It's just for the birds

A few months ago my daughter purchased a bird feeder from Bunnings and until earlier this week it was sitting on top of a wheelbarrow by our back door.

The other half found it, filled it with bird seed and hung it up by our back fence. 10 minutes later we had this lot lining up watching us intently.

An hour later and in fact since then we've had a daily succession of both Sparrows and Green Finches. News spreads fast around the bird community it seems.

The Sparrows seem quite aggressive. They fly around the Finches and swoop on them until they lose their balance then they take their place. It's been very successful to the point where now we mix in nuts and bits of dried coconut in with the seeds - they seem quite pleased with it.

Pukeko birds galore!

Since we've moved here to Kerikeri I've noticed there are a lot of these birds just about everywhere compared to anywhere else I've lived. The NZ Pukeko (pronounced poo-keck-oh) loves swampy, wet places and sometimes we see them on the edges of motorways because they love scrounging around for leftovers.

They have black and blue features with red beaks and unfortunately aren't very intelligent at all. Unlike our national Kiwi birds these ones aren't endangered at all because they are prolific breeders but they are predators of baby ducklings and are sometimes regarded as pests.

Misty winter ducks

Last Autumn I visited local McLaren Falls Park around 7.30am to try and photograph some Autumn colours.

In Cherry Bay I parked my car and walked down to the lake through the icy cold shadows breathing icy cold air and stopped at the edge of the water where alot of ducks were, some were resting and others were starting to come to life as the sun started to warm where I was standing.

I think what impressed me the most was the fog that was slowly rising from the water into the air. Due to living up north for 20 years I'd never seen this before as over winter for us it was mostly rainy and damp. Hopefully next Autumn I'll be back there again.

Our Oystercatchers Harry and Sophie

Meet Harry and Sophie, Mount Maunganui's resident Oystercatchers. Every year they come to our main beach to nest and raise babies.

The Department of Conservation are pretty good at putting up cordons around the nest along with sandbags to protect the chicks.

We carefully walked around the area and I managed to get this photo of the baby that's hatched out this year. Looks like he/she is quite happy.

People have been pretty good at staying away from the nest and there is a no dog policy on this part of the beach. Hopefully this family can keep coming back here in years to come.

A brief visit to Pukehina Beach

While out and about on Sunday we stopped into the small settlement of Pukehina Beach, about 30 minutes out of town.

Now that Summer is over and Autumn is on it's way things are starting to calm down, the crowds have gone back home and back to work.

The beach when we walked down to it from the car park and surf club was very isolated and bare, about the only things we saw were loads of Oyster Catchers and Seagulls so not alot going on, very quiet.

Linking up with Our World Tuesday, Outdoors Wednesday and Wednesday around the world :-)

Two Pukekos sitting on the fence...

We live in an area where there's alot of creeks/streams and ditches along the roads, these guys the NZ Pukeko bird also known as Takahe is flightless so I when I saw then wandering through my backyard I quickly grabbed my camera. I turned my back and when I looked back they were on the fence from the ground. They are quite unintelligent creatures so I've got no idea how they managed to get up high but they seemed to be very happy getting a good view of my garden.

For more our world Tuesdays click here :-)

Seagulls are such funny creatures!

While out at Whakapirau beach last week with my friend Liz we saw the most funny sight - I use to think Seagulls were quite silly creatures but this has started me thinking.

We saw a flock of them watching us eat some treats we had bought with us, nothing unusual there right? Two birds in particular caught our attention....one was a baby gull squawking away at what looked to be his mother. Not only was she ignoring him but she was running away as fast as she caught - she almost reminded me of what a harrassed parent who needed a break would look like. A couple of times he threw a bird like temper tantrum, was stamping his little webbed feet and getting in her face. Eventually he gave up, swam into the water and started ducking under the water looking for sprats. It really was the most comical experience!

Reflections over Whakapirau Beach

A couple of days ago a good friend and I took a road trip around the Kaipara district along back roads looking for an old abandoned cemetery. On our travels we stopped at one of our favourite beachs: Whakapirau which is a very quiet area at this time of year. Summer people come here and swim and over Autumn/Winter it completely quitens down. In the distance of this photo you can see a building and a wharf - that's the old dairy factory which has closed down now and along the shore were a flock of oyster catchers waiting for the tide to go out so they could pick at shellfish and sprats.

Being here, just sitting, pondering, looking out on the stunning coastline makes me happy. For more weekend reflections click here :-)

Who's this guy? Is he a Karoro?

This big guy hangs out in my backyard most mornings looking for crusts of bread and tasty morsels. He's larger than a seagull, and believe me when you live at the beach like we do there are millions of seagulls except this one's different. Look at his beak and the colour of his feathers. I think he's a Karoro also known as a Black Backed Gull. I think he's lovely!

For more Our World Tuesdays click here :-)