Southern African Forum (1 Viewer)

Martin Hobbs · Jun 27, 2011

kevinexzim said:
Hi Martin/Sal/Anyone.
Can you point us newbies to some tips from your own experience for putting in garden "feeding stations"? We are in Westville just inland from Durban, with a mix of river woodland and shrubbery. Thanks. Kevin.

Hi Kevin,
We live on a large plot of land in Midrand and surounded by other plots so we have many trees, shrubs and open grass in the area.
My own plot we have a mixture of wooded areas surrounding the boundry fence of our plot, plus a sucluded (I never go into this area) wooded area in the middle of the plot. The rest is open grass (sort of lawn!), and area of grassland which is left as veld grass that I have planted with wild grassland plants, aloes, and wild flowers, which I burn most winters.
I have seed feeders in the trees near the house in the front and back. We have done this to try and avoid a few birds dominating these feeders. I rotate the seed in the feeders for this same reason.
I have many fruit feeders spread around the garden again to avoid (especially the Barbets) dominating these feeders. We use mostly Papaya, Bananas, and Apples.
We also use bone meal at two areas in the garden this time of year, away from the seed and fruit feeders to encourage the shy Boubous, Thrushes and Robins.
The fruit is pinned onto nails in the branches of trees to avoid the Louries throwing the fruit off of feeders. The bone meal is spread on large rocks we have to encourage the shy birds to use the cover of the rocks to approach on a 'hit and run' basis.

Hope this helps. Let me know if you want more information.

Martin

Martin Hobbs · Jun 27, 2011

Dave Kennedy said:
For the first week of the trip we stayed at Sedgefield, on the edge of the Swartvlei Estuary. Bird activity is always good here, with a fine mix of marine, terrestrial, estuarine and fresh water specialists. One can sit on the verandah and watch a roving African Fish Eagle glide by, or watch Caspian Terns and African Black Oystercatchers fly in and out of the estuary. On this trip an Osprey spent some time fishing just in front of the house. After several spectacular plunge-dives it emerged from the water with a large fish securely clutched in its talons. It then adjusted the fish's position from transverse, as when newly seized, to fore and aft, to minimise drag while flying, and flew away towards the tree-clad hills.

A foray along the Brown-hooded Kingfisher Trail, between Langvlei and Islandvlei, resulted - eventually - in a sighting of a Knysna Warbler, that inveterate skulker which is heard infinitely more often than it is seen. I heard its call emanating from a small tower of dense, creeping vegetation about 1.50m high, just 10 m off the path. I left the path and crept closer. The bird continued to call, but not a feather could I see. I could do nothing but wait, during which time I was entertained by a pair of Cape Batis which was foraging through the trees. Just when I had given up on the still-calling Knysna Warbler, it suddenly flew out of its little hiding place and whizzed about 15m into a similar clump of vegetation. And that was about that for my Knysna Warbler sighting. The BHK Trail had one more surprise, however - a pair of very fine young Earthstars Myriostoma coliforme growing among the leaf litter under the bushes. The fly resting on the left=hand fungus gives scale. When mature, raindrops falling on the sphere cause spores to burst upwards through small pores like brown puffs of smoke, to be dispersed by the breeze.

An old Milkwood Sideroxylon inerme in the garden attracts its fair share of birds. One morning a fine Black-headed Oriole flew in, and on another a Southern Tchagra foraged with a small group of Speckled Mousebirds on the ground below the tree.

Best wishes,
Dave

Dave,
We spent a pleasant afternoon in Sedgefield looking over the estuary. I wouldn't mind living in some of the houses at the back of Sedgefield over looking this area!
We spotted nearly all of the same birds as you did, with the one notable exception of the Osprey. I would have loved to see this bird.

I know what you are saying about the Knysna Warbler as well. I walked the Pied Kingfisher Trail which runs along side the vlei and heard them many times. At one point of the trail it goes under the bridge of the main road, and I sat there for maybe 20 minutes waiting for this Warbler to appear. But no such luck.

