The foot of Table Mountain is where evolution and involution meet.

It is difficult to find the true average level of consciousness or intelligence of people in today’s world. Some developed areas are amazingly closed to new ideas whereas some undeveloped areas show an amazing sense of spiritualism and intelligence. Humanity evolved since the Alice Bailey books were written, yet here in Africa many of the unthinking hoards, referred to as: ‘The people’ have not yet evolved past the stage of stoning their victims. Blood sacrifice (animal and human) is still the norm among some tribes, and there are still cases where witches are burnt or human and animal body parts are used for magic.

Here, in the ‘third world’ we still find the animal-man who is a descendant from a group of people who live a day-to-day life and keep no possessions and gather only what they need for the day. They live on the city streets, the urban bush, and their lifestyles seem to have changed little from centuries ago. Yet life robbed them from the freedom of nature. Life robbed them also from that relationship with the wild, the bush, and the rapport they had with animals. It robbed them of the magic of existence and replaced it with a fight for survival in the squalor of city streets.

Their dangers are no longer that of wild animals but sharp or poisonous objects found it garbage cans. The need to hunt for food has been replaced by a desire to obtain alcohol so they can forget the reality of life.

When baboons evolved to the same level, and navigated the uncertain ground of backyards with garbage cans, they were shot because humans need that the demarcation between animal and man remains in tact.

Here at the foot of Table Mountain is where the line of devolution and evolution meets.

It is here where an ugly reality of neglect, animal cruelty and misunderstanding plays out.

The life of a goose in a busy city suburb

T

These photographs were taken by Wally. He had to try and stop the traffic in De Grendel rd. so that the geese could cross.
They can not fly yet and are at the mercy of dogs, people and other predators.
One year, at Rietvlei, we watched how they disappeared one by one over a period of about a week.

Flowering Agave plants

The Agave plant (family Amaryllidaceae)

This plant flowers every ten years or so. After flowering the plant dies down to the ground but lateral buds spring from the underground part of the stem and a new plants are formed to continue the cycle.

For two of these plants to flower in the same garden in our area is quite unusual.










The photos of Agaves Amaryllidacea (Mexican succulent) were taken in a garden in Table View, Cape Town.



(The Photographs were taken by L Wolhuter)

SYNOPSIS OF THE DRAFT OF THE 2nd BY-LAW FOR DOG OWNERSHIP.

SYNOPSIS OF THE DRAFT OF THE 2nd BY-LAW FOR DOG OWNERSHIP.


CAPE, SOUTH AFRICA.

People have only to 28 August to comment.

2, 3,

NUMBER OF DOGS ALLOWED: (Special permit needed for more)

-two dogs in or at a dwelling unit;
-three dogs, in or at a dwelling house;
-four dogs, to be kept in or at a large dwelling house;
-six dogs,, to be kept on an agricultural property;
-three dogs, to be kept on or at any other premises.



Dog registration re-introduced

5

NOT ALLOWED

-bitch on heat in any public street or public place;
- to urge any dog to attack,
- cause worry or frighten any person or animal or through negligence fail to prevent any dog from attacking,
worrying or frightening any person or animal, (except where necessary for SELF DEFENSE)
-any dog which causes damage to public property;
-not to remove any dog feces
-keep any dog which barks for more than six minutes in any hour or more than three minutes in any half hour.



DOG DISTURBANCES NOT ALLOWED:

-barking, yelping, howling or whining;
-charging any vehicle, animals, poultry, pigeons or persons
-causes a disturbance or nuisance to inhabitants of the neighbourhood

NOT ALLOWED IN PUBLIC PLACES:

-Dogs suffering from mange or any other infectious or contagious disease;
-ferocious, vicious or dangerous dogs (unless it is muzzled and held on a leash and under control)

DOGS MAY NOT
- trespass on private property;
- constitute a hazard to traffic using any public street;
- constitute a source of danger or injury to any person outside the premises on which such dog is kept;
- NOT ON A LEASH in any public street or public place except on a leash (unless the dog is in an area designated by the Council as a free running area).
- keep any dog which does not have on its collar or micro-chip a 1 name, 2 telephone number and 3 physical address or reference to a society for the prevention of cruelty to animals or registered animal welfare organization.

