Tiny Tim's second day incaptivity

(preview of the full story still being edited)

4-12-2011
Before I go further, I need to confess that I am not sure if the chick is a Tim or a Timothy.

Tiny Tim had a bit of a stressful day today.

At first I overslept and the birds were already chirping outside when I realized that the chick is still inside; so I put him out very quickly. He was again fast asleep and I did not know if he was dead or alive. My concern was that Mary would notice that the cage was missing and abandon her chick.

I did not have to wait long for her to arrive with breakfast.

It was a very hot and windless today. The heat was just hanging in the air with no wind to fan it.
The poor chick’s, mostly plastic, mouse cage must have been sweltering hot. The deep plastic bakkie (bowl), which I rigged out to be his temporary nest, must have made everything ten times worst.

At one stage I thought he was going to die from heat. He was sitting on the side of the nest with his mouth open and his head hanging, panting.
I went for the syringe and squirted a bit of water down his neck, which stressed him to the extent that he did not make the right chick sounds when Mary approached with food so she left, thinking he was full.

I exchanged the plastic bakkie with a little utility basket about cup size but when he sat on the side of it, it collapsed. Mary was hesitant to get near the cage, so I removed the basket and put a shallow cat food bowl in the cage at which time Mary attacked my head but, although she attempted to enter the cage about 20 times afterward, she seemed to be scared to get near it.

After much observation, I realized that the cat food bowl is blue and perhaps it is a color she did not like, so I had to disturb the poor chick once again to remove all bowls and replaced it with a simple fluffy white carpet made from some woolly cloth.
The chick managed to jump out of my hand, during the re-furnishing of his cage, and landed on the cement floor then scurried under the fridge.

By the time I managed to get him out from under the fridge it was already 5pm.

I stuck him back in the cage and decided that I was his worst enemy and if Mary still does not feed him it will be back to pro-nutro tonight.

Mary tried to entice Tiny Tim to leave that unsafe place by flying towards the cage then out to the bushes at first. He tried to follow his mother, but he is still too weak to get to the top of the cage.
To our delight Mary decided to recommence feeding again, she seemed to be content with the new nest arrangement.

I covered the cage with a towel and put it in a quiet room for the night. I hope that I do not oversleep, like this morning, again.

Global warming hits my Cape Town garden

It is official.  Global warming is here.   If there is any doubts, put it aside and do what the scientists of the day advise us to do to reduce greenhouse gasses; because we do not know how warm it will get before things change back to normal.

The shortest day is on 21 June.  I remember that date because it is my mother's birthday.     My mother has her birthday in the middle of the winter.

Today, 5 June, not yet mid winter, my birds are doing the spring thing.
They are breaking last year's nests down, building new ones and are in mating plume.

It is time conservationists put their old conservation thoughts on the subject into archives and start to work our how to preserve species during the global warming phase of the earth.

It is stupid to keep local species local if conditions are not suitable for the survival of the specie.

This is a challenge for humanity, but we have the intelligence to counteract these earth changes with drastic measures.

Nations must stop fighting against each other because now it is a time for co-operation; in the wake of the expected global natural catastrophes awaiting earth dwellers.

Breeding Frenzy 21 July 2009

21-07-2009

The birds are still in a breeding frenzy in spite of the icy weather.
The females do not even give "Boytjie” the male weaver chance to complete his nest before they want to move in.
This afternoon there were two females fighting over this one half-built nest?
Boytjie has two other nests with chicks and another with eggs.
He has been a busy chap.


We noticed the same frenzy among the weavers at Horse Trails, but not at Rietvlei.
I think the absence of birds breeding at Rietvlei is because "Friends of Rietvlei" have been chopping trees there again.
The "alien" trees that were full of nests last year is lying in heaps of wood chips now.
There is no sign them being replaced yet.


Did the birds know that the reeds were going to flood?
Why this mid winter breeding?

7-9-2008 Cool weather for spring

7-9-2008

Spring is in the air, in spite of the winter weather outside.

We saw lots of ducks with little ducklings swimming around in the flood-pools. We even saw a Moorhen with chicks.

The daisies are out on the field, but at Rietvlei, which is a wetlands reserve, there are hardly any daisies yet. Other indigenous flowers show a spectacular yellow carpet.

When we got back, after a short absence from home, today, we saw the ill fated Masked Weaver nest lying on the ground. The chicks are nowhere in sight. We hope they left the nest and Boytjie (male Weaver) broke the no-longer-needed nest down.

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.

My Cape Garden 2-9 2008

Today the sun is shining but it is still cold. More rain has been forecasted and there is snow on the mountains.

Yesterday in spite of the cold wet weather conditions, a cape weaver also started building his nest among the many nests of the Masked Weaver. It is amazing that they tolerate each other. I thought “Boytjie” would be more territorial.

They build their nests differently.

This morning I do not see any activity from his half built nest.

Last year our Cape Weaver got killed.

This morning our cat came from the yard licking her chops. I hope she did not develop a taste for bush-meat again.

It is Winter Spring in the Cape

It is winter spring in the Cape. One day sunny, the nest rainy.

The masked weaver in the front garden built his second nest already.

The whole garden has a spring feel today.

These untimely warm spells after rainy weather seem to create havoc among the animals.

My friend returned home from a long absence recently. Before she left, she relocated all her tortoises, on her return; she found two dead baby tortoises in her garden.

These tortoises hatched out of season, and there were nobody home to give them water or food on hot summer days.

Tortoises normally hatch in autumn when there is enough food and water around. My friend's tortoises hatched after a rainy period in the middle of summer.

One of the first things they look for is water to replace dehydration that developed during their incubation period. They also look for food. They then look for a nice sheltered spot to hibernate for the winter.

A garden tortoise will look for a spot to hibernate similar to that of the one where the egg was laid.

All this has to happen soon after they hatch.

The tortoises that hatched after a summer rain, found the ground dry and food scarce.

In my friends' case, her tortoises died.

I do not know what happens in the wild.