Lots of fluffy

This morning started beautifully after a couple days of rainy weather.

  
Lots of animals and people were out making the most of it after being cooped up.  I saw three seperate broods of ducklings, including these paradise ducklings.

  
There were also lots of people whitebaiting, going for a run, or walking their dogs.  One small doggy was super excited to be out, and came bounding up to me.

  
There was also a particularly cute wee black poodle that looked hilarious as it ran around the park, big boofy ears bouncing up and down, unfortunately smartphones don’t come with long lenses so it’s only captured in my mind!

Sharing

it is a gorgeous warm day in Christchurch today so I popped over to Mona Vale for my lunch today.

  
It was very peaceful with lots of people and birds enjoying the warmth.

  
One brave blackbird thought my lunch looked pretty good too.  It hopped over hopefully looking at my salad.  And I’m a softy so it got a mung bean sprout (I hope it likes mung beans!)

  

Suburban Peafowl Trio

Several months ago we woke up in the middle of the night to a horrible screaming noise.  It sounded like someone or something was being killed.  It kept happening and we figured out that it was some birds in the area, but we could never find the birds even though they sounded really close by.  Flash forward to a week or so ago when we are out for a walk, on a regular route, and suddenly spot two peacocks and a peahen in the garden of a lovely old house.  The noise has now been positively associated with the peafowl and it feels somehow a little less obnoxious.  I popped out with my long lens tonight to see if I could take some pictures.

I spotted the peahen on another nearby property, she was rather skittery, and it was very challenging to get a shot as she kept ducking behind the cars in their driveway.  She then flew across the road back home.  Finding that the peacocks there were also elusive I left them alone for a while.

However ten minutes or so later when I came back I was rewarded by finding both the peacocks on the roof of their neighbour’s garage.

As a side note if I ever start up a band (which requires gaining some musical skills first) I think I would now be seriously tempted to call it Suburban Peafowl Trio.  What an awesome band name…

Les chiens de Français Fest de Akaroa

Today I went to the biannual French Fest in Akaroa, a gorgeous seaside village with a strong French history.  It was a stunning sunny day and the place was packed with people wearing stripy blue shirts, red berets, and drawn on black curly mustaches.

There were also lots and lots of dogs!  I saw quite a few poodles, and other fluffy white dogs, as well as Alsatians, French bulldogs, and papillions.

There was also a parade, with at least one doggy getting a great view from the basket of a bike in the parade.

Elusive Kitty

We often walk down the street where this kitty lives, during the day we never see it, at night it’s pretty much always there.  At night when my iPhone camera can’t keep up.  Result blurry cat photos, lots of.  Until today, it was late afternoon to early evening, and smoochy cat was there and beautifully backlit.  So here are twenty million photos of the tail-less kitty.

    

   
    

 

Door-to-door Ducks

Today two ducks found their way into the business development where I work.  One of my co-workers alerted me to their presence just outside our office.  So of course I grabbed my camera phone and went outside to see!  And there they were, just outside the door, no idea why, except maybe they are going door to door trying to sell some quack-pot idea (sorry – best pun I could think of right now).  I fed them a little bit of my lunch and they seemed moderately happy to model for me after that.  

Birds of a different feather

After work tonight we took a walk in the gardens of Mona Vale.  Near the homestead there is a gorgeous old bridge that looks like it goes to the private homes on the other side of the Avon.  However looking at it closer tonight I realised that there was a public bench and a path leading on from the opposite end of the bridge, so of course we went across to explore.  It turned out that the path was quite short, and that mostly the bridge was just to access the private homes.  But I did discover three ducks with beautiful plumage huddled behind a tall wire fence.

  
Such gorgeous iridescent green feathers around their head, and lovely black feathers on the rest of their bodies.  I don’t think I’ve ever noticed these ducks at Mona Vale before.  So I was definitely glad we took a detour across the river, even though the path didn’t really go anywhere, we still managed to see something new and interesting. 

  
Oh and there were also little ducklings at Mona Vale.  So if you needed a reason to get out for a walk… 

It’s a dog’s life

It was a beautiful warm sunny day in Christchurch today and some friends and I took a walk along the Heathcote River.  If you’re a dog spotter then it’s definitely the place to come.

There were oodles of dogs out today.  

Some having a respectable walk with their owners.

And others having a really good frolic.

Some were playing with sticks… Although perhaps a trifle ambitious in some cases.

Many of the dogs took a swim in the river to cool off.

And one dog was lucky enough to have it’s human paddle them up and down the river.

Greenfinch and Pukeko

My bird feeders are all back in action now including my cute pukeko under an umbrella one.  I have a wild bird seed mix, which mostly seems to be attracting sparrows and greenfinches.  There is a greenfinch eating some outside my window right now as I type.

These birds are really common in this area, and can often be seen in massive flocks at nearby parks.  So far I have found them to be quite skittery, unlike other types of finches I have encountered which seem to completely ignore humans, these finches fly off if I get within several meters of them no matter how slowly and quietly I approach.

Stealthly Cuddle Attack

This friendly black cat threw itself at my partner yesterday while he was waiting to meet up with me on Mona Vale Ave.

He didn’t see it until suddenly something bashed against his legs!

 
I arrived soon after and it took to me straight away, ever so happy to get cuddles from anyone it seems.

  
In fact we could have come home with a new cat, as the second the car door was open, it dashed inside….  However it was promptly pushed out again.  

  
There is a preschool nearby and lots of people walk in that area so I’m guessing it gets a lot of attention, but it must never be enough!