– life – bokdrols of wisdom –
It’s drizzling and the driveway looks sparkling and green-ish – needs weeding one day – on the brick from my kitchen window, so I took a picture which doesn’t look as good as it does. The camera – or the cameraman – hasn’t captured the mood . .
Yesterday the meadow popped some tiny little flowers when the sun popped out:
Your pinky nail would cover them.
In the drizzle the squeakers (Arthroleptis wahlbergi) are squeaking and the robin is prrrp prupp (Red-capped Robin-chat).
~~~oo0oo~~~
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:
Hope they stay awhile . . .
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:
~~~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:
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! | ||
| Natal Francolin | Heard often, seen once | ||
| Buff-spotted Flufftail | Heard very often, never seen | ||
| Red-chested Cuckoo | Juvenile seen once in fig tree over pool | ||
| Emerald Cuckoo | Including a juv being fed by Olive sunbird | y | |
| Klaas’ Cuckoo | |||
| Black Cuckoo | |||
| Diederik Cuckoo | |||
| Longbilled Crombec | |||
| Tambourine Dove | Often | ||
| Emerald-spotted Dove | Seldom | ||
| Red-eyed Dove | Most common dove | y | |
| Laughing Dove | y | ||
| Ring-necked parakeet | Once, flying past into no. 14 | ||
| Fiery-necked nightjar | Heard often, seen twice | ||
| Paradise flycatcher | Nests every year | y | |
| Dusky Flycatcher | Nests every year | y | |
| Blue-grey Flycatcher | Nests most years | y | |
| Spotted Flycatcher | A few visits | ||
| Black Flycatcher | y | ||
| Purple-crested Lourie | Nested in Umdoni tree on River Drive | y | |
| African Hoopoe | Once at top of River Drive | ||
| Red-billed Wood Hoopoe | Have nested in our nestboxes about 3 times | y | |
| Lesser Honeyguide | Often | ||
| Greater Honeyguide | Seldom | ||
| Scaly-throated Honeyguide | Seldom | ||
| Sharp-billed Honeyguide | Twice | ||
| Blackbellied Glossy Starlings | Nest most years | y | |
| Green Twinspot | Seen four times, heard more times | ||
| Long-tailed Wagtail | Up & down the river, occasionally next to pool | y | |
| Cape Wagtail | Nests in Dracaena outside front door | ||
| Pied Wagtail | Next to pool | y | |
| Southern Boubou | Heard all the time, seldom seen | y | |
| Golden-tailed Woodpecker | Nests most years | y | |
| Cardinal Woodpecker | |||
| Olive Sunbird | The Boss; Once raised an Emerald Cuckoo chick | y | |
| White-bellied Sunbird | Usually behind house, seldom in front garden! | ||
| Collared Sunbird | Nests most years | y | |
| Black Sunbird | Occasional | ||
| Grey Sunbird | Often | ||
| Black-collared Barbet | Always | y | |
| Crested Barbet | Once | ||
| Golden-rumped Tinker | Always | ||
| Hamerkop | Often – heard more than seen | ||
| Yellow-billed Kite | |||
| Burchell’s Coucal | |||
| Grey-headed Sparrow | Seen twice | ||
| Streaky-headed Canary | |||
| Yellow-eyed Canary | |||
| Bully Canary | |||
| Tawny-flanked Prinia | Nests every year in long grass above washline | y | |
| Natal Robin | Trish’s friend – also spotted chicks most years | y | |
| White-browed Scrub-robin | |||
| Southern Black Tit | |||
| Terrestrial Bulbul | Outside bedroom window | ||
| Black-eyed Bulbul | y | ||
| Sombre Bulbul | |||
| Black-headed Oriole | |||
| Black Cuckoo-shrike | In fig tree most years | ||
| Fork-tailed Drongo | y | ||
| Puffback | |||
| White-faced Whistling Duck | Whistling high overhead at night | ||
| Cape White-eye | y | ||
| Bleating Bush Warbler | |||
| Neddicky | |||
| Indian Mynah | |||
| Cape Glossy Starling | |||
| Plum-coloured Starling | |||
| Thick-billed Weaver | |||
| Spotted-backed Weaver | y | ||
| Spectacled Weaver | Nests every year | y | |
| Forest Weaver | Seldom | ||
| Blue-billed Firefinch | |||
| Common Waxbill | |||
| Grey Waxbill | Regular in early years, scarce lately | ||
| Swee Waxbill | Twice | ||
| Redwing Starling | |||
| Chin-spot Batis | |||
| Cape Batis | |||
| Hadeda Ibis | y | ||
| Sacred Ibis | Flying overhead | ||
| Speckled Mousebird | y |
~~~oo0oo~~~
I woke to a confidential sort of murmuring / chirping outside my window. What birds are those, I wondered and peered through my window, then my bathroom window. Then I went to the scullery and peered through the window. Still nothing, so I opened the top of the stable door and they scattered.
