Feathers and Fur.

This is the post that I was planning to write this week, except for the ending. And the middle.

While I was away, Rob said that a dove had built her nest in our tree aloe in the newly improved bed outside the kitchen window. And just before I arrived home, she laid a second egg and was now sitting tight! She had chosen a safe place, surrounded by spiky leaves to ward off any pawed intruders, but our three lads didn't even notice her sitting quietly day after day.

Look below the flowers, right in the middle of the photo, see her?

We noted the date and looked up all there was about doves, and waited patiently along with her. We chose the right time to rush out to gather wood for the fire and replenish the water in the bird bath, and I noted with horror the amount of grass that I wasn't able to pull out!

Movies in the Sky!

I watched a wonderful film in April. (If I sound excited it's because the closest Movie House we have here, is in Cape Town. No more pensioner mornings at the local one in Vredenburg!) In fact it was on the plane when I was flying from Madrid to Dubai. Now, I normally battle to see the screen as it is fixed to the back of the seat in front and even with my glasses I am long sighted! And just when I am able to focus, the chap in front decides to tip his seat back a notch or two! So it all becomes one long fuzzy, neck-aching-with-my-head-tipped-back experience. Actually, on the flight to Dubai I watched a movie that the chap two rows in front of me was watching. He was on the aisle seat and fortunately it had English sub-titles that I could read from my seat! I don't remember the title, but it was set in Holland and was quite watchable! The wife was guilty of kidnapping the daughter, very twisty plot! And the husband kicked her out in the end. As he should!

But, back to the movie that I so enjoyed. It was called 'Saving Mr Banks' and was all about the author of the 'Mary Poppins' books (P L Travers, real name Helen Lyndon Goff) and her somewhat fiery meetings with Walt Disney. I shan't mutter on about the plot, but if you haven't seen it, look for it, it's lovely, and it got me singing all the wonderful songs all over again! Apparently P L Travers never wanted the film to be a musical, or to have any animation in it all, but thank goodness she finally relented.

I love the bird handle.

Now, the point of all this is Mary Poppins' umbrella. Not the whole thing but the handle to be more explicit. I know that the bird is a parrot, but it reminds me of our beautiful Blue Crane, our National Bird. I know that the beak is the wrong shape completely, but the shape of the head and the exquisite long neck seen from a distance through squinted eyes, does in fact bear a resemblance.

Our beautiful Blue Cranes

And I saw some on the way home the other day, at least eight of them in the field happily eating whatever it is that they eat. It's wonderful to see them, there were adults and youngsters, and the sight of them just makes my heart sing!
And the song?

'Feed the birds, tuppence a bag, tuppence, tuppence, tuppence a bag..........................'

Bet you're singing it now!

Trains and Boats and Planes! (Not really Planes though!)

Well, here I am, better late than never! Home again after a wonderful few days lazing on the banks of the Berg River. We arrived on Thursday morning after a journey of 45 minutes, and were unpacked, tent up and relaxing, an hour later! Alfie stayed in the car until everything was in place and then came out to inspect, and find a convenient tree!

All set up and ready to do nothing!

What a beautiful spot. We identified 54 bird species without moving away from the campsite! The list contains 180, so we didn't do too badly! From the large flamingos to the tiny mossies and everything in between, they can be seen here.

Iron ore heading to Saldanha Bay.

How many Bees does a Bee-eater eat?

No, it's not a tongue twister or a riddle but you will have to read on to find the answer to that question!

The day before yesterday I was washing up the breakfast things and staring idly out of the window wondering if it was misty or whether the windows could really be that salt-encrusted and grubby (and yes, they could and yes, they were!), when I saw a small flock of birds hovering and diving over the back garden. Their colour was the first thing that I noticed, turquoise flashes with yellow and brown and they were diving and catching insects in mid-flight. Occasionally they perched on the antenna wire that we have strung across the length of the garden, but they were far too fast for me to capture with my camera, I would have snapped sky and the odd bit of bush and no bird at all! So I borrowed these pictures from Google!