6

YOU MAY NOT

-provoke, harass or tease any dog.
-terrify or cause stress or fear to any dog with fireworks or by any other means.
-Have animal for the purposes of fighting any other animal.
-Owns, uses or controls any premises or place for the purpose or partly for the purpose of presenting animal fights.

PENALTY: a fine of R 20 000.00

7

DOG IMPOUNDED / DESTROYED WHEN
- is suffering from mange or any other infectious or contagious disease;
-constitutes a hazard to traffic using any public street;
- is at large and apparently without an owner;
- is found in any public place or public street where such a dog is, in the opinion of the authorised official, not on a leash or under proper control

NOT ALLOWED TO:

-Take any dog into custody for the purpose of having it impounded if there are reasonable grounds to believe that the dog is a female dog with un-weaned young, unless such dog and un-weaned young are taken into custody together.
-No person may free any dog which has been taken into custody,
-People can claim their dogs back at a fee and correction of the problem.
-kept at a pound for ten days .

8 (DUTIES OF A POUND MASTER)

THE POUND MAY:
- have any animal destroyed as contemplated in this By-Law and recover any expenses incurred in this regard from the owner

9

FENCING A PROPERTY
-No person shall keep a dog if his or her premises are not properly and adequately fenced.

10 RESCUE OF STRAY DOGS

-A person who rescues a stray dog shall report the date and time of the rescue and a description of the dog to the Council within twenty four hours.

11

-A DOG SHALL NOT BE A SOURCE OF DANGER TO:
-Council's employees entering upon such premises for the purpose of carrying out their duties
(unless a notice to the effect shall be displayed in a conspicuous place at each access point)

12

REMOVAL OF EXCREMENT IN PUBLIC PLACES.
-remove the excrement,
place it in a plastic or paper bag or wrapper and dispose of it in a receptacle provided for the deposit of litter or refuse, excluding a person who is assisted by a guide dog.
-No person shall walk a dog, other than a guide dog, in a public street, public place or public road, without carrying a sufficient number of plastic or paper bags or wrappers, within which to place the excrement of the dog, in the event of the dog defecating.

13 STERILISATION.

- No person, other than a person who has been granted permission by the Council to keep kennels, or the owner of a dog registered by the Kennel Union of South Africa, the Boxer Federation, the SA Sheepdog Association, the German Shepherd Dog Federation or SA Field Trials shall keep a dog, other than a sterilized dog, provided that a person in possession of an unsterilized dog on the date of promulgation of this By-Law, may keep such dog until it dies or is disposed of




TO READ THE FULL DRAFT - CLICK HERE WWW.CAPETOWN.GOV.CO.ZA

Flooded former Rietvlei, Cape woodland.

2oo9-07-16


The birds in our garden have been breeding since before the shortest day in the year, 26 June 2009.
It is freezing cold and there is snow on the mountains.
This is the first time that I see birds breeding in mid winter.

Is this mid winter breeding a reaction to all the alien trees being removed from our area in such a way that we are having seasons without any high vegetation on our floodplains?

Do the birds have to spread their breeding throughout the year so that each one gets a chance to nest?

Perhaps the birds know about a looming natural disaster that we are not aware of?

Whatever the case, while we are destroying the lung (woods) of Cape Town in an attempt to save, what we perceive as being the natural vegetation ( At some stage of the global history), in such a way that no consideration is given to birds and animals who settled in the woodlands of the area, life is struggling to go on.

Together with the plant species that we are trying to save, many birds are also becoming endangered and leaving their normal habitats.

For some reason we seem to be concentrating on removing the alien trees at the expense of all other mammals and wildlife who habitats our wetlands.

We seem to be introducing sand-veld (fynbos) vegetation into an area that lies below the flood-plain.
When the water rises, there are nowhere for animals and birds to go. There is nothing for them to climb onto.

Snakes are driven into domestic dwellings.
Larger animals that are stopped by fences just drown.

The motives behind the conservation efforts are good throw.
What is being done is done to save our plant species.
I just question the wisdom behind how it is being done.

I understand the removal of alien trees, but I do not understand why indigenous trees are not being replaced.

