No this is not an Outlook email message. It is a post showing you some of  the bird life which we are fortunate enough to see in our garden. In between trips I practice by taking photographs of birds in our garden.  All the images were taken from my office which looks out onto our garden.  On the east side of the property is the Outspan Bird Sanctuary which has a stream flowing through it. A  number of bird species move down the stream during the morning only to return in the afternoon. The Outspan Bird Sanctuary has many knob thorn, poplar and willow trees growing along the stream which makes it a haven for wild bird life in the area. There is a resident flock of Helmeted Guineafowl which live in the Sanctuary and their calls in the early morning and evening give a sense of being out in the bush.

“No bird soars too high, if he soars with his own wings.”
 – William Blake

We have a family of Crested Barbets in the garden. They are near the top of the small bird food chain and don’t take any nonsense from the aggressive Indian Mynas. Their trilling call and vivid colouring are distinctive.

 The male and female are similarly coloured but the male is bigger than the female.

We have a few Masked Weavers which work tirelessly weaving nests in the trees around our garden. The next image was taken before the breeding season where this male had still to grow the black feathers of his face mask.

As spring progresses so the males gain their full breeding colours. The Southern Masked Weaver has the yellow crown, black forehead and red-eye. The Village Weaver is very similar but its yellow crown extends down to its forehead.

This Southern masked Weaver’s crown and forehead are more distinct now that he has his full breeding colours.

Part of the brigade which troop up and down the stream daily are a family of Green Wood Hoopoes, or “cackling widows” as we like to call them. This family travels together and they can be easily heard by their cackling chorus, which at first take sound somewhat like Arrow-marked Babblers. They are very active digging under the bark of branches and tree trunks looking for insects and grubs.

Dead tree trunks with broken bark is ideal for these Green Wood-Hoopoes. Unfortunately they don’t often give you a chance to photograph them with a clean background.

The iridescent blues and greens together with their vivid red beak and feet make them very attractive birds.

 

“You can know the name of a bird in all the languages of the world, but when you’re finished, you’ll know absolutely nothing whatever about the bird . . . So let’s look at the bird and see what it’s doing – that’s what counts. I learned very early the difference between knowing the name of something and knowing something.”
 – Richard P. Feynman

Recently we have had a Brown-headed Kingfisher come into the garden. It seems to like the perch outside my office because it  provides a clear view  of the lawn and surrounds, which makes it easier to spot prey, mainly insects.

 The Brown-headed Kingfisher is an insect not a fish eater. It makes a distinctive trilling sound

 The Brown-headed Kingfisher normally comes and perches outside my office in the afternoons probably because it is hotter and the insects are more abundant.

 The male Brown-headed Kingfisher has black not brown shoulders and is larger than its smaller Striped cousin which looks quite similar.

An irresistible Prunus it the dappled light.

Dark-capped Bulbuls are very talkative garden birds, quick to inform you there is a cat , Coucal or Sparrowhawk in the area.

 

These Dark-capped Bulbuls or “toppies” as we used to call them love fruit but will also hunt insects and are partial to a little nectar when it is available.

In recent years, we have been fortunate enough to have Glossy Starlings in the garden. The next image shows a Cape Glossy Starling with a little nesting material in its beak.

 

The Cape Glossy Starlings also love fruit and will also feed on insects and nectar when available.

 The Cape Glossy Starling lacks the dark ear coverts and has a more blue-green sheen than its blue-eared cousin. These starlings are great company when working in the garden they will sit in the tree above you and chat away.

There are a number of Olive Thrushes in the garden. There is a distinct “pecking order”. The Thrushes chase most small birds away such as Sparrows and Robins but not the Barbets or Mynas. The next image is of a male in breeding display mode.

 We don’t get Kurricane Thrushes in the garden.  At first glance they look similar to the Olive Thrush but the Kurricane has dark malar moustache-like stripes which are distinctive.

We have puzzle bushes in the garden which bear small red berries. The Mousebirds love these berries. The next image is of a Red-faced Mousebird manoeuvering its way through the puzzle to get to the next batch of berries.

