Learn something new everyday.

About 100 years ago when I was still studying, I met an old man who trained us in the laboratory. What fascinated me was his ability to talk to anyone on any subject knowledgeably – always having some anecdote to add that made the conversation so interesting.  I remember clearly sitting in his training lab and deciding that I would like to be like that one day. I made a conscious decision there and then to learn something new everyday. And I have. Every night before I sleep I go over the new things I learned that day.

Today I saw two new things that I have never seen before – all before 9am. They were both birds, visiting the bush around our swimming pool.

I am really bad at remembering names so I decided to write a little about them for you to help me remember them.  The first was a female Black Cuckooshrike.  I saw her yesterday too but in poor light so could not identify her. I was so glad she returned this morning so that I could get a good look and find her in my book.

(Image from Wikipedia)

Her male counterpart looks like this:

(image from http://birding.krugerpark.co.za/)

As you can see he is strikingly different. I am keeping a look out to see if I can spot him too.

The other bird I saw is quite common but I just have not seen them around here before.  We do have very many birds so I probably missed them in the crowd.

Retz’s Helmet-Shrike

(image by Johann du Preez)

These birds were in a group (of about 10 birds) and were all jumping about in one of my marula trees.  The leaves were still dripping wet from the rain we had last night and they were fluffing out their feathers and almost washing themselves in the leaves.

With everything I have had to do here on the farm, I have neglected my birdwatching.  I am going to try to spend more time catching up on all the species around here.  I should start a list. I am bad with lists.

(As you need a fancy schmancy camera with a HUGE lens to take really good bird photos, these photos are not mine. I use Warwick Tarboton’s website to help me with bird identifications. The  photos for this post however are not his as he is copyrighted and I was unable to get permission to use his pictures. If you have time it is really worthwhile having a look at his site. He also has stunning images of many dragonflies and other creatures.)

Welcome home.

Our pair of paradise fly catchers arrived home today from their winter holidays.

They seem to arrive on exactly the same date every year. Normally about a week after I see the first ones in the area.  This is the third summer that I have been watching them build their nest in the exact same spot on the very same branch of the same tree.  Last year, if you remember, they hatched two lots of chicks. The second lot got eaten by something though, so I was afraid they might not return to the same tree this year.  They arrived this morning and are already hard at work building their new nest and catching bugs out of our swimming pool, swooping down and skimming the surface each time.  I can spend hours and hours just watching them.

Welcome home Peter and Maggie – may you lay many eggs and rear your babies to full size.

(Above photo of Maggie was taken by Steve Walker © last summer. You can see more of his photography here)

Early bird

Not having normal working hours, I find that my body clock is reverting to its natural rhythm. Unfortunately my natural rhythm is a bit wonky, as I function best late at night.  Over the past few weeks I have been staying up well past midnight getting much more work done late at night than during the day.  Because the Bean still has to get to school, I am still up at 5.30am to drive her to the end of the sand road where she gets her lift.  The morning ride is done mostly in silence and in my pajamas as I am really half asleep still.  Contrary to what I would have done a few years back, I don’t get back into bed after I have dropped her, but plod along not getting too much done due to being quite tired.

Last night we went out to friends for dinner.  We had a super time and I had some good red wine (which I love but have not had much alcohol lately).  This resulted in me going to bed early for a change at around 11pm, and at 5 minutes to 5 this morning I was wide awake.  The first light was just beginning to seep through the trees when Cleo and I took off into the bush for a stroll. While I stood in awe and watched the sun come up to the music of hundreds of birds calling, I realised that I need to make some changes.

I am missing out on the beauty of the day especially the early mornings.  My wonderful environment is here to be enjoyed, so to motivate me I have added this picture that I took this morning as my blog header – I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Southern Yellow-billed Hornbill

The Southern yellow-billed Hornbill is one of my favorite local birds.  They are noisy, cheeky and have so much character – great birds to watch for hours on end.  In our area, and especially in the Kruger National Park, they are very common and are often seen pinching food from unwary tourists.  We have one mating pair that live close to our cottages and although they don’t come too close, I hear them often.

The Southern Yellow-billed Hornbill (Tockus leucomelas) is a Hornbill found in Southern Africa. It is a medium sized bird, with length between 48 to 60 cm, characterized by a long yellow beak with a casque (casque reduced in the female). The skin around the eyes and in the malar stripe is pinkish. The related Eastern Yellow-billed Hornbill from north-eastern Africa has blackish skin around the eyes.

They have a white belly, grey neck, and black back with abundant white spots and stripes. They feed mainly on the ground, where they forage for seeds, small insects, spiders and scorpions. Termites and ants are a preferred food source in the dry season.

Females lay 3 to 4 white eggs in their nest cavities and incubate them for about 25 days. While sitting on her eggs the female hornbill is closed into the nest by the male using mud to close the nest hole.  The male then brings food to the female and feeds her through a tiny slit that he leaves open. Juveniles take about 45 days to mature.

This hornbill is a common, widespread resident of the dry thorn fields and broad-leafed woodlands. Frequently they can be sighted along roads.

Last night at art group I decided to start a new painting and chose this bird to paint. I have started the background with acrylic and plan to finish off the finer details in oils.  Again you will be able to follow me step by step.

An edgy visitor – a hammerkop

Recently I have noticed a hammerkop land at our pool on quite a few occasions.  It always lands in exactly the same spot and then flies off seconds later. It seems just to land and then take off again. I’m not sure if it flies off when it sees me or if it routinely just lands for a second or two anyway.  I will need to ask Fred what happens when we are not there.  They are such beautiful creatures.  It is a wading bird but there is really no place for it to wade at our pool.

