🐾 Maybe the reason I love animals so much, is because the only time they have broken my heart is when theirs has stopped beating.
Showing posts with label Africa. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Africa. Show all posts

Tuesday 15 January 2019

Hadeda Ibis - Bostrychia hagedash

The Hadeda is famous for being South Africa’s natural alarm clock. I'm sure everybody will agree with that. When we lived in Gauteng on our smallholding, we rarely saw any Hadedas, so the excitement was great when they did appear. Here in Ballito, KwaZulu Natal, it's a totally different story - their numbers seem to be on a par (to me at least) to that of the Indian Mynah and the Red-winged Starling. 

And I am utterly thrilled to be seeing them in such abundance! And I just absolutely LOVE their call, but must admit that I prefer to be woken up by the Burchell's Cuckoo soothing call and not the hart-stopping call of the Hadeda at 4am in the morning!

Usually at 4.30am !!

 

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Pest, charming oddity or just background noise, the Hadeda ibis is a feathered phenomenon in suburban South Africa. Its feathers are a drab gray or brown, so it's not on a bird lover bucket list. But the bird now has a small niche in popular culture. Somelodges and restaurants carry its name, a website offers a ringtone download of its cry and a pair of South African musicians produced a song called: "Harry the hungry Hadeda." Some call it a "flying vuvuzela," recalling the din of the plastic horn used by stadium fans during the World Cup soccer tournament in South Africa in 2010.

 

The Hadeda or Hadeda Ibis,is an ibis found in Sub-Saharan Africa. . It is named for its loud three to four note calls uttered in flight especially in the mornings and evenings when they fly out or return to their roost trees. While Hadeda Ibis (Bostrychia hagedash) is not a conservation listed species, it is protected under provincial regs. Hadeda Ibis is protected in all but one province, namely KZN. The species is threatened, though, by extended droughts which reduce food availability by causing damp soil to harden, making it more difficult to probe for insects. The population in South Africa also declined markedly at the turn of the century due to hunting during the colonial expansion.

The Hadeda Ibis is monogamous and breeds in solitary pairs, unlike other ibis species. They breed from July to January in South Africa. They lay 1 to 5 eggs which are incubated by both parents. Incubation lasts up to 28 days. Young are independent at about 40 days.
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  Males display before choosing a mate. The pair then engages in mutual bowing and display preening.  

The Hadeda Ibis is a social bird usually seen in pairs or in small groups of between 5 and 30 birds, and seldom as a single individual. Occasionally it can form flocks of some 50-200 individuals. They feeds on insects, millipedes and earthworms, using their long scimitar-like bill to probe soft soil. It also eats larger insects, such as the Parktown prawn, as well as spiders and small lizards. Sometimes it swipes dog food meant for pets, splatters parked cars and driveways with droppings and yanks residents from sleep with jarring squawks at first light.


Some ornithologists credit the Hadeda's dietary preferences with curbing the population of the "Parktown Prawn," a king cricket (Libanasidus vittatus) named after a Johannesburg suburb that can creep or leap into homes at night, horrifying residents. The Hadeda, in turn, has few natural predators in cities, facing instead the lesser peril of flying into windows or getting hit by a car.  Although totally harmless, the insects can jump actively and often eject offensive black fecal liquids when threatened. Accordingly, they frighten nervous persons and they may chew carpets and fabrics. 

You may love 'em or hate 'em, but this striking African bird is surrounded by many ancient legends and myths. One myth tells of how the northern bald ibis, Geronticus eremita, a symbol of fertility in some regions of Turkey, was one of the first birds that Noah released from the Ark.

As a lexophile (logophile?), I was pleased to learn that the plural of ibis is not "ibises" as most people would guess it to be, but instead, the plural is either ibes or even more interesting; ibides. 

Sunday 28 September 2014

Farm talk - A Special sanctuary


“The master bedroom is just the beginning of the problems. There is no master in the bedroom. She starts to give you things, “This is your closet.” You’ll act like a stranger and thank her!”
- Bill Cosby


I’ve had a couple of requests to ‘share’ a bit more about where I live way out in the country on my little piece of African soil, so I decided to do a short series of my home in Tarlton, South Africa, situated on an 8.5ha smallholding. This is purely for fun! I would just like to mention that, when building and decorating my home about 7 years ago, I have taken inspiration from Africa, and nature in particular, surrounding myself with natural (and sometimes living!) objects and colour. I am not ostentatious by nature and prefer the simple and natural things in life. Hope you enjoy and find this interesting! I know I just LOVE to see other people’s living spaces, be it small or large, simple or ornate, in suburbia or the country, in a basement or a sky-scraper, inland or at the coast.

There is a place where you can go to find some peace and quiet, a retreat from the rest of the world, where you can relax at the end of a long day. Here, you can reorganize and establish serenity. This place is your bedroom.

