / NZ fantail makes up about 5% of the south island population (about 1% in the north island) so it's always nice to see them. This wee bird was also present the previous week at the Brook car-park, so I guess plenty of Brook volunteers have also seen it.
Curiously, although the bird looks pretty black when seen first hand, it's quite clear that it's not particularly black at all when looked at closely!
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