The weather has been working up to 34℃ outside since early this morning. The Real Feel is 37℃ because of the humidity. All this means that it is not a great day for sitting outside to watch birds in our garden. I filled the bird baths as the contents evaporate very quickly in this heat; filled the nectar feeder for that had been emptied since I filled it yesterday afternoon; scattered crushed mealies on the ground; filled the hanging feeders with fine seed; and placed some cut apples on the spikes of the flat feeder placed in the fork of the tree. The feeders were still in shadow when I sat nearby with my toast and coffee for breakfast.
Given the heat, even then, it is not surprising that I didn’t record many avian visitors. I didn’t spend more than half an hour outside anyway as the sun rose quickly enough above the trees to put an end to my shadowy haven. These are the birds I saw:
Bar-throated Apalis
Black-eyed Bulbul (Dark-capped Bulbul)
Black-headed Oriole
Cape White-eye
Laughing Dove
Lesser-striped Swallow
Olive Thrush
Red-eyed Dove
Red-winged Starling
Southern Masked Weaver
Village Weaver
I didn’t have my camera with me, so you may have seen some of these images before. Let me tell you about some of these birds.
Red-eyed Doves were quick to arrive. Two of them flew down from the height of the Erythrina affra trees to perch in the branches above where the seed had been scattered on the ground. They still hadn’t come down to eat by the time I had left, although I saw them through a window later eating seed quite happily in the company of the Laughing Doves. The latter tend to muster together before one is brave enough to fly down to try out the seed. The others then flutter down very quickly. Their motto seems to be that there’s safety in numbers!
There have been several Red-winged Starlings around lately. So many, that a neighbour complained recently that they appeared to have usurped the presence of the African Green Pigeons. This all has to do with the availability of food, really. Anyhow, they were quick to fly down to assess the quality of the fruit I had put out – took a few bites and returned to the sky to join a flock circling around the garden.
This summer – so far – has not been a particularly good one for seeing weavers, although there is an almost completed weaver nest in our front garden. Southern-masked Weavers have been seen more regularly, along with the Village Weavers – one of which is shown below.
A pair of Bar-throated Apalises daily make their raucous way through the shrubs and bushes in the garden, while the Lesser-striped Swallows grace the sky or perch on a wire in our back garden. I never tire of watching the antics of the Olive Thrushes: they often spear something from the feeding tray and take it off to eat elsewhere, or busy themselves turning over dry leaves to find something to eat underneath.
Black-headed Orioles and Black-eyed (Dark-capped) Bulbuls enjoy eating the fruit. They prefer coming when there is less of a crowd, although are not shy to give another bird a shove if they feel they have been waiting for too long.
The really shy ones are the Cape White-eyes. I hear them chatting to each other high above my head and see them at a distance flitting through the spekboom and other shrubs. It is usually only once the feeders are quite free of other birds that they visit either the fruit or the nectar feeder. For the sharp-eyed, don’t be concerned: I last coloured the water (ignorantly so) years ago and haven’t done so since. I happen to like this picture though:
Something Over Tea 