Six Banded Mongooses on the back lawn outside my bedroom window! What a lovely sight! Had I been awake I’d have taken a camera to the door! Last week Jessie had called me to the lounge: ‘Dad! What are those! Come look!’ and showed me three mongooses on our front lawn. Hope they’re here to stay.
A lovely morning so I set off early for Pigeon Valley.
Soon after I got home the rain started – lovely lazy day listening to the rain on the roof; eating TomTom’s macaroni cheese, lots of bacon; its quite dark so maybe the sun is over the yardarm, I’ll have some vino now without looking at the clock.
~~~oo0oo~~~
As British birding wit and good weirdo Bill Oddie rightly said: ‘Bird-watchers are tense, competitive, selfish, shifty, dishonest, distrusting, boorish, pedantic, unsentimental, arrogant and – above all – envious’.
Driving down SinJim avenue one morning I had to brake for a Fruit and Nut Vulture perched on the busy tar road! Right here, on the way out of Westville towards the Pavilion shopping centre, where St James crosses the Mkombaan river! Looking for all the world like a lost kalkoen.
In thirty years living in Westville, seldom venturing forth without my binocs I had not seen a Palm-nut Vulture here, never mind one dodging traffic. In my mind the furthest south you could spot a fruit n nut was Mtunzini. I was excited!
So I had a good chuckle when I reported the sighting to the birding fraternity. The response was immediate face palms: 1. Oh, we often see them! and 2. Everyone knows there’s a pair that nests in Westville!
Oh. OK. Um . . 1. Not. and 2. Um, not.
I sent the response to Palmiet valley doyenne, wit and mensch Jean Senogles and we had a hearty laugh and skinner about ‘birders!’ especially newbie birders! Us birders who have birded for half a century can still allow ourselves to get excited over interesting sightings.
In the competitive game, not so much! Shut up, I’ve already seen that one!
~~oo0oo~~
face palm – ‘that’s nothing!’
skinner – gossip
kalkoen – farmyard turkey
Such a pleasure to meet weirdos who prove I’m normal. Friends Petrea and Louis – speaking of weirdos – cracked me an invite to an early morning visit to Bill Oddie’s house in David Maclean Drive to spot some twinspots. To do some twin spotting.
Actually Roger and Linda Hogg’s home – what a beautiful garden! I didn’t take a picture, damn!
Now, looking at birds is normal, of course, as is drinking good coffee. Here are some of Roger’s bird pics. No, I’ll show you the weird part later. His daughters must die of embarrassment. I now can prove to my kids how normal I am.
Here’s the part that pleased me:
Here’s the real Bill Oddie, a crazy Pom. I got to know about him when Aitch bought me his ‘Little Black Bird Book’ cos she agreed with his assessment: ‘Bird-watchers are tense, competitive, selfish, shifty, dishonest, distrusting, boorish, pedantic, unsentimental, arrogant and – above all – envious’.
