Some months ago I saw a post about a white fantail in Taranaki. The images were so amazing I was determined to get to see the bird myself. Unfortunately for me, my calendar was pretty full until the end of August – so I booked a trip with a couple of friends on the off chance that the bird was still there.
Luckily for all of us, it is still there and what’s more it is pretty used to having a camera pointed at it. The weather report was for thunderstorms the entire time of our stay and to be fair it started out that way. Part of the drive up was horrendous. However the rain has been stopping for short periods of sunshine allowing us the opportunity to grab some images when we can – and we are!
We have been playing with all sorts of settings on the cameras as the white is particularly hard to get right and the auto focus struggles a little. You just get the settings right and the light changes and the rain comes down and you have to completely reset again. It pays to know your camera so well that you can make such changes without looking at what you are doing. Fantails are fast and wait for no man or camera.
We are here for a few more days yet and hope to make the most of our time here so I will be adding many images to my fantail project page at some stage. In the mean time enjoy this small selection of the last two days shots. [Update: I have created a project page specifically for the leucistic fantail. You can view more images here.
