Between attempts to climb Mt Rolleston in February 2006, I prowled around the NZ Alpine Club hut in the Arthur's Pass village, photographing ngirungiru (South Island tomtit; Petroica macrocephala macrocephala) and titipounamu (rifleman; Acanthisitta chloris — Aotearoa's smallest bird). Right now (c. 11 a.m. 10 October 2009) the rifleman leads the Bird of the Year poll by a huge margin (1075 votes from a total of 7119); in contrast the tomtit has just 64 votes. I know it's all in the good cause of raising awareness of our birds, and it's all in good fun, with some some entertaining campaign speeches, but so far I've been unable to bring myself to choose a "favourite", for the reasons I outlined some years ago. I mean, how could I vote for whio or rock wren or so many others if it meant not voting for the little bird in the photo you're looking at now?All content © 2009 Pete McGregor
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2 comments:
You let us see the personalities of the birds. Utterly endearing.
Thanks Zhoen. It's hard not to be captivated by birds with personalities as delightful as these.
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