Of all the animals I have become interested in over my life, birds were the last animal to spark my interest. I think it was because they were too far away and I was being too impatient. Things have certainly changed, everywhere I go it’s birds I am looking for, I regret not learning about them earlier. I can honestly say birdwatching is now one of my favourite things to do, observing their behaviours and spotting species I haven’t seen before can be a trip highlight. If I can capture a great image of one, well, that’s the icing on the cake.
I am very fortunate to have stunning native birds in my own backyard. When the Lorikeets are active my neighbours must think I’m a little odd. If you’ve seen me walking down the street in my pyjamas with a camera in my hand, I was attempting to capture an image like this.
This image cost me $1000’s of dollars. I had lent the canon 100 – 400mm lens and was able to capture this incredible shot. I started to save for the lens straight away, it was one of the best purchases of my life.
We were out looking for elephants. We had found them and taking in their beauty, they were magnificent. In typical fashion I had found another species that struck my attention. I had never seen an openbill stork before, I love this image, I think it looks like a painting.
This bird has one of the most amazing stories of bouncing back from the brink of extinction. They were so rare they were presumed extinct for 50 years. They were discovered in 1948 in the remote Murchison Mountains, above Lake Te Anau, Fiordland.