They say , “A man’s house is his Castle”, I say, “A woman’s bedroom is her Sanctuary”. This is the place where I unwind from the excitement of the day, reading a good book or watching some TV after a long soak by candle light in the bath-tub, and get revived and inspired for a new day lying ahead.


The King size bed is set between built-in concrete ‘bedside tables’, flanked by two woven grass wall lamps. An Nguni skin serves as a bedside rug. The floors are concrete finished off with Plascon EarthCote pigment and varnished. The EarthCote range of finishing pigments cost an arm and a leg, but I think I saved an arm and a leg in tiling … does that make sense…?


The opposite end of the bedroom with built-in spare bed and Plasma TV. An early 20th Century Teak chest of drawers serves as a bed-side table. A framed print of one of my paintings purchased from RB hangs above the bed. This bed was specially built for my youngest grand-daughter to sleep near us when she was still a toddler. Now it serves as a day-bed for reading a good book while sipping a hot mug of Cocoa!


The entrance to the bedroom from the passage – Wooden and metal masks from all over Africa adorn the walls and river pebbles are inlaid on the corners. An Oregon pine wooden trunk from the early 1900’s serves as storage space for extra blankets and throws and on the pillar is an African pot filled with grasses. A hanging candle chandelier in the corner adds interest and a crystal chandelier overhead provides lighting. The air conditioning unit is a must for our hot summers and faces the lounge.


A collection of river pebbles and crystals next to my bed in a carved wooden bowl with grass edging – this is where all my jewellery goes when I get ready for bed. I don’t wear any gold or silver jewellery, just crystals and other natural materials like stone, bone and wood. It is said that crystals get ‘cleansed’ by the presence of rocks.


The ceiling in the bedroom (and throughout the house) is wooden “latte” (de-barked Blue gum saplings and cut to lengths to fit between the rafters) and the light fitting is glass with pewter and Indian Silver strips dangling from the bottom, sort of acting like wind chimes – but I’ve never had a strong enough wind in my bedroom to hear them!

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Thursday 10 January 2013

Africa, this is why I live here

I have discovered a great Page on FaceBook and thought I'd share it here with you. It epitomises all that is Africa; the amusing, the amazing, the beautiful, the sad, our beautiful fauna and flora unique to Africa and the day-to-day happenings we experience every day.
All pics and info is from "Africa, this is why I live here.

  Christmas at Mfuwe Lodge - Zambia


These jackal pups played in front of us for about 15min before getting bored and moving off. 
- Anthony and Marcelle Robbins

 Uhm....that lion must be real full...probabaly just eaten the zebras sibling?

 SPRINGBOK EMERGE
Elizabeth Hart - Etosha, Namibia
 I can see myself ensconced in this here 'Beach Lounge' for New Years Eve....... :)

 Dolphins surfing
Maitlands Beach.... outside Port Elizabeth, South Africa

 Broken waterpump - Africa, is not for sissies!




 Paradise Flycatcher


 Time for sundowners...


Morning cuddle in the Kruger National Park

 'Reingers' pulling a Christmas Sleigh at Londolozi Game Reserve

A bit of innovation never hurt anybody




Aardwolf den




Multi-tasking


You know you are in Africa when.... you have an elephant walking straight towards your car!



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Wednesday 10 October 2012

My mind is at ease in Africa

I wanted to say something about the beautiful country I live in, but I guess I can't say it any better than the words below ... 


Driving down the road under the southern light 
Looking back to see where we've come from 
As we watched the sun go down 
Rain it fell like diamonds from Kimberley mines 

On the road to Jo'burg with the dying light 
Farewell Durban City of Natal 
Stopped a while to stretch my thoughts 
As we crossed the borderline and into Transvaal 

I saw the sun go down 
 Under the southern skies 
Over and over 
I'll always remember those beautiful African nights 

In the old V W, we'd count the miles 
We travelled with a friend whose name was Farr 
The stories that he told us talked of faces times and places 
 Sang and played his guitar 

Driving down the road we hear the morning rise 
Leaving all the past so far behind 
The sound man played the Eagles as we listen 
 'Take it easy' Echoes on through our lives 

I saw the sun go down 
Under the southern skies 
Over and over I'll 
always remember, I still hear them call 
No matter how far those beautiful African nights 
- Unknown 
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Tuesday 10 January 2012

My Native land, Good Night!

“Here an ancient oriel window opened glassless to the sky
and the light of the hunter's moon washed us in silver.”
- Unknown


Black ink sketch on a textured back-ground by Kim Klassen

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It was full moon last night and when I switched off the garden lights, my garden was bathed in a golden glow... and I could've sworn I saw the fairies hiding under the mushrooms...

