Hauling out the garbage early this morning a screeching drew my attention to the sky in the SE and there they were: Four pirates in jinking flight heading my way.
Luckily a Kite flying across their path drew their attention; they immediately launched an attack, buzzing him and strafing him and really getting ‘in his face.’ He dodged lazily but kept heading due east towards the rising sun. Four sorties they launched, wheeling round, gaining height, then flying straight at him again.
Then they broke off and laughingly resumed their journey NW, up the Palmiet valley.
Aargh! Me hearties, I heard ’em shouting as they flocked off.
Rose-ringed parakeets originally come from India and North Africa, but have spread far and wide. Their spread has various adverse effects on the ecology:
The ring-necked parakeet is one of the most successful invaders. A gregarious Afro-Asian parakeet, it has now been recorded in over 35 countries outside its native extent of occurrence. Despite being one of the most introduced bird species throughout the world, its interactions with native biodiversity and environment are not completely known and rely mainly on anecdotal evidence. Future researchers are therefore required to fill these gaps. Trunk cavities represent the preferred breeding sites of these alien parrots and indicate potential routes of direct and indirect competition with native hole-nesting bird species, such as nuthatches and starlings (woodpeckers, barbets, etc). Interactions with tree squirrels, bats and insects are rarely reported but may be more severe than currently known. Droppings by ring-necked parakeets may alter the herbaceous vegetation under the roost but direct cause–effect relationships for this phenomenon are hard to assess if no data about floral composition before the time of invasion is available. The ring-necked parakeet is a potential reservoir of a plethora of diseases transmittable to humans and wildlife. No data concerning ecosystem recovery after the removal of ring-necked parakeets is available, as eradication and numerical control programs are often hampered by the emotional affiliation which links humans to these bright birds.
The eels in the Palmiet River down the road lead an interesting life. And there’s still lots we don’t know about them. Especially me, so know that this is a story of our eels written by someone who’d like to know more.
Firstly, there are about four species. I say ‘about’ as the number is likely to change as we find out more. So this is a composite of the interesting things I have found out. OK?
The thing about being an eel is you should never have children. Never. This is good advice for other species too, like Homo sapiens, but especially for eels, cos once you spawn, YOU DIE! You’ve been warned. Ask yourself, eel: Is that single orgasm worth your life? Usually eels can spawn after seven years, but if they don’t, they can live to eighty five years of age! Child-free!
Parts of this story won’t actually pertain to our Palmiet eels, but to other Anguillidae eels world-wide, especially European and American eels on which most research has been done. They are fascinating river fishes who go to sea at the end of their lives to spawn.
The eels we actually see in the Palmiet River are usually adults. They could leave on vacation at any time, downstream to the confluence with the Umgeni River of Duzi Canoe Marathon fame near the Papwa Sewgolum golf course; then on downstream to the famous / infamous Blue Lagoon; then out into the Indian Ocean and the inshore counter-currents heading north; I would warn them they should think twice about leaving our beautiful valley, but you know how these primal urges are.
All the way up between Mocambique and Madagascar, past Beira, past the mouth of the Zambezi River, to where Africa bulges eastward around Mocambique Island, and into the open ocean where they spawn. Once. The larger females laying up to twenty million eggs, the males emitting their sperm onto the eggs. This is likely done in very deep water, as it has never been observed. And maybe they’re shy. Because it has never been seen, scientists speculate about ‘mass eel orgies.’ You know how people are when speculating.
The tiny larvae hatch and drift with the current back to Southern Africa; the southward currents which flow east and west of Madagascar and join to form the warm Agulhas current flowing away from the equator. They’re now often called ‘Glass Eels’ for obvious reasons:
– tiny and barely visible –
They drift southwards, and by the time they get the mouth of the Umgeni they can also swim – they have grown quite a lot. As they approach, they lift their snouts and say Hey! Listen! and Smell! They recognise Blue Lagoon at night by the pumping music and the whiff of bluetop and dagga drifting to sea; so up the Umgeni they go, till they can taste industrial pollution in the water; then the offspring of our Palmiet clan hang a left up the Palmiet River. Others carry on up the Umgeni. All the while going through larval stages and getting more pigment as they go.
There they live their river fish lives until, one day, seven to eighty five years later, they may get an urge, just as their parents did before them (you know that feeling, right?) and head for the ocean again. ‘Again,’ in our story, but for the first time for each of them. Each one only does the homeward journey once, as a juvenile, and the spawning one-way journey once, as an adult.
The well-known story of the salmon migration has been told and shown so often it helps to explain the eel migration; Just the opposite of the salmon, our eels are freshwater river fish that spawn in the sea; Ours spend most of their lives in the Palmiet, just taking this incredible, Every-Vaalie’s-Dream vakansie by die see to spawn.
We might be thinking what a hard journey. But ours have it easy. If an eel needs to get back to where Mom and Dad lived on the Zambezi it has to bypass Cahora Bassa and Kariba dams! Is that even possible!? Indeed it seems to be. They move overland if they have to!
Of course with everything in nature the story includes Homo sapiens. What we do. We transport eels, elvers and eggs to where they shouldn’t be; We introduce parasites from one area to another; We farm them, chopping up other fish to feed to them; We catch them to sell as sushi or jellied eel by the ton – so much so that catches are down to 10 to 14% of what they used to be in Europe. When the scarcity became known we stopped catching and eating them, right? No, the price just went up, businessmen offering over R20 000 per kilogram. Don’t eat eels; Don’t buy eels! Please. They’re endangered. Never eat anything if you don’t know how many there are.
