Tui - A nest in the bush

by Meg Lipscombe - Craig Potton Publishing - Hardback - $29.99

Tui is an intimate and rare look at the beginning of a tui’s life. It is presented as a series of photographs showing the 37-day development of a pair of tui from eggs to fledglings.

The author is a photographer living at Lake Tarawera, surrounded by native forest and an abundant variety of bird life. One spring morning in 2011 Meg noticed a tui disappear into a Pseudopanax bush with a twig in its mouth, and discovered that the nest, while well hidden from below, could be seen from her balcony. By carefully removing some leaves from the bush she was able to get a clear view of the nest, giving her a rare opportunity to visually record the beginning of a tui’s life.

The journal entries that accompany the photographs describe how the author spent many hours talking to the tui while it was sitting on the two eggs, hoping that the bird would become familiar with her voice and learn to trust her. This also enabled her to observe the variety of food that was being fed to the chicks, and how the parents always returned to the nest with food via the same trees.

The growth and development of tui chicks has never been photographed in this way before, and this fascinating account will be of great interest not only to those with a particular interest in ornithology, but to everyone who enjoys the native bird life in their gardens.

Stunning images, fascinating story.


And in a similar theme and also from Craig Potton Publishing one for the kids:

In the Garden - Explore & discover the New Zealand backyard

Ned Barraud & Gillian Candler- Craig Potton Publishing - 

 (hardback - $29.99 & paperback - $19.99)

In the Garden introduces young children to common creatures they can find in a New Zealand garden. It is the only guide available for young children and families that shows creatures in their natural habitats. The book describes their relationship with other living things, and includes many interesting and intriguing facts.

In the Garden is produced in the same format as Gillian Candler and Ned Barraud’s best-selling book At the Beach, which won the Elsie Locke Medal for non-fiction in the 2013 Lianza Children's Book Awards and was a finalist in the non-fiction section of the 2013 New Zealand Post Children's Book Awards. This book encourages children aged 4–8 to explore their gardens and discover the plants and animals that live there, with sections on bees, wasps and flies; butterflies and moths; snails and spiders; lizards, mammals and birds.

Aimed at children from pre-schoolers and up, the book will also appeal to anyone who is curious about the wild side of New Zealand gardens.