{"id":10522,"date":"2019-10-27T07:58:12","date_gmt":"2019-10-26T18:58:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/?p=10522"},"modified":"2019-10-27T07:58:21","modified_gmt":"2019-10-26T18:58:21","slug":"waitakere-birds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/10522","title":{"rendered":"Waitakere Birds"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"960\" height=\"640\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Tui-D85_8549-web.jpg?resize=960%2C640&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-10524\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Tui-D85_8549-web.jpg?w=960&amp;ssl=1 960w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Tui-D85_8549-web.jpg?resize=300%2C200&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Tui-D85_8549-web.jpg?resize=768%2C512&amp;ssl=1 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" \/><figcaption>Tui singing to claim his Coral Tree<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Our trip to the Waitakeres for the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/2019\/09\/going-west-writers-festival\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"Going West Writers Festival (opens in a new tab)\">Going West Writers Festival<\/a> didn\u2019t have bird photography high on the agenda. Opportunities present themselves everywhere so the bird photography gear had to go along just in case. We had booked a rural cottage close to the the Arataki Vistors Centre and while unpacking our vehicle I saw a Kingfisher\/Kotare sitting up on a branch of a tortured old pine. Sitting on the porch with a coffee I saw that it was one of two using the tree as a hunting perch to locate worms on the lawn below. They would intermittently swoop down to collect a piece of animated spaghetti and return to a branch to thrash it into submission. A bit of a wander got me a few images of which this is my favourite. I managed to use the trunk of the tree as cover to conceal myself and got a view of the kingfisher just above the crook of a branch which gave a nice out of focus foreground to isolate the bird.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"960\" height=\"640\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Kingfisher-D85_8095-web.jpg?resize=960%2C640&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-10523\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Kingfisher-D85_8095-web.jpg?w=960&amp;ssl=1 960w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Kingfisher-D85_8095-web.jpg?resize=300%2C200&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Kingfisher-D85_8095-web.jpg?resize=768%2C512&amp;ssl=1 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" \/><figcaption>Kingfisher\/Kotare<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The following day we headed to Piha after the festival and explored some of the iconic west coast landscapes. Walking back from the store after an ice-cream I noticed a Tui low in the branches of a flowering Coral Tree (also known as a Flame Tree). This was all we needed to spend half an hour or more trying to isolate him against a relatively clean background amongst all the pale branches. Despite it being a non-native tree it was nice to contrast the blue\/green iridescence of the plumage with the bright red flowers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"960\" height=\"640\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Tui-D85_8800-web.jpg?resize=960%2C640&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-10525\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Tui-D85_8800-web.jpg?w=960&amp;ssl=1 960w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Tui-D85_8800-web.jpg?resize=300%2C200&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Tui-D85_8800-web.jpg?resize=768%2C512&amp;ssl=1 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" \/><figcaption>Native endemic Tui in an introduced Coral tree<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Interestingly the Coral tree is a sterile hybrid created from a North American and African species so produces no fertile seed. This along with frost-tenderenss limits its invasiveness but cuttings\/fallen branches root readily and form dense stands. This has implications for control as cutting down live trees can exacerbate the problem. Thorough ring barking or cutting or drilling with herbicide application is effective. See this <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"link from Auckland Council (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"http:\/\/pestplants.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz\/plant-search\/Eryxsy\" target=\"_blank\">link from Auckland Council<\/a> for more information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Photos with Nikon D850 and Nikon 500mm f5.6PF lens, Kingfisher with TC14EII 1.4x teleconverter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Our trip to the Waitakeres for the Going West Writers Festival didn\u2019t have bird photography high on the agenda. Opportunities present themselves everywhere so the bird photography gear had to go along just in case. We had booked a rural cottage close to the the Arataki Vistors Centre and while unpacking our vehicle I saw [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10524,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3,29],"tags":[198,26,637,638,309,634,612,629],"class_list":["post-10522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-birds","category-new-zealand","tag-auckland","tag-bird-photography","tag-coral-tree","tag-flame-tree","tag-kingfisher","tag-piha","tag-tui","tag-waitakeres","entry","has-media"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Waitakere Birds - WildLight Photography<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/10522\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Waitakere Birds - WildLight Photography\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Our trip to the Waitakeres for the Going West Writers Festival didn\u2019t have bird photography high on the agenda. 