Comments on: Forget-me-not

By: Sam O'Leary

Sam O'Leary — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 23:04:55 +0000

haha and after a read, i have to say, its a great read. Ahh wells and your wacky beak cheers Graeme

Sam.

By: Sam O'Leary

Sam O'Leary — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 23:01:45 +0000

Stunning photograph, lovely little birds.

Cheers
Sam.

By: Ruthy Guy

Ruthy Guy — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 23:29:20 +0000

Oh , this is my absolute favourite bird ever!
I love to hear its song as I run in the port hills, I often stop to try and see one, but they are secretive little birds aren’t they?
I just love the beauty of their song and their obvious happiness in life. Hearing them makes me happy.
I look forward to reading/hearing more .
Thank you Graeme for your specialist interest.
Ruthy

By: Graeme Hill

Graeme Hill — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 05:15:56 +0000

Well said Darryl. GB wants to play It’s In The Bag. 2 billion dollars, the money or the Conservation estate??
Ohh.. THE MONEY!
Warblerites… please pass the voting link to all you can. We’ve overhauled the Harrier Hawk as of a few votes ago. Thank goodness. The Harrier is not a particularly New Zealand bird. The Grey Warbelr is!
Bless all.

Graeme

By: Darryl Ware

Darryl Ware — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 22:59:37 +0000

This little ball of fluff is the sound of my childhood, a warm summer sound that smells of home, of lying on my back in the long grass of the haypaddock on a sunny day, listening to that happy noise. Any time I hear it now, it rockets me back to being ten years old and owning the whole world.

When I’m in the bush, in the nearby national park, the only thing that diverts me from thinking about how much Gerry Brownlee’s body might be worth for its mineral content (just ’stocktaking’ you understand), is the irrepressible trill of riroriro.

Then I think maybe I should add 86% to the value of Gerry’s carcase (on account of its proportions) and then subtract some for absence of heart and questionable health of liver. But, as I say, like Gerry, that’s just ’stocktaking’.

Gram for gram, I’d still say the grey warbler is worth more than Gerry Brownlee any day, any way you compute it. I have (of course) no real way of knowing, because I spent more of my childhood listening to the grey warbler than I did trying to learn maths.

And it is still that way. Some things in life are a constant. And when Gerry Brownlee’s excavators are silent, the grey warbler will come back, from that long-ago summer, and his song will be one of eternal triumph - an “up yours” to GB and all his Evil Clique.

Thank you. I feel better now.

By: Graeme Hill

Graeme Hill — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 03:19:28 +0000

Emma and Anne. Thank you so much for your support and kind words. I don’t think there is another New Zealand bird with such a gap between how frequently they occur, and how infrequently they are seen, but they are there to be seen if one cares to look. Spread the Warbler word and feel free to pass on the song (after all it’s my recording from the back yaerd) and whatever else.

By: Emma G

Emma G — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 20:35:26 +0000

What lovely poetic musings on the warbler! I had never seen one until I read your blog yesterday then went out for a walk through a little nature reserve… and sure enough a wee warbler was zipping around in pursuit of (or being pursued?) by a waxeye. I could tell it was a warbler having listed to the birdsong posted here. Oh they are little darlings aren’t they?!

By: Anne

Anne — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 03:10:29 +0000

I never realised they were so small. I thought that claim-to-fame went to Rifleman. My apologies to grey warbler.
So, Rifleman is not alone in being able to claim cuteness through small size?!! Well, we all have some ground to make up in the next couple of weeks to right that incorrect assumption …