Pukeko Watch

One of the perks of the morning stroll to the playground every morning is observing the antics of the local pukeko. They seem to enjoy poking around in grass near the park and often their foraging explorations lead them into the front yards of nearby houses. Today a group of five pukeko appeared to have made themselves at home in the garden of one house. One of them was on top of the patio table, bobbing around like an exuberantly intoxicated party-goer who doesn’t realise the music has stopped playing. However, two of the birds were investigating the glass ranch slider door as though they were trying to figure out how to open it. Now if it had been a kea, I would have been worried. They’d probably break in, dismantle just about everything, scratch out some rude graffiti with their beaks and then flee the scene with the television. A keruru, from what I’ve seen of them, would just raid the fruit bowl, or possibly the liquor cabinet. However, pukeko, as we all now know from the Genesis ad, are environmentally conscientious birds and as such have nobler reasons for entering your home. It does make me want a tame pukeko regularly checking up on my home. I’d feel considerably happier if every time I left the house only to be struck with the unsettling worry that I might have forgotten to turn some appliance off, I could rest assured that the pukeko would take care of it. Maybe I should get a pukeko-sized cat-flap and start trying to lure them into my backyard…