All things considered, spring isn’t such a bad time to be stuck at home. The neighbourhood tūī are in full voice and scrapping over the flowering banksia and kōwhai. The kererū show up at least once a day to rip into the jasmine. There are riroriro (Grey warblers) singing their little guts out somewhere – I’ve yet to see them or catch a photo! And the ruru call every night, but have eluded my attempts at photographing them as well…

I’ve been doing eBird lists every now and then and averaging about nine species each time, which isn’t too bad for suburbia. We’re lucky to be surrounded by green and have a nice native bush reserve nearby. So while lockdown sucks and has messed up my research (yet again), I can’t complain. I’m looking forward to Aotearoa knocking out Covid, getting vaccinated, and getting out into the field later in the year. In the meanwhile, I’ll enjoy spending time with my home birds.