Mousebirds normally arrive in small flocks of six or seven to feed on the berries. They are very skittish and easily scared away.

 The black face and black and white bill of the Speckled Mousebird distinguishes it from the White-backed Mousebird. These guys also love the red and orange berries on the puzzle bush.

Surprisingly, Cape Sparrows have been new visitors to the garden. The next image is of a female Cape Sparrow.

The male Cape House Sparrow has a distinctive black head and white “C” on its cheek, extending from its eye to its throat. This little chap was helping to provide nesting material.

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We get a number of different doves and pigeons in the garden. They range from Laughing, Red-eyed and Cape Turtle Doves to Feral and African Olive-Pigeons (previously called Rameron Pigeons).

The time of the day is important because the sun moves behind the office in the afternoon which pushes down shutter speeds.

 

Playing with light on common garden plants. Cameras turn the world into an even more fascinating place.

 

The Grey Lourie is common in Highveld gardens. It is also called the “Go away” bird which is an onomatopoeic name. These are nosy birds and not nearly as attractive as their Purple Crested, Livingston and Knysna cousins.

Grey Louries love fruit which is normally available later in the season but make do with Syringa berries in early spring.

The infamous Indian Myna, although strikingly coloured starling-like birds, are a pest. They breed fast and are aggressive chasing all the other birds away even when there is no food around. The next image of an Indian Myna with nestling material in its beak.

 These birds have a most amazing speckled coloured iris. It looks to be speckled grey and black .

 

 We have a few Cape Robin-chats in the garden. They are beautiful little birds and wonderful songsters early in the morning and in the evenings.

“Use the talents you possess – for the woods would be a very silent place if no birds sang except for the best.”
 – Henry Van Dyke

 They are skittish little birds which aggressively protect their territory against other similar sized birds but have to give way to Mynas, Thrushes, Starlings and Barbets.

 

The next image is of a Tawny-flanked Prinia. This little bird was industriously searching the lemon tree for insects.

It is that time of the year again when the thunder clouds build in the late afternoon, a time when the light gets really interesting.

This gorgeous Peach-faced Lovebird came for a short visit and I managed to get a few images before the Mynas chased it away. Obviously a pet or two escaped and they have now bred and there are quite a few lovebirds flying around our area as are the gorgeous Rose-ringed Parakeets. The Peach-faced Lovebird  alternatively called the Rosy-cheeked Lovebird is found in Namibia. I am not sure whether this is a juvenile as the adults usually have red foreheads but colouration is known to vary.

These Lovebirds seem to really like the new buds on trees such as the Oak tree in the garden. It is too early for fruit so new tree buds seem to do just fine.

This Lovebird could hear the shutter of my camera and was intrigued at the sound of it.

Johannesburg, despite being located in the dry Highveld region in South Africa, has created its own micro-climate and become one of the most forested cities in the world. I have also seen Black Sparrowhawks, Little Sparrowhawks, African Harrier Hawks in the garden. The inevitable Hadeda ibises are around in profusion. At this time of the year we can hear the Diederik, Klaas and Red-chested Cuckoos calling. The European Bee-eaters are also back. They are difficult to photograph in the city because they don’t seem to roost around here but can be seen in the evenings about 30 metres up making their distinctive call while catching insects.

The wonderful bird life in the garden helps soothe the vexed soul after a day in the city.

“I once had a sparrow alight upon my shoulder for a moment, while I was hoeing in a village garden, and I felt that I was more distinguished by that circumstance that I should have been by any epaulet I could have worn.”
 – Henry David Thoreau

Explore, seek to understand, marvel at its interconnectedness and let it be.

Have fun,

Mike

I was fortunate enough to be invited by long-standing friends Bill and Judy Pierce, to join them at their bush retreat at Eagle’s Rock Estate. It is so-called because of the pair of Black Eagle’s which nest and hunt along the cliffs in the gorge through which the Olifants river flows on to the Loskop dam. This gorge runs along the north and eastern boundary of the estate. Bill and Judy invited me knowing I really wanted to try to get some images of the Black Eagles and their latest chick before it fledged and left the nest.