Like a painted porcelain statue! (Thanks to Google)

Hey there Thick Head!

Can you imagine being called 'Thick Head'? Better yet, what about 'Spotted Thick Head'? or 'Spotted Thick-knee'? Believe it or not, it is the common name for one of our birds belonging to the Curlew family. The Afrikaans name 'Dikkop' sounds less rude somehow!

They are large, aggressive birds with  piercing yellow eyes and long yellow legs, and will take on a dog or cat with ease. Their diet is varied, they eat all kinds of insects, spiders, lizards, small mice, and eggs and chicks of the White-fronted Plover. (That's a bit cannibalistic I think!) Pity they don't seem to eat snails though! During the day they are very relaxed and quiet and blend in with the surrounding countryside, but at night we see them running in the road and hear their loud, mournful call. We have several pairs here, and at the beginning of February, Rob noticed a nesting pair in the old farm just behind our wall.

So well camouflaged! 

This was taken on the 1 February and you have to look carefully to make out the bird in the middle of the picture!

One good Tern deserves another!

Those of you who follow my blog fairly regularly will have noticed that Rob and I are avid bird watchers! Something that always puzzles and amazes us is this; no matter how many birds we see flying in flocks or formations, wheeling and swirling, ducking and diving, we have never seen a mid-air collision! Once or twice we have seen a quick backpedalling motion and some ruffled feathers, especially when the leader of a V formation of Sacred Ibis slows down and the chaps in the slipstream suddenly catch up….fast, but never anything to cause a crash or emergency landing! Our village follows five bays along the coastline which means that at any time of the day, we see sea birds. One of the bays, called Moeriese Baai, is home to an uncountable number of Swift Terns. They set off every morning on their forage for food, or whatever they do, and every evening they return. In their hundreds! They spend a lot of time following fishing boats for the jettisoned by-catch and as we live close to the 'Sea Harvest' factory, there are a lot of boats for them to follow!

Terns on the rocks at MoerieseBaai.

It's Raining Starlings!

We have a metal roof with a fairly steep pitch, (as the building regulations lay down here in our village,) so when birds land in any number, they tend to make a huge noise as their claws scrabble for a hold on the shiny metal and it often sounds like hail on the roof! At this time of the year we have a multitude of Starlings around, either the European or the pied variety. The European ones were introduced into Cape Town by Cecil John Rhodes in 1899. Interestingly enough, they are limited to the Cape Province and have not spread into Gauteng at all, clever birds! When they are changing into their breeding plumage, the males look as though they are wearing polka dotted waistcoats!

Can you see the polka dotted waistcoat, nearest the camera!

It's a Bird Dog!

Yes, it's another Alfie picture! I have to admit that I must have at least fifty pictures of him on my computer, but Rob takes the cake, he has Alfie as a screen saver on his mobile phone and regularly whips the mobile out to show people in shops, caravan parks, restaurants, you name it! I tease him by saying that most people our age (maturing nicely like smelly cheese), have photos of their grandchildren to brag about!

The notice reads 'Wild bird take aways'

This photo was taken of Alfie a few months ago. I regularly put the old un-eaten dog and cat food out for the birds and a few minutes later the first 'bird' arrived in the shape of one Alfred. Then we had some fun as Rob challenged our friends and family to 'Name the Bird'. We had some wonderful answers, original, witty and descriptive.
I always wonder how many people read this blog, so, here's my way of finding out! I would like everyone (including those people who sent us their ideas before), to think of a 'name' (in Latin if you like!) and a brief description and post it as a comment at the end of the blog. It will be fun to see how many different answers I get....... please more than 0. Oh yes, and if you are not in South Africa, please put the town and country too!

Here's an example: 'Crested wagtail'. (Waggus crestus). Can be found in urban gardens all over the countryand is easily tamed. Call is a high pitched 'woooof' sound.

The winner will receive an autographed photograph of Alfie! What more could you want!

Spring has Sprung!

