Paikea
You never know what you might see, when you head out to sea. A few weeks ago on a routine plankton-sampling trip we met this beautiful Humpback whale - paikea…
Birds in the sea, fish in the sky
I never get tired of seabirds (that much is probably obvious by now). One of my challenges is taking photos of them underwater, when I myself am not underwater. Underwater…
An overwhelming amount of cute
I feel extremely lucky to do the work I do and share the lives of some really special birds. I was drawn to seabirds for their mastery of the pelagic…
Flesh-footed shearwaters
Although my research is focused on Grey-faced petrels, I've got to know the other seabird inhabitants of the Hauraki Gulf quite well this year. These sleek birds - Flesh-footed shearwaters…
A chaos of wings and water
First you hear it. Like river rapids rushing over rocks, a frothing, hissing, bubbling sound that erupts out of nowhere. But there is no river, because you're out at sea,…
NNST blogs – Burgess
Today's post is a bit of a cheat, because it's actually just a link to a blog I wrote for the Northern New Zealand Seabird Trust. I shared some photos…
Out on the water
In a word, my life at the moment is hectic. But I don't mind at all, because I thrive on action. And what's keeping me busy at the moment is…
The Miracle Bird
On the 20th of September I had one of those moments. One of those moments of pure joy and excitement at seeing a new species of bird for the first…
Burgess impressions
A few weeks ago I was supremely fortunate to spend a few nights on Burgess Island in the Mokohinau group to help out with seabird research. We were thwarted by…
Motuihe
I spent last weekend on Motuihe looking for penguins. Because my own fieldwork isn't tiring enough, obviously. The great thing about helping out with other people's fieldwork is there's no…
Tawharanui – take two!
Our last trip to Tawharanui wasn't too successful in finding any Grey-faced petrels. Which is not surprising, given that it was the middle of the pre-breeding exodus, when all the…
Tawharanui
A few weekends ago I went up to Tawharanui Open Sanctuary for the evening to help out with some Grey-faced petrel banding. It was something I'd been trying to do…
A quick Tiri trip
Every time I get out into the Hauraki Gulf, I'm amazed. It seems a little bizarre that so close to New Zealand's biggest city, there can exist this absolute haven…
Tiri
So the past month or so has been hellish. If I kept a journal, at the moment 90% of it would be me stressing about due dates. But I'm not…