Kiwi alarm clock - take 2

My tokoeka (Apteryx australis) alarm clock was very civilised this week with a 6.31am call on Wednesday. The male kiwi was right outside the house and, by the time he had got through 29 whistles, was sounding a bit breathless. When he stopped calling I turned the light off and peeked through the dining area window and, in the moonlight, saw him walking up the drive less than 5m away. What a magic way to start the day off!

Our island summer finished on a high note with a sunny and calm 28°C; overnight we got a gentle rain which carried on through the morning - it was lovely walking down to work feeling the rain on my face and you could almost see the bush smiling whilst lapping up the moisture. The mild temperatures and the rain are ideal for fungi so I'll have to look out for them on my track trimming tomorrow.

Looking closely at my environment brings huge rewards. I found a wee red Hygrocybe growing amongst the grass and dandelions on Tuesday - how's this for perfection?



It only lasted like this for a day so I was lucky to see it; the next day it was dry and brown. Yesterday I found a whole colony of chocolate-brown slime mould. Slime moulds aren't fungi - according to Geoff Ridley's 'Mushrooms and other fungi of New Zealand', they 'live in soil, litter and bark as single-celled organisms that eat bacteria. When conditions are suitable they swarm together and travel as a plasmodium (a slimy mass), and move to a suitable position where they change form and become fruit-bodies.' I think this is another Stemonita fusca - but I could be wrong!!

 

 

Close-up of some of the fruiting-body

NatureWatch is doing a great job at identifying all my finds and I'm learning the difference between lichens, mosses and liverworts - and this chappie, a Hybolasius crista!

I managed to grab two quick photos and then it flew away

Our beautiful island got its hooks into another one of our visitors - Wyn sent this poem back after she left and it's now pinned up on the noticeboard.

Stewart Island
I'm missing Stewart Island yet I only left today
Every sunrise I have seen that heralded the day
was different all, in colour and moving shape and form,
while birds at work already, looked determined, not forlorn.

Sometimes a bank of heavy cloud would hold a curtain up
as if the Island whispered, 'Oh no, don't wake me up!'
The mauve and pinks, the blues and greys left every flower to shame
For they could never, ever change; their colours stayed the same.

Now God Who made this Island knew that every single soul
would need to see the beauty that could form inside his own.
A quick impatient glance around would never give them peace
you need to breathe the Island air and breathe in God's own Peace.

So if you feel the end is near and you're not long for this earth
Perhaps you should do what I did and find this peace on earth
Come breathe the purest air I know, see skies that speak of heaven
Tell the Islanders that Wyn sent you, it is where I found my heaven.