Wednesday, June 16, 2010

What a lovely day

After the frosty start, the day turned out to be just beautiful, calm and sunny. I was heading back indoors early this evening after doing a few jobs outside when I noticed a small bird in the Raupo (bullrushes) that grow in our pond. On closer inspection (and from previous sightings on the property) I discovered it was the native fern bird! Hopefully I'll be able to see it again, although I don't have the camera to capture it on film so here's a drawing I found on the net (Fernbird is the bird at the top of the picture):

Also as the sky was so pretty tonight, with the new moon and Venus shining bright in the western sky, we lit the brazier and sat outside for a while, rugged up against the cold.
I have put the frost cloth back on the citrus trees again tonight as I'm pretty sure we'll get another frost!

5 comments:

Sandra said...

How lovely. My Aunt lives in New Zealand and when I was a child I used to look longingly at the drawings and photos of all the different birds she had. They all seemed so exotic :)

IsobelleGoLightly said...

One of my lady's favorite memories of New Zealand was walking in the native bush and listening to the beautiful birdsong.

Cabbage Tree Farm said...

Hi Sandra
The fernbird does a little chirp call and then a lovely little bell like sound. They flit around in the undergrowth, quite shy birds and not all that common so I'm thrilled to have one so close to us!
We can only imagine what the birdsong would have been like in NZ pre settler days (before the forests were cleared big time and predators were unwittingly introduced..) But islands like Tiritiri Matangi are trying hard to turn the clock back, reintroducing species there and keeping the predators at bay.

Charlotte Scott said...

Oh how fantastic!

Cabbage Tree Farm said...

Hi Ms Lottie
I tried to get a photo of it yesterday but no luck! Gotta be quick and need a camera with a better zoom!