A photo of a passionvine hopper that landed on the glasses of a man on our walk. We photographed it for the City Nature Challenge.

A photo of some of the people on the walk in 2024 checking out a Cook Strait kowhai growing on the roadside.

A photo of some of the overwintering monarch butterflies we found in Bradford Park.

A photo of a kererū (NZ wood pigeon) that we found perched in a tree in Hollis Park. Kererū are big green birds with a white breast and red beak and eye.

On Sunday 26 April, I'll be leading another nature walk in Ōtautahi-Christchurch, this time from the Sign of the Takahe to the Botanic Gardens. That's part of the four-day City Nature Challenge.

It's a terrific walk designed to take us through many of the city's […]

[Original post on mastodon.nz]

Original post on mastodon.nz

If you're in Ōtautahi-Christchurch city, NZ, next Sunday, and are keen for a nature walk, well, you're in luck!

As part of the city's annual Walking Festival, me and Noah Fenwick, two local iNaturalist fanatics and ecologists, will be leading a walk/explore around Waikākāriki Horseshoe Lake. It […]

A photo of a stylish fly sitting on a leaf. It's a mostly black fly with orange legs, a black and yellow striped thorax, and a black abdomen with two large bright yellow blotches on it.

Of the flies I saw today, this one is my favourite. It's the ngaro tara or three-lined Hover Fly (*Helophilus seelandicus*), a New Zealand endemic species.

I like the sleek colour pattern. It would not look out of place on a coverable sports car.

While the […]

[Original post on mastodon.nz]

A photo of a car driving up a road with a blood red sunset sky behind it.

A photo of red sunset clouds. It was this red. Maybe even redder. It was nuts.

A zoomed in photo of some of the norwest arch clouds, thin and layered, all lit up orange and red at sunset.

A panorama photo of a bright red sunset with a tree and houses silhouetted in the foreground.

So. Much. Colour!!

Here's my pick of the sunset photos from this evening. When Ōtautahi-Christchurch turns on a sunset, it goes all in.

(My full-resolution photos, plus a few more, are at Flickr, eg https://www.flickr.com/photos/mollivan_jon/55194998475/ […]

[Original post on mastodon.nz]

Someone's put this small sculpture high up on the side of this otherwise bland concrete wall of a building along Madras Street.

It looks like a kea mural might be on its way. My photo shows the partially completed black outlines of two kea (NZ alpine parrots) painted on the side of a building. This is on Durham Street South.

A photo of a circular drain under a road in bricks. The water level in the creek that flows through it is at just the right level for the reflection of the hole to look like a circle. This is Jacksons Creek as it flows under Huxley Street.

A photo of part of an old mural at Waltham Park, showing a stylised painting of a piwakawaka, NZ fantail bird, perched on a branch.

Here are four things I saw in Ōtautahi-Christchurch city, NZ, yesterday.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/mollivan_jon/55192564303/

#Ōtautahi #Christchurch #nz #photography

Original post on mastodon.nzoss.nz

#Listening to Straightlining by hardcase #Otautahi rockers AVON DADS, released in 2025;

https://avondads.bandcamp.com/album/straightlining

#HatTip to Freak the Sheep, who played this funny and rather catchy track on the March 12 edition of their show on 95bFM. Which I catch up with from The […]

#Christchurch #Otautahi #NZ Maybe I can go for a walk now?* 😊

Christchurch residents told to evacuate after 'high-risk explosive' found An emergency alert sent to people in the area said a "high-risk explosive substance" was found.

#Christchurch #Otautahi, #NZ

Christchurch residents told to evacuate after 'high-risk explosive' found

- eeek!
- might already know what this is all about?; story is two hours old

www.rnz.co.nz/news/nationa...

Two people, Tommy and Victor, at a desk with a computer and some a prototype camera system, in a 3D printed green box.

Victor Anton at a desk with a computer and some prototypes of Wildlife.AI's new camera system, in 3D printed green boxes. The cameras promise to be more affordable and much more capable for conservation and biosecurity work, especially for smaller bodied species, than traditional trail cameras.

