Butterfly

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butterfly, environment, flower, garden, nature, quotes

Butterflies are self-propelled flowers!

Malachite Sunbird

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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

Honey Badger damage

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environment, honey, Honey Badger, honey bee, nature

The Honey Badger is also known as a Ratel. Ratel is an Afrikaans word, possibly derived from the Middle Dutch word for rattle, honeycomb (either because of its cry or its taste for honey).  It is primarily a carnivorous species and has few natural predators because of its thick skin and ferocious defensive abilities.

Honey badgers favor bee honey, and will often search for beehives to get it, which earns them their name.

Honey Badger damage

these bees have relocated to an old tyre.

Honey Badger

Honey Badger range

Freshly Friday

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Flowers, Namaqualand, nature, photography, South African endemic plant

Blessed

Papkuilsfontein

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accomodation, Ecotourism, environment, flower kingdom, garden, hiking, Namaqualand, Namaqualand Flowers, nature, Papkuilsfontein, photography, plants, South African endemic plant, waterfall

Papkuilsfontein

Soak up the peace and tranquility of this beautiful farm. Stay in the old, beautifully restored stone cottages,in your own private Fynbos setting.View the awesome canyon and its 100m waterfall. In spring, enjoy the world-renowned flowers in this Serengeti of the floral kingdom (This area is known as ”the Bulb Capital of the World” because it has the highest speciation of indigenous bulbous flowers on Earth). Experience the rich bird life, fauna, and San rock art. Swim in the cool waters of a natural rock pool, or in the pool at the cottages, built to be reminiscent of a farm dam. Hike the trails through sandstone rock formations and don’t forget to bring your mountain bike or your 4×4.

Fynbos flowers

Guest accommodation

Cat’s tails as far as the eye can see

Old Ox Wagon

Windmill

Rivers of flowers

Cat’s tails

Ruins in a field of flowers

Babiana

Blue Aster

water loving plants on cliff face

Spectacular waterfall

Cape girdled Lizard

Namaqualand Daisies

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environment, Flowers, garden, Namaqualand Daisies, Namaqualand Flowers, nature, photography, Ralph Waldo Emerson, South African endemic plant

Namaqualand Daisies

“Nature always wears the colours of the Spirit”

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Jackie Hangman

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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

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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

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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

Sunday walk with Wild Protea

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Cape Town, environment, Flowers, nature, organic, protea, South African endemic plant