wildlife

[t00lie]

Lovely chance encounter with the Stag Ian .

I had company in the garden here in NZ a few days ago in the form of an inquisitive Kaka ,(Nestor meridionalis), which has been around for at least 3 weeks visiting our bush section that backs onto the larger Otatara native reserve . It flew down quite close and after posing for a number of pictures I then observed how powerful it's beak was as it demolished a rotten branch high up in the canopy in the search I presume for grubs.
A long way from home ,the nearest population being on Rakiura ,(Stewart Island), some 55 ks away.
Sighted again today .......

[Anthony Darby]

One ambition of mine is to visit Stewart Island, but a forlorn hope, as getting permission and affording the technology to see Tukutuku rakiurae, the harlequin gecko, would be extremely difficult.

[David Lyttle]

Lovely chance encounter with the Stag Ian .

I had company in the garden here in NZ a few days ago in the form of an inquisitive Kaka ,(Nestor meridionalis), which has been around for at least 3 weeks visiting our bush section that backs onto the larger Otatara native reserve . It flew down quite close and after posing for a number of pictures I then observed how powerful it's beak was as it demolished a rotten branch high up in the canopy in the search I presume for grubs.
A long way from home ,the nearest population being on Rakiura ,(Stewart Island), some 55 ks away.
Sighted again today .......

Great sighting Dave; I would love to have a kaka in my garden. At the moment all I have is a surplus of cats, ferrets and possums. The last time I saw a kaka in the wild was at Makarora in the bush behind the DOC visitor Centre.

[Maggi Young]

I had company in the garden here in NZ a few days ago in the form of an inquisitive Kaka ,(Nestor meridionalis), which has been around for at least 3 weeks visiting our bush section that backs onto the larger Otatara native reserve . It flew down quite close and after posing for a number of pictures I then observed how powerful it's beak was as it demolished a rotten branch high up in the canopy in the search I presume for grubs.
A long way from home ,the nearest population being on Rakiura ,(Stewart Island), some 55 ks away.
Sighted again today .......

An impressive bird, t00lie - at first glance the plumage looks quite  subdued but  then we see that there is a lot of lovely colour and shading.  That beak looks  a real weapon!

[Anthony Darby]

I've seen kaka on the Tiritiri Matangi island reserve. At least you don't have bloody idiots blasting away at them like on Mototapu Island near Auckland, where four takahe (there are only 300 left on the planet - deer hunters "hired" to cull 600 pukeko were responsible and had been trained to tell the difference) were shot by mistake (takahe are the ones that are twice as big and don't fly), or near Nelson, where some keas were illegally shot last week!

[Roma]

Some cute red squirrel pictures.  This lot were taken between 7.50 am and 8.20 am on July 30th.  It's quite common to have two fighting for a place at the food but four is unusual.  Don't know why they were all so hungry that day.

[Roma]

A few portraits.  The first one was a very wet day.  4 & 5 are the same squirrel and I think 2 is as well.  The all reds are less common than the ones with darker tails though it can vary from year to year.

[Peter Maguire]

Not many 'pretty' insects (like butterflies) around at this time of the year, so here's a couple of their uglier relatives seen on a walk over the Simonside moors in Northumberland last week.

1. Pond skater (Gerris costae)

2. Not sure about this one. First thought it was a slightly small dark bumblebee at first glance, but it's obviously a fly of some sort. My first guess was a bee-fly, but all the British species seem to have a long proboscis, so any sugggestions would be gratefully received. 

[Anthony Darby]

Your fly is not a bee fly, which has a long forward pointing proboscis,  Peter. It looks more like Tachina grossa, the larvae of which parasitise large caterpillars.

[mark smyth]

Brilliant to have red squirrels coming to your garden

[Roma]

We've had quite a lot coming since spring.  They completely disappeared about this time last year and we saw very few over winter.  Last year was a bumper year for conifer seeds so maybe they did not need extra feeding.  There are pine, larch, sitka and norway spruce quite close.  We lost many big sitka spruce and a couple of pine trees last winter and I do not think it has been such a good year for cones so they will be needing fed this year.  It's a bit annoying when they bury so many nuts and the crows and magpies follow them around and dig them up again.  One male is particularly bad.  Some of the girls are still rearing young so do not have time for burying nuts.   

[Peter Maguire]

It looks more like Tachina grossa

Many thanks Anthony, that fits the bill exactly. It's been interesting to explore what resources are around on the web to aid with identification these days: I even came across a dipterist's forum which should have been of help, but I'm new to flies  and it was like opening a flora for the first time.

[Jonny_SE]

Red squirrels steal our chocolate and everything if we don't close the front door......Had 3 at the same time in my kitchen ...They disappeard for some years when it was cats around here...now the cats are gone and the squirrels are back.....me likes.....

[annew]

Tell me the secret of making cats disappear and you will have a friend for life...
Can anyone help me ID this moth, seen at Hartlepool today on grassland near the sea? The poor wee thing's a bit tatty. It was quite large, about the size of a Common Blue butterfly.

[David Nicholson]

I thought there were only monkeys hanging there?