Late spring

Well the trip didn't eventuate due to sickness in the household. TT's dad is near the end of his innings so TT was looking forward to some solitude, but the never-ending bug in our household just keeps taking its toll. JB Fan Club still up every hour on the hour coughing all night; I'll not miss this bug when it passes. TT and me are going to hit the harbour buoys for kingis tomorrow, so better make sure the gear is all ready.

Anyway, Shanks made a video of our little charges, this morning he let them out on the grass in the pen extension: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0q9eLLHerE
Our little charges are looking great!

Shane from Taupo took this photo the other day on a back country stream:

So the geese are getting around as well. Late spring and bird life is looking good. The looming problem appears to be drought, already Northland is in a perilous state. The daily clouds are just rolling over and not dumping, yet dada told me that the tanks at our duck hut are full, something like 200+ lites of water have been collected. Good news for the swamp, because at my place we'd have been lucky to get any rain in the past 3 weeks - significant rain, that is. So we're facing another Waikato drought summer. How long can the central Waikato duck shooters weather this before they start to give the game away? Its almost predictable now that their ponds are dry from Jan - mid June. License sales are actually up year on year which is some good news, so maybe just maybe folks will hang in there. As for the ducks, they may struggle for food all too soon.