At the beach I spotted a couple of Tūturiwhatu | New Zealand dotterel. Between lifting my fitover sunnies and getting my camera out I lost them in the glare. Thus I have my first photo: Ceci n'est pas une Dotterel. 🐦 🤣
Just for kicks I drove up to the Lookout on Mt Victoria in Wellington. It reminded me of the absolute terror of driving that road — I used to drive it almost daily. Narrow — more or less one lane with cars parked, winding, loads of blind corners. 😱
Wellington and Harbour from Mt Vic Lookout.
In Wellington which is so loud and where parking breaks the bank. My annual eye test was fine, though my left eye has more floaters and the small cataract has been joined by a couple of friends.
Today's delight: two tiny ducklings on the lake. I believe these are native Tētē-moroiti | Grey teal 🐦 :
Length: 42 - 44 cm; Weight: 505 g (male); 470 g (female)
A small grey-brown teal with pale-edged body feathers, pale cheeks, chin and throat, crimson eyes, and a dark grey bill.
In 2005 they blew up and sank an old Navy ship off the south coast of Wellington to form an artificial reef.
Throwback to January 2005: cats in our Wellington garden. 🐈
We’re Searching for Our Bird of the Century 🐦:
Aotearoa New Zealand’s favourite election is back, and the stakes are higher than ever before. This year marks a whole century of Forest & Bird speaking up for nature.
Join us in celebrating our 100th birthday… But vote carefully... this year the winner is not just Bird of the Year, but Bird of the Century!
We finished watching Sex Education (TV series) and I was relieved that all the story lines were resolved without any really dark outcomes. 📺
What an excellent show! I particularly enjoyed the character development of Amy. Favourite actor / character: Maeve.
In my dream I was leaving a part of Waikawa Beach that had nightclubs, shops, restaurants, thinking: How weird I've lived here nearly 8 years and never found this area before.
The map above clarifies how tiny Waikawa Beach is. It also has zero shops, cafes or other commerce. 🤣
This 13 minute video: I have APHANTASIA (and you may too...without realising it!), linked by Jason Kottke: Does Your Brain Picture Things? is excellent.
I also can't visualise, although I can (sort of) call up memories of photos. It's always a bit indirect though, like peripheral vision.
Seven hours from start to finish, with 3 workers being diligent, we now have our new EV charger.
I like to take relatively detailed photos of significant work around our place. Fortunately several photos have been helpful for the Evnex charger installers today.
One of the things we've learned as home owners is that the project (whatever it might be) will always encounter glitches and will always cost more than expected.
Our Evnex EV charger in the garage is no exception: a concrete pad, and sand in the conduit led to extra hole digging and workarounds.
This Tōrea pango | Variable Oystercatcher pair have found their spot in the driftwood, ready for nesting. 🐦
A pair was in a similar location last year too.
Manu pango | Eurasian blackbird on flax. 🐦
We plugged the EV in to trickle charge. After 12 hours it had gone from 29% charge to 54%. That's roughly 2% per hour.
Today I drove to Levin and plugged in to a public charger while I shopped. It charged from 50% to 80% in 24 minutes — about 75% per hour.
I believe charging slows after 80%.
If you've never benefited from Take Control books it's time to start. Buy a book now! It'll be $5 very well spent indeed.
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Spin-off effects … we bought a new EV so that meant getting a charger installed (this week, I hope). The EV allows us to change our electricity plan — it gives us 50% discount from 2100 to 0700. So now I've learned how to program our dishwasher and washing machine to run overnight.