The kiwi's Blog

If you go down to the the woods you better *******

thekiwi — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 04:34:00 GMT

If you go down to the the woods you better be careful where you tread .. I went to the woods today had a good time I didn't get any decent photographs except for a couple I saw a doe and her buck complete with antlers a pair of northern flickers some cedar wax wings yellow warblers titmouse chickadees some herons grebes and then there where these guys there was 2 of them I nearly stepped on them when I first arrived at the woods I took my push bike was just about to dismount from the bike happened to look down just as well I did or I may have gotten a nasty bite.

Grand Central Railway Station

thekiwi — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 18:34:00 GMT

Funny title I know for a blog on a birders site ... but that has just been what my humming bird feeder has been lately I went weeks no shows or maybe 1 or 2 show up take a taste then disappear. I was using store brought nectar I really don't think they liked it I was changing it every other day and still no good. I decided to change and make my own nectar at a ratio of 1:4 1 part sugar 4 parts water I think those little hummers really like home cooking I am even getting fights over the feeder now I am going to get another feeder or 2 to give em a choice now.

So I guess the store brought nectar ain't what it is cracked up to be home made for me now all the time.

Humming birds

thekiwi — Fri, 23 May 2008 03:02:00 GMT

Well here we are in the fine state of Connecticut I have been excitingly awaiting the arrival of the humming birds As I am from New Zealand these wonderful wee birds are a very rare treat for me.I hung my hummer feeder up at the beginning of may according to a search on google they get here in the beginning of may. Well here we are 3 weeks into May and no sign at all of these wee birds and then to my surprise I had one visit my feeder today he/she didn't stay very long but long enough for me to watch in awe of these birds. I cleaned out the feeder and and restocked it with the sugar water and will be on the look out tomorrow or as long as it takes for them to come to my feed station.

Least we forget remember your fallen hero's this Monday

Have a nice safe long weekend

Oh Happy happy Joy joy

thekiwi — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 18:34:00 GMT

My new camera arrived today well it isn't exactly new it is used a Canon 10D DLSR it sure is a step up from my Canon D30 it captures alot more detail. here is an image I got today with it it is a downy woodpecker in some thickets so there was lots of branches and things I had to shot through. I am very happy with the results

World Kakapo Population Rises by 5

thekiwi — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 23:40:00 GMT

World kakapo population rises by five

Sun, 13 Apr 2008 05:58p.m.

Critically endangered kakapo are having a good year.

Five chicks hatching in the last two weeks have boosted the population of the world's rarest and heaviest parrot - unique to New Zealand - to 91, with two more due to hatch in the next fortnight.

Seven chicks may seem a relatively small birthrate, but the Department of Conservation (DOC) says it's "fantastic".

Kakapo recovery team leader Emma Neill said today boosting the population from 86 was "awesome, especially considering these birds only breed every few years".

Kakapo last bred in 2005 when four chicks were produced, but 2002 was a record year with 24 chicks.

This season, two of the younger females have bred for the first time at just six years of age - considered young for kakapo breeding when the previous youngest birds to breed were nine years old.

Ms Neill said further good news was that kakapo eggs this year proved 100 percent fertile.

"In the last breeding season in 2005 the overall fertility rate was just 58 percent, and because not every egg results in a hatching and not every hatching results in a healthy chick, we are doing all we can to improve survival rates," she said.

DOC staff and volunteers worked around the clock to look after the new arrivals on Codfish Island (Whenua Hou), a predator-free sanctuary 3km off the coast of Stewart Island.

Ms Neill said giving kakapo chicks the best chance meant nest-minding volunteers kept a night vigil, camping near nests to ensure the females incubate properly and sometimes covering eggs with heat pads when they left the nest to ensure they don't go cold.

Like many anxious new parents, the volunteer must cope with sleepless nights -- but with the added discomfort of having to sleep in a tent, carrying heavy gear around rough terrain and working in foul weather.

Conservation Minister Steve Chadwick welcomed the latest chicks' safe arrival, saying it reflected New Zealand's international reputation in species recovery programmes.

"It is a credit to DOC to have brought this species back from the brink of extinction, and we should take pride in the fact our efforts with kakapo are recognised throughout the world," she said.

Birds moved to a new Home

thekiwi — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 06:34:00 GMT

This is a story I found on the New Zealand news

Thought some here may find it of interest Birds moved to a new home follow the link it will take you to a small video that I downloaded and recoded then uploaded to my site.

The video will open in a new window please click the play button to activate the controls and you may have to click the play button again to play the video.

My total area that I can get my bird Photos from

thekiwi — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 01:37:00 GMT

Just in case any of you are interested I took a shot of my so called front yard to day all my bird images apart from the NZ ones came from this area very tiny.

Oh BTW the way I hadn't done my chores in this the feeders are empty lol I hadn't refilled them yet.

OK here is a pic I got of a cardinal today

Now here is a pic of the area that I have to get shots of my birds .. My so called yard lol

Blog Comments

thekiwi — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 06:24:00 GMT

OK folks I have read your blogs I even take time out to reply with comments. I have left a number of comments of which none have been published.

By default the blogs are setup to not publish any comments until approved by the blog owner ie with this blog that is me.

I have my blog set up so anyone can write a comment and it will be published straight away.

Just in case there are some out there who don't know how to do this this is how go to your blog Dashboard click on Global settings that will open that menu then click on Advanced Post Settings on the right side there will be a drop down list the 2nd one down and select Comments are posted immediately.

that way if anyone wishes to make a comment to your blog it will be posted if not then when they do make a comment you will have to go to your blog dashboard and check to see what comments have been left and then publish them

Hopeville Pond State Park

thekiwi — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 21:56:00 GMT

well I set out today hopes high my camera in a bag my lens in another bag my brand new Mono pad and my bicycle.