We have been removing alien trees since 2002. Today in 2009, while the rest of the world is planting trees, we are still removing trees without replacing them.
Is it one big conservation folly?





-------
Poor little tortoises.
This Table Mountain view is beautiful if we forget that it once hid behind a woodland.

backyard abattoirs

In South Africa, backyard abattoirs cause suffering for animals.
It is also very unhygienic.

The neighbors cut this lovely tree down

The neighbors cut this lovely tree down today. It was starting to crack the wall. The weaver who built these nests reared two hatches of chicks as a single dad, as his mates got caught by the same cat.

We now get pelted by the South-Easter wind. It is amazing what shelter trees gives one's garden from the wind and midday sun.

MY GARDEN 3-9-2008

The remaining Masked Weaver nest is still hanging and there seem to be life inside. The other female, the one who lost her nest in the storm, still get food for her chicks, but then hops from branch to branch with the food in her beak looking for her nest.

The Cape Weaver, who abandoned his nest building yesterday, was back briefly to put a few mote touches to his nest.

It turned out a cool but sunny day, and I notice all the daisies are out, as well as my Nasturtiums.

It is springtime again, even though it is a cold one.

tortoises drowning in flood?

My sister managed to save her four tortoises from her flooded back yard.
How many of these poor creatures die every year when we experience floods in the Cape?

The plight of the Cape Plovers (and Oystercatchers)

Read articles about the plight of Plovers at the Blouberg Strand beach in near Cape Town.

(click on the headings of the articles to read the whole post.)


http://plover2save.blogspot.com/


http://www.a-whitegranny.iblog.co.za/index.php?s=plover

http://www.white_granny.iblog.co.za/index.php?s=PLOVER

Experiencing Global Warming in Cape Town

I just watched the last half of a TV program on global warming this evening. Mention was made how animals are breeding out of season and therefore not synchronously with their food supply.

At home, in Cape Town, we were feeding the birds brown bread and apples in addition to the normal birdseed. The reason for us doing this was that so many of the trees in our road became too big and people were chopping them down. Another reason was that someone, in the area, decided to supplement his income by buying a chain saw and offered to chop people’s trees down for them. To compound this problem, the government decided to remove all the alien vegetation. Nearly all the trees planted in Cape Town over the last three hundred years, can be considered as alien. In fact since a large part of the city has been reclaimed from the sea, all the trees in that part can be considered alien.

When I was a child we did not have to spray our trees for fruit fly. Today if one does not spray a layer of poison over our fruit trees, we will not have any to pick.

Cockroaches were unheard of in Cape Town, but over the last few years they are becoming regular visitors in our homes. This year is the first year that I noticed small ones. That means that weather conditions are warm enough for them to breed in Cape homes.

I never heard of water pollution. I never considered algae as a problem. I used to think of it as fish food. A few years ago we filled our fishpond because the water became poisoned. The fish died and recovered when we changed the water. We needed to replenish the fishpond water more and more often until we decided to fill the pond with sand.

Last year tons of fish died at Rietvlei, Cape because of water pollution and algae growth. The warming of the ground around the dams due to the removal of all the trees may also have something to do with it. The birds that used to breed there had to move to domestic gardens and other unsafe breeding places.

We are replacing more and more nature areas with urban development.

Wild animals clash with townships that spring up on the borders of game parks. It is always the animals that have to go.

We have seen so many more deadly diseases among animals and people in the last years. In fact since about 1985 the number of deadly diseases affecting humanity has escalated at an alarming rate. That is in the last 12 years.

I can talk about this forever. We have other problems that feed global warming in Africa. Poverty, job shortages, wars and political instability are just a few.

Are we in a global crisis situation in Africa?

The only ones, who answer no to that question, are illiterates and skeptics who are too young to have experienced global change.

sick dove care

Caring for sick doves

A while back, during the last algae outbreak, (2006-7) at Rietvlei Cape, we had quite a lot of lame doves.

Poison from the algae that was blooming at Rietvlei may have been affecting the doves. They appeared very tame and could not fly.

I tried to get information from the conservation department regarding the algae situation at Rietvlei, Cape, at the time, but was met with no response to my email. So I had to draw my own conclusions.

After noticing a number of lame birds that eventually die or be caught by cats, I did some Internet research about the symptoms.