One website explains the full moon thus,
"The moon and sun are on a line, with Earth in between. It’s as though Earth is the fulcrum of a seesaw, and the moon and sun are sitting on either end of the seesaw. Thus as the sun sets in the west, the full moon rises. When the sun is below our feet at midnight, the full moon is highest in the sky. When the sun rises again at dawn, the full moon is setting."

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"Lunar eclipses can only occur at full moon, where the moon's orbit allows it to pass through the earth's shadow. Lunar eclipses do not occur every month because the moon sometimes passes above or below the earth's shadow. Lunar eclipses can occur only when the full moon occurs near two nodes of the orbit, either the ascending or descending nodes. This causes eclipses to only occur about every 6 months, and often 2 weeks before or after a solar eclipse at new moon at the opposite node.

Full Moons are traditionally associated with temporal insomnia, insanity (hence the terms lunacy and lunatic) and various "magical phenomena" such as lycanthropy. Psychologists, however, have found that there is no strong evidence for effects on human behavior around the time of a full moon."
This info from WIKIPEDIA

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There you have it! No excuse for any bad behaviour in the future!

Have a good night tonight!



Camera : Fuji FinePix 2800ZOOM - taken in my garden

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Saturday 26 March 2011

Gentle Giant

“Keep five yards from a carriage, ten yards from a horse, and a hundred yards from an elephant; but the distance one should keep from a wicked man cannot be measured.”
- Indian Proverb

"African Elephant" - Acrylic on Canvas - Maree©

With a height of just over 3 - 4m (measured at the shoulder), a length of between 6 to 7.5m (that's the length of an average motor car garage!) and weighing in at 6 tonnes, these mostly gentle giants of the African bush are highly intelligent with a strong sense of family and herd, and a complex social structure.

Elephants are incredibly social animals: they form strong, long-lasting bonds within their herd. They adopt orphaned calves, help injured elephants and work together. They have surprisingly complicated behavioural patterns and interactions. An injured member may be helped to its feet and supported by other herd members: if it is badly wounded, it may be vigorously defended by the herd, with even the calves taking part. Although elephants are normally peaceful individuals, they can be aggressive and extremely dangerous, especially if they are sick or injured. Females in groups with young are particularly unpredictable, as are males in musth.

Here in Africa they are native to a wide variety of habitats including semi-desert scrub, open savannas and dense forest regions. Besides its greater size, it differs from the Asian elephant in having larger ears and tusks, a sloping forehead, and two “fingers” at the tip of its trunk, compared to only one in the Asian species.

For this sketch, I looked at many different photographs from a great many angles, and developed this stance from all the 'information' I had gathered in my mind.

Acrylic on Acrylic Gesso primed un-stretched acrylic canvas sheet 12" x 8"

If you would like to buy a print of this painting, go to RedBubble or e-mail me if you are interested in the original.

Thursday 18 November 2010

African Joy and Sorrow


Watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm - Maree©

"The triumph of life is the joy experienced thereafter."
- Maree

A couple of years ago, one of my guinea fowl sitting on eggs was killed by a dog, leaving 10 eggs, on the point of hatching, without a mother. I gathered all the eggs and put them in a basket with a hot water bottle, trying to keep them warm to see if any of them would hatch. Two days later still nothing, but on the third day I heard a weak peep-peep from one of the eggs. None of the others showed any sign of life, so I decided to take matters into my own hands and open the one that was peeping. I gently peeled away the shell and lifted out a perfectly formed little guinea fowl, and placed him on the warm towel, drying his little body with a soft cloth until he lifted his little head and stared me straight in the eye.

That was the beginning of a beautiful, long relationship with "Guinea", who spent five years following me everywhere and providing us with endless hours of pleasure with his surprising antics. He even lured a wild guinea fowl female from the wild (they used to pass through our property in large flocks, travelling from one field to another) and together they reared 5 clutches of beautiful little guinea fowl, all of whom stayed on our property for many years.

When Guinea's wife disappeared one day, he was inconsolable, standing on the wall and calling for hours in that haunting 'phe-twee, phe-twee, phe-twee' that is so typical of the South African bush. After that, he would often disappear for a day or two until, one day, he didn't come home at all. I hoped and presumed that he had found another family and was happily roaming the fields surrounding our property.


“This life as you live it now and have lived it, you will have to live again and again, times without number, and there will be nothing new in it, but every pain and every joy and every thought and sigh and all the unspeakably small and great in your life must return to you and everything in the same series and sequence -- and in the same way this spider and this moonlight among the trees, and this same way this moment and I myself. The eternal hour glass of existence will be turned again and again -- and you with it, you dust of dust!”
- Friedrich Nietzsche


Guinea and one of his babies

Wednesday 21 July 2010

Mai, the Mynah


This is Mai after her bath, a young Mynah I was very privileged to have in my life for almost 6 months. Here she enjoys a bit of sun before following me back to my studio.

