exlibrarykrisI can hear a tūī! !!!
I never thought I would hear one in the middle of the city.
Ko Simon toku ingoa 
@exlibrarykris I’ve grown up hearing them in Lower Hutt my whole life… which city are you surprised to hear one in?
biddy_sue 🏳️🌈@SimonCHulse @exlibrarykris It is so variable across the country - we had them as a very occasional visitor in Dunedin, but in Christchurch city there are none. Zero. Here in Lower Hutt I have marauding bands of 30-40 at a time swooping through and partying in my kowhai trees.
@biddy_sue @exlibrarykris they do love trees with flowers in spring.
@biddy_sue @exlibrarykris I lived in CHC for three years and don’t remember noticing their absence. I guess no one ever pointed it out to me.
@SimonCHulse @exlibrarykris agreed - it was when someone mentioned it and the work being done wo create tree corridors to lure them back, that I noticed too.
The ones here love the camellias. That has saved some of the camellias as I was intending to replace them (I dislike their old-lady-boring and dense nature). I have over 30, so the tui-favoured open-flowered ones will be staying now!
@biddy_sue @exlibrarykris I just planted a new kōwhai in my garden in the hopes of luring more in the future. Unfortunately they take a long time to get big enough, and whoever sold the land we live on last to my parents (our landlords) basically did a clean sweep of the garden and replaced whatever was there with a grass monoculture.
With parental permission we’ve been filling the empty grass with natives and food plants to make it more enjoyable.
Bonus: We even discovered yesterday some wild lilies (canna) growing behind our shed that survived the previous owner (because they weren’t visible from the deck) are edible. The stems when cooked taste like green beans.
My particular location has sparse food options for tūī compared to the surrounding area. I've been here two or three years and this is the first time I've heard one.
Or it could just be that I haven't been up early enough to hear them... 🤔 🤣
@exlibrarykris @biddy_sue plant some kōwhai or cherry or something to encourage them to stay :)
@SimonCHulse where? on the balcony of the apartment? @biddy_sue
@exlibrarykris @biddy_sue ah, that’s problematic ;) maybe you could get a couple of potted dwarf trees if said balcony is big enough?
@SimonCHulse tbh, I'm a bit nervous about the wind. It's mostly on the other side but when it whips round it's real strong! I made the mistake of putting a plant out on the balcony on a beautiful still sunny morning and got home in the afternoon to find it had been ravaged by the wind and was looking very sad 😭
@exlibrarykris kōwhai are very weather resistant and surprisingly strong. They’re natively marsh/wetland plants after all.
@exlibrarykris @biddy_sue this is our back garden, in suburban Lower Hutt, for reference (2/3rds of the land that came with our house). All the trees and plants you see other than the grass, horrible hedging, jasmine and climbing fig were planted by us. I just got the raised beds free from my old work this year.
…And there’s a lot more round the front we’ve added too.
@exlibrarykris @biddy_sue here’s our newly planted pear with the new kōwhai in the background (barely visible cause it’s so thin but zoom in on the metal bucket and it’s in front of that). Also our rabbit Jasper resting in his cage. #gardening #BunsOfMastodon