The articles suggested that these birds might recover. The articles also suggested keeping the bird feeders and water baths very clean and free from algae.

I have a birdcage on ground level near my main bird feeders.

I devised the method of catching the birds and put them into the cage, until they are strong enough to get out of the way of cats or have the sense to remain around the feeder.

Then I would let them out during the day. Not all birds respond to this treatment. Some birds are so sick that they just have to remain caged for a while. The overnight protection stops when they can climb to the branches of a tree at night. I found that the birds released during the day have more chance of survival. Birds who are stressed develop secondary diseases.

Baby birds that fell from a nest prematurely are placed in a manmade nest out of the reach of cats, hoping the parents would find them. I saved a few birds this way, lost a few also.

To protect my bird feeder from cats, I put a fence around it. The fence consists of that wire mesh they put in concrete. It is just the right height and quite rigid. The mesh allows smaller birds through but stop the cats from getting to them. The fence is also rigid and can be placed loose on the ground which makes it easy to move if needs be. The cats do not seem to jump or climb over it unless it is next to a tree or a wall. I have one area, which I have to protect with a spiny plant because it is to close to the wall. My birds got quite used to their safe space.

The birdcage needs to be covered at night. Caged birds can die from shock if startled at night.

Birds do much better when they are among their own kind.

I started caring for sick lame birds after I took a dove with an injured wing to SANCCOB. They do a very good job there but sometimes they are severely short staffed, possibly.

Onesock's first birthday

31-12-2006

Photograph:

Onesock with his new Daddy, Wally, and the ladies from BAT who rescued him from the squatter camp.

A man was seen standing on a street corner, with this puppy in a plastic paper bag, on one of the hottest days of the year.

He wanted R120 for her. BAT bought her for R50 with the hope of finding suitable adopted parents for her.

According to the police it is not illegal to sell pets on street corners.

The law only protected livestock.

The charity shop specializes in inexpensive secondhand books, clothes, odds and ends

For more information about pets in South Africa

http://www.batorg.co.za/

http://batshop21.blogspot.com/

http://pets.startpage.co.za/

Confusion about the Rietvlei Nature Reserves in Africa

The Cape Rietvlei (wetlands) Reserve has a brother in Gauteng.

This can confuse visitors.

Lets clear up the confusion.

Here are the links – Check them out.

Gauteng:

Birding in Rietvlei

Rietvlei

Birding

Venues

Table view, Cape Town:

http://www.maclub.co.za/

Rietvlei

Visit Cape Town

Friends of Rietvlei

CSIR

Bird Watching

There are no large animals at the Rietvlei Wetlands Nature Reserve in Cape Town.

Tourists can become confused if they rely on a web-search for information.

The Above links to the two areas have been separated

The Rietvlei Wetlands Reserve is in a process of transformation, as the trees are at present being removed to create an indigenous fynbos vegetation area.

The bird species that have been visiting the vlei may change as the habitat changes. At present, the place is a mess but will still be of interest for recreation and birding. See Milnerton Aquatic Club

The best view of Table Mountain is still to be viewed from here.

Tourists can obtain a seasonal membership at MAC Club and enjoy a drink while viewing the sunset over Table Mountain from the windows of the club’s comfortable pub.

Or just go for a safe stroll in nature. The area is completely fenced and is very safe.

Remember to take a hat or sun umbrella in the summer as there will be no shade to protect you from the sun.

Day visitors to the nature area are welcome for fishing, bird watching, boating, or a picnic with the family.

The area is well worth visiting and a small area of indigenous fynbos garden, which has been planted by the municipality a few years ago, is an example of how the vlei may look in the future.

Even with the surrounding houses in clear view, the area is still very peaceful.

Artificial watering of the dusty flood plain during the dry summer .months may be a distraction.

You may wish to check with MAC Club if the pumps are running to avoid the noise pollution.

The mountain view over the water is magnificent. Sometimes the water is like a mirror giving a double image to Table Mountain and the clouds above. Beautiful!

Ps. Remember Africa has two southern points also.

Cape point is the most Southern POINT of Africa but Cape L’Agulhas is the actual most Southern geographic Area of Africa. Both have their own unique beauty.

Tourists can visit both.