A new garden corner

We have decided to extend our bird garden by planting some more trees. The majority of our back yard is just bare grass now that the broken down cars and caravan have all gone. So its time claim the space before any more broken down cars decide they want to stay there! Off we went to the garden centre to purchase a Kowhai tree. We ended up with one that is about a metre high but we are assured by its tag that it will grow a couple more metres beyond that.

One of the chicks

The Chinese Toon (the pink in most of the waxeye images) has thrown out a couple of runners and we have a few young trees growing in places where they cannot stay, so I plan to move them to the back of the yard as well. A couple of ponga ferns and the corner will be complete. We have done some renovations at the front of the house also and have a small piece of garden there that will need to be moved, so the succulent plants and bulbs from there can be transplanted to the new garden to provide ground cover. The plan is good, I hope the execution is as good.

Parent and chick (right)

 We had our first casualty in the garden yesterday too. The tui attacked a waxeye and it flew straight into the window in its effort to get away. It sat on the deck in a stunned state for a few minutes then when it noticed me watching it, it flew off. It seemed to be flying ok so I have to assume it will be ok. I am convinced our tui is a juvenile bird, he is quite small and very aggressive. Maybe he just needs a mate! We haven't seen the tui today but the waxeyes are all out and about, chicks included.

Hungry chick