Clematis time in the Ruahine

Many of New Zealand's native flowers are small and nondescript, even though they have their own kind of restrained beauty. A few, though, are eye-catching, like the native Clematis, which flowers profusely at this time of year in the Ruahine.

All content © 2015 Pete McGregor

Wasp and spider

Just above the car park at the end of No. 1 Line this afternoon, I watched this small wasp dragging this spider towards a burrow (visible in the background). The process seemed very inefficient — the wasp would drag the spider a few millimetres, release it, wander off, eventually come back to the spider, leave it again, go and disappear into the burrow then emerge again, check the spider, and so on. I didn't have the patience to see if it did eventually drag the spider into the burrow. At the rate it was moving the paralysed spider, the wasp's probably only now at the mouth of the burrow ;-)

All content © 2015 Pete McGregor

Pheasant on No. 1 Line

As I started driving down No. 1 Line late this afternoon after a walk up the track, this pheasant trotted along the road in front of the car before slipping through the fence into a steep, rough paddock. I stopped a little further along where I could see back to where the pheasant was standing. Although not optimistic, I hurriedly changed lenses and managed a few photographs from a long way off. This isn't technically a great photograph, but it gives the impression of this spectacular bird in its environment.

I never fail to get a thrill from seeing a wild pheasant.

All content © 2015 Pete McGregor

Wineberry

Many of the plants along the No. 1 Line track are flowering now, but it was this wineberry (Aristotelia serrata) seedling that particularly caught my eye this afternoon.

All content © 2015 Pete McGregor

Last night's visitor: Coptomma variegatum

Last night as I was about to head to bed, I noticed something on the ceiling. A closer look confirmed it was this cerambycid (longhorn) beetle, which must have flown in while I'd had the house opened up in the evening to cool.

I transferred it to a container and in the morning released it outside on the verandah railing, where I photographed it.

All content © 2015 Pete McGregor