Cape Wagtail

In my mind Cape Wagtail are very brave little birds, they choose to nest in pretty hanging baskets near our houses.

The pretty nest site,Some eggs

Newly hatched chicks.

Springbrook garden update

I have enjoyed watching and listening to a pair of Paradise Flycatcher as they flit around the Erythrina Tree in my garden, his long Chestnut tail feathers following him around like ribbons as he flits about collecting building material. Hopefully I'll get a clearer photo soon.

Next door to this Erythrina a pair of Southern Black Tit are nesting in a hole in a stone wall, I've been trying to get a photo of them, but wow they are fast the little things, I have many photos of the stone wall nest site!!

Fork-tailed Drongo are building just down the branch from the Paradise Flycatcher, their nest is a very flimsy hammock between two branches. Every now and again the Paradise Flycatcher feel a little intimidated by the FTD and chase them off.

Spoonbill Mom and Teaspoon her kid

Teaspoon the Juv. Spoonbill has fledged, here is a photo of him being fed my his mom. I have learnt so much about Spoonbills since he/she hatched, the amazing patience of his mom, the commitment to look after her youngster while the rest of the flock moved off, even Teaspoon's dad moved off with the group, just Teaspoon and his mom stayed on in the 'Far away Tree' a huge Tulip Poplar in my garden.

Teaspoons mom is an amazing mom, she stood over him with her wings opened to shelter him from the boiling hot sun, the pouring rain and brought him lots of food. She made strange little "seagull X frog croaks" announcing her arrival in the big tree where teaspoon lived.

I watched her as she started coaxing Teaspoon out of the safety zone of his nest, she did not land in the nest with his food, she landed at the end of the branch, eventually after some hysterical begging calls Teaspoon realised that if he wanted some food he had to go to his mom, so he ventured out along the branch, flapping his right wing as he moved out of his comfort zone. As soon as he finished feeding he scurried back to the nest, flapping his wings wildly as he made his way along the branch.

Soon after that first adventure, I watched him, his mom was away getting food, being an adventurous kid he took a little flight from the nest to the end of the branch, where he waited until mom arrived with food. Then all too soon, he was following mom around the garden, she landed in a tree on the other side of the garden and let him know by her very strange croaks that she was around, he took off and found her, had his fill and flew back to his nest. Today he has been flying around, down to the dam, around the garden and even ventured into the pastures with the Hadeda Ibis.

I wish you well Teaspoon.....

Discovering Eshowe and Imfolozi

These lovely people here are my folks, John and Marie Tyson, I had the privilege of taking them to Eshowe and Imfolozi during October, we had an amazing holiday together. Seen above on the Dlinza Boardwalk, at the top of the tower, and dad on a very rainy day, 'flying' his model airplane simulator on my laptop!!! At the bright age of 78 learning to fly and use a computer all in one day!! Dung beegles very busy at work, a large pile of dung is soon collected into little balls, rolled away from the scene of the large dung pile, then it is buried, very soon there is no sign of the original dung pile.

Could I tell you a secret? Or would would you prefer me to pluck your eyebrows?

Red-billed Oxpecker doing what they do best, cleaning little critters off bigger critters.

Wire-tailed Swallow

Imagine -

Imagine the world without the duet of a Bokmakierie

Imagine the world without the vibrant colours of a rainbow


Imagine the world without the majestic Crowned Eagle
His powerful talons showing the world...don't mess with me!!
I cannot imagine that world and I don't need to imagine it that way.

Because....................................

God was extravagantly generous when he created our world.

As we enjoy His creation I'm sure it brings God great joy.

Birding in Gauteng 2nd - 8th October

During the first week of October I treated myself to some birding in Gauteng, and went to watch the musical CATS. I was very surprised to find such amazing birding destinations in and around Pretoria. I was looked after by fantastic people who were very happy to drive me all over the place, while we atlased about ten pentads.

Crowned Plover egg

Spotted Thick-knee eggs

Some of the places where I atlased were Roodeplaat, Rust de Winter, Northern Farm where Ernst and I saw a stunning Half-collared Kingfisher, Ernst had the pleasure of seeing his first Red-chested Flufftail. We also went to Vaalkop and Rietvlei Dam. I got five lifers on the trip, Ovambo Sparrowhawk, Black-chested Prinia, Red-headed Finch, Marsh Warbler and Barrow's Korhaan.

