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!

During the summer when the flowers are few and hard to find, we put out an orange and at least three apples every day, plus a bottle of sugar water that is used by just about everyone! From weavers to white eyes, bulbuls to mossies (sparrows), as one leaves, another arrives, and we replenish the bottle several times daily. In fact, the male malechite sunbird shouts at me if it is empty, and lands on the feeding perch almost as soon as I leave.

Cape Weaver at the sugar water.

During winter the fruit goes untouched, and the bottle stands empty, as there is enough to find in the veld, but today, as we were sitting eating our lunch on the veranda, we noticed that the birds were looking for the extra sweetness, and we obliged (rather, Rob obliged!).



Weaver, barbet, bulbul, weaver!


In the corner of our garden where two walls meet, we put a barbet log for them to nest in. Within hours the barbets had found it and had begun to hollow out the log. This carried on for days and we were delighted to think that we would have other youngsters to watch. Then they lost interest. And the starlings decided to use the log. The baby is nearly ready to fly and hangs out of the log waiting for food delivery! People say that they are messy birds and I suppose that they are, but, how is this: the baby never poos in the nest, it turns round and poos through the hole!

More luck than judgement!

Sometimes it is more accurate than others, as the white stripes down the log show, but I think that is very clever!