A photo of Tommy in the core of Travis Wetland at the end of 2025 setting up pitfall traps to monitoring invertebrates. Tommy is surrounded by wetland sedges and flaxes with trees in the background on slightly higher ground.

I spent Thursday morning this week at Ōruapaeroa-Travis Wetland, the largest freshwater wetland in Ōtautahi-Christchurch city, NZ. Once destined for more housing, the local community's protests led to the city buying up the land and restoring it for nature.

I'm […]

[Original post on mastodon.nz]

A photo of an orange traffic cone on a cracked area of footpath. Someone has placed a Hydrangea flower in the top of the traffic cone, as has happened in late February every year in Christchurch since the earthquakes.

I like how the people of Ōtautahi-Christchurch have the habit of quietly placing flowers in the city's road cones to commemorate the people that died in the 2011 earthquake.

It is worth remembering how everyone in the city came together to help each other out […]

[Original post on mastodon.nz]

A panorama photo from Mount Pleasant Scenic Reserve looking down across Lyttelton Harbour and Port. The foreground is looking over young forest from a track at the base of a cliff.

A photo looking down across the hill suburb of Sumner out into the Pacific Ocean where a container ship is approaching Lyttelton Harbour.

A view down across Christchurch City and the Canterbury Plains farmland to the Southern Alps mountains. In the foreground two road cyclists are riding along the Port Hills Summit Road.

Today I was up in the Port Hills of Ōtautahi-Christchurch, NZ, swapping out some bird audio recorders.

Here are the views.

It is an excellent backyard for a city!

#Ōtautahi #Christchurch #NZ #scenery

My full-sized photos are on #Flickr […]

[Original post on mastodon.nz]

A photo of me riding my bike to work. The photo shows my left hand and the handlebars as I bike down a suburban street. My iPhone and microphone on my handlebars, which I use to count nature as I bike, are in plastic bags.

A photo of a flooded area of the Sparks Road water retention wetland. It's supposed to do this in heavy rains. It soaks up the rain and holds it to reduce the amount of flooding downstream. There are two ducks on the large ephemeral lake (and heavy machinery in the background where a housing subdivision is being built.

A photo of a family of black swans (black adults and grey juveniles) by a planted native wetland.

It rained ,a lot, today in Ōtautahi-Christchurch city, NZ. The ducks and black swans didn't seem to mind though. They were some of the species I counted on my wet bike to work.

https://inaturalist.nz/observations/339008698 […]

[Original post on mastodon.nz]

Classic Sam Ovens (the Dunedin punk artist) style gig poster. That is to say, it's punky and vibrantly trippy, a little chaotic but very well arranged. The headline is WAILER IN THE TRAILER". All text is that crusty scribble style which is reminiscent of carving more than handwriting. The bottom text lists the bands, "Sounds from: FORCED STARVATION + SHOTGUN WEDDING CINDY + FREDDY FUDD PUCKER DEATH&THE MAIDEN + SEEK HELP TICKETS FOR NON GROOVERS + RAMRAID GUARDIANS + SHOBA + CUCK + DRUDGE BUNCHYS BIG SCORE + DISCONTENT " the central figure is a cartoon guitarist with a toaster for a head leaping forward, black band tee partially obstructed by the pink guitar and blue ripped jeans. Above toasterhead, two angry pieces of toast are in an explosive blast. Below toasterhead, between his leaping legs is a campfire with people sitting and dancing around it, punk hair and slightly melting faces, with tents and fir trees in the background. A punk chick and robo-punk dude are in the bottom corners presenting the list of bands. Above this scene, a truck and trailer, separated by the exploding toast seems to have a punk band and speakers blasting out the back, driven by a trippy grim reaper into a crescent moon. The registration plate lists the date 07-03-2026

Starting to get really excited for this!
Hearing back from people I've not seen in a year and haven't danced with for 2 or 3.

If any of my #Ōtautahi or #Ōtepoti mutuals are interested, definitely let me know, be good to see ye

There's an event page for it on […]

[Original post on sunny.garden]

A photo of a brown moth with blotchy brown patterns. This is called Gymnobathra tholodella.

