In my quest for better photos of Pied Stilt chicks I was at the beach for a windless, cool dawn. Alas, I'm still not up to the task of good photos of teeny tiny sand coloured birds at a great distance. However, I really like this shot of an adult stilt with reflection and water spray. 🐦
Well, we seem to have our first chicks of the season: a couple of tiny Poaka | Pied Stilt. Photos are a bit fuzzy, thanks to the heat haze, I'm afraid. 🐦
Tuned in part way through the Swearing-in Ceremony for our new Parliament. Pleased to hear some swearing their oath in Māori and sometimes another non-English language. All are being Signed, of course. Parliament On Demand.
There are some English speakers who don't know how to pronounce 'heirs'.
I broke my rule today and am now paying the consequences. Walked Willow the dog to the beach and saw through binoculars two tiny fluffy Pied Stilt chicks.
Did I have my camera with me (the rule)? No!
Do I have photos? No … 😭 👿
Went back later with camera : no sign of the chicks.
Occasionally things about words get my goat, though in general I like to be positive about language change.
Who the heck thought up the word carkoi
⁉️⁉️
It jams together English car
with Māori hikoi
(march, walk).
May this die a quick and sudden death. Soon!
As the new government try to wind NZ back on many measures — climate and things Māori in particular — it's good to remind ourselves of the basis of this country: Te Tiriti o Waitangi. Hooray for RadioNZ keeping that foremost with:
tangata whenua and tangata Tiriti (People of the Land and People of the Treaty)
So fantastic to see protests on the opening day of Parliament led by our new racist, colonialist government of National, ACT and NZ First.
Protests led by The Māori Party who have 6 of the 122 seats.
Te Pāti Māori protests - Day of action focuses on new government's Māori policies | RNZ News.
I emailed the Bird Banding office about this photo and they replied:
The details that we hold for this bird:
Northern New Zealand Dotterel, Tūturiwhatu
Metal band number: DP-10352 (left tibia)
Other markings: Coloured band – Yellow (right tibia)
Date banded: 23/01/2023
Banding location: North of Waitohu Stream, Ōtaki
This bird has been nicknamed ‘Chip’ by the banders
Amazing, eh!
We went to brunch at Field and Green in Wellington yesterday with a group of friends, most of whom we've known for decades. I enjoyed a Wilfred's Spritz mocktail and French toast brioche, banana, honeycomb butter and bacon.
Those Glossy ibis photos I took during the week … These are the images I kept in the end. A sliver of late sunlight helped. 🐦
It’s 0330 and I’ve drunk the cup of tea I just made. After hours of restless sleep with odd and annoying dreams I’ve given up. Lovely quiet morning though. I can hear the sea if I listen carefully. Too early for birds…
Incredibly dumb, wasteful and offensive policy from the new government of Aotearoa — The uncertainty around how much it would cost to rebrand government departments :
the Government’s NZ First coalition agreement vowed to “ensure all public service departments have their primary name in English, except for those specifically related to Māori”.
I rarely buy books on paper, but the first couple of pages of Sylvia and the Birds: How The Bird Lady saved thousands of birds and how you can too by Johanna Emeney and Sarah Laing had me hooked. 📚
This gorgeous NZ book is:
Part graphic biography, part practical guide to protecting our bird wildlife
Another darn good read — Murder At Arrow Pass (An Elk Ridge Murder Mystery Book 2) by Anne Shillolo. 📚
A catastrophic pileup on the treacherous winter highway through Arrow Pass draws Inspector Casgrain and her team into a web of violence that threatens the nearby community of Elk Ridge.
Absolutely fascinating 20 minute interview — Does biology trump free will?:
If [testosterone hormones] were higher than average for you this morning and you're looking at a face with a neutral expression, you are now significantly more likely to decide that the face looks threatening, angry and unfriendly.
Poaka | Pied Stilt are very aggressive when it comes to defending a nest, and they seem to have a 100 metre radius for action. 🐦
Pied Stilts are streamlined rockets in flight. When they want to warn you off they fly straight at your head and swerve only at the last second.
Today Golden Turtle oolong tea is perfectly suiting my mood. Very delicious. Definitely smooth and velvety
. I only bought a sample pack; now ordering more.
Ecosia search engine now has an AI Chat feature. Gave it a whirl with this search: mac os terminal command disable Game Mode
and lookee here:
To disable Game Mode in macOS, you can use the following terminal command:
defaults write com.apple.GamingServices GameCenterEnabled -bool false
Game Mode
while doing jigsaws was driving me nuts! Then I found Use Game Mode on Mac.
From the Game Mode menu
in the menu bar, choose Turn Game Mode Off. It remains off for that game until you turn it on again — even if you quit and reopen the game.
Tonight the light was better and I got smarter with camera settings so the Glossy ibis photos actually worked out. 🐦
Last night's photos were disappointing.
Here's just one for the moment.
