Friday Feathered Friend
This week we again feature words and a picture from Louise Thomas, who recently ventured to Whanganui.
"The Chief Porter and I have been hunting the Nankeen Night Heron for some time. Randomly calling into Ūpokongaro to the spot “Behind the Door on 4” where others before us have clocked the birds, but, for us, with no success. On Monday we were crest fallen to find the café shut, but thought we would head a little way up Makirikiri Valley Road and drop down into the gulley and scout along the stream that runs into the Whanganui River at Ūpokongaro.
The recent rain had made the stream brown and swollen, water was lapping up onto the shelf with the slight track covered in wandering willy (tradescentia). It was wet, slippery, and muddy and our pants were wet up to the knees just walking through the undergrowth. We were buzzed by fantails and wax-eyes, but saw nothing of the night herons behind the area where the café is.
We pushed a little further upstream, straddling rotten logs which crumbled under our feet and slipping in the thick wet weed. I was about to call time of death on the operation, when the Chief Porter spotted a creamy patch against the dark tangled trees overhanging the stream. It was like magic, three night herons materialised from the gloom, their bodies glowing like warm rich butterscotch.
All three had slicked back black hair, but one roosting in the tree, hunched over like an old man, also had two long thin white feathers waving down his back like crazy antennae. One was actively hunting in the stream, pulling at aquatic plants in the hope they might be tasty, the other perched above and moved along the branches quoorking encouragement about the activities below. Nankeen night heron (Nycticorax caledonicus)."
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Poll: Is it ok to regift something that you have been given?
🎁 Holiday Gift Chat!
Do you ever regift?
What’s your take on asking for a receipt if a gift doesn’t fit?
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78% Yes! It's better to regift what I don't need
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22% No. It's the thought and effort that matters
Advice please, declined house insurance cover
Looking for advice please. Has anyone had any issues reinsuring their homes. Our current house insurance went up by 11.5%, so I decided to get another quote. At the end of a very long phone with Tower, they declined to insurance us, saying our property is a landslide risk. I'm on Wyndham Road in Pinehaven. While the house is up off the street, the house itself and backyard are on the flat part of our section. Now - in the interest of full disclosure - I'm going to have to tell our current insurer too. I've rung the Council to see if they've updated their hazards mapping - and they said the only update has been to the Pinehaven Overflow. Have lived in this house since 2003, and insurance has never been an issue till now. TIA
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