A photo of a grey moth with stripes of darker and lighter greys and grey-browns. This is Eudonia rakaiaensis.

A photo of a grey and brown moth with some subtle orange marks on the back of its wings. This is the Little Orange-Spot Scoparia, Eudonia minualis.

A blurry photo of a brown moth with white blotches on the back of its wings. This is Eudonia dinodes (and all credit to moth expert Neville Hudson on iNaturalist NZ for being able to ID this from my photo).

I'm up to 12 new moth species for our garden this year, thanks to the NZ moth identifiers on iNaturalist and the handy Compare tool on iNat. The Compare tool shows me what species are different between this year and my past years' mothing in my garden. It's handy […]

[Original post on mastodon.nz]

A photo of an elegant green moth with all sorts of bold, wavy patterns of different shades of green and white.

This evening I've been continuing to upload my week's home moth light photos to #iNaturalist. I'm up to 64 moth species this week, so far, 8 of which are new species for our garden.

This one is not new but I only saw one of them, once, this week, and every […]

[Original post on mastodon.nz]

A photo of the NZ endemic moth Gymnobathra hamatella. It's triangular and light brown with elegant darker brown and pale brown patterns on its wings.

A photo of the NZ endemic moth Gadira leucophthalma. It's a long thin pale brown moth with some dark diagonal stripes.

A photo of the NZ endemic Clematis triangle moth Deana hybreasalis. It's a triangular shape and yellow with a couple of silver-white blotches on each wing. It's got a long snout at the front of its head.

A photo of a small pale brown moth with an orange tufted head. There's a small brown spot on each wing. This is what I've identified as the Case-bearing Clothes Moth Tinea pellionella.

Each season I do four nights of moth lighting in my garden in suburban Ōtautahi-Christchurch, NZ. My summer moth lighting this year started on Saturday. I photograph every moth that settles at my light and today I've been uploading my photos to #iNaturalist […]

[Original post on mastodon.nz]

Original post on mastodon.nz

At the end of today I stopped off at Riccarton Bush, the old growth forest fragment in the heart of Christchurch city, NZ. It was lightly raining which made the forest look extra green. The forest is centuries older than the city and it's definitely worth a stop if you're in the area.

Here's […]

A photo of a small, elegant moth. It's wings are body are covered in large geometric yellow and dark brown shapes, and its antennae are also yellow.

Between festive moths and grumpy moths are elegant moths. Here's one of the Opogona comptella that showed up at my moth light last night.

They'd look good on a runway in any high fashion show.

This one's an Australian species that established in northern NZ […]

[Original post on mastodon.nz]

A close-up photo of the head of a small brown moth, and it's looking grumpy.

And, at the opposite extreme of moths from a huge and fluffy gum emperor moth, there was this minute brown Batrachedra moth.

Whereas the gum emperor moth is generally cheery, the Batrachedra looks grumpy. 😄

I saw one at my home moth light in January last year […]

[Original post on mastodon.nz]

A photo of a pink pink fluffy moth with a big black-rimmed orange eye spot on each rear wing. It's got big feathery antennae, which means it's a male.

A photo of a big fluffy moth on a hand, with my moth light blazing white on the top right.

A photo of a big fluffy pink moth on a hand,

A closer photo of the head and antennae of this big fluffy pink moth. Even its legs are fluffy, making it look like it's wearing leg warmers.

Check out this big gum emperor moth that visited my moth light at home last night, in Ōtautahi-Christchurch, NZ.

I first thought there was a bird flapping in the bushes, before it appeared. This one was pinker than most I've seen, and it happily clambered about […]

[Original post on mastodon.nz]

Two greenfinches, small olive green birds with thick beaks, perched on a wire. The bird on the right is bent over under the wire to look at me.

A photo of a yellow admiral caterpillar on a nettle leaf by my thumb. The caterpillar is striped and has greenish-yellow spikes.

A photo of a female mallard duck, brown, on the river. The reflections of the overcast sky and trees on the river create an intricate network of swirling patterns.

