Fouche Studios

I spent some time with my dear friends Ingrid and Leon Fouche today, I am just so amazing at the talent that these two have been blessed with. Please go and check out their website.

Stunning art work.

www.fouchestudios.co.za

And the world went quiet...........

On Sunday afternoon I decided to go for a drive, I'd been sick in bed for a few days and needed to get out and check what the birds in 'my' block were up to?

I found Red-eyed Doves on the Eskom line, looking a little like pegs on the washing line.

A little further along a huge flock of Red-Billed Quelea mixed with Widowbirds of various shapes and sizes, all very drab in their winter attire, were feeding in a pasture near a vlei. When I got level with the vlei, suddenly this huge flock came hurtling out of the sky and dropped like stones into the reeds,

and the world went quiet......................


I looked around for the cause of this sudden change and there coming towards me was a Red-Eyed Dove with a Lanner Falcon hot on its heals (well, should I say tail feathers) the Red-Eyed Dove chose to fly across the dam hoping to get away from the monster on its tail.............. a few seconds later it was Lanner dinner!!

Yip, I watch this whole drama take place as if in slow motion, the Dove flew a little close to the water, as it touched the water the Lanner had it. Feathers flew.......Lanner smiled........Dove cried and the LBJ's that had dropped like stones from the sky realised that the drama was over, they came out from their hiding place and merrily went on feeding in the pastures.

I had just witnessed a drama in the life of one Red-Eyed Dove and the hunting skills in the life of a Lanner Falcon.

After this drama, I continued with my drive,
I found a group of serene Grey Crowned Cranes dancing in the
pastures and Denham's Bustards quietly looking for a tasty morsel.

Satisfied that I had checked my patch I retired back to bed.

GPS pentad info

To all those techno people out there who would like some really great additional pentad co-ordination info to download for your GPS, please check out Ernst Retief's blog, (see link)
.
Ernst spent hours getting this information together, its all there to download FREE!!

Expecting the unexpected in my 'patch'

Atlasing 3010_3005 has become very exciting, I have been submitting a card every five days, although this becomes a huge commitment I decided to 'go for it'

Yesterday I added a new species to my pentad list Scaly Throated Honeyguide.

Today I was busy working in my office, submitting atlas cards for someone else, when I heard a screeching call in my garden.....................no way Cape Parrot in my garden...................never, the closest Cape Parrots to Highflats are about 40km away in Creighton, so I got back to work finishing off the last card.

Then I heard the screech again, this time, this gran jumped up, grabbed her bins and ran for the door, the wind was howling outside, the leaves on my 100 year old Tulip tree were making so much noise I began to get irritated with all the noise, I was trying so hard to local some tiny squeak that would indicate where the parrots had landed!!


I started to scan my very large Tulip tree, and then I saw them, these two little darlings have a wonderful preen in my front garden. The very large 'yellow' tree (in the above pic) is the Tulip tree in my garden, about 30m tall!! I'm sorry about the quality of the parrot pics, I just have a mik en drik camera, and these Polly's were right at the top of the tree.

Later on during the afternoon I decided to get out for a drive, I found another new species for this pentad - Little Egret.

When I'm out atlasing I tend to expect the unexpected!!! Well thats how I enjoy my atlasing.