Martin

smilie · Jun 28, 2011

Visit to Jeffries Bay/Gamtoos

Hello All

I'm very new to all this but my father and i have been having a good read of the Southern African Forum with great interest and have very much enjoyed looking at the pictures and learning about the amazing birds from this part of the world. My father recently returned home from a visit to his brother who lives by the Gamtoos River near Jeffries Bay. He spent most of the 2 months there taking photos of the birds that visited the garden however we are not completly sure exactly what they all are but i thought i might share a few with you. Am sure many of you see these birds regularly in your gardens there but we still get excited looking at the photos (probably because it's great to see some different birds from the ones we see in the UK). I may have got this totally wrong but i believe the small black bird is a fork tailed drongo and it used to flying into my uncle's house and feed from my father's hand.

Sarah |

|

kevinexzim · Jun 28, 2011

Bird feeders

Martin Hobbs said:
Hi Kevin,
We live on a large plot of land in Midrand and surounded by other plots so we have many trees, shrubs and open grass in the area.
My own plot we have a mixture of wooded areas surrounding the boundry fence of our plot, plus a sucluded (I never go into this area) wooded area in the middle of the plot. The rest is open grass (sort of lawn!), and area of grassland which is left as veld grass that I have planted with wild grassland plants, aloes, and wild flowers, which I burn most winters.
I have seed feeders in the trees near the house in the front and back. We have done this to try and avoid a few birds dominating these feeders. I rotate the seed in the feeders for this same reason.
I have many fruit feeders spread around the garden again to avoid (especially the Barbets) dominating these feeders. We use mostly Papaya, Bananas, and Apples.
We also use bone meal at two areas in the garden this time of year, away from the seed and fruit feeders to encourage the shy Boubous, Thrushes and Robins.
The fruit is pinned onto nails in the branches of trees to avoid the Louries throwing the fruit off of feeders. The bone meal is spread on large rocks we have to encourage the shy birds to use the cover of the rocks to approach on a 'hit and run' basis.

Hope this helps. Let me know if you want more information.

Martin

Thanks very much for the tips, Martin! Kevin.

Dave Kennedy · Jun 28, 2011

smilie said:
Hello All

I'm very new to all this but my father and i have been having a good read of the Southern African Forum with great interest and have very much enjoyed looking at the pictures and learning about the amazing birds from this part of the world. My father recently returned home from a visit to his brother who lives by the Gamtoos River near Jeffries Bay. He spent most of the 2 months there taking photos of the birds that visited the garden however we are not completly sure exactly what they all are but i thought i might share a few with you. Am sure many of you see these birds regularly in your gardens there but we still get excited looking at the photos (probably because it's great to see some different birds from the ones we see in the UK). I may have got this totally wrong but i believe the small black bird is a fork tailed drongo and it used to flying into my uncle's house and feed from my father's hand.

Sarah ||

Hi, Sarah, and welcome to the forum.
Fork-tailed drongos in the Southern Cape typically become bold and often hand-tame. One of their favourite snacks is cheese - offer them some of that and they will be your friends for life.
The other birds are - Southern (lesser) Double-collared Sunbird, Cape Weaver (female) and a juvenile Black-headed Oriole. If you look at my post number #2540 you can see an adult oriole - it's a beautiful bird with a beautiful call to match.
Best wishes,
Dave

kevinexzim · Jul 2, 2011

Africam

Hi all.
I just discovered for myself:
http://www.africam.com/wildlife/black_eagle_webcam
and
http://www.tembe.co.za/webcam.htm

The Black Eagle is nursing a chick - looks to be about a month old.
It's nesting season is almost opposite that of our Crowned Eagles - it would be December for our at chick that age.

Great fun!!!
Kevin.

Dryocopus · Jul 3, 2011

Hallo to all my SA friends!
Soon to go to Tanzania -end of July - itinary on that thread.

