This morning, for the third time ever, I witnessed condensation on a bird's breath. . . Oh my, talk about beautiful. The tuis have been especially precocious and companionable this year. . . and voluble - clackity-clack clack. I found myself rustling back through my blog archives to see what date it was the last time I was lucky enough to see this and blow me down if it wasn't 1 April 2010. A year to the day; my delight in no way diluted!
Image of adult & juvenile Tui - Buller's A History of Birds of New Zealand, 1888
Here are the few lines I posted about 'bird breath' last year . . .
"I was topping up the birds' coconut chalice this morning when the tuis came down to the nearest low branch to watch what I was doing (they're incurably inquisitive) and to offer me twangy encouragements.
And then I saw it - a tiny, airborne estuary; a vapour drawing; the tuis' song momentarily visible in air. I could almost reach out and touch the clacks and trills, the rattling flourishes and chest-filling tributaries.
It was not unlike watching steam escape from a teapot's spout; birdsong on the boil, a micro-storm brewing in the fork of the old macrocarpa."
