Last weekend saw an impulsive trip to Auckland for breakfast! It was a great opportunity to catch up with Edin and when leaving on Monday the weather was perfect for a visit to Auckland Botanical Gardens. The Magnolia display at this time of year is gorgeous and was the trigger for our visit. As always my attention strayed to birds.
There are always good numbers of Tui but there is always the chance of something more and I have previously managed decent Dabchick and California Quail images. This visit yielded nothing special on the bird front apart from a partially leucistic male Blackbird to add to my collection of leucistic birds.
A co-operative Monarch added another zoological subject but the real heroes on this visit were the flowers. Since childhood I have been far more fascinated by zoology than botany and this prejudice unfortunately still directs my attention when seeing and photographing the world.
We were lucky to strike some lovely morning light showing the magnolia displays at their best. There are many mature trees and some new areas more recently planted.
There are a huge variety from large blousy blooms to delicate stellata.
What really caught my eye were the Japanese Anemones which were in a lovely area of light.
The Auckland Botanical Gardens are always worth a stop. Next time I will go with a more open mind and focus more on the botany.
Photos with iPhone SE2020 (mature magnolia trees), Nikon D850, Nikon 300mm f4VR (Silvereye, Tui and flowers) or 500mm, f5.6VR (Monarch and Blackbird)
