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!

Bats and Wind Turbines.

A few months ago we bought a bat box. We haven't put it up yet though as it is very heavy and must go on top of a 5 metre pole! We have bats in the (no, not the belfry) old farmhouse buildings next to us, and we watch them in the evenings fall out from under the roof and fly off to consume as many mosquitoes and crop eating insects as they can! Apparently they can consume their body weight in insects! (I can do that with chocolate cake, but I'd never fly afterwards!) Bats are also responsible for the pollination of an amazing list of nut and fruit trees, as well as helping to promote the spread of new trees by pooing while they fly and letting the poo drop onto open ground! Unlike birds that poo in trees! I wanted to find a picture of bats to insert in my blog, so I happily Googled 'bat pictures'. Well, I realised that I should have been more specific as I ended up with a screen full of Batman and Robin in various poses (hmmmm!), old pictures of a pop group called 'The Bats', cricket bats, cricketers holding bats, cricketers running with bats, and a few real bats thrown in for good measure. See below!!

Real bats..thanks to 'africam'

Friends and Neighbours!

I was listening to the radio the other morning and the presenter was saying that he had just moved into a 'leafy suburb' in Cape Town, and therefore would probably never meet his neighbours! I thought about what he had said and realised that neighbours differ from city to town to village! When we lived in 'The Big Smoke' aka Johannesburg, we lived in a high-walled-several-unit complex, where we did know our neighbours to a certain extent, especially if the power went off or the water supply suddenly dribbled to a halt, then people would meet in the road to make sure that it wasn't just them! The talk then turned to the weather before everybody returned to close their doors against getting too personal! Many of the larger complexes have more units than we have houses in our entire village! Then you 'recognise' your neighbours by sound, i.e. they play Barry Manilow while you are trying to watch rugby on Saturday afternoons! People back in 'The Big Smoke' who live in streets with seperate houses demarcated by electric fences and gates and 6 ft high walls sometimes never see their neighbours, robbers could arrive and empty the house and nobody would give it a thought beyond, 'Oh, I didn't know that they were moving!' Once, long ago when I was teaching, my whole class and I sat and watched a car being ramped up into a large truck that we presumed was taking it to a nearby garage to be fixed. Except that it wasn't broken, because soon a parent returned to find that her car had been stolen!And we watched it happen! Probably waved to the driver!

Then, there are Weskus neighbours!

Die Kaapse Klopse!

Talking of Public Holidays (well I was a while ago!), remember I mentioned 'Tweede Nuwejaar' or second New Year on January 2? That is the day that hosts one of the most unique and colourful events in Cape Town's year. The 'Kaapse Klopse' or 'Cape Minstrel Carnival' is rooted deep in Cape Town's history and is traditionally the day when brightly costumed troupes take to the streets to entertain the crowds and to compete against each other. The specially designed costumes are hand made from satin and silk and can cost up to R350 each! The brighter the better though, and prizes are awarded for costumes, choirs and bands. The member’s ages range from 5 years to 80 years, and while the older members usually make the music, the younger ones dance and sing. The leader of the troupe must be agile enough to walk and dance in front and keep the pace going for hours!

Thanks to Ricardo Kleine News 24