When word got around the island that we were musicians, a volunteer insisted on taking us to a rare demonstration of the only working old steam fog horn in the southern hemisphere. We met a group of old men in this shack who had spent five years refurbishing the beast:
We walked around the island in compete solitude except for the birds of course..
An early winter sunset at 5:30PM:
The whole trip we were hoping to see and hear the rare Kokako - known for it's mournful song. There are only 16 on Tiri. After sitting at the sugar feeders watching the Tuis and Hihis for a while, I noticed that the ranger who had just replaced the sugar-water hadn't screwed it back in tight enough and one bottle was leaking. I decided to try to fix it. Just after I had managed to screw the bottle in tight enough, a Kokako landed quite suddenly on a branch only a couple of meters away! I manged to snap this quick shot. But check the link above for a real picture:
One of the highlights of a visit to Tiri is Greg. Greg is a famously tame and clever endangered flightless Takahe. As I was having my moment with the Kokako, Greg wandered over to inspect my unguarded backpack for any spare foodbits:
Foiled!
This Kereru was sitting quite obviously on the side of the trail. A very large and beautiful bird. We've seen them near our house in Auckland as well, but never this close up:
Another highlight was hearing a MorePork owl and then a goofy Tui imitating the owl's call of "more-pork."
Back in the park behind our house, Camille enjoys the autumn leaves in May.
Even though it's the end of autumn, our strawberry guava tree is into it's second month of fruiting! Camille made them into a yummy pancake topping:
-Camille and Carl
1 comment:
it's a bird treasury! I love it to hear and see new birds with new lives - like not moving with the seasons. Dad saw the kokako jumping through the branches on Tiritiri. I missed it. What was the steam "toot" like?
love,
Mom
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