Where ever we went our little feathered friends were either sitting on eggs, setting up home, building nests or raising chicks, here are just some of my happy memories of a wonderful trip.

Scaly-feathered Finch nest

Cape Wagtail Chicks

I would like to thank Ernst and his family for accommodating me, for driving me around to all those amazing places that we atlased. To Andre for fetching, carrying, feeding and making sure that I arrived safely at the airport in time to fly back home to work!!! And John Bannon for spending his last day in SA driving me around his precious patch........Rhenosterspruit. Thank you all very much, my time was precious.

Snippets from the past week.

On 22nd September I was delighted to see some broken egg shells
below the Spoonbill nest in my garden,
this means that there are some new kids in my garden!!
The nest are too high for me to see any activity from the chicks,
I'm sure that once they are a little older I will see them bobbing about in the nest.

Saturday morning Jugen, Thomas and I went "Forest birding"this turned out to be a great day, lots of very interesting birds, just a very frustrating time for Thomas as the Barratt's Warbler tormented him from deep within the dense bushes. Whilst Thomas was trying to get a glimpse of the elusive bird, I took this photo of a spider web, with dew studded jewels, framed in a natural frame.

The bright green spring leaves of the

Celtis africana were an amazing sight in the

Marustwa Forest.

Podocarpus Falcatus (Outeniqua Yellowwood) are the

tallest trees in Marustwa Forest, here is one really large tree, (photo taken up the trunk)

Cape Parrots feed on the fruit. And some are lucky enough to find a hole in an old Yellowwood,set up home, lay eggs and bring some youngsters into this world.

At the end of a very long day "Forest Birding"

I suggested that the best way to see the Cape Parrots

was to take up a good posture - flat on ones back, on the ground!!

The guys took my advice, this photo is the result.

They were enjoying the six Cape Parrots that had come into Marutswa to roost for the night.

I had a great two days birding with Jurgen and Thomas, we saw some really super birds, some specials were Pygmy Geese, African Marsh Harrier, Little Rush, Lesser Swamp, Dark-capped Yellow, African Reed, Yellow-throated and Barratt's Warbler. Bush Blackcap is always a treat to see, as are the Knysna Turaco and Cape Vulture.

Atlasing 3015_3010

After a week of misty - drizzly weather I decided to go out atlasing yesterday, and this is what what turned up - two pairs of Pygmy Geese.

I have seen one pair in the area, but never two pairs, this is such an amazing blessing, I hope that they are happy on this dam and feel safe enought to settle down and breed. When they swam across the dam I managed to get a photo of these tiny geese, together with Egyptian and Spur-winged Geese all in one frame, its a very long distant photo but its amazing to have seen all three togetherOther specials were two African Fish Eagle feeding youngsters on the nests, A Broad-Tailed Warbler and Red Headed Quelea.

A little bit of this and a little bit of that!!

This photo was taken looking over Springbrook farm dam towards our house,
the peace is tangible and the paddocks still brown from frost during the winter.
Living on this dairy farm has some amazing advantages, milk straight from the cow,
fresh home made yoghurt and of course many hectare to spend time birding,
walking and just being quiet.

During the past weekend it was not very quiet at 6am:

Story time in Gran’s bed!!! From left to right Emma, Ashley

and Nathan

There are three pairs of Spoonbill nesting in my garden;

yesterday this one decided it needed some new
nesting material, it flew down onto my lawn,

picked up this stick which proved rather large and very

comical, every time the bird moved the stick ‘attacked’ the bird.

Here is a pic through my office window of one very frustrated

Spoonbill trying to run away from the stick.

An Update from my patch

Sunrise from our house, I'm truly blessed that

this is the sight that greets me some mornings.

What a delight that the Spoonbill are back and setting up home in my garden, it is a privilege to have eight pairs of very noisy and busy Spoonbill building nests in one's garden.

Whilst out and about collecting bird species data for Doug, I took some photos, here are some of them:

A very confiding Black-crowned Tchagra

A cute little Dusky Flycatcher

Love is: Common Waxbill Allopreening??

Then of course there is always that photo, that could do with the sun on the other side of the bird, or if only one could just remove that branch before the photo is

taken, here is one of those photos,

but hey I also enjoy some silhouette photos.

