Tag: wildlife

Day 16 – Two new birds

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Many people have reported on the increase in wildlife in more urbanised areas due to the lack of human activity. Obviously, some (or more) of these were fake news, like the dolphins in Venice and the polar bears in Barbados, but I have something to report too.

Since the lockdown, I have seen two new bird species in the garden.

Now, I’m not (necessarily) putting this down to the lack of human activity. And were these birds really scared off by a few more cars? Actually, if anything, I’ve spent more time outside during the last 15 days, because it’s either that or inside and the other option is “inside”. So maybe that’s the reason that I’ve spotted these new visitors. Who might not even be visitors at all. They may have been there all along and just not have been spotted.

I don’t look up much. It’s a mood thing.

Anyway. Please welcome the Bronze Mannikin (Lonchura cucullata) and the Orange-breasted Sunbird (Anthobaphes violacea) to my back garden.

Photos may follow (I don’t have a very big one) (lens, I mean): I’ve only managed to see the OBS once anyway, and my quick snaps are awful. But rest assured that they were there.

Tomorrow, I go looking for the dolphins and the polar bears.

Wildlifes

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We are going to try to see some local wildlifes this morning, so standby on my Instagram for some (or more) shots from the Agulhas Plain throughout the day.

Amazingly, it’s still absolutely free to follow me on there (and on here).

I know. Unbelievebeagle, isn’t it?

Anyway, apparently wildlifes on offer may include: hippopotamuses, elands, gruffalos, quaggas, springboks and many more marvellous mammals, with a side order of birdlife.

And possibly some plant. In fact, almost certainly some plant.
Plant can like to be very popular.

And then after the wildlifes, some wines.
I’m looking forward to it all.

 

UPDATE: Sorry. It seems that I heard wrongly and it should be BUFFALOS and not GRUFFALOS. Bit disappointing, to be honest, but oh well.

Crazy Journey

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You’d think that driving part-way across the Eastern Cape in the middle of the night would be a pretty crazy journey, and you’d be right.

But then I did a bit more of it during the day yesterday and it was even crazier.

Part of my journey from the town of Addo to the town of Fort Beaufort took me along the bottom edge of the local National Park. And alongside the road there, there were such things as these:

*warning: unedited photos alert*

And this:

I mean, seriously?

Some people in the UK still ask me if there are lions roaming the streets here, and there clearly aren’t. But there clearly are elephants and warthogs (and kudu and zebras) right next to (some of) the streets in the Eastern Cape.

Of course, I had to stop and shoot. So there are several (or more) pics available. But I don’t have editing time right now: I’ll get to that should I survive my flight back into severely stormy Cape Town this evening.
It could be a crazy journey.

But it would take a bit to beat this one…

Locust housing

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…And The Struggle Of Suburban Garden Wildlife Identification (but that wouldn’t fit in the title box).

This thing was in our garden last night. Probably about 90mm in length, sitting first of all on a one of the chairs that we never use, and then hopping/jumping/flying onto some nearby agapanthuses… agapanthae… agapanthasueses… plants.

You can see more of it here.

I’m not sure what sort of grasshopper or locust it is, and the information out on the internet about this sort of thing is limited, fragmented and altogether sketchy.  I put it on iSpot, and someone (apparently well-respected and versed in invertebrate identification) suggested it might be a Acanthacris ruficornis subsp. ruficornis, and who am I to disagree?

Acanthacris ruficornis subsp. ruficornis is the Garden Locust, and since this was a locust and it was found in our garden, I’m very willing to take this as a likely ID.

And then this morning, while checking on my March Lily (more of this at a later date) (in March, obvs), a new bird in the back garden (new to me, at least). Too small to be hunting Acanthacris ruficornis subsp. ruficornis, so I don’t think that’s what brought it here, but because I have no idea what sort of bird it was, I don’t know exactly why it was with us.

Sadly, I’m not great at identifying LBJs, and my bird book, which makes me better at identifying LBJs, is down in Agulhas. The bird book app on my phone is better than carrying the bird book around, but is no good for browsing LBJs, which is my standard method of LBJ identification.

And with no photo (yet, at least), I’m just going to have to keep a mental image of this chaffinch-sized, slightly speckled, brown feathered thing until I get back down to my happy place and have chance to look it up.

Unless any of you guys want to hazard a guess, based on my detailed description above? (My current best guess is an African Dusky Flycatcher (Muscicapa adusta)).

Wildlife

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It was an amazing weekend. Wild and windy, but full of spring sunshine, and Cape Agulhas really showed off.

Sure, there was the whale, but that was dead and anyway, we’d already seen snakes and tortoises and the infamous Pengueagle (or Eaguin?) (more on that another time) before we saw her.

And then a walk on the beach this morning yielded Plovers, Kingfishers, a Curlew, some Caspian Terns (Sterna caspia):

…some very dramatic waves, photobombed by a Kelp Gull (Larus dominicanus):

…and the highlight of my weekend, a Cape Clawless Otter (Aonyx capenensis), showing off his catch of (I think) a Carpenter (Argyrozona argyrozona):

We disturbed him as we walked along the beach, but he was as interested in us (and the beagle) as we were in him. He floated a few metres out in the bay with his fish in his mouth before transferring it to his (clawless) paws so he could give us a proper grin.

It was a reminder how lucky we are to have the cottage and how much our kids can learn from visits there. If we’d been in Cape Town this weekend, it would have been all iPads and crap on TV (although less windy, admittedly). Instead it was fresh air (albeit moving rather fast) and some amazing experiences. All in just over 24 hours.

More photos to follow, but I feel like catching up on the footy now.