BACK TO THE SANCTUARY

The Austin Roberts Bird Sanctuary

The Geek's project is due tomorrow. Today we had to take another look at it just to be sure its completed. Its the project that took us to the bird sanctuary a few weeks ago. We saw lots and lots of bird species. This bird was one of the strangest. I must have taken tens of its shots whilst it gave a very strange peformance. Nature is amazing. 

THREE PARKS AND A BIRD SANCTUARY

Three Parks and a Bird Sanctuary

I find I am a primary school learner again. The Geek's homeworks and school projects keep me on my toes. I also learn a lot from all this. I'm very grateful.

In search of a pond with some life (plant and animal species) we visited The Fountains park, Venning Park in Arcadia, Magnolia Dell in Nieuw Mackleneuk and Austin Roberts Bird Sanctuary in Groenkloof today. I took about a hundred photos of bird species. I loved every minute of that silence. So gorgeous.

YESTERDAY EVENING IN MY GARDEN

rose from my garden

Well, a rose from my own garden. I actually missed on a wonderful post yesterday. I spent more than 1 hour in a moony evening listening to birds. I really am blessed with a huge garden filled with tall trees, and amazing birds wake me from my sleep. Last night they were competing with amazing music. I will always love waking up to this.
Yesterday evening I listened to beautiful bird music in my front garden.

THEY FIGHT

Just as I'm thrilled by the recovery of my red collar barbets, they use all their energy to fight all the time. I don't know if its play or fight. It doesn't look right nonetheless.

RESCUING THE BABY BIRDS

rescuing baby birds

The tree felling exercise we had yesterday left 3 or 4 baby birds orphaned. My heart was too sore. After a lot of sadness I went to get a bucket and when I got back there were only 3 birds out of 4. After the hubby and son convinced me that they were only three, we worked on rescuing the baby birds Today. We are now nursing them until they are able to fly.



Black-Browed Barbet

Blak-collared Barbet

A bird watching guy I know told me that they are Black-collared Barbets. The cutest things I ever laid my eyes on. From there it was google. Its only after calling a bird sanctuary that I learn I was right about the fourth one and how to take care of them. Hot water bottle is a must before they even eat. Its like having a baby. they eat every 15 minutes because they are in intensive care. Their home was not a nest but a hole they bore on a tree trunk, poor things.

"Both sexes excavate the nest, which is a hole in the underside of a dead branch, preferably softwood trees like Ficus (wild fig). It often uses the same hole repeatedly, sometimes using the same nest site for ten years! Abandoned nest cavitis are often taken over by other birds, such as tits and sparrows." says biodiversityexplorer.org

Blak-collared Barbet

 

Thats how we missed on seeing them. The mother was crying around them for a while, before we took them. This is what wikipedia had to say:

"The Blak-collared Barbet (Lybius torquatus) is a species of bird in the Lybiidae family. It is found in sub-Saharan Africa through Angola, Botswana, Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

Readily recognised by its loud duet, commonly rendered as "too-puddly too-puddly too-puddly".... accompanied by wing-flicking. This bird produces a variety of calls including its snarling warning call and loud buzzing. It is a gregarious species, often acting in concert when driving off intruders and roosting together (up to 15 recorded) in nest holes. Their flight is direct with a loud whirring of wings."

The search for number 4 continues. I'm too sad to lose that one.

last three images from pinterest.com