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Birds

Around Our Yard

December 27, 2020 by NZ Filbruns 1 Comment

The flax bush just outside our windows is blooming this year, and we’re enjoying the tuis that come to drink the nectar! Sometimes, there are as many as three at once, and then there are fights over the blooms.

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See the fluffed-up feathers? These tuis did not like the competition.11-IMG_703912-IMG_7044

One afternoon, the little girls spent at least an hour, maybe two, playing together in the sandbox.13-IMG_704814-IMG_705015-IMG_705116-IMG_7052

Another day, Mr. Imagination and Little Miss created hammocks for themselves from old feed bags and baling twine, after hearing about some children who did it in a story I was reading aloud.They enjoyed their hammocks for a couple of days, till the stitching at the bottom of the bag came apart.19-IMG_705820-IMG_706021-IMG_706122-IMG_7063This  happened on still another day—Mr. Imagination gave Miss Joy a ride on a boogie board!

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Filed Under: Activities at Home Tagged With: Birds, Children's Play

Birds

November 2, 2019 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

We’ve been seeing wood pigeons around here quite a lot lately. They are huge, beautiful birds. For awhile, they were landing on the tiny ends of branches on the neighbor’s tree, just outside our living room window, and eating something on the tips of the branches. There must have been tiny berries; I really don’t know for sure. They would often hang upside down, pecking at whatever it was. One morning, the sun was shining on the pigeon we saw, and I was able to snap these photos.

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A pair of plovers nested in the middle of the park across the street from us. The person who did the mowing left a large area uncut around the nest. We were privileged to see the babies the day they hatched—three tiny balls of fluff! A few days later, one of our cats followed us across the road when we went to milk the cow in the paddock next to the park. The cat caught sight of the baby plovers—and grabbed one. Simon took off after her as she raced back home, and was able to rescue the unhurt baby and return it to its distraught parents. The last we saw of the family, they still had three babies, but they seem to have moved on to a safer place.

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These birds are more prosaic, but we are glad to have them! We bought 70 day-old chicks in June, and Mr. Diligence raised them. We kept 20 to supply us with eggs, and sold the rest. He wants to try this again next year. He didn’t make a lot of profit, but since he has no other income he’s grateful for even small amounts. We’re enjoying having grass-fed eggs again! It’s been a long time.

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Filed Under: Activities at Home Tagged With: Birds, Chickens

Flax

January 1, 2019 by NZ Filbruns 4 Comments

We have a very large New Zealand flax plant outside our window. We have been enjoying watching the birds and bees pollinating it since it started blooming.

First, the flower stalks grew buds.

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Then, the flowers opened.

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Sometimes, this tui comes to call.

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There are always bees around.

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We also see a lot of starlings getting a drink of nectar. They end up with an orange cap on their head! I haven’t gotten a good picture of that, so here’s the best we could do.

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Here’s another starling.

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A bellbird has been coming, too, but it’s shy enough that if it sees the camera it is gone. This is the best I could get of it.

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We are really enjoying the birds as they enjoy the flax flowers!

Filed Under: Activities at Home Tagged With: Birds, New Zealand Flax, Plants

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