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Sarah Ell chaired a panel comprising the authors of The Meaning of Trees and The Brilliance of Birds.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;birds&quot;","block_context":{"text":"birds","link":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/category\/birds"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/RobertEdinSkye-DSCF7867-web.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/RobertEdinSkye-DSCF7867-web.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/RobertEdinSkye-DSCF7867-web.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/RobertEdinSkye-DSCF7867-web.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":16045,"url":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/16045","url_meta":{"origin":10522,"position":1},"title":"Te Puru K\u014dtare","author":"tony","date":"August 28, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Te Puru K\u014dtare - a lesson in fieldcraft when photographing flighty birds","rel":"","context":"In &quot;birds&quot;","block_context":{"text":"birds","link":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/category\/birds"},"img":{"alt_text":"photo of K\u014dtare\/Sacred Kingfisher","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Kingfisher-20220811-_NZ91781-web.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Kingfisher-20220811-_NZ91781-web.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Kingfisher-20220811-_NZ91781-web.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Kingfisher-20220811-_NZ91781-web.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":10294,"url":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/10294","url_meta":{"origin":10522,"position":2},"title":"Tawharanui Kingfisher","author":"tony","date":"August 11, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Kingfisher launching from flax perch A bonus from our trip to Tawharanui was the opportunity to photograph Kingfishers as well as the Brown Teal\/Pateke. New Zealand has one native kingfisher, the Sacred Kingfisher\/Kotare (Todiramphus sanctus), which also occurs in Australia, New Caledonia, Loyalty, Kermadec, Lord Howe and Norfolk Islands. The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;birds&quot;","block_context":{"text":"birds","link":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/category\/birds"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Kingfisher-D5C_8727-web.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Kingfisher-D5C_8727-web.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Kingfisher-D5C_8727-web.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Kingfisher-D5C_8727-web.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":10459,"url":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/10459","url_meta":{"origin":10522,"position":3},"title":"Little Waihi Kingfishers","author":"tony","date":"September 15, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Kingfisher returning to his hunting perch with a juvenile Flounder. After my recent posts featuring Kingfishers from Tawharanui and Whangateau, I thought I would share a more local venue that I like to visit for Kingfishers in the winter. Little Waihi is a relatively short trip from home and is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;birds&quot;","block_context":{"text":"birds","link":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/category\/birds"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Kingfisher-D85_7485-web.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Kingfisher-D85_7485-web.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Kingfisher-D85_7485-web.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Kingfisher-D85_7485-web.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":10315,"url":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/10315","url_meta":{"origin":10522,"position":4},"title":"Whangateau Kingfishers","author":"tony","date":"August 18, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Kingfisher\/Kotare Having enjoyed some good opportunities with Kingfishers at Tawharanui we ended our day with Whangateau Kingfishers. If the timing of the tide is suitable there is the opportunity to sit at the edge of the estuary while the Kingfishers hunt the flats for crabs from their perches in the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;birds&quot;","block_context":{"text":"birds","link":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/category\/birds"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Kingfisher-D85_0726-web.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Kingfisher-D85_0726-web.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Kingfisher-D85_0726-web.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Kingfisher-D85_0726-web.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":424,"url":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/424","url_meta":{"origin":10522,"position":5},"title":"Tuis in the Kowhai","author":"tony","date":"October 22, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"I always look forward to the Kowhai flowering in the spring and often spend some time sitting up on the roof photographing the Tuis. The tree \u00a0hosts a territorial male who initially seems to defend it against all comers but then will tolerate another bird who I assume is his\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;birds&quot;","block_context":{"text":"birds","link":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/category\/birds"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/Tui_D804726-1024web1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/Tui_D804726-1024web1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/Tui_D804726-1024web1.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/Tui_D804726-1024web1.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10522","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10522"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10522\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}