And here’s an embarrassing discovery: I’ve seen lots of twinspots, but I thought this one in Roger’s garden was a first for Westville. When I went to add them to my life list, I saw that I’d twin-spotted twinspots in my own garden! In 1999 at 7 River Drive!
Petrea’s response was sharp, as always: ‘How wonderful to suffer from Sometimers. Every bird is a lifer! And anyway, ‘normal’ is a setting on a dryer.’
~~oo0oo~~
British birding – we should realise how lucky we are!
~~oo0oo~~
Just a week later the twinspot occurrence turned into an infestation. The Lellos sent pictures of a female in their garden, a kilometer downstream. So now there are twinspots upstream and downstream from me, and I’m on barren bend!
I’ve been bothered by thrush.
THRUSH Poetry Journal considers thrush songs to be among the most beautiful birdsong in the world. ‘We love that, and that is how we feel about poems,’ they say.
Thomas Hardy was feeling bleak when:
At once a voice arose among
The bleak twigs overhead
In a full-hearted evensong
Of joy illimited;
An aged thrush, frail, gaunt, and small,
In blast-beruffled plume,
Had chosen thus to fling his soul
Upon the growing gloom.
So little cause for carolings
Of such ecstatic sound
Was written on terrestrial things
Afar or nigh around,
That I could think there trembled through
His happy good-night air
Some blessed Hope, whereof he knew
And I was unaware.
So my thrush has been calling just after dark and just before light for months. Not once did he let me see him. But now I got him. He was way higher up in an Aussie Bauhinia tree than where I’d been searching:
I’m still puzzled how he seems to hide himself here! I used to see them regularly at River Drive, usually on the ground, and not shy at all.
~~oo0oo~~
Now he’s everywhere! I’ve seen him every morning since. I got footage. Excuse the happy discordant background noise. That’s son Tommy coming up to give me a hug while I was filming, so very welcome!
~~oo0oo~~
Thanks to xeno-canto.org for the top recording of Turdus libonyana, the Kurrichane Thrush – – – – xeno-canto: ‘sharing birdsounds from around the world’ – what a lovely thing to do!
Stefanus wrote about a new thing. I paraphrased his rant:
What a bloody stupid idea. The ‘Key Fob’ or ‘Keyless Start’ or ‘Keyless Go’ or ‘Proximity Key’. I have always thought it was a stupid idea but I wasn’t sure why. Tonight I found out why.
Our friend John gets home with his wife after several stops, including our place for a while. Cannot find his ‘fob’; realises the car might have started because his wife had the other fob in her handbag. Panics.
After much driving around and searching in various places, including our place, it ‘turns up’ under his drivers seat where he insists he had searched several times. But ‘it had gone into a crevice.’
Steve expostulates: It’s a lousy idea! You could leave your key fob behind and drive 300 km without knowing you don’t have it, because the car opens and starts with the proximity of the duplicate ‘fob’ in your wife’s handbag. Frikkin stupid, really. Although in hindsight he could have narrowed the search by checking to see if the car would start without his wife’s keys being nearby . . .
Myself I think this once again shows us that technology just does what it’s programmed to do, while us yoomins!? We’re variable!
~~oo0oo~~
I wrote:
Aha! A technophobe!
I’m going to ask them to implant mine in a crevice so I can never lose it.
And I won’t let them fob me off.
~~oo0oo~~
Steve:
Technophobe – yes. Ask my older brother.
Ja, but how will you avoid forgetting the rest of your keys – the ones that are attached to the – er – transponder? Having your own practice I am pretty sure you have a bunch of keys like a prison guard anyway.
~~oo0oo~~
Me:
Me? Keys? Nope.
I am lucky enough to have an “Open Sesame” lifestyle. The practice is always open when I get there at a leisurely hour, and my home is always open. Overrun with bloody kids who all know the 1299# that opens the gate from outside. Me and security are strangers.
Thank goodness for Raksha and the keys at work and Cecelia and the no keys at home.
