Show-off
Wings wide, head back and screaming to the sky. The ecstatic displays of courting Antipodean albatrosses are full noise and dramatic. Even on a windy day, you can hear their…
Re-greetings
Albatrosses are famously 'monogamous', choosing one partner to nest with for most, if not all, of their life. Real life is messy, and this does come with caveats - there's…
Homeland
If you were an albatross, where would you nest? On the long plains behind a sheltering lump of fern, halfway up a steep tussocky slope, or on a ridgeline, with…
Northern Giant Petrels
Northern Giant Petrels don't get a lot of love. Their various nicknames include 'stinkpot', which is, if occasionally accurate, a little rude. Having been the recipient of the self-defence projectile…
Yawn
Erect-crested penguin It turns out that sympathetic yawning is a cross-species phenomenon. I've noticed it with dogs, and now also penguins and albatrosses. They yawn, I yawn. It doesn't seem…
First Light, Last Light
The first week on Antipodes Island, in mid-December. The wind is light, the sky is calm and clear. In the evenings, late, the sun swells to a rich golden glow…
Antipodean Summer Take Two
This summer season sees me back on Antipodes Island, back with the glorious albatrosses who call this place home. It's a thrill and an absolute privilege to spend a few…
The Light Fantastic
The end of a long day of census blocks, walking in lines over lumpy, orifice-infested vegetation. Wind riffling up the slopes of the southern end of Antipodes island, tossing golden…
Antipodean Summer 1
I’m writing this sitting outside the hut on Antipodes Island, 870km southeast of New Zealand. The fact that I can write and post blogs from here is a bit startling,…
Two penguins and a PhD
Kia ora! It's been a while. Here's an update from me: I handed in my doctorate at the end of May, defended in August, and now I am done. PhD,…
Slick
I've been looking for monochrome images while out shooting recently - paying more attention to light, shade, and contrast rather than colour. This photo - shot on an Albatross Encounter…
In the spray
On a windy, choppy afternoon at the Rotorua lakefront, Dad and I photographed this male pāpango - New Zealand scaup - hunker down in a pretty wet and horrible perch…
Wings overhead
I posted this photo to Instagram a while back, but it's a bad platform for landscape-orientation images. They don't lend themselves to the scroll well. Here it is in all…
Summer bloom
I promise this is a wildlife photo! See if you can spot someone making the most of an abundance of pōhutukawa nectar in this image. I shot this from a…
2022 in review
Happy New Year! As always, I spend the quiet period over the holiday break doing a bit of reflection on the year past, and preparation for the year coming. 2022…