Dawn light on the confluence of the Liesbeek and Black Rivers where we do our bird count. Egyptian Geese fly by. The cranes behind the little undamaged island stand silent, hopefully haemorrhaging money into bankruptcy for a company that sought to wreck the place with the collusion of the city that ignored its own environmental impact assessment which declared that it was wholly inappropriate to build on this environmentally sensitive floodplain. ...
This ruined cottage was an irresistible moonlight attraction when we were teenagers. And the wall was a seat where we could climb up and pretend we were vampires.
The pines have their own charms though. When you’re raised on European culture and JRR Tolkien - and our spectacular African scenery is just the backdrop to life - it was easy to romanticise this slightly exotic landscape. But it doesn’t really belong here and as such it lacks the intense diversity of our native biomes. The one upside though is that it provides a living for fungi from Europe which extrude bizarre fruits out of the ground and bark after rains.
The native forests of Table Mountain. Dense and ringing with the calls of forest birds - unlike the bare alien pine forests that still linger on some slopes.
My camera battery charger has been rediscovered. So I took it for a long walk in the woods on the mountainside this morning. It’s really striking how many more birds you hear when you leave the alien pines and enter the indigenous forest. Now that I recognise the eerie, jaunty call of the Sombre Bulbul, I can hear that the forest is lousy with them. I also spotted a Cape Batis.
Had to relearn how to take pictures when we went to a heavy metal show last night up the street with @sad_ivan and Tanya. @withoutaleaf and I aren’t really metal people so we dressed as tourists. We bumped into the organiser of this 200 odd people event and she can be seen wearing my fly glasses. Absolute blast. Metal heads are the best people. The band, Abaddon, were cracking. Tight as a drum. Thundering sound. A fine night out.
Some #latergrams from Xmas in January. Omicron put a hold on our planned Christmas lunch and led to it being @withoutaleaf and my folks at their place for a slap-up lunch with a more modest roast chicken standing in for a turkey.
Our Liesbeek bird counting group had an away day this morning at Strandfontein Sewerage works. Jane and Terna looking out at the thousands of birds in every direction. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen the place so dense with avian life. As we drove down the tracks, Barn Swallows swirled around the car stuffing themselves with unseen bugs - to fatten up for their long journey back to the summer of Europe. We saw so many different ducks - Cape, Red-Billed, and Blue-billed Teals. Cape Shovelers. Spur-Winged Geese, Egyptian Geese, Southern Pochards, Fulvous Whistling Ducks, and Yellow-Billed Ducks. ...
A second of quiet dignity among quite a bit of camera-inspired hamming.
What @sad_ivan once called, “The cheap showiness of nature.” That blorange Cape sunset taking things over the top.