It was late August when I visited Eagle’s Rock Estate, so the sun rose around 6h30 in the morning and it was chilly. The Black Eagle’s nest was on an western rock face of the gorge. This meant it was only possible to photograph the chick until around 11h00 before there was too much shadow.

I readily jumped at the opportunity to try to photograph these Black Eagles. I say try because it turned out to be considerably more difficult than I had envisaged. Firstly, I had my tripod sitting on a flattish rock at the edge of the cliff. I had to be mindful not to walk off the edge in my excitement. Believe me when the eagles fly passed, it is exciting – these are impressive raptors both for their size but also their dramatic colouring. It was also fairly windy at the edge of the cliff a, which is why the eagle’s chose to nest there – the constant updraft.

Unfortunately there was no safe way to scale down the face of the cliff and get close to the nest, especially with heavy camera kit, so I had to settle for a reasonable view which was quite far away.

The sandstone cliffs on the west side of the gorge were spectacular. They are roughly weathered by the wind and rain creating dramatic texture and colour. The warm light of the rising morning sun cast a beautiful pinkish light on the sandstone.

It was not always easy to get a clear shot of the Black Eagles flying passed. Firstly they are fast and secondly the shape of the cliff face only allowed a partial view. I apologise in advance for the quality of the images but this trip turned out to be more about the birding and incredible sightings and less about the quality of the photography because of the distance from the subjects and direction of light. Nevertheless, I thought the images were interesting enough to write a post about them.

“The most amazing lesson in aerodynamics I ever had was the day I climbed a thermal in a glider at the same time as an eagle. I witnessed, close up, effortlessness and lightness combined with strength, precision and determination.”

The two mornings of the weekend I spent on the cliff edge trying to photograph these majestic creatures, the adults spent very little time with the chick, perhaps five minutes in total. The nest was substantial but the chick was unprotected from the cold morning breeze. The chick’s only option was to huddle low down in the cup of the nest for a modicum of protection from the wind

The chick called often but to no avail. When it got to hot, the chick would hide around the side of one of the rocks at the back of the nest. Although substantial in size, the chick’s feathers were still forming and it looked very gangly and awkward. A far cry from the majestic, effortless, aerodynamic parents.

 

The Black Eagle’s nest  can be seen about a third of the way up the next image just to the left of centre. It was a long distance away, not ideal but I was not going to risk ending my photographic passion in a heap at the bottom of the cliff.

You had to be quick. The female did not stay with the chick long. The first time was to bring a small branch with green leaves and she only stayed less than a minute. The second time was to bring what looked like the hind quarters of a springhare. The second time she stayed only a few minutes until the chick was feeding on the food she had brought.

This trip vividly showed the difference between birding and bird photography. The birding aspect of this visit was superb. Not only were there Black Eagles in the area, but a juvenile Martial Eagle flew passed as did two Fish Eagles. The real treat were the Lanner and Peregrine Falcons which also lived along this stretch of the gorge. If you thought photographing flying Black Eagle’s by was tricky, try Lanner or Peregrine Falcons, both are speedsters especially the Peregrine. The next three images are of a sparring session between a Lanner and Peregrine. It was far away so the image quality is not great but the sightings were unusual. How often do you see a Lanner and Peregrine Falcon in aerial combat.

 “May your spirit soar throughout the vast cathedral of your being.

May your mind whirl joyful cartwheels of creativity.

May your heart sing sweet lullabies of timelessness.”

 – Jonathan Lockwood Huie

 The Peregrine is noticeably smaller and darker than the Lanner. I had never seen a Lanner flying upside down before.

 While the female Black Eagle was briefly with her chick, the male stood guard on a jutting rock. This Lanner Falcon was not impressed by the Black sentinel. I can only assume the daring fly by was due to the Lanners having a nest close by.

 The male and female Black Eagle hunt cooperatively as do Golden Eagles. The pair bonding looked to be strong from the small time I spent in “Black watch”.

