Autumn in the Marlborough Vineyards

Almost the whole Wairau Plains of Marlborough are covered in, from the blue mountains to the golden mountains on the other side Grape vines, in Autumn when the leaves all turn golden or red it is very beautiful. It is especially beautiful when flying in or out of the district. I enjoy the vista as I drive around in the taxi and I take a few photos, but not many because the whole plain is so flat there are few vantage points where you can get a great veiw of them. The grapes have all been harvested now and are being turned slowly in great wine.

Thats My World for this week, do check out all the other wonderful postings from around the world.

Bird Aviary adventures

Here is another of my adventures;
On Monday morning I fed all the birds in my Aviary, there was two female canaries sitting on eggs, four big chicks that had just left the nest and were still being fed by their parent birds, plus about 7 other males and a female canary, also some native birds, it was a good aviary all pretty with one yellow bird and all the rest various colours of orange.
During the afternoon we looked out the glass doors in the dining room and saw 7 of our Canaries sitting on the grass outside the bird aviary, having a cute wee picnic on the grass! They looked so happy and relaxed and so in the wrong place.
The little devils had just wandered out through a tiny crack in both the doors. The doors are warped after so long being weathered by wind and rain and sun, but it is only a small crack, how all of them did the, 'follow the leader' thing I will never know, the doors were all firmly shut, that's the only way they could of got out. Leaving behind 2 females on eggs and 4 fully fledged but still not able to feed themselves, chicks. These will die soon without the males to feed them, I had hoped the females might but they are not their chicks and they won't leave their eggs, but they won't hatch either as the female is usually fed by the male while on the 'sit'. All too much, I can't believe I now have no male canaries, we have been trying to buy one but no none of the breeders will sell any presently cause theirs are all mated and nesting too.
So I was a rather upset, desolated really. Oh ofcause those happy picnicking birds eventually flew up into the strong winds they went up up and away, we found one 3 doors down the road up in a tree but not catchable really. We sent in the cats but they never even saw one I don't think. Useless cats. Very cold last night too, not actually freezing, most likely they didn't survive the night, but if so they didn't come back.
So next morning we went into town and bought an extremely expensive bird from the Pet shop, the assistant would not guarantee that is was a male, but they were 'fairly sure' it was. Soon as I got it home it started making female noises and I knew it was not a male. I rang my daughter in Nelson and told her of the loss of most all of my birds and she rang the Nelson Pet shop and found a lady with two male canaries extra who lived in Wakefield, a small rather remote village in the mountain region inland from Nelson and Blenheim. I rang, Sheryl, and she said yes I could have these two birds for free if I just come over and get them, a 200km each way trip, I said yes immediately we would be there by lunchtime! And we were, collected the two birds and raced back home.
Actually we didn't race anywhere I demanded the car be stopped frequently so I could take lots of photos of the trip; one day you will see our day trip to Wakefield on Fotki I hope or Webshots, ( I don't seem to be able to post photos on here at the moment, sometimes I can so I will keep trying) and you will see exactly what NZ backcountry mountainous inland area is like. I have just managed to upload a photo, it is not the one I wanted, this shows vineyards in the Wairau Valley on the way to Wakefield.
We also had to stop on the drive over as there was tree felling happening in a forestry area, so we quickly gathered up some of the broken branches and pine cones, packed them into the boot of the car. So we have quite a lot of extra firewood too towards next winter.
Also while waiting for our Pizza to be prepared and cooked at Wakefield, for lunch, I played the poker machines and won $30 so that meant even our petrol money was covered. Basically the trip would not have cost us anything! Amazing.
The birds are nicely settled in my aviary now singing loudly, and the little chicks must be being fed because they are still alive 3 days after the parents flew away.
Now I have three females and two male canaries, the new males are both a beautiful golden yellow colour, the one I paid so dearly for is an ugly dull brown with vague orangey tints! Plus some wild birds I have rescued from the cats over the years.
I am so much happier now, knowing I did everything possable to save the lives of my chicks, they may still die, but thats life I guess.
PS; In fact all four chicks did die five days after the parent birds left home.