Life's passion takes flight

Twitcher, hobbyist photographer and author of children's readers on birds, John Decker, tells Lindy Laird he hasn't put down his pen - or camera - quite yet.
When John Dekker was about 10 and growing up in Holland, his parents gave him a book on birds.
Seventy-odd years later, he lives on an inland-reaching finger of the Kaipara Harbour, near Kaiwaka, and writes his own books about birds.
That childhood book opened John to a lifetime interest, but he has only recently moved from birdwatcher to bird-book writer.
His inspiration for taking photos and writing texts for the little books he publishes comes from several sources.
A church pastor, there is the desire to praise the glory of the power he calls his creator, and to celebrate nature's worldly beauty.
He has also been inspired by authors and photographers of New Zealand bird and wildlife books, such as Hugh Robertson and the late Geoff Moon.
And then, the country cottage he and his wife Ruth have lived in for 30 years is nestled in a large, lush garden that nudges a tidal estuary, overlooks bush and is surrounded by pasture. It's an ever-changing bird heaven.
"I've always loved watching the birds come and go but it was only a few years ago that I got myself a decent camera," John says. "Next thing, a thrush nested in our front garden, so I took photos of that thrush family growing up." The result is a book called Four Blue Eggs, its photos and text documenting the progress of the eggs laid in the mud-lined nest in the mandarin tree.
"This thrush nest was made in a small tree in the garden. Mother thrush took about one week to build it. She then laid four beautiful blue eggs", reads the text opposite the full-sized photo on the first page.
The pictures and text chronicle the chicks growing from bald, blind hatchlings to gaping-mouthed, feathered fledglings leaving the nest, and finally young adult birds capable of raising their own chicks.
One of the Dekkers' daughters, Jill, a teacher, suggested the book might be suitable as a school reader.
John warmed to the idea of combining his interest with a project which also combined children learning to read with learning about their natural world.
The Ministry of Education has a school book publisher's version of Four Blue Eggs in every primary school.
John's feathers were slightly ruffled over changes made to his work, but his contract allows him to continue self-publishing and marketing the original version.
Generally delighted, though, with the experience of compiling the thrush family album, John went on to publish Birds in Your Garden and Birds by the Water.
The first introduces young readers to birds most frequently found in gardens and parks.
There are the friendly fantails, throaty-billed tui, fat and colourful wood pigeons, plentiful sparrows, bossy starlings, bright silvereyes or waxeyes, chirpy blackbirds, lilting grey warblers, nest-invading shining cuckoos, turquoise waistcoated kingfishers and the musical song thrush.
John's favourites are the fantail, or piwakawaka, for its cheery, friendly character and the wood pigeon for its size and striking colour.
Birds by the Water involved a lot of wading, crouching and lying around in mud to get photos. It took John and Ruth back to one of their favourite bird-watching places, Miranda, on the Firth of Thames.
He is the more passionate about birdwatching; Ruth goes because she enjoys the countryside, "and birdwatchers tend to be such lovely people to meet", she says.
John has more book ideas but is not giving too much away. .
He holds up a photo he's taken of a hawk standing over carrion.
"I do have in mind one on birds of prey," he concedes.
John met Ruth after he moved to New Zealand to be a farmer.
Instead, he became a social worker, and has been a pastor in a Christian fellowship for 40 years.
He admits to being a little surprised with himself, heading off down this track at 81. But then perhaps this man of God is not on an altogether new road, just another stage in life's journey where fancies, like birds, can take flight.