Off the paint chart

Spring green is a colour!

And a wee splash of Lime Green too

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A right royal treat

The past few days have seen an increase in visits to the sugar water feeder by Tui and an even greater increase in aggression from these fascinating birds. The poor sparrows have been swooped at and seen out of a tree and off the property. The sparrows really are innocent of any crimes, just victims of being in the wrong place at the wrong time at the moment.

However today at times the air has been thick with Tui drinking from the feeder.

I have lost count of the number of refills I have already done today and the sun has not yet set!

My suspicion is that the first of this season’s fledglings are now independent of feeding by their parents but their parents have shown them the feeder. Some researchers indicate that while Tui are generally solitary birds there are times when families of Tui can be seen together.

Food sources may have dwindled a little before the next food options become abundant.
Nesting and feeding new babies is definitely in full swing so parents are doubly hungry. It has been very windy and quite chilly for the past few days meaning the birds’ energy supplies are sapped quickly.

Here are a few photos from today’s gatherings at the feeder. It has been a very entertaining day.

Saturday sequence

From green to cream to white, the Snowball Tree ( or Pompom tree) Viburnum Opulus Sterile in my garden. Right now trying to withstand the big spring storm we are experiencing.

A quote for Tuesday

To look at any thing,
If you would know that thing,
You must look at it long:
To look at this green and say,
“I have seen spring in these
Woods,” will not do – you must
Be the thing you see:
You must be the dark snakes of
Stems and ferny plumes of leaves,
You must enter in
To the small silences between
The leaves,
You must take your time
And touch the very peace
They issue from.
– John Moffitt

Raindrops on buxus hedging

Cotinus Coggygria – Smoke Bush in spring