Early Summer

Most of the snow has gone from the mountains now. After the unusually wet spring the countryside is very green. Farmers have been making hay several weeks earlier than usual.

The bird is an Australasian harrier hawk, Circus approximans, which is also found in New Guinea and many islands of the South Pacific. It was about 50 metres from me and a long way from the mountains.

I ventured out for the first time in over a week. It was very hot. At one of the places I stopped to take photos there were huge power poles carrying six cables. The wind made the wires hum like a male voice choir, and up above a skylark was singing. Magic.