Pōpokotea (whitehead)

Whiteheads (pōpokotea; Mohua albicilla) are one of those particularly difficult birds to photograph. They're small, never stay still for more than a second, typically hang out among obscuring foliage, and because they're almost always overhead in the canopy, you're shooting against the light. On the Tunupo track last Sunday we spent some time watching a flock foraging. I didn't bother getting my camera out of my daypack (which was probably why a male flew down and posed perfectly for us a few metres away), but when we encountered them on the way back down I decided to try. Judging from the gape, the rapidly fluttering wings, and the general scruffiness, this looks to me like a young bird.





[26 February 2012, Panasonic Lumix GH1, 100–300 mm at 300 mm, ISO 400, 1/400 at f5.6]

All content © 2012 Pete McGregor

Leatherwood; Ngamoko Range

Yesterday a couple of friends and I walked up the track towards Tunupo, the highest point on the Ngamoko Range (an offshoot of the Ruahine Range). Distracted by whiteheads (pōpokotea; Mohua albicilla), riflemen (tītipounamu; Acanthisitta chloris) and other birds; by the two tired hunters taking a break on their way out; and by the beautiful bush, we made relatively slow time. High in the leatherwood zone we stopped to enjoy the view, and eventually decided we had no burning desire to carry on to the summit. We turned, headed back down the track and returned home more than satisfied with a wonderful day.

The plant in the foreground with those tough, leathery leaves is tūpare, leatherwood. The grey-green plant covering the mountainside in the background is also leatherwood. Tūpare covers much of the southern Ruahine Range between the bushline and the open tops in an almost impenetrable thicket that can destroy your clothes, your gear, your skin, and your spirit — travel through leatherwood is measured in metres per hour, and if you're trying to battle uphill you're doing well if you manage a three digit distance in an hour.


[26 February 2012, Panasonic Lumix GH1, 14–45 mm at 14 mm, ISO 100, 1/200 at f8]


All content © 2012 Pete McGregor

Rain and sun, Ngamoko Range

Last Sunday I took friends partway along the track to Iron Gate hut in the Oroua catchment. We were lucky with the weather — we got back to the car as the first drops of rain blew over from the Ngamoko Range. Earlier in the day the tops had been clear.

This is the Ngamoko, looking towards Tunupo peak, from the car park. At its most spectacular, the rainbow formed an almost perfect arch.


[19 February 2012, Panasonic Lumix GH1, 14–45 mm at 45 mm, ISO 100, 1/100 at f11]

All content © 2012 Pete McGregor

Ngamoko Range from the top of Shorts Track

In early January I decided to visit Ngamoko hut in the headwaters of the Pohangina river. My preferred route to the hut is to climb Shorts Track to the Ngamoko Range, traverse south, then drop down the track that leads directly to the hut — no river crossings needed. Unfortunately, as I reached the top of Shorts Track, the cloud that had been hanging low over the range descended further and enveloped the summit of the range. Howling wind, biting cold, poor visibility. I waited a while, hoping the cloud might lift, but instead it thickened. I turned and descended to the car.

This is the view north towards Toka and the top of Knights Track; south, the tops were hidden. the gnarly shrubbery is leatherwood (tūpare; Olearia colensoi), the white flowers are Celmisia sp.




[5 January 2012, Panasonic Lumix GH1, 14–45 mm at 14 mm, ISO 200, 1/160 at f16]

All content © 2012 Pete McGregor

Ugg, hopeful

He's a huntaway, a working dog. His name is Ugg — incomprehensibly, a contraction of Ugly. He's big, strong, loud (as huntaways must be), and wonderfully gentle. I like him a lot.


[14 February 2012, Panasonic Lumix GH1, 100–300 mm at 300 mm, ISO 200, 1/400 at f5.6]

All content © 2012 Pete McGregor

Evening in the fjords of Chile

As evening fell, I found what shelter I could and watched as we made our way through the fjords. The maze seemed endless. We shared the sea with nothing but the wind and the birds.



[6 December 2011, Panasonic Lumix GH1, 14–45 mm at 28 mm, ISO 400, 1/250 at f8]

All content © 2012 Pete McGregor

Leaving the Brujo Glacier

The Brujo Glacier slipped out of sight; a curtain of rain slid over the fjord. The Evangelista motored steadily back towards the main channel, leaving the sea to its silence, and the gently rocking icebergs faded into the gloom. Rock, ice, water, and the southern beech forest — saturated, dripping. I wanted to know everything about the lives living in this hard and wonderful place.


[7 December 2011, Panasonic Lumix GH1, 100–300 mm at 252 mm, ISO 100, 1/160 at f11]

All content © 2012 Pete McGregor

Smooth-billed ani, Santa Cruz

Smoothbilled anis (Crotophaga ani) were apparently introduced to the Galápagos in the 1960s by farmers because they're known to glean ticks from cattle (Rosenberg et al. 1990). They're more wary and harder to approach than the animals that evolved on the islands; they're also considered a pest species because they compete with native birds, disperse weed seeds, and potentially transmit diseases that might affect native birds.


[7 September 2011, Panasonic Lumix GH1, 100–300 mm at 300 mm, ISO 400, 1/1000 at f5.6]

All content © 2012 Pete McGregor

Storm surge, Flounder Bay

In wild weather the storm surge would send waves right up over the beach and into the lagoon at Flounder Bay. I loved times like these; loved the perfect beach when the tide drew back, the tracks of birds in the wet sand, the fractal patterns left by water sliding off the sand, the arcs of wrack, the possibility of something strange washed up.

[7 July 2008, Canon 20D, 24–105 mm at 24 mm, ISO 100, 1/80 at f16]

All content © 2012 Pete McGregor

Tarapunga, red-billed gull

Red-billed gulls (Chroicocephalus scopulinus), until recently placed in the genus Larus as Larus novaehollandiae scopulinus, are one of the most common shorebirds in Aotearoa, although apparently they're classed as "Nationally vulnerable". They were certainly plentiful at Flounder Bay, where I photographed this one in April 2008.


[18 April 2008, Canon 20D, 300mm f4 L IS, ISO 200, 1/200 at f8]

All content © 2012 Pete McGregor

"Antartico", Puerto Natales

What seas had the Antartico seen? How long did she work the waters of southern Chile? How far south did she sail, and who sailed on her? Where will her future take her?


[5 December 2011, Panasonic Lumix GH1, 14–45 mm at 45 mm, ISO 100, 1/160 at f11. A lot of filtering in Photoshop]

All content © 2012 Pete McGregor