Picture(s) of the day

[Dale]

You into birds Lacertae?

My wife Racheal & I just went out to Waiuku a couple of hours ago to pick up another Ringneck.. which will take the number of now, to 8.. not counting the cockatiels & babies which im still syringe feeding

Thought you might like this however.. albeit from a cam phone but her son with a $15,000 macaw on his arm.. will be going back for some more in due course.. (not the macaws no.. i dont have avairys big enough)

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[Lacertae]

Interesting !
And I didn't know a macaw would be worth $15 000 !!!

[Dale]

I never managed to get photos of the $25,000 ones.. will soon enough

[DT-NZ]

Bloody nor'west ! It's blowing my new friends of the leaves and I had to "rescue" 5 of them from starvation on the ground this morning ...

(I've just seen your post) good on you for coming to their rescue

[DT-NZ]

Hi Dale

Great photo of macaw, loved the bright, vibrant colours -gorgeous, thank's for posting it.

[03Stormchaser]

Made this friend at out last stop at Pai, Northwest Thailand.

[Lacertae]

I like your new friend 03Stormchaser !

Talking of friends, at last I've got some native birds coming in my garden to drink the diluted golden syrup + brown sugar I prepare them.
Only Silvereyes at the moment, but I'm sure a Bellbird will soon follow as it often comes in a eucalyptus not too far away from my garden.

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Sorry about the colours, but it was a very yellowish late-winter-afternoon light ...

[Lacertae]

Wonderful light on weird looking clouds last night ! It didn't last for long unfortunately and I couldn't manage to take a good panoramic view of it ... still, this one gives an idea :

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And less interesting, on tuesday around 12:45pm from Bexley :

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[Tornado Tim]

Great Photos Lacertae,
Ok the First Picture of the the cool looking cloud is called "Mammatus" which is latin and converted to english means Breast.
The Second and third are Altocumulus Lenticularius clouds which is when airwaves make the shape of the cloud.

[Lacertae]

I'm not sure if on the first picture they are altocumulus mama ... their size was huge and they looked quite different from these altocumulus mama :

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[DT-NZ]

Great pic's Lacertae - was meaning to reply the other day, but, I felt a tad wee bit under the weather... anyway, I love looking at mammatus clouds... I adore Noctilucent clouds.. God, they are beautiful with their electric blue colbolt hue.. take care.

A motion blur view of Auckland City from the harbour bridge taken last week 10 June on the way to hosp.

[Lacertae]

Yesterday the DoC was organizing a bird count at the Ashburton Lakes and the day couldn't have been better ! A good chance for me to try my new Canon Powershot SX1 and the circular polarizer on the clouds :

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[Lacertae]

A few more shots :

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[Storm Struck]

Great photo's there Lacertae it was such a fabulous weekend weather wise and to think it was wintry weather down south.
Here's some photo's of my 4WD drive trip taken at Lake Tenniyson during our lunch break, as you can see there's a good smattering of snow on the ground a good 20cm or so.
There was snow pretty much from about the 400m mark which gradually got deeper and deeper, Hanmer township i think is roughly 320m from memory.
Its amazing how much snow really controls the driving ability with or without chains, i think in most cases this is why people often crash on ice because the intial reaction is to brake .
People need to be taught to slowly come off the ecalorator and just follow the tracks of snow without letting the snow take you, simular situation with black ice on roads really.
Had a look at the old Acron accomodation house too, built from clay, dung, tussok, the bridge to the house is closed but we managed to get through the river and across to it.

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[Andy]

Great pics Jase

I have been up that way in summer, great bit of counrty.

[DT-NZ]

Great pics Jase

I have been up that way in summer, great bit of counrty.

I agree it is a beautiful country, I fell in love with it immediately it was the summer of 89 we camped and trekked around this lake and caught a respectable sized trout awesome... anyway, it was hard to leave this place...

Thank you, Jase & Lacertae for the great pics... and memories they bought back of a great time in my life... take care.

[DT-NZ]

Aeonium arboreum 'Zwartkop' - The Black Rose

The black rose plant, while beautiful in its own right, isn't actually a rose at all and is a succulent, evergreen perennial.

Shortly after the last low and bad weather we had in the north in early July, I was treated to the conical formation and shape of a flower head forming on my black rose outside, I have watched the transfomation of this beautiful thing turn into something amazing

It has taken 7 years for this flowering event to happen - and for the past three weeks I have enjoyed the colour and beauty of it... I wanted share it here with you all in the simplicity of its grace.

An interesting fact I learnt about this plant and its flower was that it only flowers in late spring and early summer... and, perhaps spring has arrived here in the north maybe (?)

Last weekend it was so nice to hear the return of grey warblers, skylarks, tui's and dove's filling the air with their bird song - spring it seems to them is in the air... take care.

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[David]

Here's some photos of our flowering cherry trees in full bloom

[DT-NZ]

Here's some photos of our flowering cherry trees in full bloom

Hi David

nice contrasts and colour - cherry blossoms - spring must be in the air take care.

[NZ Thunderstorm Soc]

The were various vapour/contrails today's.
Various trails featured of eg. Dunedin to Auckland flights whatsoever.
Late this afternoon, here is a shot I took at sunset of such a trail of a flight in an un-orthodox direction from east to west.
Notice in the 2nd shot, you can see a feint dark line possibly from the trail sheltering the sun, this shot looking east.

JohnGaul
NZThS

[Lacertae]

Last thursday I was on Quail Island (volunteering for the mouse eradication day) and I noticed a lot of "fibery" altocumulus a bit everywhere in the sky around 11am (quite fresh SW surface and mid-altitude flow), especially one which reminded me of a hole punch cloud. I don't think hole punch clouds are related to Ac (more cirrocumulus from what I remember) but the phenomenon was the same : local drop of temperature spreading in circle and creating filaments of ice crystals, and roughly the same sort of timeframe (approx. 30 minutes).
Anyone else noticed ?

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P.S. : I had to torture the pics to bring more contrast as it was quite close to the sun ... sorry for the "funny finish" (we will call it the french touch )

[Lacertae]

A few more pics showing the rest of the sky around the same time than the funny looking Ac.

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P.S. : your first pic is really nice John !

[DT-NZ]

Well on the day I posted Tornado Tim's birthday Halo image - I had too rest - later on in the evening I took this photograph.

This is possibly the worst and most beautiful photograph I personally have ever taken in my life, and, although I simply abhor fuzzy, blurry out of focus photographs of all kinds, vowing to myself as a rule that I would delete any photographs immediately if I took any - this one will be the only exception where I keep it - there is a reason and story behind this photograph.

Carpe diem - indeed, seizure it I did at the time I took the shot ~ take care.

edit reasons : uploaded wrong image - adding more text.

[Storm Struck]

Thats an awsome photo DT sometimes photos surprise us through the lense of the camera.
Took this photo of an early Monarch Butterfly flying around on Tuesday i think it was, dont blame it as it was a mild day 15C at the time of the photo poor buggers possibly confused with the seasons.
Drying its wings in the sunshine on the clothes line .

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[Richard]

Took these photos a few weeks ago of a early morning N West arch cloud