The Birding Blog

I recently had the pleasure of sharing a pot of tea with my old friend Portia. She berated me for my lack of sensitivity towards other of God’s creatures – her words still echo: “The quality of mercy is not strained. It drops as the gentle rain from heaven upon the earth beneath. It blesses those that give and those that take. It is an attribute of God himself.” And so I stand chastened. I realise that I need to contemplate, and be circumspect towards all; both lesser and greater, the shy, the spectacled, the slender and the broad. Even...

Did you know; the kingfishers beak has been designed for “splash-less” entry into water bodies? The shape is probably best described as a sharpened ogive. Interestingly enough, ogival design of missile heads achieves a similar objective. Sadly, train designers are not known for their aerodynamic skills. It was thus not surprising that the Japanese high speed rail link suffered from poor nose design. The effect was massive (a literally “shocking” result), and train entry of tunnels was restricted to below 350km/h. Amazingly enough, the Japanese rail engineers observed the low splash of kingfisher water entry, and decided to give it...

Many years ago, whilst spending happy hours at the water hole of Okaukuejo (in own right the greatest waterhole on Planet Earth imho.), we were privileged to watch a Grey Heron hunting. With consummate patience, it caught and devoured six doves (you read right!), at a rate of about one per hour. At the same waterhole we watched three jackals kill a springbok.  The two dozen observing visitors were enthralled by the skill of the jackals; no-one even noticed the heron – but we did, and since that day, I was convinced that there was no greater hunter. It all...

The groundscraper thrush is a very common garden visitor in Gauteng. They actually become tame in the presence of human visitors, and will often investigate food sources very close to where you may be sitting in the garden. In fact they may get to the stage of begging titbits. So what to feed them? The standard fare is a meal of insects of different types. However, (as the name implies), they are far happier to feed from the ground and may tend to avoid your feeders. If you have an area (typically close mown lawn) where they are frequently found,...

I believe every Highveld and Bushveld garden has regular visits from the hadeda ibis. There is no better way to control garden snails as well as earthworms and other critters. We very rarely see the equally beautiful cousin in our gardens – the ubiquitous but garden-shy African sacred ibis. On the other hand, our golf courses are full of them – especially near rivers, or after rain (and in standing water). The photo is from Zwartkops Golf Course after a recent rain, and gives immediate hints as to the gregarious nature of the birds. The course is always full of...