23 Days – From Hatchlings to Fledglings
To coincide with the release of my NZ Geo story, here’s a quick little video I put together showing how rapid the growth and development of the tui chicks was…
and for those of you who have not seen the hawk attack yet, here it is again…
NZ Geographic Cover
In addition to my feature story about tui, NZ Geographic are also using one of my shots on the cover of the July/August issue of the magazine.
Tui photos to become NZ Geographic feature story
It’s now official, NZ Geographic will be running my Tui photographs as a feature story in an upcoming edition of the iconic magazine. After days of solid editing and wading though thousands of images taken over the last two and half years, I’ve just made the final selects and uploaded some great looking images for their photo editors to whittle down to just a handful. Stay tuned for publication dates and enjoy a sneak preview in the mean time…
Video of Australasian Harrier attacking Tui chicks
This is the video of the hawk attack which was captured in HD on a Nikon D3s.
The light was not great that day so I decided to stop shooting stills and capture video instead. Usually when a parent arrived I would have about a seconds warning when I’d hear a bird land a short distance away before bouncing in with a fresh feed of insects – this moment was no different and I started recording. You can see from this clip, the attack occured so quickly and neither the chicks nor myself had any idea what was happening until it was way too late.
Witnessing this event and the Harrier flying off into the distance with the Tui chick clutched in its talons was a very surreal moment. And had I not been there to witness this, it’s likely the entire nest would’ve been cleaned out by the Hawk which returned three more times before Russell Evans (Bush Haven Bird Rescue) and I had managed to get a net in place above the nest.
Tui Story Gains National Media Attention
TV3 filmed a story about my work with the Tui’s Nest which aired on Campbell Live 10 March, 2010. It is available online here…
The Big Take Down
Here’s a fun little time lapse movie showing just how quickly the scaffolding which supported my photographic hide was dismantled. In real time it was pretty quick to pull apart, taking just under two hours.
Chicks Finally Hatch
Big change in the parents behaviour today as they started collecting insects to feed the new chicks.
Placing the Hide in Final Position
So after my last post I have been flat out trying to predator proof the area where the nest is located. I have managed to source wide strips of tin to wrap around the trees to help stop possums, rats and stoats getting up and United Scaffolding here in Invercargill has generously provided a scaffold for the project.
As I didn’t want to scare the female Tui from sitting on her nest, I built up the scaffold over a two week period starting as far away from the nest as I could get and slowly added sections and moved it closer every 2-3 days. This seemed to work well as it allowed them to get used to seeing me and the scaffold well in advance of me moving into a good spot for shooting.
Here’s a photo of the hide in final position.
A Tui’s Nest Right Under my Nose
Since the beginning of spring, I have been on the lookout for a Tui nest (more…)
Nikon D3s
One of the first Nikon D3s bodies in NZ arrived today, just in time for a very special stage in my Tui project. Stay tuned to learn more about it…
