Snoodles, a chick with attitude!

Camera : Canon EOS 550D 

Taken in my garden (Tarlton, Gauteng, South Africa)

This is Snoodles, the little chick I saved from the dustbin, took her out of the egg in November 2013 and she’s been living with me in my studio. She’s getting to be a big girl now and has already joined all the other girls in the chicken coop.

As soon as Snoodles was big enough, we’d go on field trips through the garden and my wildlife pond area, where she would investigate every nook and cranny, delighting in catching the odd insect. Here she hopped on a rock, chasing after a Dragonfly.

Good luck with that Snoodles!

 Snoodles standing on my computer speaker, taking a peek at what's going on outside

Snoodles taking some time out on the edge of Jacko's chair, much to his disgust!

.

The Starling and the Weaver

Yesterday afternoon, while sitting on the patio with a cup of coffee, I saw a bright glint of blue through some plants. I had my camera with me as I had been taking photographs earlier on. I focused on the flash of blue through the plants and to my delight saw this Glossy Starling (Lamprotornis nitens) and a Masked Weaver (Ploceus velatus) at one of my bird baths. The Starling seemed to be aware of me, but the Weaver was not perturbed by me or the Starling, hopping into the water and splashing water all over the Starling, who looked like he was also going to hop in, but never got around to it.

The Weaver spent a couple of minutes splashing around before taking off into the trees and settling down to preen himself. The Starling took a couple of drinks of water and also disappeared into the trees, sure that I was spying on him!

 

::

White-browed Sparrow Weaver (Plocepasser mahali)

Camera : Canon EOS 550D
Location : Taken in my garden, Tarlton, Gauteng, South Africa

While working in the garden, I was absolutely thrilled to see a pair of White-browed Sparrow Weavers (Plocepasser mahali – Koringvoël in Afrikaans) visiting one of my bird feeders. These large, plump, short-tailed weavers are not shy at all and don’t fly off easily, even when walking quite close past them. Their boldness is utterly charming and besides a harsh ‘chik-chik’ call which they use to let one another know they’re still around, they have a beautiful, loud, liquid ‘cheeoop-preeoo-chop’ whistle which I haven’t been able to figure out yet.

Pic from Biodiversity Explorer - I've got no pics of the Hosue Sparrow, these little brown jobbies are really hyperactive and I've just not been able to get a good capture!

This Weaver is often confused with the House Sparrow (Passer domesticus), but lacks the black mask surrounding the eye and black throat typical of the House Sparrow.

The White-browed Sparrow-Weaver is found in greatest numbers in north-central southern Africa, so seeing them in my garden has been the highlight of the season and I’m hoping they will either move in or at least become regular visitors.

Found throughout central and north-central Southern Africa, it mainly eats insects, seeds, fruit and fleshy leaves, doing most of its foraging in flocks of 4-10 birds (sometimes along with other species), plucking food items from the ground and will even visit bird-feeders.

These birds are monogamous and colonial cooperative breeders, living in groups within which each bird has their own nest. However there can only be one active breeding pair per group who are usually the largest in size, remaining dominant until their death, at which point another pair steps up to the plate. The group is highly territorial, vigorously defending their 50 meter long foraging territory, often chasing intruders out of the territory.

The nest is built by both breeders in about 5-30 days but maintained throughout the year, consisting of an untidy, retort-shaped structure made of dry grass, with two entrances one of which is closed by the breeding pair. It is typically wedged into the branches of a thorny tree, but it may also use telephone wires, power lines and fences.

 

Nest images from Biodiversity Callie de Wet 

 

 

 

 

::

Thankful for the rain - and there's more to come

Image from "Die Beeld" Newspaper

After suffering a drought most of last summer, this January has brought (almost) more rain than we can handle. While the farmers and us gardeners are ecstatic about the rain, some suburban areas in Krugersdorp (Gauteng, South Africa) and other areas have been hard hit with lots of destruction. At the Walter Sisulu Botanical gardens in Roodepoort the normally placid waterfall turned into a raging torrent, washing away bridges and sending the newly fledged young Black Eagle seeking the safety of his nest high up on the cliffs. You can see the video of the waterfall HERE.  

I think it is a symptom of all the development in the catchment area. With all the new housing estates going up in the area, more hard surfaces means less water penetration into the soil and larger, more spectacular flash floods. According to the SA Weather Service, this storm is in a band coming from the north, through Botswana and North West. Water flowing through water courses caused the Monument Dam at Key West Shopping Mall to overflow, spilling millions of litres into a nearby school, which had to be closed, while the water rushed through various parts of the town.

Watch this short video.


For the past three weeks, we've been having afternoon thunderstorms with 30mm on most days, but the whopper was on Saturday night and early Sunday morning, when my rain gauge over-flowed, meaning more than 100mm in just over 18 hours. I didn't write it down, but my estimate is 450mm for the month. My chickens sought the safety of the coop, not venturing out until it had all subsided after lunch-time.

I've always wanted to live either at the beach or the banks of a river, but Mother Nature is so unpredictable these days, I think for the moment I will settle for the high, flat plains of Gauteng.


