Baby Birds

On the first day of summer - four baby birds in my bougainvillea.

Mr & Mrs Blackbird were kicking up a fuss a minute ago as Winston Cat strolled down the neighbour's driveway. He stopped and stared at me as if I were to blame for the racket.  

Great Weather for Ducks ... and Pukekos

It is finally light enough for me to cycle to and from work again. Although it's still winter I've had three enjoyable rides in the past week. Today it was damp as I rode along the track. There weren't many people about but the pukeko were out and about in force. I counted 30 pukeko around the expressway wetland area. Some pukeko are skittish but the odd one, like a little fellow today, just stroll across the path in front of my bike. 

Kapiti Island

Best birthday present to myself ever - an overnight trip to Kapiti Island. I have a whole new appreciation and understanding of the bush clad island I see every day now that I have climbed it and walked among the trees. The bird life is amazing and we saw several rare and endangered birds such as hihi, saddleback/kieke, takahe and kokako.

Alison and I were very lucky to see the kokako. Sightings are infrequent but one flew across the path in front of us and landed on a low branch nearby. There were lots of kereru in the small trees near our cabin and they even graze on the grass in front of the cabins. Two old takahe (one is blind) live around the houses at the north end where we stayed and we saw them several times. The kaka are food thieves but one landed on my shoulder and sat there for a about a minute even though I wasn't holding any food. One had grabbed a biscuit from someone nearby and then a bunch of them turned up. A little robin hopped around us when we sat on the path and scratched at the leaf litter with a stick. It was so cute and so close. A weka pecked my thumb but I deserved that. I lured it over to me with a shiny chocolate wrapper. It pecked the wrapper a couple of times and when I wouldn't let go of the wrapper it pecked my thumb.  I still didn't let go of the wrapper!

I'm so pleased we stayed overnight and not just for the day. The weather was great, we met some lovely people (14 visitors stayed overnight and Wayne was a very friendly and informative host) and there was a great variety of birdlife.  We heard but didn't see kiwi, they are rather elusive at the moment, but the night walk in the bush was still interesting. It was a beautiful, still and starry evening, so quiet that we could hear weta in the bush.