Russell Kirkpatrick's Journal
Posted At : 10:03 AM
| Posted By : Russell
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Russells' Daily Grind
Mood: Relaxed
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A tui is a native New Zealand bird - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tui_(bird) - quite common in rural areas but relatively rare in urban areas. Three years ago we planted two kowhai trees specifically to attract tui, who are nectar eaters, and today we have glorious confirmation of our success.
The bird has a wonderful song - not quite the spine-tingling full-out song such as the bellbird has, but pleasant nonetheless - and distinctive. We tracked the song to a tall totara tree, and there they were.
So now we have tui to go along with our morepork (bet Terry Pratchett doesn't have one in his garden), quail, pheasants, kingfishers and fantails. I'd love to attract a bellbird or two, or even the rare kokako, which has the most evocative call of all, drawn from the mists of time.
Living here is like being on holiday every day of the week.
Ooh, that's great! I'd love to have such variety. We only have sparrows, gallahs, Indian Minors and the occasional rainbow parakeet around our place.
Not really very related, but when I was driving along the freeway yesterday, I saw a car stopped at an off ramp, in the middle of the road. It was waiting for two ducks to waddle across. I thought it was great to see someone caring fo the wildlife for once.
Posted By Amanda Pillar / Posted At 9/28/08 11:13 AM
Terry has a morepork medallion - the bird is sitting on top of an ankh.
I understand your happiness. I never even saw a Tui until I was 14, so its so great to have them come into the garden - they like the big pohutukawa tree out the front of my place.
Posted By
Ross / Posted At 9/28/08 11:49 AM
I heard the dawn chorus here this morning, and although I've only noticed the magpies, I'm obviously going to have to be a bit more observant, there were easily a dozen different calls.
Posted By Sharyn / Posted At 9/28/08 12:01 PM
It's always nice to have birds outside, even if they're only boring old rosellas, but to have something a bit rare is even more special.
May I ask...does anyone else have a problem with magpies, not the usual territorial attacks, but road crossings? At least three times in the past few months I have had magpies cross the road in front of my car - walking!!!! They simply stroll across in front of me, even though I have come up close enough to them to scare away a normal bird. Naturally, I stop and wait, and they just continue across and walk away on the other side. This is weird, right??
Posted By Jo Kasper / Posted At 9/28/08 2:17 PM
Oooh Jo, sounds like they love you and are protecting you. Perhaps you are the bird queen and they are patrolling the road to keep you safe.
I should add I live in the centre of Hamilton, a town of 130,000 people, but I'm surrounded by bush.
Posted By russellk / Posted At 9/28/08 3:03 PM
Yeah...that's what I thought too!!!! Naturally!!!! *grin*
Posted By Jo Kasper / Posted At 9/29/08 3:34 PM
Is that why you have been missing these past few weeks......
Posted By Linda / Posted At 10/4/08 1:18 PM
Do you mean me or Russell? I try not to comment here too often anymore because it seems that as soon as I do, everyone stops commenting and Russell takes forever to do another entry. I'm not normally a conversation killer, but maybe it's one of those things that only my closest friends would tell me???? *checks breath, resolves to buy better toothpaste*
Posted By Jo Kasper / Posted At 10/5/08 9:39 AM
*silence*
Posted By russellk / Posted At 10/6/08 3:05 AM
:D
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