 I found this article in the April-May 2012 issue of the erstwhile excellent Africa Birds and Birding magazine which I thought had particular clarity about nature and conservation.

“What has Nature to us?

Nature gives us understanding of ourselves, of our nation, of our species. Poets through the ages have placed humans in the context of other species, and from this, we draw a crucial understanding of the way we are and the life we lead.

Nature gives us a sense of human achievements, of the control that we have over the planet and over our own destiny – a sense of almost limitless power. And with that, it adds a sense of humility: the realisation that we cannot create a grassland or rain forest, only destroy one.

Nature tells us that we are lonely in our human condition, but that we are not alone, and are one of many. It tells us to feel both pride and shame, and gives us perspective and wonder.

Nature is the way that the planet works and it gave us our existence in the first place. Life – ours and that of every other living entity on the planet – depends on the great and complex web of life that we call biodiversity.”

Explore, seek to understand, marvel at its inter-connectedness and let it be.

Have fun,

Mike

This is the last post from our recent trip to Mashatu in mid-September. As on a game drive it is better to talk less and look more. I have chosen to follow that wisdom on this photographic game drive. The images I have included were  taken on our game drives and show the variety of wildlife you are likely to encounter.

A Brown-headed Kingfisher looking down at the Lions lying on the sand bank of the Majale river.

There are not many places you will regularly see Meyer’s Parrots – you will in Mashatu and you will often hear their distinctive screeches.

This adult Meyers Parrot shows its blues.

This Blue Waxbill had come to drink at a small water pool close to the lodge

A Yellow-billed Hornbill was pecking at old Elephant dug looking for insects. It stopped to scratch its eyelid. It looked worse than it was – its eye was still intact.

A family herd of Elephant calmly walked passed us.

Early morning silhouette of a young Kudu bull.

This young Eland bull’s dewlap was still under developed. The deep scratches on his neck look like he has already tangled with Lions.

This male was one of a coalition of two. He was hanging around because of the females on the other side of the river.

Lounging in the shade on the bough of a giant Mashatu tree. 

Poking her head through a small fork in a Mashatu tree. This young Leopard looked wide awake after her day’s slumber.

 Young Giraffe taking on a tree his own size.

 

 A pair of Klipspringers crossed the Majale river in the late afternoon.

Feeling exposed this Klipspringer turns around and dashes for the rocks on the other side of the riverbed.

A male Cheetah, one of a coalition of three resting in the shade one hot afternoon. Everyone knows that a Cheetah’s claws, like a dog, do not retract. I never realised that a Cheetah has a flat tail which acts as a rudder. The flat tail is clearly visible in the next image.

This female Cheetah was watching her four remaining cubs cavorting around in the late afternoon light.

A year ago I posted an image of this Hyaena who looked badly mauled. He had his ears torn off and his left back foot had been bitten off. He looked in a bad way. Still on his own he has survived. It is remarkable that without any help his wounds healed. I have no idea what happened to push him out of the clan but his will to survive is irrepressible.

On our way back for breakfast we found this matriarch sitting in the remaining water of a shallow dam.

One of the matriarch’s pups was having fun playing in the water.

I was not sure whether this female was winching at her youngster suckling too hard or whether this was a clan greeting.

Male White-bellied Sunbird had come down to drink

Male Green-winged Pytilia.

This female Green-winged Pytilia was also thirsty.

A Jameson’s Firefinch joined the drinking party.

The Carmine Bee-eaters had not yet arrived but there were still gorgeous residents all around, like this Little Bee-eater.

Another beautiful resident, a White fronted Bee-eater on the river bed feeding on small white butterflies in the late afternoon.

A Rock Monitor scouring the dry river bed for something to eat.

Male Baboon, back lit in the sinking afternoon light.

This mother was unfazed when a teenager tried to take her baby. She just held on more tightly.

This baby Baboon was allowed to play once the larger, rougher teenagers had wandered off.

A flock of Red-billed Queleas – a small murmuration!

A skittish Tree Squirrel comes down to drink.

