On the garage roof

Drove back to Auckland today; after going to the first few presentations this morning, I decided my concentration was waning and we left with plenty of time to be back in Auckland to collect Young L from school. We stopped for lunch at Ngatea on the Hauraki plains, about 20 km from Paeroa where I was born. The Piako River was high, partly because it is a tidal river and the tide was coming in. I took a photo of a clump of weed floating upriver, and caught a couple of swallows in the frame; that's my extra for today.

We took Young L and Mr H (picking him up from his school) to Swanson and their mother, who had been home sick today. Two Barbary Doves visited while were there, flying into a tree and then onto the roof of her garage. This bird has been domesticated for hundreds of years, and has not been able to get firmly established in New Zealand except in aviaries. Those seen in the wild (like this one and its partner) are feral, and the information I read suggests that they do not survive long in the wild.

This is my first sighting of the Barbary Dove.