A photo looking down on the top of a tan brown mushroom with rays of dark brown.

Here are four of the many things I found taking my camera for a run this afternoon in Ōtautahi-Christchurch city, NZ.

Curious European greenfinches on a wire (one twisted around to look at me): https://inaturalist.nz/observations/335927660

A late instar […]

[Original post on mastodon.nz]

What is going on with the weather #otautahi? It's supposed to be summer

Massive blasts of rain in #Chch #Otautahi and then deceptive calm, followed by... massive blasts of rain etc.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItM2...

aurora over Ōtautahi-Christchurch, NZ This is a short timelapse movie of last night's aurora, starting at 11:14 PM on 20 January 2026, before my camera's battery went flat. Note to self: keep camera battery fully charged.

Here's a short timelapse of last night's aurora from Ōtautahi-Christchurch, NZ, before my camera battery went flat.

https://flic.kr/p/2rSMH8h

#aurora #Christchurch #nz #Ōtautahi #timelapse

Korimako (Bellbird) (Anthornis melanura) New Zealand Bellbird from Christchurch including Banks Peninsula, Canterbury, New Zealand on January 16, 2026 at 03:57 PM by Jon Sullivan. A young fledgling bellbird has settled in our garden this week. It's still trying to figure out h...

Here's a recently fledged baby korimako (NZ bellbird) that's settled in our garden this week. It's mother is sometimes coming by to check in.

https://inaturalist.nz/observations/334991764

#nz #birds #Ōtautahi #Christchurch #bellbird

Happy New Year from Te Waipounamu 🌿 Wishing you a great 2026!

#otautahi #waipounamu #southisland #newzealand #aotearoa #inlet #viewpoint #Intatravel #travel #photooftheday #beautifuldestinations #travelgram #yourshotphotographer #worldpix

A break from rallies but no break from supporting Palestine Saturday 1.00pm Bridge of Remembrance Photo of an information table with two people standing behind it. There are Palestinian flags on either side of the table

Come along to the information stall at the Bridge of Remembrance each Saturday at 1.00pm and meet up with likeminded people

Or come along to find out more about the continuing genocide in occupied Palestine

The next rally and march will be held on 24th of January

#Otautahi #NZPol

A photo from inside Barrington Mall in Christchurch, NZ. A big sign on the wall has a black and white photo of a woman in a field of flowers next to the words “Shopping is pointless.”

We were out shopping at Barrington Mall today and I was surprised to see this big sign saying “Shopping is pointless” next to a photo of a happy woman in a field of flowers.

My first thought was that it’s some surprisingly on point anti-commercialism messaging […]

[Original post on mastodon.nz]

A photo of a red shiny spherical Christmas ornament hung from an inflorescence of a NZ flax, harakeke, which makes upwards curving tubular red flowers for bird pollination.

Somebody has been hanging Christmas decorations on the plants along the walkway through Centennial Park. I photographed this one yesterday hung on a harakeke flower.

Thinking more, perhaps it's some clever pollination experiment! I wonder if these decorations […]

[Original post on mastodon.nz]

A photo looking down at Governor's Bay in Lyttelton Harbour from Sugarloaf in the Christchurch Port Hills. The foreground is mostly naturally regenerated native forest.

A photo looking down at Lyttelton Port in Lyttelton Harbour, as seen from Mount Pleasant Scenic Reserve. In the foreground is some of the forest in the reserve. At the port are two large cruise ships.

A photo looking down Lyttelton Harbour from Ahuriri Scenic Reserve. Quail Island is on the right. The hills are starting to dry off as the summer kicks in.

A photo of my hand holding a plastic bag filled with SD cards. Each came out of an AudioMoth today and contains about a week of recorded bird song that I now need to process.

The last three days I've been along the Port Hills of Ōtautahi-Christchurch, NZ, doing my monthly biodiversity surveys. Saturday was my 117th run up through Victoria Park and Sugarloaf, and today was my 80th bike ride along the Summit Road from Cashmere.

Since […]

[Original post on mastodon.nz]