Indian Hawthorn

Tags

bees, birds, bonsai, Butterflies, Flowers, Indian Hawthorn, plants, Raphiolepis, shrub

Indian Hawthorn
Raphiolepis

Indian Hawthorn is a hardy sun-loving shrub which is in flower now. It is grown for it’s popular pink flowers and used extensively in Bonsai culture.

It is often trimmed to create hedges, or ball standards. It is attractive to bees, butterflies and birds

Malachite Sunbird

Tags

Breeding Malachite Sunbird, environment, Malachite Sunbird, nature, photography

The malachite sunbird (Nectarinia famosa) is a small nectivorous bird.
The breeding male malachite sunbird, which has very long central tail feathers, is 25 cm long, and the shorter-tailed female 15 cm. The adult male is metallic green when breeding, with blackish-green wings with small yellow pectoral patches.

Most sunbird species can take nectar by hovering like a hummingbird, but usually perch to feed most of the time. As a fairly large sunbird, the malachite sunbird is no exception. They have long thin down-curved bills and brush-tipped tubular tongues, both adaptations to nectar feeding. Some plant species from which malachite sunbirds feed include many Aloe species, such as Aloe broomii, Aloe ferox and Aloe arborescens, and Protea species, such as Protea roupelliae as well as various other bird-pollinated plants such as Leonotis and Strelitzia.

The call is a loud tseep-tseep, and the male malachite sunbird has a twittering song

Breeding Malachite Sunbird

Mr and Mrs Malachite Sunbird. This species is monogamous

Jackie Hangman

Tags

Bird, environment, Fiscal Shrike, Jackie Hangman, nature

The Jackie Hangman gets it’s name from the habit of impaling prey on thorns to store for later consumption. One of the reasons of this species success lies in its varied diet and clever hunting techniques. It often uses a sit and wait technique in which it hunts from a prominent perch, remaining almost motionless, scanning the area with its sharp eyes. When it spots something it glides to the ground and attempts to catch its prey. It has a varied diet of insects, frogs, reptiles and birds.

It gives a jumbled mix of shrike-like swizzling sounds including some imitations and a harsh Dzzzttt-dzzzt-dzzzt alarm call.

Jackie Hangman – Fiscal Shrike

The Cape White-eye

Tags

Bird, Cape White-eye, environment, nature

Cape white-eye (Zosterops pallidus)

This species is about 12 cm long with rounded wings, strong legs, and a conspicuous ring of white feathers round the eyes. The upperparts are green, and the throat and vent are bright yellow. The members of the nominate group have a pale yellow central belly with peach coloured flanks. The members of the capensis subgroup have a grey breast and belly, while the virens subgroup have a greenish-yellow breast and belly.

They are very vocal, and constantly keep in touch with soft trilled pee, pree or pirreee callnotes. The song consists of repeated long jerky phrases of sweet reedy notes, varying in pitch, volume and temp, usually starting off with teee teee or pirrup pirrup notes, then becoming a fast rambled jumble of notes, which may incorporate mimicked phrases of other birdcalls.

This is a sociable species forming large flocks outside the breeding season. It builds a cup nest in a tree and lays 2-3 unspotted pale blue eggs. The eggs hatch in 11–12 days, and fledging occurs in another 12–13 days. The peak breeding season is September to December.

The Cape white-eye feeds mainly on insects, but also soft fleshy flowers, nectar, fruit and small grains. It readily comes to bird feeders.

The Bird which cries Wolf

Tags

Bird, Cape Town, environment, Flowers, Fork tailed Drongo, nature, plants, South African endemic plant

The fork-tailed drongo is a common and widespread resident breeder in Africa south of the Sahara. These insect-eating birds are usually found in open forests or bush. Two to four eggs are laid in a cup nest in a fork high in a tree.

These are aggressive and fearless birds, given their small size, and will attack much larger species, including birds of prey if their nest or young are threatened.

Observations show that the fork-tailed drongo in Africa are capable of using deceptive mimicked alarm calls to steal food from birds like pied babblers and animals such as meerkats. Tom Flower observed that fork-tailed drongos spend a quarter of their time following other animals. Sometimes when a predator is approaching, drongos act as sentries and warn their neighbours with genuine alarm calls. But drongos also earn quarter of their daily calories by sounding a false alarm, as in The Boy Who Cried Wolf, when the other animal finds food. When the meerkats and babblers flee from the non-existent predator, drongo steals their food

Fork tailed Drongo

Southern Boubou – Bush Shrike

Tags

birds, Bush Shrike, Southern Boubou

Mr and Mrs Boubou

feeding on the fat and bread

Mr Boubou prefers to dunk his bread in the water

Unlike the true shrikes, which perch conspicuously in the open, the Southern Boubou prefers to forage in dense vegetation close to the ground, a habit which has led to its being called shy and skulking. The food is mainly insects, taken from the ground or picked off vegetation as the bird creeps low in bushes. It will also take small rodents, lizards snailsand fruits.

The Southern Boubou has a duetted call, with a ooo-whee-ooo, followed by a whistled ooo-ooo-wheee or wheee-wheee followed by ooo-whee-ooo.

Southern Boubou

 

Winter Solstice in the garden

Tags

aloe, broad beans, Cape Bulbul, Cape Honeysuckle, Cape Robin, Cape Town, Cape Turtle Dove, environment, Flowers, garden, Lemon, nature, organic, plants, South African endemic plant, Tecoma capensis, Viola

Lemon tree oh so pretty

Broad Beans in flower

Viola Black Velvet

First Day Lily

Tecoma Capensis – Cape Honeysuckle

Climbing Aloe

Cape Bulbul

Cape Robin

Cape Turtle Doves

Sunday with Sunbirds

Tags

Bird, Cape Town, coastal scrub, environment, Flowers, garden, nature

Southern Lesser collared Sunbird

This sunbird is common in gardens, fynbos, forests and coastal scrub.

The Southern Double-collared Sunbird is usually seen singly or in small groups. Its flight is fast and direct on short wings. It lives mainly on nectar from flowers, but takes some fruit, and, especially when feeding young, insects and spiders. It can take nectar by hovering like a hummingbird, but usually perches to feed most of the time.

The call is a hard chee-chee, and the song is high pitched jumble of tinkling notes, rising and falling in pitch and tempo for 3–5 seconds or more.

Fun on Friday with the Penguins

Tags

African Penguin, birds, Boulders Beach, Cape Town, nature, Simon's Town

guarding the nest

The youngsters tire me out

The Guards

Ohh I think the egg has just hatched

The Boulders Colony

In 1983 a pair of African penguins were spotted on Foxy Beach at Boulders and in 1985 they began to lay. Since then the colony has grown rapidly, increasing initially at about 60% a year. By 1997 there were 2350 adult birds. Such a quick growth of the colony was the result of immigration, particularly from Dyer Island, as well as by reproduction. Birds have probably come to False Bay because of the good fishing available since commercial purse seine fishing has been banned in the Bay. Although Simon’s Town is very proud of its penguins, nearby residents suffered badly as the birds invaded their gardens, destroyed the undergrowth and were generally very noisy and messy. The great increase in tourists has also been a problem. As a result, the area has now been taken over by Cape Peninsula National Park, the birds have been restrained from wandering inland by a fence, board walks and an information room have all been established. Boulders still remains the only place in the world where one can actually swim amongst the penguins as they have continued to invade more beaches. They are remarkably untroubled by people but one should avoid harassing them by getting too close or chasing them. Beware!! They have a vicious bite.

Volunteer in the garden

Tags

African Rock Pigeon, birds, environment, nature

African Rock Pigeon