I found her on the pavement in town, where she had probably fallen out of the nest, and she was just a little bundle of quills, no feathers yet, and after looking around if I could see the nest and not finding it, I took her home with me.

The intelligence and loving spirit of these amazing birds is beyond description - she was not caged and had free range of the house and garden, and one of her favourite past-times was her early-morning bath in the bird bath in the garden, after which she would fly into my studio, roosting on top of the computer screen, preening herself until she was all sparkling and shiny.

(The Common Myna or Indian Myna (Acridotheres tristis) also sometimes spelled Mynah, is a member of the starling family. It is a species of bird native to Asia with its initial home range spanning from Iran, Pakistan, India and Kazakhstan to Malaysia and China. An omnivorous open woodland bird with a strong territorial instinct, the Myna has adapted extremely well to urban environments.

The Myna has been introduced in many other parts of the world and its distribution range is on the increase to an extent that, in 2000, the IUCN Species Survival Commission (IUCN) declared it among the World's 100 worst invasive species. The Myna is one of only three birds in this list of invasive species. It is a serious threat to the ecosystems of Australia and South Africa.)

Camera : FujiFinepix 2800Zoom Digital - normal settings

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Mai taking off to dry off after sharing my bath with me.


Mai, roosting on my PC speaker, enjoying some music


The beauty of an adult Mynah
Pic from Wikipedia


Adult Mynah

Wednesday 14 April 2010

Thorn Trees of Africa


Thorn tree - watercolour on Ashrad 300gsm - 11" x 7.5" - Maree
Umbrella Thorn
{Acacia tortilis}

There are few more striking symbols of Africa than a thorn tree - its gnarled branches, graceful form, jagged thorns and abundant blooms, in many ways reflecting the paradoxes of the continent.

This Umbrella Thorn (Acacia tortilis) stands in one corner of my garden and offers a safe haven for many birds who seek a safe place to nest.

Umbrella Thorn Acacia {Acacia tortilis}
The Umbrella Thorn Acacia grows in Africa. There are over 700 species of the Acacia in Africa. Umbrella Thorn Acacia is one of the most recognizable trees of the African savanna. It grows in sand dunes and rocky grounds of Africa's grasslands. Acacias grow in areas with annual rainfall as low as 4cm. This tree can survive in 50°C temperatures during the day, and freezing temperatures at nights. The savanna that the Acacias live in is hot and dry in the respective summer of the Southern Hemisphere although at night the temperature can go below -18°C. During the winter months the savanna gets a lot of rain. The Umbrella Thorn grows up to 20 meters high and has a spreading, flat-tapped crown that gives it its name.

The structure of umbrella thorn trees preserves soil moisture by having a high proportion above-ground woody mass and low amount of foliage and the utmost top tips are a favourite grazing spot for Giraffes.


(Info from Wikipedia)

Thursday 25 February 2010

Africa's Wonder


"Africa's Wonder - Elephant" - watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm - 12" x 9" - Maree©

Africa's wild animals are a constant source of inspiration and for me elephants symbolise Strength, Solitude, sense of loyalty to the family and Intelligence. Looking into the eye of an elephant, one sees Wisdom beyond our understanding.

I sketched this young elephant on a visit to the Elephant Sanctuary at Hartebeespoort Dam where they provide a “halfway house” for young African elephants in need of a temporary home.

Elephants might be the most well-known and well-loved animal in the line-up of African wildlife. But conservation of the African elephant (Loxodonta africana) poses special challenges. While the overall elephant population is half of what it was 40 years ago, some regions of Africa have more elephants than populated areas can support.

African elephants are bigger than Asian Elephants. Males stand 3.6 m (12 ft) tall at the shoulder and weigh 5,400 kg (12,000 lb), while females stand 3 m (9.8 ft) and weigh between 3,600 and 4,600 kg (7,900 and 10,000 lb). However, males can get as big as 6,800 kg (15,000 lb!).



Years ago, over-hunting and the ivory trade were the biggest threats to elephants’ survival. Fortunately, ivory bans, hunting regulations, and protected areas safeguard elephants from these pressures today.

The 21st century brings an entirely different challenge to elephant conservation – land-use. Elephants roam over vast territories – across borders and outside parks and other protected areas. Unfortunately, elephants often range directly through human settlements and crops, causing discord between local farmers and these big mammals.

Successful conservation strategies must allow elephants to range freely in their natural habitats while reducing crop-raiding and other conflicts between elephants and local people and encourage peaceful co-existence.

Some interesting info :
Elephants have four molars; each weighs about 5 kg (11 lb) and measures about 30 cm (12 in) long. As the front pair wears down and drops out in pieces, the back pair shifts forward and two new molars emerge in the back of the mouth. Elephants replace their teeth six times. At about 40 to 60 years of age the elephant no longer has teeth and will likely die of starvation, a common cause of death.

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