Flying around and settling on sooty mould covered beech tree.
Female - found by Brian Patrick
A new moth, but unfortunately no better shots. This was restless for hours so tried to get something letting it out after I packed up. Naturally I got 1 second before it was long gone.
One adult active on rock face at roadend below Gondola terminal on sunny day
Diurnal in the summit herbfield of Mount Herbert, Banks Peninsula - its new northern distributional limit; 800-900m
In sand dunes at Kaitorete Spit Canterbury. My info says it should not be this far south?
Ovipositing on senecio aphids (Aphis lugentis) feeding on Senecio skirrhodon (aphids are a separate observation).
One individual.
Chick, taken with trail camera.
Seen with Noah Fenwick (@noahfenwick ), Ben Ackerley (@benackerley ) and Christian Cosgrove (@kakarikinz )
On a stick insect
Quite a few of these around! Small group from a light I left at the Divide.
In actual Dunedin! Night in Dunedin allowed for some mothing at Sullivans Dam. It was windy in exposed places, so set the lights up within the forest.
Nesting
The highlight of my night at Trotter's Gorge!!! Was delighted. A rare species I was hoping would turn up after I noted a prior record from Brian Patrick and I also found the host plant mountain carrot (Gingidia montana) growing in the area. Two of them actually came to light and were captured but I only got one photo of the underside of the second individual (last image) before accidentally setting it free prior to its photo session! Never mind, delighted with the first one!
Dead floating in canal
X marks the spot! The highlight of the night was seeing this beautiful moth arrive 2.5 hours after the lights were turned on (lights on at 6 pm, moth arrived at about 8:30 pm). I didn't know they would be at this site and wasn't expecting them to be out at this time of year either. There must be some Streblus heterophyllus in the bush. Several photos of the moth and a few of my setup and the view at the end. Great spot! Yay!!! That is Meterana species number 22 for me (incl. the undescribed 'Urtica' one).
Observed (and just caught on the dashcam) a hawk nailing a pigeon that was sitting on the ground in this field — very lucky to see!
There's been a huge flock of pigeons in the field for a few months now, and often I see hawks hanging around... so stoked to see one in action though. I'm having some difficulty uploading a gif that demonstrates the behaviour a little more clearly.
Update: appears to have uploaded now, but it might take a minute to load fully before you can watch it — might work better if you view the image detail page.
Growing in rubble, 20+ individuals of NZ magpie moth feeding on the one plant. Surrounding senecio plants had no individuals. edit: no catepillars were found on immediate surrounding plants, 10-20m further down oxford terrace there were more plants with lots of individuals. This plant had the most individuals.
Rare patch holding on in foredunes dominated by Ammophila; several mature katipō located here in close proximity but nowhere else searched today
Freshly dead adult Invisible Rail. Photographed at Foli, Halmahera, Indonesia on 18 October 2011. Detail of the head and bill. This unfortunate individual had been caught in a snare set out for scrubfowl just a day or so before we arrived at Foli. It was still in remarkably good condition considering the extreme humidity.
Larva on Carmichaelia australis, 1 Oct 2020, emerged 8 November.
Photos of the moth that emerged from a caterpillar collected from, and reared on, Carmichaelia petriei.
Edit: An undescribed, but known, species of Carmichaelia feeding moth in the genus Pasiphila.
A red admiral butterfly pupa failed to hatch, so I broke it open to discover a partially developed parasitic wasp.
This big beauty really took me by surprise!!! Migrant or vagrant from Australia
mites on pimelea. Have a little metallic shine
On Great giant scale.
Bright white hind wings with black lower margin. Type locality is Homer. Day flying moths near Gertrude Saddle / Black Lake
2 adults, 2 juveniles first record of breeding at Travis Wetland
Female on Rakiura Track, around a hundred metres below the old saw mill between North Arm and Port William Huts
Looks like a good match. Three nights at the Mamaku Sanctuary on Rakiura. Moths found on the predator-proof fence, in trhe forest, or drwan to UV kights placed on trhe fence overlooking the forest.
Looks like a good match. Three nights at the Mamaku Sanctuary on Rakiura. Moths found on the predator-proof fence, in trhe forest, or drwan to UV kights placed on trhe fence overlooking the forest.
Two nights at Rakeahua Hut on the southern circuit, central Stewart Island.
the most bizarre thing on the entire trip
These appeared in my back yard today!
We witnessed what appeared to be two pairs having a confrontation.
Epiphytic on cabbage tree. Seems to best match D. adversus rather than D. flavus.
I have made a separate sighting for the goldfinch.
This species isn't on here, so we will go with the genus. Mokopirirakau “Okarito”
(broad-cheeked gecko)
Photo taken 29 Nov 1984. Nine month old royal albatross. Western side of Mt Honey.
Hi folks,
This is an image that has been sent to me for a guess at id.
The thing that puzzles me is they say the body length is 16cm give or take a cm.
Someone I trust to get it right.
It's on a railway sleeper so does give some idea of size.
It's not our big dudes Argosarchus ?
To me it looks like Clitarchus hookeri, but they dont get that big ??
Any thoughts O knowledgeable ones ???
Edit :
The sleeper has been measured at 18cm.
So 15 or 16cm is still the measurement thought.
New better image added.
Booby and Raoul Island in the back ground
On the edge of the car park roughly 5m from the river.
Habitat - Near a natural water source
How many? - 5 (2 adulta and 3 chicks)
Additional comments? - there were quite a few familes of cape barrens around on churchill island, various ages of the chicks. and they were clearly used to people being in close proximity. these guys walked right up behind me. were it not for the occasional honk i wouldnt have turned around to see them.
Nest present - No
Behavior - Bird with chicks
Weka feeding on Coprosma dumosa fruit about 2 m above ground.
An adult female large spiny stick insect. It's the longest insect in New Zealand
The parents were busy feeding this hungry family.
A spider was a snack in the 2nd image.
Rudely woken up by photographer
Loneliest tree in the world.
pretty sure on the location.. happy to be corrected.
Also - I realist this isn't close enough for confirmation of ID, but...