Golden-breasted bunting, Pilanesberg

Golden-breasted buntings (Emberiza flaviventris) belong to the same genus as yellowhammers. However, the other animals with which they share their environments could hardly differ more: rhinos, giraffes, cheetahs and so on for this bunting (in Pilanesberg Game Reserve, South Africa); sheep, possums, rats, an occasional rabbit, etc. for the yellowhammers living here in the Pohangina Valley.

[2 May 2007, Canon 20D, 300 mm f4 L IS, ISO 200, 1/500 at f5.6]

All content © 2010 Pete McGregor

Yellowhammer

Yellowhammers (Emberiza citrinella) are common here in the valley. Understandably, some people think they're yellowheads (mohua; Mohoua ochrocephala), but the two differ hugely: mohoua are endemic, rare (endangered, in fact) and only found in the South Island; yellowhammers were introduced from Britain, are common and are widespread throughout the country. Being small (sparrow-sized) and not particularly confiding, photographing them can be difficult. This was one of a pair near my back door one drizzly day a month ago.

[30 September 2010, Canon 20D, 300 mm f4 L IS, Canon EF1.4x teleconverter, ISO 400, 1/400 at f5.6]

All content © 2010 Pete McGregor

Evening — the back door; North

The last of the four main directions: more or less North. Those antlers were cast on 16 September; already the new antlers, covered in their fuzzy velvet are growing day by day.

[20 October 2010, Canon 20D, 24–105 mm f4 L at 28 mm, ISO 400, 1/25 at f8]


All content © 2010 Pete McGregor

Evening from the verandah

You've seen the view East and West; now, here it is looking roughly South from the end of the verandah, on the same evening.

[20 October 2010, Canon 20D, 24–105 mm f4 L at 105 mm, ISO 400, 1/50 at f11]

All content © 2010 Pete McGregor

Evening — the back door

Same evening as the previous photo; slightly later, looking west. That blurry smudge just below the window on the right is a welcome swallow (Hirundo neoxena). Yesterday evening I looked out the window on the left and saw two young rabbits scampering about, more or less where I'd stood for this photograph, and I've been watching another living in the paddock in front of the house for a couple of months now. A cock pheasant ambled past the front of the house one damp morning a few weeks ago, and just this afternoon I saw a pair of pheasants feeding by the side of the road near Tokeawa Stream. Little encounters like these make living here a delight.

[20 October 2010, Canon 20D, 24–105 mm f4 L at 24 mm, ISO 400, 1/50 at f8]

All content © 2010 Pete McGregor

Evening from the back door

Yesterday evening the light faded through infinitely more hues than I could name. I wandered around, just outside the back door, wondering whether I could photograph the evening in a way that might evoke how it felt to be there, photographing, wondering.

[20 October 2010, Canon 20D, 24–105 mm f4 L at 24 mm, ISO 400, 1/4 at f11]


All content © 2010 Pete McGregor

Crows flying at dusk, Indian Himalaya

Sometimes the representation of an aspect of crow-ness requires the exclusion of everything else.

At Kausani, in the Kumaon foothills of the Indian Himalaya, in the last light. Bob McKerrow's heading to the region soon — I admit a twinge of envy. The background colour is from the evening sky over the Himalaya.

[27 November 2006, Canon 20D, 300 mm f4 L IS, ISO 200, 1/60 at f6.3]

All content © 2010 Pete McGregor

Weevil

This weevil turned up on the outside of a window last week. I caught it, photographed it a few days later, then liberated it. Thank you, little weevil; please forgive the inconvenience.

It was roughly a quarter the size of my little fingernail and those spines on the rear of the elytra (wing cases) should make it easy to identify at least to genus level. However, I no longer have easy access to the necessary reference material, so for the time being this will have to remain anonymous. However, the rostrum (snout) and the "elbows" in the antennae leave no doubt it's a weevil, so in Aotearoa that narrows the possible identification down to one of about 1500 currently named species.

I'll update this later with the i.d.

Update: Andrew (AJB) contacted weevil expert Chris Lyall at the British Museum of Natural History; Chris confirmed the identification as a male Psepholax coronatus, one of the so-called pit weevils.

[10 October 2010, Canon 20D, 100 mm f2.8, EF1.4x II teleconverter + 13 mm extension tube, ISO 400, 1s at f16]


All content © 2010 Pete McGregor

Egret, South Luangwa NP, Zambia

In Aotearoa, the only white egret likely to be seen (and even then, rarely) is the great egret (Ardea alba), known here as kotuku or (rather unimaginatively and confusingly) the white heron. Overseas, the possibilities are more extensive. I don't know which species this bird is (perhaps the intermediate egret, Ardea intermedia?)but I certainly enjoyed the sight, despite having seen white-coloured egrets almost everywhere I travelled.

[11 May 2007, Canon 20D, 300 mm f4 L IS, ISO 400, 1/1250 at f8]


All content © 2010 Pete McGregor

So much depends on... [wheelbarrows]

At Elmina Castle in April 2007, where renovation still continued, these two wheelbarrows stood parked in the blinding sunlight. I couldn't help but remember William Carlos Williams' famous poem, and wondered what  these, in light of the castle's terrible history, would have prompted him to write. But perhaps no words can adequately express that horror.


[22 April 2007, Canon 20D, 24–105 mm f4 L at 99 mm, ISO 200, 1/250 at f13]

All content © 2010 Pete McGregor

Dawn in the jungle, Ghana

Toni, Ana and I negotiated an early start on the treetops walk in Kakum National Park, Ghana. We watched monkeys bounding through the canopy below us, saw hornbills flying like things weird and prehistoric, and felt the sun rise over the steaming forest. I braced myself apprehensively against the trunk of the tree and hoped the two second exposure would be short enough to avoid being attacked by ants.

[22 April 2007, Canon 20D, 24–105 mm f4 L at 24 mm, ISO 400, 2s at f13] 



All content © 2010 Pete McGregor

The river of god [3]

July rain flooded Te Awaoteatua stream. Strange things left their lairs and crawled in the water; myths skimmed low over the turbid pools, hissing; dreams flitted in and out of the rapids, murmuring.

[18 July 2010, Canon 20D, 300 mm f4 L IS, ISO 400, 1/30 at f8] 



All content © 2010 Pete McGregor

The river of god [2]

Another from Te Awaoteatua stream.
 
[3 October 2010, Canon 20D, 300 mm f4 L IS, Canon EF1.4x teleconverter, ISO 100, 1/13 at f11]
All content © 2010 Pete McGregor

The river of god

I don't know the accepted meaning of Teawaoteatua, but I assume it's a running-together of Te Awa o te Atua, which could take the literal translation "The river of [the] god". When it looks like this, as it did this afternoon, "The river of god" seems fitting.

[3 October 2010, Canon 20D, 300 mm f4 L IS, Canon EF1.4x teleconverter, ISO 100, 1/25 at f8]



All content © 2010 Pete McGregor

Bealey valley, Arthurs Pass

The day after New Year's Day, my brother and I climbed the track from Arthurs Pass village to Avalanche Peak. A great day in the Southern Alps — but any day with a view like this is a great day. Looking down the Bealey valley to its confluence with the Waimakariri.

[2 January 2005, Canon 20D, 28–135 mm at 28 mm, ISO 200, 1/250 at f11]




All content © 2010 Pete McGregor