The birdbath on a hot day

Some days it is just too hot to venture out into the sun, so I take to my arm chair by the open french doors and watch the birds play. This young black bird was particularly fun to watch. It would hop along the lawn inching closer and closer to the birdbath, watching for danger with every hop and then jump up onto the birdbath and splash about for a few minutes before flying off.  This was repeated several times so I had plenty of opportunity to photograph its antics.

We have put stones in the birdbath to give the smaller birds a chance. They didn't seem to like it when it was too deep, but now they are happy to splash about in there also. The things we do for our art!

Visiting Photogs

We have two visiting photographers from Auckland, (they also happen to be my mother and her husband), and the plan of the trip was to get out and take nature photographs. Typical Wellington has put on its best weather for the event and while we drove around most of my usual haunts, the wind chased us back home.

So I introduced them to my backyard birds. The birds all came out to play regardless of the wind and we managed to get some good images. It is good to have a plan B and especially when it means not having to leave the house. We stay tucked up warm inside and the birds perform just out the door.

Hopefully tomorrow's weather will be calmer and warmer and we will get out to places like Zealandia and the Zoo. Matiu Somes Island is also on the list of places to go if the weather plays nice. If not, well there is always the scrabble board!

Newcomers and regulars

 

We have several bird species visiting our garden now but every now and then I am surprised by a newcomer. I am not overly happy about the latest one because he may return with all his mates! I am hoping not and won't be putting any scraps out for a day or so to discourage it.

For the regulars of course there will always be food out for them, or at least that is the intention. Sometimes they get greedy and the food trays run out during the day when I am not here. We have a tui who comes by at least twice a day for a quick drink of the sugar water then is off on his merry way.

It is easy to know when he is going to visit because ALL of the other birds scatter and hide. I guess the tui is at the top of the pecking order in our garden. He commands privacy while he feeds and other than myself and the camera he gets it!

The newcomer is a pigeon. He's not even a pretty pigeon and certainly looks well fed. I hope he was just bought here by the strong winds and can find his way home - pigeons are supposed to be able to do that I believe. I really don't want the smaller birds scared away by a flock of hungry pigeons.

Altering the Universe

The puddle has dried up for the Summer and even if we fill it, it is just getting slimy and icky. The birds were still doing their best to get some water out of the dried mud, so yesterday I dragged out last years broken bird bath and rigged it up for them to use instead. It took about 3 hours before they trusted it enough to try it out. Today it is a part of their universe and not at all scarey like it was the day before.

The birdbath started out full, however I think I am going to be heading out there again soon to refill it. The blackbirds are great at splashing the water all over the place and it makes it difficult for the sparrows to reach when they want a drink.

The communal puddle

 

Before I was able to park my car in our garage, I used to park it on the lawn. After several years of doing this, there were a few holes in the lawn where the ground got a bit soft and muddy over the winter. All that is left now is one dent in the lawn that fills with water whenever it rains. The birds love it! So much so that sometimes I will put a bucket or two of water in it for them to play in when there are been no rain.

So rejuvenated the puddle this afternoon with a bit of water and within minutes I had a huge number of birds splashing about in it. There were blackbirds, starlings, chaffinches, sparrows and waxeyes all in there together! It made for a very crowded puddle. The puddle is the one place where I haven’t seen any of the bird hierarchy that I witness in the trees and feeding stations. They just share the puddle without a care.

The waxeyes are very cute when they are wet, their feathers look so bedraggled and their big eyes just look so forlorn and sad. Either that or they catch me watching them and turn into angry birds! They give me such faces, as if to tell me that their privacy is important and I am violating it! I take no notice at all and carry on photographing them.

Oh on the blackbird front, we have a nest with eggs residing on the side of our fence in a clematis bush. Unfortunately I can’t get the camera in there or I would be recording their progress, but I can see them which is kind of fun. I just hope none of the neighbourhood cats find it. I don’t think they would be able to get in easily so they should be pretty safe. 

The others...

Continuing on from yesterday’s blog post, today I have the other birds that visited the puddle of water that the waxeyes were playing in. Most were just using it as a drinking hole, clearly not wanting to wash in the same water as the little greenies.

Top Dog - The Starling

There were plenty of house sparrows about as usual and only one or two chaffinches. What was interesting from watching was the hierarchy of the bird species. The starlings have established themselves as the top dogs and will chase away anyone in their way. Followed closely by the blackbirds who believe this is their turf! The sparrows and chaffinch were the first (because they are quick and brave) and the last to feed after being chased off by the bigger birds.

The Blackbird

House Sparrow

Chaffinch

Pair of House Sparrows

Leaving home...

Hatched on Dec 20th, less than two weeks later the first chick is leaving the nest.

The Trip to Napier

I am writing up the trip from back to front, not to confuse you but because that is how I am processing the photos. Upper Hutt to Clive, where we were staying, is a little over a four hour drive – it took us almost nine hours!  Not because we got lost or anything silly like that, but because we made lots of stops. We stopped in Greytown and had morning tea. Then we walked the main street to have a look at the shops. There were some really interesting shops there but we were strong and didn’t spend much. Just one small glass Christmas decoration was purchased to add to the tree this year. Our next stop was in Masterton, once again checking out the shops.

Kaka on flax

After Masterton we stopped in at Mt Bruce Reserve. We paid our $15 each and walked around the bush trying to photograph any birds we saw along our way. We weren’t much interested in the aviaries as it is too difficult to photograph them without the netting interfering with the shot. There were some fantails that followed us around, flitting from branch to branch staying just long enough for us to ALMOST focus on them, then moving again. Most frustrating! We saw plenty of tui but once again didn’t manage to get any decent images of them. So we gave up and had lunch in the café

Kaka feeding from flax flowers

It wasn’t until we were about to leave that we really had some fun with the cameras – out in the car park!! There were both kaka and tui feeding on the flax flowers right in the car park. We needn’t have spent the money to go in, we could have gotten all the shots we wanted right there in front of the building. We decided to try doing just that on the way home but unfortunately the weather had turned and the birds were no where to be seen.

We stopped to photograph a horse that looked like it was posing especially for us. It was still in the same position when we were driving home two days later. If we hadn’t seen it walk around the paddock we might have been thinking it wasn’t real! The last place we stopped before getting to Clive was Waipukurau where we once again walked about looking at the shops. They had some sort of a market day happening and each shop had a display from their favourite musical. Some of the staff had also dressed up into their chosen theme. By the time we finally reached the motel we were ready to collapse in front of the TV with a glass of wine and relax – and we did just that!