Welcome to the Midnight Collective Broadsheet 145
Actively
supporting NZ’s endangered wetland birds
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| Mr Joyce's dark legacy? M2PP bridge over the Wharemauku frames the gash in the Tararuas over looking Kapiti from where fill was quarried for the expressway. |
If
you aren’t local, then you probably don’t know that we are in the middle of an
election campaign. What is so unexpected is that there appears to be a radical
electoral swing underway, bringing us back from laissez-faireism. It is way to
early to call, though one indicator may be the lack of Government media blowhard
stories on this expressway, compared with the last election, which pumped
out around 5 in the last two weeks before voting.
The
only stories coming out on the Expressway highlight tarmac break up and repair, and
information around this is thin on the ground; so we took another ride down to
see what we would find.
Well,
the cones are out (above), so repair work is underway, yet most of this still
seems to be around assessment of how serious and widespread the problem is and it
certainly has accelerated since our last foray on June 7. We saw new damage on
the lanes going north from Kapiti Rd and much bigger holes in the lanes going
the other way…
Once
again it is dangerous to dawdle along this highway so these shots were taken on
the fly, and don’t give a clear idea of just how corrugated these areas are
becoming. The inside track is the most cut up, though the outside is also
beginning to deteriorate. The suspicion is that this is coming from trucks
slowing and accelerating into and out of the Kapiti off-ramp.
One thing
we will be able to rely on is that no major work will be started before the
election, though if the tide continues to swarm this woman’s way…
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| Jacinda Ardern - The next PM of NZ? |
Then
we might get access to the full story after that…So watch this space!
But
we are running a conservation blog and so here are some birds to prove the
fact.
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| Skylark - early spring |
This
is an English immigrant, a skylark, and there are four birds down at the Wharemauku, though they
don’t seem yet to have sorted out who they are going to pair up with.
One
of our native birds on the increase is the tui and we’ve had up to four in our
kowhai trees this year. They are very fierce and love a good fracas, but this
one is sitting in a budding Japanese cherry, beside a flowering kowhai, singing
for dear life.
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| Tui |
We can't know why, but possibly she was calling others to the
tree that she then dived into. They extend their feathery tongues down into the
flowers syrup, and then tear the flowers to pieces; then come back, two or three times a day, careering round the tree
like children on a sugar high.
And
finally, fantail-piwakawaka. They are too lively to photograph, but can you spot the
uncooperative little blighter in this one?
Track
we were listening to today… Well, has to be the Jacinda Anthem put out by Tony Bellus in April 1959 -Robbin’ the Cradle
They say I'm robbin the cradle, little darlin
Because I've fallen in love with you
They say I'm robbin the cradle, little darlin
Is it strange for true love to be so young
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