Animals don't have a voice

Animals don't have a voice ...

So guess what?

You'll never stop hearing mine!

 

This odd bird, the Hadeda ...

I know most of you expats contemplating a move to South Africa are worried about crime. But you know what you should REALLY be worried about? The Hadeda!

Yes, that’s right, a bird.  And not just any bird. The Hadeda (curiously a member of the Ibis family) will be the reason you will wake up at five a.m. on your first South African morning, convinced that someone’s killing your neighbor. Or maybe more like your neighbor’s pig. Holy S#!t! It is a screech to wake up the dead.

 A Hadeda’s plumage has a beautiful iridescent sheen

And you will think: Seriously? You’ve got to be kidding me! I cannot live in this country. Or, rather, I cannot SLEEP in this country!

For weeks you’ll be scheming about ways to shut these guys up, but trust me, it’s not possible. We have a cat that catches everything that flies, but she doesn’t touch Hadedas. I suppose she is not as dumb as we thought when she jumped into the fireplace and got her whiskers singed. Because even a little Hadeda probably weighs more than her, and because that beak is really long and pointy.

You wonder why they have to be so loud. None of the other Ibis-related birds are so loud. In fact, none of the other Ibis-related birds make any sound at all. Leave it to our family to pick the one place to live that has the only non-mute ibises in the whole world.

Some say they are afraid of heights and screech out of fear. A bird, afraid of heights? That’s got to be a first.  But it’s true, they only screech when they’re flying, often in groups all screeching together, and mostly in the mornings and evenings. In between, they are the most peaceful creatures, stalking around your lawn looking pretty and making themselves useful.

What, useful, you will ask? And it’s true. What they love most for dinner and are very adept at extracting from your lawn are Parktown Prawns. Yes, those things. Or their larvae. Or pupae. Frankly, I don’t care. Whichever form they digest them in, every Parktown Prawn less on my property is a good thing.

I just have to make peace with a pig squealing bloody murder every single morning.
(From "Moving to South Africa? Beware of the Hadeda!")

And make peace with the fact that there is no more sleep after 04:25h anymore...

I took a stroll

 

I took a little stroll 

along the pathway 

and observed the wild flowers blooming.
.

It was a very fine day.
.

(Photo taken on my stroll through Sheffield Beach Estate, Ballito, KwaZulu Natal)

Today

It has been 6 weeks since we sold our smallholding and Gauteng in moved down to the North Coast of KwaZulu Natal (South Africa) (ONLY 6 weeks??!! feels like a life-time!) and it has taken me all this while to find my feet, gather my thoughts and feel as if I once again belong somewhere. The biggest thing about moving from a place where you have lived for 43 years is seemingly losing your 'identity' - an identity tied to the bird life you studied for so many years, an identity tied to the grass, trees and the very soil you were walking on, an identity tied to "your" plants and birds and insects and little animals nurtured in your garden for so long.

I open my eyes in the mornings and in stead of hearing the Cape Robin-chat singing on my patio, I hear the exotic sound of the Burchell's Coucal outside my window, the sound of the surf pounding on the beach in stead of traffic whizzing past my front gate, and when I rise and go for an early morning walk, I see tropical (and unknown!) vegetation in stead of veld grass and Bluegum trees. A big a change as you can ever imagine!

Yes, it has taken me 6 weeks to get into the swing of things in this new life we have chosen and although I was, and still am, mourning the loss of my pets (my chooks will forever be ingrained in my heart), I now look forward to discovering all that is new in this exotic coastal location; insects I have never seen in my life, the names of the trees and plants which thrive in these hot and humid conditions and finding out which succulents like to grow here!