We seem to be well into spring now, the South Easter is winding up and each day it seems to blow a little stronger! Sadly, that also means that our rain is a thing of the past, not that we had much this season, and I am pretty sure that we shall have strict water rationing once summer arrives in force. Soon after we moved into this house, Rob had the sense to buy two tanks that catch the rainwater off the roof, one holds 2 500 litres and the other holds 5 000. So, we have 'free' water to use on the garden and to fill the bird baths. Talking of birds, they seem to bath as much during cold, wet days than they do during the hot, dry days! And some birds use a lot more when they bath than others! The weavers tend to fling themselves around and splash furiously, whilst the tiny white eyes take a long time to build up courage to get into the water (like me into a pool!), and then do a quick dip and go! The starlings arrive by the family, plus grandma, and simply take over the space! We have counted up to eight at a time shouting and shoving and splashing!

Starlings at Bath!

Aerobatics West Coast Style!

Inland from us is the Langebaan Weg Airforce Base. At least twice a week, more if they are practising for an air show, we are treated (subjected?) to our own private display of aerobatics that turn my stomach just to watch! There are usually four, but Rob has photographs of sixteen roaring, twisting, diving, rolling and climbing aircraft. To me, they are little red and white planes flying too darn close, but according to Rob (who can tell what the plane is simply by listening to the engine!), they are turbo prop Pilatus  basic trainers. They use the abandoned WW 2 airstrip just next to our village to line themselves up and then hurl themselves around while I stand waiting for their wings to touch and for them to spiral out of control towards either the sea, or the houses. The fact that one of the pilots is a young lady makes it worse!! Surely she should know better, what do her parents think when they watch her? Do they remind her each time to 'Buckle up, remember which hand is right, your watch is on your left hand remember, don't get too close to the chap in front and phone me the minute you land please!'

Aerobatics!

Klaas's cuckoo (Sunbird update)

I found a picture of the Klaas's cuckoo I mentioned in my Sunbirds post - here it is!

such a pretty parasite

The Sunbirds return

We have a very busy (euphemism for cluttered!) veranda as you can see from the picture, but what you can’t see are the numerous dangly bits that hang from the rafters! We have shells, wooden fish, fishing corks, lanterns (we can’t use them as the wind blows the candles out!), a beautiful warthog wind catcher, a wooden bird that flaps its wings, a small green watering can, rope, various old kitchen utensils collected from Hospice shops, and a star-shaped wire ornament. We also have two half barrels that contain ficus trees (one thriving and one a little wind-swept), plus the usual table and chairs. Last winter we noticed that a pair of Malachite Sunbirds were showing an interest in the star-shaped ornament and before too long they had started to build an intricate nest with spider web and dried grass. These beautiful birds are supposed to be shy, our bird book says that they ‘do not frequent suburban gardens.’ Well, obviously the birds haven’t read the book. Not only were they in the garden, they were nesting a metre from our door! Once the nest was completed, the female sat herself down and only left occasionally to sip nectar from the aloes and to bath in the watering can that spurts into a half barrel fish pond! She didn’t mind us at all as we came and went past her door, but she was not happy with strangers on the veranda. She tolerated Alfie, but not the cats!! We always knew when a cat was outside by the volume of the call and the male would actually dive-bomb them!

veranda

Saldanha Bay

Rob and I often go for a drive to the nearby port town of Saldanha. We love to sit and watch the birds for one thing, and for another we enjoy watching the huge ore carriers arriving (or leaving).

hungry birds waiting for their lunch

The best place to do both of these things is from the narrow, man-made causeway that joins the mainland to what was once an island, Marcus Island (17 ha). (Rumour has it that there is a wreck buried beneath the causeway, but I still need to find some information on this*). This island is one of five that are near to the port entrance, and although they are small, rugged islands, they are home to some 250 000 coastal seabirds. The 2 kilometre causeway was built in 1976, and between it and the huge ore loading quay there are man made mussel beds that quietly allow the delicious mussels to grow until they are harvested for the table! But I digress!