Next time I see an eel in the Palmiet I’m going to tell him or her: Stay put! It’s a minefield out there! That vacation has no return ticket!
Palmiet Nature Reserve is ready for Spring! We’ve had a cold winter, some early rain, wind storms and today a hot ‘Berg wind.’ Nature lovers in the Palmiet Rangers group have been spotting all sorts of interesting life in our valley.
– Me Hadeda Ibis, Helen Woolly-necked Stork, Roger Hogg Purple-crested Turaco, Roger Hogg Hadeda Ibis –– Louis Lodder dead Red-backed Mannikin, Roger Hogg Black-bellied Starling, Rory O’Connor Crowned Eagle, me, Hadeda Ibis –– Roger Hogg’s Klaas’ Cuckoo and Green Wood-hoopoe –– Dave James Wahlberg’s Emperor moth, Warren Friedman Tricalysia lanceolata, Gail Robinson caterpillar on Deinbollia, Lellos ?Grey-headed Sparrow, Taylors ?Leptopelis tree frog in arum lily –
Then some Palmetians went to Roosfontein and shot a Nightjar!
– Fiery-Necked Nightjar Caprimulgus pectoralis – on the nest –
Meantime, Pigeon Valley in Glenwood has also been busy, with ‘Friends of PV’ honcho Crispin Hemson keeping us all up-to-date about his patch as always:
– Crispin Hemson Little Bee-eaters, Pin-tailed Whydah, Clivia flowers; Steve Woodhall Spotted Eagle Owl –
~~~oo0oo~~~
Oh, and babies! I forgot about the babies. When Spring springs, babies pop out . . Warren Friedman is the host daddy to these two broods. And the videographer.
It’s been a long time since I last heard the plaintive, mournful-sounding hoot of the Buff-spotted Flufftail, Sarothrura elegans, while lying in my own bed. But the last few nights he has been hooting gently outside my window in Westville above the Palmiet River:
– sound from xeno-canto.org – thank you –
Hope they stay awhile . . .
– crispin hemson pic from pigeon valley durban – thank you –
I heard it for fifteen years at 7 River Drive on the Mkombaan River in Westville, but although I searched and stalked and lay in wait at all hours, the only one I saw was one the bloody next door cat killed! Something like this:
– not my pic –
~~~oo0oo~~~
And then at last I saw one of Crispin Hemson’s tame*** flufftails at Pigeon Valley in Durban. One lone male. And just for a few seconds before he ducked into the undergrowth. I was pleased to see one of Crispin’s pictures has been used in wikipedia.
*** not really tame – just on his famous patch!
~~~oo0oo~~~
Friend Rob Davey is a security camera boffin. He aimed one at his birdbath out north of Durban:
List of Birds of 7 River Drive – my patch
Mkombaan River valley, Westville KZN – Jan 1989 – Dec 2003
Breeds – Y means we have seen an active nest or young fledglings being fed here.
Spotted Thrush
Seen three separate winter-times in 15 years
Kurrichane Thrush
Y
Olive Thrush
Narina Trogon
Three times in 15 years, once stayed a week
Pigmy Kingfisher
Three times
Brown-hooded Kingfisher
Nests in a bank in Deon’s yard next door (no. 5)
Y
Malachite Kingfisher
Once
Olive Bush-shrike (ruddy form
Once – stayed about a week. Lovely song
Orange-breasted Bush-shrike
Heard quite often, seen about three times
Black Sparrowhawk
Raises a chick here most years
Y
Gymnogene
Raises a chick here most years
Y
Crowned Eagle
Flying & calling overhead
Fish Eagle
Flying & calling overhead
African Goshawk
Resident King of the woods
Y
Black-headed Heron
Flying overhead
Pied Crow
Flying overhead
Barn Swallow
Lesser Striped Swallow
Rock Martin
White-rumped Swift
Little Swift
Palm Swift
Reed Cormorant
Once, flying overhead, then circled and landed in the Mkombaan River!
Woolly-necked Stork
Perched on a garage roof at top of our valley!
Bush Blackcap
One winter, stayed ten days
Willow Warbler
Arrives every summer from frosty England
Red-backed Mannikin
Bronze Mannikin
Y
Bar-throated Apalis
Yellow-breasted Apalis
Rudd’s Apalis !!?
Unlikely, yet seen close-up by Trish and I on potplant on the driveway! Nov 2003; Needs verification!
A large flock of Kiwis flew in to Durban recently. Of course kiwis can’t actually fly so they came by plane.
MurrayMo, Alex and Maxine
I met them at the Lellos. I thought it was going to just be Fiona and Pete but pleasant surprise! Alex, MurrayMo and Maxine were all there – about 10m of Stoutes in all, if you laid them end-to-end.
Yvonne presented a delicious meal – chicken and rice, but there was a better way to describe it. Sauteed Vietnamese jungle fowl? – and we reminisced about the olden daze. Mike religiously kept my glass full of good wine the whole night and I tried my best to drain it but it just kept getting topped up. Luckily I live just upstream along the Palmiet River from their place and if I closed my one eye, no diplopia.
——-ooo000ooo——-
waiting for pics, so used an ancient one taken n Rio de Janeiro to hold the place
Bewilderbeast Droppings 