Wacky the Wax-eye is the official mascot of Bob McAuliffe Photography.

It all started a few months ago (now years) when I was looking out my kitchen window and saw a flock of Wax-eyes around my compost bin. It wasn’t much of a day and I decided to set up the camera on the tripod and open the window to get some shots. I took quite a few sequential shots and it was only when I was sorting them later that the idea of creating a slideshow came to me. I realised I had several shots of the same bird in different poses and because the camera was on the tripod the photos were all from the one fixed position. It worked well and I had lots of positive comments about the slideshow after I posted it. I’ve now turned it into an Animated GIF image. I had no plans to have a mascot but sometimes things just happen.

A little bit about Wax-eyes (also known as Silver-eyes and sometimes White-eyes); their scientific name is Zosterops lateralis. They colonised New Zealand from Australia in the 1850s, probably as a result of being blown across the Tasman Sea in a storm.They are now found throughout the country in a variety of habitats including forests, shrublands, farmland and subalpine areas. They are regular visitors to suburban gardens especially in winter when food becomes scarce. They are very active little birds, continually in motion. They move around in flocks, sometimes quite large. Read more about them here