African Rail caught napping in the early morning sunshine

This morning at 7am I was out birding in my home pentad (3010_3005) atlasing for an hour before my office duties!!! It was very chilly, three degree to be exact!! I found this African Rail soaking up the wonderful, but very weak sunshine.

I often see African Rail, dashing around in the thick reeds but this one must have decided that his toes needed some warmth. The Rail just sat there until I reversed my 'blue mobile bird hide' to try and get a better angle for some more photos.

The ground was white with frost, a few other little black critters in the form of Black Crake came into this little patch of sunshine to preen and get ready for the day.

Welcome home to 'my' Wahlberg's Eagle

Early yesterday morning, I was sitting in bed, talking to God, when 'my' Wahlberg's Eagle started calling from outside our bedroom window,(first call for 2009)this is a great delight for me, so welcome home my special friend. I watched this afternoon,

as he/she started to re building the nest that they have used for

the past eight years. I wonder if this is mega 'bird faith' There is

no sign of any spouse but this Wahlberg's knows something that

I don't, he/she is setting up home knowing that soon someone

will arrive to share it.

I have a zillion questions for the Wahlberg's:
When you leave Springbrook Farm together, do you stay together all winter?
Do you spend that time together planning for the next summer at Springbrook?
or
Do you dump your spouse for a younger, prettier bride?
Do you? Do you? Do you? I wish I could speak "Wahlberg's"


I also so our first White-throated Swallow on 20th August. And then today I managed to take this photo, what an amazing colour this little feathered friend is.







Whilst out and about birding on our neighbours farm yesterday,
I saw this very blotchy Red Bishop,
a little while ago I asked a friend of mine,
where do the Red Bishops start changing the breeding plumage,
the black or the red, well here is my answer,

a very strange looking Red Bishop







And especially for John Bannon, that elusive Black-winged Lapwing. I saw them again today making lots of noise as they fly around the dairy pastures deciding where they would like to spend the day foraging.

Spring is here at Springbrook Farm

Today was an amazing spring day, the first very exciting bird that I saw in my garden was a Scaly Throated Honeyguide. I have some honeycomb tied to a tree just outside my office window, I have been observing a juv. Greater Honeyguide(see photo) that comes down regularly to feed on the honeycomb, but today we had a new bird on the block. This is the first time that I have seen the Scaly Throated Honeyguide in my garden, a few weeks ago I heard it calling.


During a lovely long walk around the dams and pastures this afternoon I heard the first Little Rush Warbler calling from the reed beds, I also heard amongst others African Rail and Red Chested Flufftail. I saw a stunning Paradise Flycatcher male with very long tail feathers.

I look forward to the arrival of 'my' Wahlberg's Eagle.

Atlasing with two X three year olds

This morning I needed to get out and see some birds, I decided to atlas the pentad adjacent to my home patch.
Once again I packed a picnic basket and loaded my very faithful Subaru with all my gear, today my gear included Emma and Nathan. Although we did not manage to see the Meeshie Moe bird again today, we did find 54 other species.
I managed to atlas for nearly three hours with these two little budding birders. Seen here learning how to use bins.

The Meeshie Moe Bird

I have discovered another new bird on my block.......... this morning I was out with my grandchildren, discovering the world of birds, (Emma and Nathan are three year old twins, Ashley is their 15 month old little sister, and their mom Carike),we set out to search for Sunbirds in a lovely patch of Halleria Lucida.
With our picnic baskets packed we set off on this huge adventure, on the way to the patch of Halleria Lucida I saw some birds foraging in some grass, so I stopped and said, "I just need to check what birds those are" then Emma says in a very seriously voice, but gran those are Meeshie Moe birds!!! (New Order, New Family, New Genus, New Species????) Your guess is as good as mine.
Well.................talk about a new bird on my block, I now have a Meeshie Moe bird.

Oh to have the imagination of a three year old!!!!!

The Meeshie Moe bird really is.......a Cape Longclaw

New Birds on my Block

Wow it seem to have been ages since I updated my birding blog, so here goes, some new infomation for 3010_3005.
I am currently atlasing the above pentad for the 70th time, yip, that is one mega commitment, but really worth while.
Last week the new bird on my patch was a Black-Winged Stilt, it looked very out of place amongst the Egyptian Geese.
This morning I found another new bird on my patch...............Sentinel Rock Thrush...........that makes the count for this dairy farm 206 species!! Well done to the farmers...