The HAMMERKOP, or HAMMERHEAD (Scopus umbretta), an African bird, which has been regarded as a stork and as a heron but are  now placed in a separate family Scopidae between the herons and storks.  It  inhabits nearly the whole of Africa and Madagascar. It has unusually large wings for a bird of its size. Though not very big (50 cm /20 inches tall), it builds an enormous nest, some six feet in diameter, with a flat-topped roof and a small hole for entrance and exit, and placed either on a tree or a rocky ledge.

The bird, of an almost uniform brown colour, slightly glossed with purple and its tail is barred with black. It is somewhat sluggish by day, but displays much activity at dusk, when it will go through a series of strange performances (maybe one of them is landing and taking off practice at our pool)

There are many legends about the Hammerkop. In some regions, people state that other birds help it build its nest. The Xam said that when a Hammerkop flew and called over their camp, they knew that someone close to them had died. It is known in some cultures as the lightning bird, and the Kalahari Bushmen believe that being hit by lightning resulted from trying to rob a Hammerkop’s nest. They also believe that the god Khauna would not like anyone to kill a Hammerkop. According to an old Malagasy belief, anyone who destroys its nest will get leprosy, and a Malagasy poem calls it an “evil bird”. It is thought by some to be a “shape-changer”since people see the hammerkop fly in and then see another animal, such as a cobra, leave the nest. Since it is held in a position of respect, the bird survives and flourishes in the presence of man.

Images from Wikipedia

Related Articles

• Life In a Bird’s Nest (weirdomatic.com)
• Giant storks lived among the ancient “hobbit” people of Indonesia [Monsters Among Us] (io9.com)

Sad news

Our new babies are no longer in the nest.  I don’t know what has happened to them. They were to young to fly away.

I guess something ate them……….

Related Articles

• Chicks in paradise (slowvelder.wordpress.com)

Busy birds and a voyeur viper

Some nature pictures from the weekend.

This fellow watched me shower and I watched him…………… the whole time

 

Still building nests so late in summer

 

New guests at the lodge – flycatcher rerun and moth time.

I really must save up for a new insect book, having lost custody of the last one I bought. I have never replaced it and it’s getting rather frustrating when I can’t identify insects.  It’s the first time I have spotted these moths and then happened to see two more.  It must be their time.

Isn’t it beautiful?  Look at the pretty pink wing tips. I only noticed the colour after viewing the photograph. Anyone know which moth this is?

Edit: I received this answer from Joan at http://saphotographs.blogspot.com/ and  http://natureswow.com/

This is one of the Emperor moths (family Saturniidae). Most moths in SA have not been identified or given names unfortunately so I cannot give you more information than that. The Mopane and Lunar moths belong to the same family and all are identified by the eye-spots on the wings. Most are medium to large in size and include the largest moths in the world. They are a colourful family and most are short lived. Thanks Joan!  I looked them up on google images and none are as pretty as mine   I’m going to call her saturniidae slowvelder

And finally something I have been meaning to tell you – we have a second set of paradise flycatchers born this weekend.  The parents broke down the old nest, disappeared for a day or two and then were back and rebuilt the nest in the exact same spot and started a new lot of eggs.  You have seen so many pictures from the last lot so I promise – no more after this one.  Three more babies…..

After a long day of bird watching…

its good to have a snooze…..

Fred asleep on my binoculars and bird book.  He shows great interest in the book. The Bean calls it his menu.

 

Today I’m posting a few links to blog posts that I really enjoyed this week.

• Mpumalanga Journal – this blogger writes from an area just south of us.  It’s a heart warming story about Fos the miracle dog and it shows what we have to deal with living in this environment. Another reason why I have hesitated in getting a dog.

• miss minimalist – 10 ways we can live more like butterflies this year.

• down—to—earth – about slowing down and living in the moment.

I hope you enjoy them as much as I did.

 

Welcome home

Image by Arno & Louise Wildlife via Flickr

Last week our African paradise flycatchers returned home.  Little is known about their migratory habits although it is most likely an intra-african migrant.  According to a farmer nearby, they normally return to our area to breed on the 15th of October.  Our couple that live in the tree right next to our veranda returned on the 1st of November.  What fascinates me is that they return to the exact same tree which is one-in-a-million here.

They were already in residence when we moved into the cottages and had the most perfect little nest with eggs when we spotted them.  The nest in the image is a lot untidier than our nest.  It is  a perfect,tightly woven, little cup which the birds fill and cover with spiders webs so that the eggs lie on a silky bed. The nest looks way to small for the adult bird and when sitting on the nest one adult bird perches over the cup opening.  This is not a family home.

Last year we watched the eggs hatch and we could see the little open beaks of the birds as they waited for food.  I hope we get to see this again – I will try to get pictures this time.

 

Picture from the SASOL Bird e-Guide

 

Terpsiphone viridis (African paradise-flycatcher)

A stunning bird with a long chestnut red tail and blue-grey head. Size: 17-20 cm (35 cm in breeding males, of which 18 cm is the tail) – about the same size as a sparrow, but with a long or very long tail. Afrikaans: Paradysvlieëvanger

• Both sexes participate in the construction of the nest, usually sharing the workload equally. It consists of a small cup of twigs and bark held together with spider web, decorated with lichen and often a “trail” of spider web and leaves dangling from its base.
• Egg-laying season peaks from October-December.
• It lays 1-4 eggs, which are incubated by both sexes for about 11-19 days. They change shifts every 20-60 minutes, although the female often does most of the incubating at night.
• The chicks are brooded almost constantly for the first day or so, while they are fed small portions of insect prey. As they get older, their parents brood and feed them less often until they leave the nest at about 10-16 days old. They stay in a family group with their parents until another clutch of eggs is laid, at which point they become fully independent.