There is a stretch of the Majale river which seems to be the hunting territory of a pair of African Hawk Eagles. These aggressive hunters would not let us get close.

This male Warthog was accompanied by a pair of Wattled Starlings who were catching all the insects that his lordship stirred up.

A Burchell’s Coucal foraging down near the Cheetah family.

Late in the afternoon, the time of long shadows, we found this Black-backed Jackal lying in the shade of  a Shepherd Tree.

This short BBC video, narrated by David Attenborough, captures the way I feel after having spent five wonderful days in Mashatu. Double click on the image to play the video.

Explore, seek to understand, marvel at its inter-connectedness and then let it be.

Have fun

Mike

This is the third post from our recent trip to the Mashatu Game Reserve in mid-September. Mashatu is part of the larger Northern Tuli Game Reserve which is located in the south eastern corner of Botswana at the confluence of the Limpopo and Shashe rivers. Mashatu is bordered by the Motloutse, Shashe and Limpopo rivers. This area has historically been referred to as the Tuli enclave. Tuli is the Tswana word for “dust”. This is a low rainfall area which can be very dry during winter, a time when the dust in the air creates sunsets which makes the sky look like it is on fire. While Mashatu is most often known for its diversity of wildlife and birds, it is a land of spectacular landscapes with big vistas, big skies and giant trees. This is a wilderness of mopane bushveld, riverbeds lined with massive Mashatu, Leadwood, Fig and Jackalberry trees, croton forests, a huge marshland and rugged Karoo sandstone cliffs and basalt formations.

This is a place rich in stories embracing history and mythology, which include such memorable names like Mapungubwe, the Zhizo and Leopard Kopjie people, Cecil John Rhodes, Bryce’s store, Zeederberg Coaches and Rudyard Kipling’s “Elephant Child”.  Tuli also saw F.C. Selous lead the Pioneer column through it into Matabeleland. The Zhizo people were the earliest known culture to have inhabited the area about 1200 years ago. This region also staged the opening conflicts between British and Boer forces during the Second Anglo-Boer War of 1899 to 1902.

Then the Kolokolo Bird said with a mournful cry, “Go to the banks of the great, grey-green greasy Limpopo River, all set about with fever-trees, and find out.”

― Rudyard Kipling, The Elephant’s Child

For those of you who are familiar with Mashatu, travelling east on your way down towards the Majale river. There is a hill which we sometimes stop on to have a sundowner and watch the sinking sun set the sky ablaze with reds, yellows and oranges. This particular morning it was early. We left the lodge at 6h00 and the sun was just starting to rise above “excavation hill” – my name for it. This is the site of an earlier archaeological dig. The colours of the sky at that time of the morning were soft pastel tones of pinks, and blues. A time when the bush is quiet while the morning sun slowly paints colour into it.

After game viewing around the rivers for the first part of the morning we usually turn back to the lodge for breakfast at around 9h30 . The next image shows one of the dry river beds we pass with a huge Baobab tree guarding its right bank. You can see how dry it was in mid-September.

Another image of the transition zone as you make you way down to the rivers. The grass was a beautiful blonde colour, ideal for hiding lions.

On the last day of the trip, we drove to Soloman’s Wall and Mmamagwa Hill. On the way out you pass the Mashatu main camp and drive on a low level concrete bridge over the Bojale river. Stopping on the bridge provides a wonderful view west and east, up and down the river. There was a surprising amount of water around for early spring. A family of Saddle-billed Storks was foraging in the pool on the left. The male and female were feeding their very noisy Saddle-bill Stork chick.

You have to travel west to the main road from Ponte Drift to the nickel mining town of Selebi Phikwe, which has a gravel surface but is the width of a highway. You pass through a corridor of land which is owned by the Zionist Christian Church down to a ‘foot and mouth’ control gate. You are required to get off your vehicle and walk through a chemical pan while the ranger drives the vehicle through a shallow chemical dip. Suitably disinfected, we travelled on to a major four way stop. The sign showed Zanzibar straight ahead. Favouring a shorter journey, we turned left down towards Solomon’s Wall. On the way you get a glimpse of Mmamagwa Hill on the left hand side and Mapungubwe Hill on the right hand side. The countryside is rugged. The next image shows the Mmamagwa Hill to the left.

