Welcome swallows/warou - heralds of spring and adobe nest builders
Welcome swallows/warou (Hirundo neoxena) are New Zealand's newest native bird - having arrived here from Australia under their own steam in enough numbers to breed sometime in the 1950s (although there are records of them here as far back as the 1920s). They can be found in many places throughout the Hutt around coastal areas and along our waterways. You can see them hawking for insects over the Hutt River in the early evening between the Ava Railbridge and the Ewen Bridge. They are brilliant architects, building adobe-style pudding-bowl-sized nests often on the sheltered and shaded sides of human buildings. Talk about adaptation. I watched a pair patiently scooping up beakfuls of mud, disappearing, and returning moments later for another beakful. It must take them hundreds of beakfuls of mud to get the nest finished – which is lined with comfy grass and feathers once the mud shell is complete. I've yet to get a good photo of a swallow in flight, but here are two briefly standing still. The second shows one of a pair scooping mud for a nest a few weeks ago.
What's your favourite recipe for courgettes?
Kia ora neighbours. If you've got a family recipe for courgettes, we'd love to see it and maybe publish it in our magazine. Send your recipe to mailbox@nzgardener.co.nz, and if we use it in the mag, you will receive a free copy of our January 2025 issue.
scumbags
There are some really awful people around at the moment. This is what happened on Sunday.
We live in Hinemoa Street opposite the Waiwhetu Stream. At around 3.40 in the afternoon I was looking out my window and saw a car pull up and start to feed the geese and ducks out the window. Then The passenger an asian man jumped out and threw himself onto a goose. he picked it up and put it the boot of the car.
I immediately ran over and stood in front of his car to stop him moving I also called my husband to help. A lovely man was riding his bike and saw it and stopped to help me. The driver tried to drive into me but I didnt move. He tried telling us it was his pet. These are wild geese.
They had a cage in the boot and some wire all ready to catch the poor bird like they have done it before. My husband took the bird from the car and released it. I then moved out of the way and after lots of abuse from the driver they drove off threatening to come back and get more.
No one should be allowed to take these beautiful birds and certainly not like this. they are all starting to have wee babies at the moment the whole thing was so upsetting to me. Another neighbour further down the road also saw it all happen.
Please keep a look out for this car and if you see them by the stream go over and watch them lets all stop this happening.
It’s Riddle Time – You Might Need an Extra Cup of Coffee!
Nobody has ever walked this way. Which way is it?
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