Need to catch up with your posts!
Corinna

kittykat23uk · Jul 4, 2011

Hi all,

Looks like I might be coming back to South Africa this year, planning some time around Imfolozi, Tembe and a spot of diving at Sodwana in October hopefully if all goes well.

All the best

Jo

Right Whale · Jul 8, 2011

Hi all,
I will be visiting SA with my family in the last 2 weeks of August, and was hoping for some updated info. Does anyone have any up to date news on the Cape Rockjumpers at Rooi Els? Also are Blue Cranes likely to around in the Darlings Hill Road area at this time of year? We will be staying in the Simons town area for a few days, were would be the best place to view Right Whales from? If anyone has any latest news/sites for anything else of interest, that would be great.
Any help would be much appreciated.

Dave Kennedy · Jul 12, 2011

Just a note to say that my Freckled Nightjar was back in the garden this evening, calling vigorously. This is the first time I have heard it in the dead of winter.
Dave

Dave Kennedy · Jul 19, 2011

Cape Trip, March 2011

The Paternoster shoreline yielded thousands of swirling terns, mostly - as far as I could tell, Common, Swift and Sandwich terns. A variety of waders, susprisingly hard to spot against the kelp and pebble background, foraged along the shoreline. Turnstones, Sanderling, Ringed Plovers, Kittlitz'z Plover and White-fronted Plover were common, and I spotted one Grey Plover working the sea's edge. Just back from the beach, Karoo Scrub-robins and Cape Francolin gleaned sustenance from the dry, scrubby vegetation. I watched one White-fronted Plover hunting the water's edge, legs scurrying like clockwork, bill stitching and probing in the wet sand. Suddenly he stopped, plunged his bill deep into semi-liquid sand, and came up with a fine long marine worm, which he ate with every appearance of relish. I wish I knew what senses he used to locate and catch this worm....touch, smell, sight, hearing - any opinions?
A sheltered arm of the sea held a noisy mob of Hartlaub's Gulls, for all the world like a ladies' coffee morning at the church social. Once again, I have no idea what they were doing, nor why they had gathered together in this raucous throng. Once I spotted a Small Grey Mongoose working the kelp, on the alert for anything that might prove edible.
Best wishes,
Dave

Dave Kennedy · Jul 19, 2011

Cape Trip. March 2011

Here are more photos from Paternoster........

The first one shows the White-fronted Plover and its large worm.

Note how hard it its to spot small plovers against the kelp and pebbles. Unless they move, they can be hard to see.

Best look I've had at a Grey Plover......

......and Sanderlings & a Turnstone.

Dave

Dave Kennedy · Jul 19, 2011

Cape Trip, March 2011

...and finally......

At Bushmans Kloof in the Cederberg we noticed one evening that almost every grazing animal - zebra, bontebok, springbok etc. - was accompanied by a pair of Cape Wagtails. I have seen bee-eaters follow large animals, Kori Bustards, or even vehicles to catch insects flushed by their passage, but until now had not realised that Cape Wagtails do it too, and extensively, at that. Virtually every animal had its attendant pair of wagtails.

In the photograph one wagtail is just in front of the springbok's nose, the other below its neck.

Dave

Sal · Sep 14, 2011

I've found the thread! I thought it had disappeared for ever! I'm very glad its still around as I have so much to read to catch up. I seem to have been away so much and when I get back I spend all my time trying to catch up with my life.

Anyway, I have just spent three weeks in Durban, and managed to fit in a couple of visits to the Botanical Garden to look at the birds. Everything is busy building nests and growing flirty plumage or hatching out young and looking for food.

The best sighting for me was a Black Sparrowhawk, of which I managed to get a really poor pic, but at least its proof! I think they must be breeding in the garden as whilst I was watching it I could hear young calling and later I found them in an extremely tall tree. One flew out as I approached and, again, poor quality, but here it is. Please tell me if it’s not a juv. Black Sparrowhawk!