A few kilometres further on you come to the Motloutse river which flows south into the Limpopo. The Motloutse river is big  river of sand for most of the year. There are two large basalt buttresses either side of the river and are the remnants of Solomon’s Wall, so named because it is a basalt dyke, about 30 metres high. It once formed a natural dam across the Motloutse river. In yester year, a huge lake filled up behind this natural dam wall, with a waterfall spilling over the dyke during the rains. It was in the sands higher up the Motloutse river that the first alluvial diamonds were found in Botswana. The next image shows a view looking down the Motloutse toward the Limpopo river just before the hills in the distance.

It is hard to imagine that this river can transform into a deep fast flowing torrent which bursts its banks in the rainy season. After having a good look around Soloman’s Wall with fig trees growing out of its heavily, fractured and weathered structure and wondering about the seasonal transformations this river goes through, we travelled back to Mmamagwa Hill to see its sentinel Baobab.

The Motloutse Ruins are fortressed on the apex of Mashatu’s Mmamagwa Hill. This was once part of the royal dwellings of the rulers of the Leopard’s Kopje Dynasty – the forerunner of the legendary Mapungubwe Empire, southern Africa’s first kingdom.   At the height of its reign in AD 1200, this dynasty developed into a powerful Iron Age mining conglomerate. In the valley below Mmamagwa Hill, the tribe’s people smelted copper, iron and gold which they traded with Arabs who had docked on the Mozambican coast and sailed up the Limpopo River in dhows. The archeological remains of this empire can be seen east of Mashatu at the Mapungubwe World Heritage Site in South Africa. The next image was on taken on Mmamagwa hill looking north-east along the sandstone ridge of hills in the soft evening light.

On the sandstone buttress of Mmamagwa Hill facing west is a large Baobab. The top broke off many years ago but the tree lives on. The tree still has Cecil John Rhodes initials carved in its trunk. The tree has mostly healed and covered up his initials but you can still make them out. While you sit quietly awed by the vista in front of you, foraging Elephant Shrews may come to visit. Our ranger indicated that the Mapungubwe Hill out to the west is considered a sacred place. There are also parts of the Motloutse Ruins which are considered sacred by the local Tswana people who insist they are a holy shrine where no mortal should dare to go.

“A large drop of sun lingered on the horizon and then dripped over and was gone, and the sky was brilliant over the spot where it had gone, and a torn cloud, like a bloody rag, hung over the spot of its going. And dusk crept over the sky from the eastern horizon, and darkness crept over the land from the east.”
― John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath

When you are on top of Mmamagwa Hill looking out, a sense of the  sacredness envelopes you, stirring your imagination.

It is worthwhile waiting for the sunset when you are on top of Mmamagwa. The sunset, especially in winter and spring, can be breathtaking.

“The pale stars were sliding into their places. The whispering of the leaves was almost hushed. All about them it was still and shadowy and sweet. It was that wonderful moment when, for lack of a visible horizon, the not yet darkened world seems infinitely greater—a moment when anything can happen, anything be believed in.”
― Olivia Howard Dunbar, The Shell of Sense

With the sun having set about 20 minutes before, we heard Jackal and Hyaena begin their nocturnal chorus and decided it was time to get down the hill back onto the vehicle. Looking back up at Mmamagwa Hill in the fading light, there is something about this place that sends shivers down your spine  – perhaps the echos of centuries of civilisation.

 “You become even more aware of landscape as a medley of effects, a mingling of geology, memory, movement and life. The landforms remain, but they exist as presences: inferred, less substantial, more powerful…

Wildness is not only a property of land – it is also a quality which can settle on a place ……”

 – Robert Macfarlane The Wilderness within

Explore, seek to understand, marvel at its inter-connectedness and let it be.

Have fun,

Mike