March 2019

March 2019

 The month has been dominated by the senseless shooting in Christchurch. It shows what damage can be done by one idiot in the community...it galls particularly he was not from New Zealand. Jacinda Ardern won international praise for her genuine handling of the situation BUT her Government and those of the last 30 years have been slack with gun laws and innocents paid the price. Nobody in civilian life needs an automatic or semi-automatic rifle. 

I don't think the perpetrator thought too much about the aftermath...50 years on your own in a small concrete room with the threat of other inmates performing their own versions of plastic surgery!!!!!!

Live in a Moslem country and you soon learn tolerance. I thought this cartoon summed up the mood.

The weather through March has remained mostly hot and humid. There are occasional thunderstorms but watering the garden is still the order of the day.

The dry weather has bought out the flowers in the back yard with splashes of red all around.

Since before Chinese New Year the house viewing had dried up...there was nothing in a month but since then it has moved forward with three viewings this week. One woman was keen and penciled in a repeat visit but that lapsed. Another male viewed the house by himself....he seemed to stare intently at certain things like he was an expert on ceiling painting. Surprisingly the agent said a day later he was interested. He finally put in a ridiculously low offer....which was kicked rapidly into touch. I said to Helen at the time...no female involved...be suspicious. The agent concerned asked us to consider the offer given a soft market....when he was told not to be ridiculous he could have won the Tour de France pedaling backwards.

I try to shoot two to three times a week and going to two main places....Air Itam where the owl attacked the lizard or Penanti where the bee-eaters nest. The latter was half bulldozed at the end of last year and I thought I had lost it.

At Air Hitam the Kingfishers still probe a nesting site, the Stork-billed Kingfisher waits for the fish farm proprietors to go indoors and helps himself to lunch, the Prinia sings happily, the female owl was back in the nest after the lizard attack. The morning sun shines directly in to nest cavity and she wisely blocks-off the sun with her wing. If she re-laid eggs the chicks should be hatching soon. She was out of the nest last week but returned later.

On the same tree a pair of Brahminy kites are building a nest and one was dismantling a rat one day above the owl nest cavity.

There are also a handful of Dusky-leaf monkeys there, but they are always difficult to get clear of the trees and they are quite shy......except for this centrefold who posed on the aerial walkway in the early morning sun.

It had been quiet at Penanti, especially as the kingfisher pair seemed to have unfortunately gone elsewhere. I was waiting to see if the Blue-throated Bee-eaters arrived to nest...which has been in early March in past years. Right on cue they arrived. When I first went to the location there were 80 -120 of them...now perhaps 20 only.....but they are active if you can get them in the right location. They have been hunting, mating, fighting, preening and digging. They are such sleek and beautiful birds but if they get angry...they get very aggressive.

One morning I also went to check on the Chestnut-headed Bee-eaters nesting at the temple complex. The place was as lively as ever, and these little guys are a joy to watch. It is difficult to photograph them though with man-made items in the picture.

I did get a shot of a less common bird in a nearby tree...a Black-headed Bulbul. I like some bird names...the head is dark blue. There is a plain-throated sunbird with this mundane name. The plain-throated refers to a patch of feathers in the throat region that is not a brilliant iridescence like the rest of the neck and head.

On the market front I have sold two images via the German Bird Image agency. The hummingbird is sold for the third time.

I also had a first in my international exhibitions....getting an acceptance with a shot from my point and shoot camera. Stand up little puke and thanks to sister Lynette for the summons at the time.

I have also had an image shortlisted in the  ANZANG competition....the antipodean equivalent of the BBC.

Back at home I get bossed around by the little furry one. She comes in and gives me the evil eye to take her to the beach. She gets very excited and is very grateful.....more-so than most humans you help Several fishermen call out to her and she is making a number of friends with the workers going out to the island under construction. Some sunrises are also good to witness.

The marina silts up quite badly and at the present time they have a contraption disturbing the silt with a big corkscrew and sucking the silt out to sea.

In the quiz this year the team has not been out of the placings but only three wins to date. Sometimes it is frustrating because a right answer is switched for an incorrect one at the last moment.

Looking forward to the next month. Nikki arrives for a few days in April and she and Helen have a culinary journey planned. I will be running a course at Fraser’s Hill for most of that time ....the time and dates were out of my hands.