Around the lake things were buzzing. African Sacred Ibis were fetching sticks and scrapping over space. Their breeding plumes were showing and in the photo below you can see the scarlet breeding colours on their bare patches (under the wing) Hadeda Ibis were having a tug of war over long twigs on the edge of the water. The victor flew into a tree – and promptly dropped it. The Egyptian Geese had produced a mass of goslings which were very active, both on the grass and in the water and the noise from the adults was quite something until it became part of the background cacophony.

Sal · Sep 14, 2011

Durban Bot gardens cont.

Quite a few Spurwing Geese were threading their way between the birds on the water but I saw no goslings as yet, I think they only start breeding this month. There were several Pink-backed Pelicans around and later in the morning they descended onto the lake and started feeding. I watched a pair of them grubbing around in the shallows and was interested to see that they were shadowed by an African Spoonbill which may have been benefiting from what they stirred up from the mud. This particular Spoonbill took up an elegant pose above my head. I moved out of range . . . .

I know Hadedas are such common birds, but they rarely get a look-in so here's a
photo of the twig-dropper from the previous post.

Sal · Sep 14, 2011

Durban Botanical Gardens cont.

I spent a long time watching the Moorhens. They had tiny chicks that must have hatched fairly recently. The mothers made no speed concessions as they shot across the water and these tiny little black pieces of thistledown had to work incredibly hard to keep up. A pair of them underwent some severe child abuse as I watched – they were begging for food, and the adult snapped viciously at their heads, and kept pushing them away. I don’t know if it was because they had mistaken their parent or whether the parent was having a bad day but it looked like pretty heartfelt abuse to me! See the pic, where the little chick has actually been turned over by the attack. One adventurous chick climbed out of the water onto the grass and started stumbling about on its enormous feet, prodding its tiny beak into the grass in a search for food. It wandered further and further away from the water and the mother, who was fossicking around amongst the aquatic vegetation seemed unaware that it was missing and took off across the water, her two other chicks in tow, completely ignoring the fact that one was missing. Not surprising that there is a low survival of chicks! Luckily it suddenly realised it was alone and scuttled back to the water and started sculling for all it was worth, seeming to know almost by instinct the direction the mother had taken.

There were several Grey Herons one of whom had taken up a most interesting pose in the tree opposite me . . . . Whilst i was watching the Pink-backed Pelicans shadowed by the Spoonbill, I came across a Squacco Heron which for me was another really nice sighting.

Sal · Sep 14, 2011

I actually spent so much time by the lake, completely enchanted by the happenings there , that I didn't get to bird the rest of the gardens much. However, my final list included:

Fork-tailed Drongo
African Palm Swift
Dark-capped Bulbul
Black-collared Barbet
Bronze Mannikin
Collared Sunbird
Spectacled Weaver
Kurrichane Thrush
Cape White-eye
Black Flycatcher
Spotted-backed Weaver
Yellow-billed Kite
Thick-billed Weaver
Reed Cormorant
Common Mynah
Cape Wagtail
Red-backed Mannikin
Dusky Flycatcher
Speckled Mousebird
White-bellied Sunbird
Red-eyed Dove
Cape Robin

birdboybowley · Sep 14, 2011

Hey guys, been reading avidly and wishing I was back there again!
Have just fiinshed my first painting inspired by last year's visit - hopefully a few more to come. The rockjumpers are screaming out for a painting!

Kruger BBQ - all you can eat! (Large).jpg

njlarsen · Sep 14, 2011

Hi Ads,
if I remember your photos correctly, the red on those birds was much more vivid there ...

Niels

Sal · Sep 14, 2011

birdboybowley said:
Hey guys, been reading avidly and wishing I was back there again!
Have just fiinshed my first painting inspired by last year's visit - hopefully a few more to come. The rockjumpers are screaming out for a painting!

View attachment 347230

Fabulous Ads. Takes me straight into the bush when the fires are burning. Thanks for showing it here.

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