On the second on Feburary 2010, I went out with DOC just out past Te Kuiti to photograph some of New Zealand's rare giant Weta's.
Me and a good friend Steve got to the location of where we were going to find the Mahoenui giant Weta, there was abit of a walk up a large hill to get to the scientific reserve
Doc worker Lisa far left leading us up to the scientific reserve.
hiking up the hill . . . still a fair way to go. . .
the hill still goes on . . .
It took us some 15-20mintues to reach the top of the hill, where the view was just amazing.
Steve taking in the fresh air and the amazing view over all the farm land.
once we got to the top, we look over the other side. . . there is some 180 hectares whats about 380 odd acres, of scientific reserve, what is full of gorse.
Looking into all the gorse that we were about to walk though
The Mahoenui Giant Weta scientific reserve sign, with some 180 hectares of gorse in the background
The Weta's like hiding in the gorse for protection, with out the gorse and goats the Weta's could not survive here, The goats eat the edges of the gorse what keeps it dense making it hard for prey to get into the gorse.
Mahoenui Giant Weta
Sadly we only managed to find a male. We saw a number of smaller ones but Lisa (DOC ranger) only wanted us to handle the larger ones as the samller ones are a lot more lively and tend to get agressive more quickly. We also so a pair mating but we were not allowed to disturb them. The Male that we had found we decided to move him on a smaller gorse bush to make taking photos a little easier, also if the weta decided to jump it wouldnt hurt its self.
Mahoenui Giant Weta
Mahoenui Giant Weta
The large male weta wasn't keen on sitting around and poseing for photos, So we only mangerd to get a few shots sadly, Lisa (DOC ranger) had stressed to us that we were not to stress them or disturb them to much, so we got a few shots and thought right we'll leave it as that.
Mahoenui Giant Weta on my hand
Mahoenui Giant Weta on my hand
Every where we looked there was insects! So we thought we take some shots of the other insects around, seen we didn't have many if any shots of the different insects we were seeing. This one butterfly really got our attension its was a beautiful little Glade copper butterfly (Lycaena feredayi complex) It also like the Weta's kept us on our toes trying to get a half decent image, we were unsure if we had any good shots as we couldnt see our view finder from the sunlight, so it was a case of shoot and hope we get something good.
Glade copper butterfly (Lycaena feredayi complex)
Large robber fly with prey
We spent at least 4hours searching though all the gorse looking for the Giant Weta's and other insects, the heat up there was so intense, it was like someone was pouring a bucket of hot water over me every 2mins.
on the way down we thought we would try and get some nice shots of the view.
Looking down at the cars on the road.
a more zoomed in zoom of the cars
Steve walking down the hill
Just before we got to the bottom of the hill Steve spotted this lovely orbweb spider sitting in her web catching small flies and other flying insects, and we dont seem to get this species near where we lived so we just had to stop and get a photo of it
Small orb web spider catching prey
this place was a perfect place for insects, dream come true for macro photographers
Over all we had amazing time out there.
Special thanks to Lisa for allowing us to go out and photograph the Weta's, Also special thanks to Steve for comming out with me!
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keep up good work .. love to see how you share the environment and the location .. and this will help not only local but foreigner who looking for MACRO spots :D
ReplyDeleteHey Bryce, Its neat to see the country you were in as well as the insect photos. I think the spider I found yesterday was an Orb web one, as it looked a lot like the one you have here.
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