.

Farm Talk - Robin vs Wagtail

Camera: Fuji FinePix 2800ZOOM

I posted this article before, in Sept 2008, don't know how many people would go that far back in the archives, but at the moment I've got a very similar scenario going on between my Robins and Cape Wagtails, vying for the best nesting spot in my Fan Palm tree, so I thought I would just publish it again. Luckily, as yet, there have been no fatalities so I'm hoping they'll be able to sort out their differences.

Up until the end of April 2003, we had lived on our smallholding (8,5ha) in Tarlton since 1975. Over the years, I had established a lush garden with numerous indigenous trees and various types of ivies, one of which covered the kitchen wall on the South side of the house and in which the Wagtails made their home. I also had a resident pair of Cape Robins, nesting in the ivy creeping up a dead tree trunk opposite the Wagtails. I dearly loved my Cape Robins, who would take mince out of my hands at the kitchen window, but I must inform you that they are utter terrorists as far as the Wagtails are concerned!

Over a period of 2 weeks, I watched in fascination as both the Robin and Wagtail parents fed their chicks. (After a long, careful search I located the Wagtail nest in the ivy on the kitchen wall – the Robins’ nest was much lower opposite them and more obvious). Both sets of parents scurried hurriedly for the available cache of insects and the Robins, who would dive-bomb and chase them at every opportunity, constantly harassed worms, with one hitch – the Wagtails.



Then, one morning, I heard the Wagtails’ panicky cries and to my utter horror, found the Robin plucking the Wagtail chicks from their nest, dropping them, bleeding and fatally injured. The gentler Wagtails could do nothing but scurry helplessly about. I tried to rescue the unfortunate Wagtail chicks, but to no avail – they were already dying.

The only conclusion I could come to was that the Robins regarded the kitchen window and my mince meals as their domain and begrudged the Wagtails being anywhere in the vicinity!

.

Struthio camelus

“An ostrich with its head in the sand is just as blind to opportunity as to disaster.”

The Ostrich (struthio camelus) is a member of a group of birds known as ratites, that is they are flightless birds without a keel to their breastbone, and are native to Africa. Of the 8,600 bird species which exist today, the ostrich is the largest. Standing tall on long, bare legs, the Ostrich has a long, curving, predominantly white neck. The humped body of the male is covered in black patches and the wings and tail are tipped with white. The female is brown and white. These huge birds, which sometimes reach a height of 2.6 m and a weight of 135 kg, cannot fly, but are very fast runners.

Here in South Africa, Ostriches were almost wiped out in the 18th century due to hunting for feathers. By the middle of the 19th century, due to the extensive practice of ostrich farming, the ostrich population increased. The movement changed to domesticating and plucking ostriches, instead of hunting. Ostriches have been successfully domesticated and are now farmed throughout the world, particularly in South Africa, for meat, feathers and leather. The leather goes through a tanning process and is then manufactured into fashion accessories such as boots and bags.

I don't have any nice pics of Ostriches myself, so I decided to do this sketch for this post. Watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm - Maree©

Farm Talk - Robin vs Wagtail

WELCOME to my Nature Blog! Here I will share my life on my little piece of African soil, an 8,5ha smallholding situated in Tarlton (Gauteng,South Africa). Join me in celebrating all Mother Nature has to offer. I believe every creature, large or small, every plant, rock, mountain, river, or sea that has come into being has the right to exist in its place, to be respected and to fulfil its role within the community of life. I respect Mother Earth in all her many forms and pledge to harm no thing and no one and to safeguard the fertility of the soils, the purity of water and air, and the health of natural communities inhabiting this planet.

Camera: Fuji FinePix 2800ZOOM

Up until the end of April 2003, we had lived on our smallholding (8,5ha) in Tarlton since 1975. Over the years, I had established a lush garden with numerous indigenous trees and various types of ivies, one of which covered the kitchen wall on the South side of the house and in which the Wagtails made their home. I also had a resident pair of Cape Robins, nesting in the ivy creeping up a dead tree trunk opposite the Wagtails. I dearly loved my Cape Robins, who would take mince out of my hands at the kitchen window, but I must inform you that they are utter terrorists as far as the Wagtails are concerned!

Over a period of 2 weeks, I watched in fascination as both the Robin and Wagtail parents fed their chicks. (After a long, careful search I located the Wagtail nest in the ivy on the kitchen wall – the Robins’ nest was much lower opposite them and more obvious). Both sets of parents scurried hurriedly for the available cache of insects and worms, with one hitch - the Robins would dive-bomb and chase the Wagtails at every opportunity – making it very difficult for the Wagtails to feed their chicks in peace.

Then, one morning, I heard the Wagtails’ panicky cries and to my utter horror, found the Robin plucking the Wagtail chicks from their nest, dropping them, bleeding and fatally injured. The gentler Wagtails could do nothing but scurry helplessly about. I tried to rescue the unfortunate Wagtail chicks, but to no avail – they were already dying.

The only conclusion I could come to was that the Robins regarded the kitchen window and my mince meals as their domain and begrudged the Wagtails being anywhere in the vicinity!

.