My sister invited me to go on a wee photography walk with her as she had bought herself a new zoom lens she wanted to play with. We decided to go to Shakepear Regional Park on the Whangaparaoa Peninsula. Most of the park is enclosed in a 2km pest-proof fence designed to provide the native birds with a safe place to live and breed. My 14 year old daughter joined us, using my mother’s DSLR camera.
We saw tui, kereru (wood pigeons), piwakawaka (fantails), pukeko and some non-native birds as well. We crossed into farmland and saw plenty of sheep too.
It was a lovely afternoon and I enjoyed walking through the bush and trying my hardest to photograph the fantails. Unlike the wood pigeons which sit still for ages allowing you all the time in the world to photograph them, the fantails (which are about the size of a sparrow) dart around like they’re on crack and you often get a photo of an empty branch after it has darted away!
My daughter and my sister trying to take photographs of fantails as the sun slowly disappears.
These were my best shots of the day:
The top two photos are piwakawaka (fantails) and the bottom one is a kereru (wood pigeon).
The road to Elle 