nartreb
Speak softly and carry a long lens
(Continued from: part VI: India)
Before leaving India we had to fix a problem with our visa. The in-person meeting at the FFRO provided an opportunity to hear about the measures India was taking with regard to the new coronavirus: fever screening of passengers from certain countries, recording (on paper!) of addresses and contact info, masks and hand sanitizer for airport workers.
At that time, Thailand (our intended next stop) was high on the list of already-affected countries, even though all their cases were travel-related. Nobody had imposed a quarantine on Thailand yet, but the Australians (our planned stop after Thailand) sounded nervous, and as for the American immigration services... let's just say I wasn't counting on getting much advance notice if they decided to change policy.
So after much hesitation we bought tickets for New Zealand instead.
One of our first stops (while recovering from jet lag) was the Auckland Zoo, which afforded excellent photos of many native species. I'll link them here for illustrative purposes, whenever I failed to get a decent shot during a wild sighting.
While still in Auckland I twice hiked up Mount Eden. The first visit yielded common blackbirds (T. merula), song thrush (T. philomelos), house sparrows, and pukeko. The second time, I also met a small flock of tui.
There were also lots of gulls about - at least two species, one a smaller laughing-type; and one a large black-backed type (Pacific or Kelp, probably).
Next stop was the Bay of Islands, including a dolphin-spotting cruise.
Here there were cormorants, and gannets, and some poorly-seen pelagics (storm-petrels, mostly). The beaches were stalked by variable oystercatchers.
To be continued...
Before leaving India we had to fix a problem with our visa. The in-person meeting at the FFRO provided an opportunity to hear about the measures India was taking with regard to the new coronavirus: fever screening of passengers from certain countries, recording (on paper!) of addresses and contact info, masks and hand sanitizer for airport workers.
At that time, Thailand (our intended next stop) was high on the list of already-affected countries, even though all their cases were travel-related. Nobody had imposed a quarantine on Thailand yet, but the Australians (our planned stop after Thailand) sounded nervous, and as for the American immigration services... let's just say I wasn't counting on getting much advance notice if they decided to change policy.
So after much hesitation we bought tickets for New Zealand instead.
One of our first stops (while recovering from jet lag) was the Auckland Zoo, which afforded excellent photos of many native species. I'll link them here for illustrative purposes, whenever I failed to get a decent shot during a wild sighting.
While still in Auckland I twice hiked up Mount Eden. The first visit yielded common blackbirds (T. merula), song thrush (T. philomelos), house sparrows, and pukeko. The second time, I also met a small flock of tui.
There were also lots of gulls about - at least two species, one a smaller laughing-type; and one a large black-backed type (Pacific or Kelp, probably).
Next stop was the Bay of Islands, including a dolphin-spotting cruise.
Here there were cormorants, and gannets, and some poorly-seen pelagics (storm-petrels, mostly). The beaches were stalked by variable oystercatchers.
To be continued...
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