Reluctant Hitchhikers- Lake Brunner

Real-time

Keen, mad, or both?

David set out yesterday morning in an annoying mizzle which hung around for most of the day. After 4 or so hours he came home happy but empty-handed.

I told him he should have stayed home and saved the fuel; this guy was fishing off the lakeside just behind the van. He caught two trout within 20 minutes.

Heavy grey clouds greeted us this morning, but at least it was dry. New neighbours in their caravan arrived early last evening. After a bit of memory jogging back and forward between David & Stuart, they worked out that we'd been parked next to each other once before, at Lake Rotoiti in the Nelson Lakes. 

Of course if we'd waited until this morning before the guessing game it would have all fallen into place; Stuart has an unmistakable inflatable canoe, he'd had problems with the motor at Rotoiti and David had helped him out fixing it.

With visions of those trout close to shore, David threw out his line a few times...

...before he got bored with that, kicked the outboard into gear and roared off into the wild bl...grey yonder!

He headed off to his favourite part of the lake, a large drowned kaihikatea forest and swampland across the other side of Iveagh Bay and slowly trolled off around the point.

Sometime during the next 5 hours, I got a call from David to say he'd been on a mercy mission for the last hour. I wonder if you can guess what's under the cloth? (The following photos are courtesy of David's cellphone)

The large bundle of fluff lying in an undignified manner on the floor of the boat is a signet (baby black swan)- it flipped itself over just before David took the photo. Apparently a speed boat roared around the point just as a family of swans was swimming across the lake. Swans and signets went flying (the adults literally) in all directions as the boat sped through the middle of them. 

Other than cursing the idiots, David didn't think any more of it until he was trolling further out back along the same route 20 minutes later and found one lonely signet cheeping loudly and swimming for its life in the wrong direction. There was nothing for it but to scoop it up in the net (after a short, fast chase), and return it to the family now hiding in the drowned forest. It took him another half hour to locate the family before he could release the signet, who took off at a fast pace towards its siblings happy to be reunited at last. More brownie points for David!

But what about the trout, you ask. Well, two were caught and both released- one unintentionally, it jumped out of the net! And this one was foul hooked in its dorsal fin so David felt bad for it because it wasn't a fair fight. 

It's probably just as well he didn't bring any home, a cheeky weka had done a little bit of his own landscaping, scattering the bag of smoker wood chips over the bark garden beside us when David wasn't looking the other night!

Such is life on the road...

Visiting My Favourite Ducks

While I was out walking yesterday I took the opportunity of visiting my favourite pair of ducks which live on a pond not too far from where we're parked at my parent's house.

This pair of Plumed Whistling Ducks are very rare visitors to New Zealand (only 2 or 3 sightings have ever been recorded) and they have made a suburban pond their home for the last four years.

I've visited them each time we've been in Napier; there were three ducks until a year or so ago when, sadly, one disappeared. These two seem to be doing very well and are a lot more confiding then they have been in the past. They live on a very busy pond with a lot of people passing by so they're obviously getting used to all the activity. Although they are still fairly shy and unless you know where to look or stop for awhile, most people passing wouldn't know of their existence. 

It is not known where they have come from but it is thought they are either storm blown vagrants or perhaps illegally imported eggs that have hatched and then been dumped at the pond. Their natural habitat is in tropical northern Australia & Indonesia so they are a very long way from home. 

Of course I couldn't miss the chance of shooting(with my camera) some of the other waterfowl at the pond, especially with all the spring babies about.

A family of Black Swan signets resting beside the path....

With Mum and Dad quick to move close to them when I stopped for a chat.

Another family of teenagers resting under the trees....

While Mum keeps a watchful eye on them from her sunny spot nearby.

Another juvenile Black Swan sits down on the job, grazing as far as its neck can stretch in a wide arc around it's front.

On the other side of the pond a newly hatched Mallard family are out for a quick and wary walk. 

They head for the safety of the water as soon as I approach. Many dangers lurk at the ponds; dogs on the loose, wandering cats from the nearby houses, aggressive geese & swans, shags, eels, rats, pukeko, other male ducks, even other larger ducklings. It's a wonder any babies survive.

Another mother shepherds her ducklings quickly across the grass between ponds.  With their longer bills, these look like they're a NZ Shoveler hybrid.

As I'm about to cross the road and head home, I spot a wayward family of swans dwadling across the usually busy main road. Thankfully it's a public holiday so the traffic isn't too heavy this morning.

And lucky the ambulance wasn't on a call out. Talk about take their time, they even stopped for a break on the median strip. In the end I crossed behind them and shooed them up onto the grass. I hate to think how they made it back later in the day when there would have been many more cars. Someone needs to tell them the grass isn't always greener on the other side!