Sadly, I do have to carry the one single key for the 2007 Ford 4X2 3litre diesel double cab bakkie. White. I lost the canopy key so now it doesn’t lock. Help yourself to my toolbox back there. At times I do spend some time looking for the damn thing on the odd occasions when I put it in a clever place instead of the usual on the kitchen counter. I feel safe against would-be thieves though, as for some reason my Ford key says ‘Mazda.’
~~oo0oo~~
Steve:
I should have realised I was speaking to the wrong person. We tend to lock stuff by and large. Someone came and had an overnight scratch around Wendy’s unlocked car a while ago. Front door gets locked at night or if we are not around. We regularly get wide-eyed warnings from the neighbours about dodgy people seen snooping around the street.
Office keys: I am the first to arrive by a half an hour (OCD) so key needed.
~~oo0oo~~
Me:
I am weird that way. Partly slackness, partly – slackness. Been very lucky and fully aware that could change.
1984 – Marriott road flat – nothing. No incidents.
1989 – 7 River Drive Westville – pre-kids. Zanele said she saw an umfaan in our room and she said ‘Hey! Umfana! Wenzani?’ and he scuttled off through the burglar bars, which were big enough for him to get through.
Years later Aitch found her Zeiss binocs were missing. ‘Stolen!’ she announced. I thought no, ‘Misplaced.’ She thought ‘Poephol, stolen!’ Two years later we found them in the socks drawer.
Then post-kids I got hijacked and taken off in a friend’s car. That wasn’t good.
2003 – 10 Windsor Avenue Westville – Break and enter while we were out and Aitch’s binocs WERE taken. Also her wedding ring. She replaced only the binocs with a shiny newer 8X32 model – insurance. I still have the new ones, they’re better than mine. Sheila now has my 10X40s.
2005 – 10 Elston Place Westville – 16yrs, nothing.
The reason I have a keypad at the gate where friends just enter the last four digits of their cell number and Open Sesame is I hate closed gates. I once – ca1982 – waited on the pavement in Argyle road outside the palatial home of one of Barks’ friends, ringing the doorbell in vain. Party inside, so they couldn’t hear. Pre-cellphone days. Eventually went home and resolved never to live in a fuckin prison. Still don’t.
Weird? OK.
Confession: I do insist the kids practice common sense security and keep doors locked if they’re alone at home and when they leave the home unattended!
~~oo0oo~~
umfaan – youngster
Hey! Umfana! Wenzani? – Oy! Boy! Whatchadoin’?
Poephol – husband
~~oo0oo~~
Talking of phobias, isn’t this a lovely one?
The Fear Of Giants: fee-fi-phobia
‘Please call the police; my friends are fighting and I’m very worried.’
The sound of a young woman’s voice early Saturday morning, still pitch dark, on my gate intercom. Luckily the intercom was in one of its working phases. They’d had a party, she said. Funny, I hadn’t heard anything. Sometimes the parties are really loud. I dialed 10111, explained, gave my name and address and the man said ‘I’ll send the police there,’ which I found re-assuring. He said ‘I’ll send them,’ not ‘I’ll tell them.’
Later the same lovely voice very politely checking, ‘Did you phone the police? I’m so worried!’ I asked Are You Safe? Do you want to come in? To be behind the gate? ‘No, I think I’m safe,’ she replied, which I didn’t find overly re-assuring.
A short while later the gate again, ‘Thank you so much, they’re here,’ followed by three more Thank You So Much-es.
As far as I can recall, that’s the first time I have ever called the cops!
~~oo0oo~~
But I spose we must have called them back ca.2004 when we had our only robbery – in 10 Windsor Avenue while we were out. Aitch’s Zeiss 8X32 binoculars and her wedding and engagement rings were gone. Typical Aitch, she replaced the binocs only.
Wait! Once when we were young . .
~~oo0oo~~
A time before, at River Drive, Aitch’s binocs ‘were stolen’ – she just knew it. We found them over a year later at the back of our socks drawer.
