Blog | Jason Hosking

23 Days – From Hatchlings to Fledglings

Jason — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 00:20:30 +0000

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

Jason — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 01:11:37 +0000

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

Jason — Tue, 04 May 2010 06:07:40 +0000

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…

Dance of the Green Tea Phoenix

Jason — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 23:57:53 +0000

A quick little video inspired by my early morning cup of tea…

Video of Australasian Harrier attacking Tui chicks

Jason — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 04:46:23 +0000

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

Jason — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 11:43:44 +0000

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…

Campbell Live: A man, a camera and a family of Tui

The Big Take Down

Jason — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 01:11:45 +0000

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

Jason — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 20:58:46 +0000

Big change in the parents behaviour today as they started collecting insects to feed the new chicks.

Placing the Hide in Final Position

Jason — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 03:01:33 +0000

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

Jason — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 00:18:28 +0000

Since the beginning of spring, I have been on the lookout for a Tui nest as this important period of the Tui’s life cycle is critical for the project I’ve been working on over the last couple of years.

I had put the word out with everyone I know, asking them all to keep their eyes peeled. My friends, Ian & Jenny Gamble (Bushy Point Fernbirds) and Chris & Brian Rance (Southland Community Nursery) have all done an incredible amount of restoration work on their beautiful native bush properties and regularly trap for ground predators, were going to be the place I’d find one I thought. I called Russell & May Evans (Bush Haven Bird Rescue) who tirelessly work at rehabilitating injured native birds and have a good amount of mature native bush on their land and I met with Bill Bell who had a documentary team filming a Tui’s nest at his property just a few years back.

Unfortunately no one had seen anything and as time was getting on, I had all but given up hope of ever finding one. But one day recently while marking some trees for the chop (I’m replanting in natives), I discovered a pair of Tui building a nest right here under my nose. And it’s in an Oak tree of all places too. Unbelievable!!