After a ride of more than the 4.5 miles that google said the park was away from my house more like 8 or 9 I finally reached the park.

Oh what a disappointment I had all I saw where a couple of mallards one white swan a nuthatch some Junco's and a hawk of some kind way up above I took some shots but not one was worth a hill of beans.so after about 21/2 hours I returned home. Had a cup of coffee to drown my disappointment .

But will I go back again you bet I will not all days will produce the same result but next time I think I will drive

making a photo sharper

thekiwi — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 18:35:00 GMT

Ok folks I have been busy this morning and those of you who have Adobe Photoshop I have written 3 actions for sharpening photos.

you will need Photoshop CS 3 or a version that allows you to use smart objects.

actions are done by 1 using the unsharp mask or 2 by using the highpass filter and the 3rd way using the highpass filter using the lab color mode I have bundled all 3 of these actiond into a single zip file that can be downloaded from here.

http://photoshop.thekiwi.org

If any of you out there don't or can't use smart objects leave me a comment and I will make them up without the smart objects being used.

Camera and taking photos

thekiwi — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 22:06:00 GMT

I have doing a lot of practice photo's with my SLR Canon D30 I am beginning to slowly understand what makes a reasonable photo to a photo.

Some what I thought where pretty neat photos I put up on an image critique site and then waited for the replies good bad or ugly to come in. In most cases I got it wrong lol but a couple they thought where OK so with that in mind all I need is some decent weather put on my walking shoes and head to the local pond about a mile away and see what I can discover there. Can't wait for the weather to change.Got my 300 mm lens that arrived the other day the best I can afford but it seems to be doing the trick for me. Guess the results will be in the pudding so to speak. Till next time the kiwi

UP Sampling Photos

thekiwi — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 22:50:00 GMT

Up sampling photos (making bigger) Is a no no as many will tell you always down sample (make smaller) well yes this is the best way to work how ever if you have to upsample there is away to do this and This is how I do it in Photoshop.

It is what is known as the 110% method

you resize the photo using image resize at 110% you can resize many times without degrading the orig image quality. But the draw back is although the 110% sounds alot it really isn't in is in fact only 10% bigger but when you resize you can resize that resized image by 110% and so on and so on until you reach the size you want.here are a couple of examples for you starting at the orig size then resized once then 5times and finally 10times

Interest :: Earliest bird fossil Found

thekiwi — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 04:45:00 GMT

Earliest bird fossils found in NZ

Feb 11, 2008 6:46 PM

A team of Australian palaeontologists have discovered the earliest bird fossils ever found in New Zealand.

The group had returned to the Chatham Islands expecting to find more dinosaur bones, but instead they were stunned to see a new area of exposed rock that held even greater treasures: bones from four seabirds dating back 65 million years.

The find, which is every palaeontologist's dream, is a collection of bird bones preserved in sandstone as hard as concrete.

The fossils are from the time just after New Zealand separated from Gondwanaland and they it is one of the biggest discoveries in the New Zealand region.

"If you can think of two kilometres of bones to look at, it is information overload," says Jeffrey Stilwell, a palaeontologist from Monash University.

Around 65 million years ago in the region where the fossils were found, the temperature was slightly warmer, there was thick forest, birds, fish and dinosaurs roamed the region and there is evidence the land stretched from the islands all the way back to New Zealand.

Stilwell says there are other fossils too in the region.

One of the largest bones found could be a big toe from a very large therapod, a species of dinosaur.

The Chatham Islands 65 million years ago was mostly seabed, so it is no surprise that most of the bones found belong to marine reptiles.

"We're talking flippers, massive teeth, big carnivore&king of the ocean," says one of the palaeontologists in the Australian team.

But it is the bird bones that international experts are really interested in.

"This is one of the larger bird bones we've found from a seabird about a metre tall," says Stilwell

Bird bones are rare because they're so small and fragile they are hardly ever preserved

"When I first laid eyes on the first bones of seabirds, it was disbelief," says Stilwell.

The palaeontologists now have bones of four different species.

The new find is exciting locals.

"Its quite amazing in my book to find sea monsters&the plesiosaurs and the dinosaurs, the land monsters in the one seabed and now finding birds&Where's it all going to end?" says Terry Tuanui, a Chatham Islander.

It is back to the lab for the palaeontologists for now and it will take months to remove the bones and verify what birds they come from.

"We do have some ideas but we're keeping it under wraps just for the moment," says Stilwell

The team will be back - for them this is just the beginning.

"It's of benefit to everybody to know about the history of our planet," says Stilwell.

Source: ONE News

Put out the food and They will COME

thekiwi — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 05:05:00 GMT

well I am pleased to note that recently I went out and brought a couple of feeders and Suets for my small yard and the birds are starting to come which is great and the suet is drawing the woodpeckers like bees to honey

The weather is still awful here snow sleet rain and cold at times so it is great to see what is coming to the yard at present mainly Tuffed Titmouse, woodpeckers (Downy Think), Black capped chickadee's and an Olive colored bird about the size of a house sparrow I am not sure what it is maybe someone can help me with that one.

Hopefully I can get down to the local pond tomorrow and get some photographs.

Rain

thekiwi — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 05:26:00 GMT

Well here we are in Connecticut and Rain Rain and more Rain I am itching to get out there and start to get some photographs of the wilds birds around this area.

At least i have been putting my indoor time to some use I ordered new lens for my Camera hopefully I can get some nice close shots now and have been doing some research around the area where I live and have found several places of interest that should give me a photo op. Well heres hoping anyway.

The kiwi