Enjoying the holidays..

The wind plays havoc with Tui feathers!

Our back garden is slowly changing from its former life as a car yard to a haven for wild birds. Today we added two new plants to the mix. Passionfruit have always been a treat for me as I haven't had them growing where I lived since I was a small child. Today we planted two of them along the back fence, so hopefully they will grow and produce much fruit!  They have the added advantage of having fantastic flowers for photography. I plan to do some interesting macro shots with them next year.

It is interesting that the more we do to the garden, the more bird visitors we get. One tui that visits two or three times a day found that yesterday we had no sugar water out for him. It was like he really didn't believe it, so he jumped around all the trees and down onto the BBQ looking for it. Sadly he went without, but he was back again today and happy to have me wander around him with the camera while he had his fill from the feeder. He knows now, if it is not there one day it will be there another day.

The waxeye numbers are slowly building once more and I can hear chicks calling again. I have seen them but not been able to photograph them as yet. They are a bit skittish and fly off when they see me. One waxeye that visits has lost the bottom half of its beak. I don't know how this might have happened but it dosen't seem to worry it that much and it did look healthy other than the beak issue.

The Tui is becoming quite the poser for the camera!