Miraz Jordan

Clockwork quail. In 2018 and 2019 my Coturnix quail laid their first egg for the season on 21 September. Today, 21 September 2020, they kept the trend going. They require 12 hours of daylight to lay, which we achieved yesterday with equilux. Clever girls! 🐦

If I were in a different country I might worry… A military helicopter came from the north (where the base is) did a slow circuit north of the village then went away. Then it came back, did two slow, low laps of our house, then went away again. Weird.

I couldn’t really get close enough and only had my iPhone with me, but that white speck around middle photo is a Royal Spoonbill. So glad to see it as I thought perhaps the spoonbills had abandoned us.

Our View of Space Is Becoming Blurrier

the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope … sits in the Atacama desert [which] has warmed by 1.5 °C over the last four decades.

this causes turbulence within the dome, which degrades the image quality and causes blurring.

After a week of westerly gales, cloud, rain etc the beach this morning was absolutely stunning.

The Equinox | MetService Blog:

Equinox is on Wednesday, but due to refraction+width of sun the equilux (day with 12 hours of daylight) occurs today or yesterday in NZ depending on latitude.

☀️🕶 🥳

It’s about time my two remaining quail started laying eggs again. 🐦

One of the podcasts I really enjoy is Mothers of Invention, about climate justice. The episode We Are The People Of The Beans had a particularly interesting section about silvopastoral systems, that I think Aotearoa New Zealand, with all its cow farms, would benefit from.

Ambivalent about Murder The Boys (Detective Kate Power Mystery Book 1) by Judith Cutler 📚. The bad guy was obvious to the reader but not the Detective Sergeant who also seemed pretty wimpy for someone of her experience.

Boys are being abducted, abused, murdered on her patch

I finally got around to watching (and enjoying) Booksmart. It was both moving and funny.

It stars Beanie Feldstein and Kaitlyn Dever as two graduating high school girls who set out to finally break the rules and party on their last day of classes

First time this season I’ve spotted ‘our’ kōtare (kingfisher).