Red Eye

This is our resident adult male bellbird. It’s a crap shot, but he caught me with my Powershot set up for macro. I did some quick adjustments, but I couldn’t see him through the camera and had to aim in his direction as he flitted about the flax flowers, and hope for the best. While wishing I had my DSLR instead I’m still thrilled to have got a shot of him at all. He comes and goes invisibly and only his magnificent bell-like song betrays his presence.

He has a large territory which he patrols several times a day. I hear him going in a wide circle, covering about a kilometre. His song is loud. Up really close it can be painful.

We had two earthquakes today! One was very faint at 2.9 magnitude, but the second was 3.8 and the epicentre was close by. It was a sharp jolt, with the house creeking and things inside rattling.

Yesterday’s rain amounted to a surprising 25mm. More than a month’s worth in one day. Fortunately my garden is on a terrace and rain runs off without flooding.