Recent uploads include some macro images of harvestmen, harmless spider-like creatures whose bodies are often bizarely proportioned. Also, new photos of albatrosses and other pelagic seabirds. But wait, there’s more! All these are now 44% bigger, at no extra cost! Screen sizes are bigger, and most people have faster internet connections than a few years ago, so I’ve started making new gallery photos larger, and as time allows I’ll reprocess some older ones.
Near the end of a recent pelagic birdwatching trip on the Hauraki Gulf we came across one of the most magnificent things I’ve seen; a huge mixed pod of common bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) and false killer whales (Pseudorca crassidens).
Many hundreds of the cetaceans were spread over a large area. The bottlenose dolphins put on some spectacular displays of acrobatics, but the most memorable thing for me was the haunting sound of the false killer whales singing all around and under the boat. I couldn’t capture the sound, but I managed a few photos which I’ve now added to the gallery.
A couple of pelagic birding trips on the Hauraki Gulf this summer gave me the opportunity to get some new bird photos. New Zealand storm-petrels are a real challenge to photograph, but I managed to improve on previous efforts, as well as add some nice Cook’s petrel shots to my library.
New Zealand storm-petrels are fast and highly maneuverable in flight, making them a challenge to shoot—with camera or net-gun.
It has been noticed that recently I have been a bit tardy with additions of new images. One of the things that has diverted some time from image processing has been the New Zealand storm-petrel project. These little sea birds had been considered extinct for more than 150 years but were rediscovered in 2003. Now that we know where and what to look for, they are regularly seen on pelagic bird watching trips in the Hauraki Gulf (off the north east coast of the North Island), however relatively little is known about them. One major concern is that no one knows where they breed, and this raises fears that mammalian predators or other events could have catastrophic impacts on what is almost certainly a perilously small population. Accordingly, finding the breeding site has been the focus of recent NZSP research. (read more…)