Friday, September 11, 2009

Friday flowers

This week I decided I’d show you all our lovely Kowhai (pronounced co fy) tree as they’re in full spring bloom right now.

I was merrily snapping away a few shots yesterday afternoon and thinking about one of our most beautiful native birds, the Tui, which especially loves this time of year when the Kowhai nectar is flowing…   Kowhai_2 …when a big Tui lands on the other Kowhai behind me. They’re a reasonably shy bird so aren’t as common in the city as they used to be. This was the best shot I got. They’re sometimes known as the parson bird because of their white ‘collar’. Kowhai_5There are some excellent shots of Tui on Wikipedia (see here). It’s worth a proper look because they’re fabulous birds. There’s also a short video there so you can hear one – a very distinctive call. They are mimics so will often sound like whatever noise they hear regularly.

7 comments:

  1. I find it so interesting how different your plants and animals in the southern hemisphere.

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  2. The Tui is neat but I ADORE the fantails - when ever we visited our property (in Russell) I would spend forever watching the little darlings.

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  3. Lou, they are both very beautiful. How long do the Kowhai normally bloom for?

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  4. Nice shots - the jacarandas are just coming out over here

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  5. Kowhai bloom Kyle from now until around November and then the seed pods (long ones like peas almost though brown) are left after the flowers fall. By the way I didn't mention that Kowhai is Maori for yellow.

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  6. Spring....
    Gaah we're about to hit autumn here and the first trees are about to change colours. At least there are a couple of beautiful weeks ahead until the darkness covers us all. Hibernation, seems like a great idea.

    Beautiful pics, thanks!

    Love
    D

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  7. Argh! I want spring back! We had 2 weeks of summer (it felt like it, anyway) and September feels like November. Cold, raw, rainy, windy...this does not bode well.
    I'm glad to see the flowers are blooming somewhere!

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