Making Friends with Tuis
OR the last few week I’ve been trying to make friends with some tuis that have taken up their home in our village. I’m having quite a lot of fun out of it too. In front of our cottage is one of the largest manuka trees that I’ve seen, and it is here that the tuis have made their day-time headquarters. It is only a matter of twenty yards from our veranda. From here I take up my position and I stop, I
look and I listen. This requires a deal of patience, but it is well worth while. I start with a rather poor imitation of a warble and often as not it is answered and gradually the tuis will come into view and perch themselves on the branches of the manuka. I then leave my "look out" and ever so slowly get as close as I can to the tree, keeping up our
two-way conversation all the time. The birds are getting more inquisitive every week and don’t fly away now when I walk slowly towards them. So far I’ve got them down to within six feet of me. Of course my greatest ambition is to get them to come down and have their honey water out of a small cup held in my hand. You see they get to know me as one who sees to their daily ration being placed in the tree for them. This [ place a little lower each day and I’m living in high hopes of realising my ambition, providing nothing comes to interfere with the even tenor of their ways.-(" Just Homes," by Major F. H. Lampen, 2YA, December 26.)
Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19410110.2.11.2
Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka
New Zealand Listener, Volume 4, Issue 81, 10 January 1941, Page 5
Word count
Tapeke kupu
282Making Friends with Tuis New Zealand Listener, Volume 4, Issue 81, 10 January 1941, Page 5
Using this item
Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi
Material in this publication is protected by copyright.
Are Media Limited has granted permission to the National Library of New Zealand Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa to develop and maintain this content online. You can search, browse, print and download for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from Are Media Limited for any other use.
Copyright in the work University Entrance by Janet Frame (credited as J.F., 22 March 1946, page 18), is owned by the Janet Frame Literary Trust. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this article and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the New Zealand Listener. You can search, browse, and print this article for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from the Janet Frame Literary Trust for any other use.
Copyright in the Denis Glover serial Hot Water Sailor published in 1959 is owned by Pia Glover. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this serial and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the Listener. You can search, browse, and print this serial for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from Pia Glover for any other use.
Log in