Jess picked the flowers, Tom did the braai. We had chops, ribs and wors with garlic bread, plus some fried beans and mushrooms. I had beer and vino. We raised a glass to Mom!
You need to kick back with Binocs, Beer, Telescope-on-a-Tripod and – lately – also a Camera to do your front porch birding justice. And I have just the chair for it on my porch – a Lazy Boy thingamiebob. Newish . .
Bought for me by my thoughtful, everloving wife when she realised I do a lot of sitting.
Now: An Argentine-African United Nations veterinarian writes a lovely blog he calls A Bush Snob Out Of Africa. In it he has a feature called Spot The Beast in which he shows a picture of a cryptic or camouflaged creature and invites you to find it. Then he zooms in to reveal an insect on bark, or a mantis, a leaf butterfly, or a moth, a frog, even a cheetah hidden in grass. I love it and I love spotting his ‘hidden’ beasts.
So now: Go back to the picture above and see if you can spot the hidden dragon or crouching dinosaur sharing my chair today. Only then scroll down:
.
.
While I’m at it, I may as well mention some other lizards I have seen . .
A snake?
A snake?
A snake? About the size of an earthworm . .
Maybe Peters’ Thread Snake Leptotyphlops scutifrons – known to be found in the Durban area.
~~oo0oo~~
Here’s my best birding spot in full operational mode:
The punch bag keeps me in superb condition. Sometimes I even swat it a few times.
Just out of picture on the right: my fridge. It used to be in the kitchen. What good was that?
~~oo0oo~~
Twenty five years ago in 1994 we stood in this same queue at the same school with Mrs Kiza Cele and voted for freedom from the Nats. Close to River Drive, we walked there that day. Today I drove the 4 or 5km trip.
I wish I had some pictures of that. There are, of course, lots of pics of that great day in 1994, but it would be nice to have OURS.
It was a joyous day, that day in 1994. Some of the joy has faded, but then age always brings a fading.
After this year’s voting, I took some pics in the garden at 10 Elston. We’ve been here thirteen years now, catching up with the fifteen years we spent at River Drive.
~~oo0oo~~
I heard this call in River Drive – that’s the Mkombaan river – Westville KZN in 2002 and went looking.
And I found a new bird to add to the long list in our first home: An Olive Bush Shrike!
This year on the other river in Westville, the bigger Palmiet river, I heard the call again and got that ‘I know what that is, but I can’t put my finger on it’ feeling. So I recorded it and posted it to the Friends of Pigeon Valley whatsapp group. Jonathan Hemson came back promptly with the answer. A new addition to the list in Elston Place.
——-ooo000ooo——-
Thanks xeno-canto for the recording; wikipedia and africanbirdclub for the pics.
A large flock of Kiwis flew in to Durban recently. Of course kiwis can’t actually fly so they came by plane.
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
When we bought a house, but were still living in our flat in Durban, Dave and Goldie Hill presented us with a magic little feisty puppy, half Staffie half Jack Russell, delivered in a shoebox. We called her TC.
She was joined soon after we moved in to our home in Westville by my big rival for Aitch’s affections: Matt the man, named Matt cos he certainly wasn’t glossy at first.
Matt died on the M13 on the hunt for an intriguing smell which he knew was important and exciting, he just didn’t know why! He was only two-plus years old, so I’d guess he probably died a virgin. Our property was fenced but obviously not escape-proof.
After much mourning and a burial in the garden, Matt’s replacement was chosen, also in a backyard, also of interesting parentage. Trish Humphrey always thought she’d call a dog “Bogart” one day, and so Bogart got his name. To TC’s disgust a second small male dog was introduced and – again – he soon outgrew her. She always remained boss-dog though!
About two years later Bogart also went missing. I searched again and found him on a highway. This time the N3. Another burial in the garden followed.
Poor TC now had another black dog join her, a third!! Also small, also soon to grow big. This time a lady, Bella, who was destined to become a huge part of our, and especially Trish’s life for the next seventeen years. She, too, was of interesting parentage.
