Transition [L2D13]

Another day of staying home while the country contemplated transition from Level 3 Lockdown in Auckland. Would it be level 2, the same as the rest of the country. Or would they change back to level 1, and we would still be different. Or would it all have got worse again. 

Mid afternoon, we were told that we will come out of level 3 into level 2. But not until midnight on Sunday. Given that most were not expecting any relaxation before Wednesday, the couple of extra days (throw in the weekend for free) doesn't seem to be too much. Sneakily (perhaps) two weeks becomes three.

I'll be pleased to be back doing rather than supervising from afar. It is always easier to persuade when one is face to face than via a mobile telephone on speaker. A lot of effort is spent on convincing staff that someone really is improving enough to come out of intensive care to ordinary levels. One way is to have them spend time in the main wards; what I call transition, and the unit terms internal leave (external leave meaning going outside). 

Transition is moving from somewhere to somewhere else. From teenager to adult. From close observation to less close. And so on. Transitions are often stressful, and they allow the possibility that the move is too soon, and being able to step back.

This little Weweia (dabchick)is in the middle of transition from chick to juvenile. The head colouring and stripes is that of an immature bird. The neck and body is developing adult plumage although downy sides remain. 

When first seen this evening it seemed too small to be on its own and diving for food unsupervised. I was on a bridge over a narrow channel between a small lake and the larger lake at Western Springs. I did not realise until I was moving on, that the poor little weweia wanted to pass under the bridge into the larger lake and didn't want to do that while a red shirted human was above. 

I've also put up as an extra, a photo of an Eastern rosella; an unauthorised immigrant. Or at least its ancestors were. The species is now well established and growing