She also has spoonbills (on her field, after rain.) And there are hawks, a magpie with one wing, visiting ducks and geese, a pheasant, skylarks, a fat cat, chooks, doves, a kingfisher, frogs … and unwelcome bunnies who raid her vegetable garden.
All the photos above were taken tonight on my usual walk around the inlet near our home. The tide was in, so there weren’t any spoonbills to be seen – apart from one or two on the Bird Roost; no doubt waiting for the tide to go out so that they can feast on the small fish they are favouring at the moment.
When I was working as a guide at the Albatross Centre on Taiaroa Head a few years ago – I shudder to think how many – one of the sights I loved seeing was the early evening return of spoonbills from feeding grounds to their night roosts on Taiaroa Head. Their idiosyncratic method of flight was comical, reminding me of kitchen utensils. Egg beaters. A term sometimes used by wags to describe small aeroplanes. I can see why.
I’m leaving home again tomorrow for a week with my sister in the north. Picking up another sister on the way. For a week, I’ll be replacing my Te Wai Pounamu eastern coastal backyard with my sister’s Te Ika-a-Māui western coastal backyard.
She also has spoonbills (on her field, after rain.) And there are hawks, a magpie with one wing, visiting ducks and geese, a pheasant, skylarks, a fat cat, chooks, doves, a kingfisher, frogs … and unwelcome bunnies who raid her vegetable garden.
Like the returning spoonbills, I’m heading north into a time of sisterly, whanau support and aroha. It may involve wine – a high possibility when three sisters get together.
While I’m away, R has instructions to water the zucchini plants. And to eat.