TC ran out of steam after thirteen years and is the third and last of our dogs buried at 7 River Drive Westville, near the banks of the Mkombaan under a paper-bark Commiphora harveyi tree. A ‘kanniedood’ tree! Bella was then joined by Honey, ‘rescued from euthanasia’ at the vet. He’d apparently been sentenced to death for excessive wandering! Aitch said ‘can’t be!’ and took him home. Well, little did she know just how determined a wanderer was old Honey. Jess christened him Honey, and he was mostly called that, but once his habits became evident I called him Houdini. No matter how we tried to keep him in, he got out and wandered the streets, meeting new friends.
Houdini disappeared, maybe ‘rescued’ again by someone who finally managed to coop him up permanently? I hope not. I hope he wanders still. Now Bella was alone and Aitch decided she was lonely. No, no, I said, she’s enjoying the peace and quiet! So I put my foot down and issued a decree as titular Man of the House: We Cannot Get Another Puppy.
So Aitch got two: Shadow and Sambucca.
Shadow was a lovely dog but became our first dog to be euthanased. She bit a neighbour kid and then did it again. Sam is still around, twelve-plus years old and when cleaning out the garage recently I found a very novel item: A pedigree certificate! Aitch had hidden from me that Sam was our first dog without character and lacking in hybrid vigour!
(Read about Sambucca’s parents here).
Jessie named the black lab ‘Sweetie’ – horrors! So we scrambled to find a better name: Terry Brauer suggested Black Sambucca and that stuck, thank goodness. She and Bella became good friends – Aitch was right again! Bella finally breathed her last in Aitch’s arms at seventeen – she had been a champ!
Poor ole Sambucca is ageing rapidly now. Eighty five in human years, she has a tumour growing apace on the side of her face. So far she’s still comfortable, eating – though losing weight – and tail-waggingly keen for a tummy rub. Her vet says keep her comfy and keep watch, but an op would likely be too drastic and risky for her.
~~~oo0oo~~~
update on Sambucca: died 6 Jan 2019 – on Aitch’s birthday.
~~~oo0oo~~~
kanniedood – cannot die; immortal
I don’ believe it! In a high-wind storm the beautiful big old fig tree which made the corner – it was THE feature of that whole block! – at the top of our road fell down!
I stopped to look, and Jess and Sindi spotted each other. Sindi came running across from Juke’s Pizza where she was working. Typical high-energy Sindi, a run, a hug, much to tell:
Here’s the worst part: Seems we don’t have any pics of the old tree standing! We’d taken it for granted and now it’s gone! Petrea, whose optometry practice looks right out on the fig had pics after it had started falling but none of the fig as it always was.
I searched my albums and found ONE pic of it standing earlier this year – but barely visible in the dead of night! You can catch its outline way in the background between Lungelo and Tom’s heads:
It’s a big loss to the wildlife community. They need all the stopovers, shelters, roosts and feeding stations they can find. And now one is gone.
~~~oo0oo~~~
Kids – six of them! – driving me crazy so I pack a flask of coffee, some buttermilk rusks, grab my binocs and waai. Three minutes away to the Palmiet Nature Reserve on my doorstep. Just me.
Two hours later off to Pigeon Valley in town for another two hours. Palmiet is only 90ha in size and Pigeon Valley a tiny 10ha, but they’re rich in plant and birdlife. These collages are just some of the birds I saw and heard today in the two reserves:
I spotted an old landsnail shell in a tree hollow. New life sprouting out of it.
I tried to get a good picture of a Mountain Wagtail from above; As it flew the pattern was so beautiful. I didn’t get one, and I haven’t found a good one on the internet so far, that shows it as well as I remember it. Here’s the best so far, from Derek Keats at stellenboschbirds.com :
I pinched the pics from all over the internet, and some from Friends of Pigeon Valley‘s Crispin Hemson and Sheryl Halstead. Thank you!
~~~oo0oo~~~
waai – bugger off
