Wild, wild life

No New Zealander leaves the country for any length of time without knowing they'll N miss their soaps.

- Jane Clifton

This is not to refer to Shortland Street, which seems to screen the world over anyway, or any of the television serials, but the outside goings-on of our wildlife.

Flocks of tui are always broadcasting one another's business - comprehensively, given they've got two voice boxes each - in concert with branch-bending kererū, paranoid tauhou (waxeyes) determined to remain mysterious and - if you go bush and are very lucky the lolloping escort services of fantails.

On the other side of the world, the consolation for missing all this is that the live soap opera goes on all night. Sure, ruru can hoot up a storm, but only in bright moonlight can you actually see one.