The adventure of Tiny Tim continue

(preview of the full story still being edited)


1619h (Day 2 of captivity)
Tiny Tim left the nest and disappeared in my jungle of a back garden.


We went on some errands and when we returned he was perched at the top rim of the cage, but when we returned he was gone. I did not irrigate the garden today in case I drench him. It is near impossible finding a little bird in my bushy garden. I just hope that he can hop onto low shrubs.

If Mary was not caring for him, I would have placed him in the big cage, but then she would not have been able to get to him in order to feed him.

I believe that nature have, under normal circumstances, ways of sorting out its own problems.

Tiny Tim has a dedicated mamma, so I just closed all the doors and windows of the house, giving him time to adjust to outdoor living.

I do not expect to see him again, but if I do, I shall keep you posted.

Day 2 of captivity for Tiny Tim

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5 December 2011
Tiny Tim survived another night. I put him out at 5.30 after I prodded him to see if he was alive. He looks so dead when he sleeps.

Just prior to writing this report I heard Tiny Tim receiving his breakfast and when I rushed to the door to see if my ears did not deceive me, I was just in time to see Mary on the washing line cleaning her beak after the feed.

Will Tiny Tim manage to leave the mouse cage today? Whatever he does I decided that my role is strictly as an observer. Hands off! No interference. Famous last words?
Signing out for now 06.30am

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.

Trees are a natural solution for over populated areas.

The best of both worlds.
Trees offer life for some animals and birds out of the reach of predators.

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.

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.

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?

Good beach weather - Stress for breeding Oystercatchers

XXXXbaai, Cape, 06 December 2008

It is a lovely sunny hot day in Cape Town today.

We spotted two pairs of Oystercatchers and three pairs of White-fronted Plovers on one of the beaches between Blouberg- and Melkbos Strand.

The oystrcatchers are endangered but not protected in our area. We saw a man with two large dogs on a lead, but they were let loose once they reached the beach. I do not have a problem with a dog roaming free, but many people do not realize the potential harm these dogs cause when they chase endangered animals, either breeding or with vulnerable chicks. Crows and other predators are often nearby waiting for an opportunity to swoop down on unprotected nestlings.

I have, on more than one occasion, watched a predator bird circling around someone walking through a protected nature area. The birds have learned that people disturb birds so that they leave their nests and hatchlings unprotected.

My garden, 31-8-2008

My garden, 31-8-2008

After an early spring with the daisies appearing early and the birds breeding out of season, it seems that winter decided to complete its cycle. Spring stood back again and we just had three days of the worst winter weather we can have with rain, wind and hail. It is said that there is snow on the mountains again. In my garden I see the evidence of the cold snap.

One of the early bird nests blew out of the tree, with chicks, one week away from leaving the nest. The parents decided to peck them to death, before ripping the nest apart.

My husband climbed up the ladder to strengthen the other nest containing chicks.

It is a miracle they survived the cold spell so long.

In the back garden I see evidence of eggs that fell from nests. There are no chicks to be seen, because a stray cat visits that part of the garden.

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.

Talking to the birds

One evening I was looking for a baby dove to put him into the cage overnight, when I saw the robin on a low branch. Mentally I asked the robin "where is the baby" I did not really expect it to talk, I don't know why I did that. The robin hopped onto another branch not far from where I was standing and looked calmly back at me. Then I noticed the female sitting on the same branch about waste level and their baby between them.

My cat ate a baby bird the other day; I thought it might be a baby robin. When I saw the robin sitting on the washing line, I mentally asked it where is your baby. The robin flew towards the bougainvillea bush. Hovered over a branch. Underneath it the female was sitting. Then the female then flew into the bush as is she was showing me her new nest. That also means that I was right. The cat did eat a baby robin.

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Talking to the birds

One evening I was looking for a baby dove to put him into the cage overnight, when I saw the robin on a low branch. Mentally I asked the robin "where is the baby" I did not really expect it to talk, I don't know why I did that. The robin hopped onto another branch not far from where I was standing and looked calmly back at me. Then I noticed the female sitting on the same branch about waste level and their baby between them.

My cat ate a baby bird the other day; I thought it might be a baby robin. When I saw the robin sitting on the washing line, I mentally asked it where is your baby. The robin flew towards the bougainvillea bush. Hovered over a branch. Underneath it the female was sitting. Then the female then flew into the bush as is she was showing me her new nest. That also means that I was right. The cat did eat a baby robin.

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Dove chicks left the nest

The dove chicks left the nest. The weavers were not so lucky. They are still building nests. It is still raining.

At Rietvlei the large birds just lost their trees. It is raining. The poor birds will have to look for another territory in this poor weather conditions

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Dove Chicks

1 August 2007
The dove who is nesting in my palm tree has two chicks. fluffy featherless things . I hope they survive the coming rainy spell.

New nest

31-07-2007
Today is a lovely sunny day after the cold spell. Definitely a day to get the washing out in the winter sun. My body temperature feels just right in a thick acrylic winter cardigan. No coat or overcoat needed today.
The birds demolished their old nest and the male is building a new one for a fresh start. I see there is another female in a nearby nest. Lets hope she will have more luck with her brood.
According to the weather forecast there is another yet cold front due to hit Cape town.

dead chick

30-07-2007
This morning we found the body of a nearly fully grown chick under the nests. It must have frozen to death or the very cold weather caused the mother to stop feeding the chick. I noticed the chick was not noisy yesterday morning when the mother tried to feed it.
I do not know where the female is. Perhaps the chick was thrown out of the nest because the cat ate the female.
Since the birds are breeding in the winter of food, we are putting apples out for the fruit eating birds. The white eyes and another black bird, I call him flathead comes to eat the apple. They literally have an apple a day. My dog, sock is not happy because he used to eat half my apple. now the bird gets it. Sock just have to be content with a biscuit instead.
Global warming is confusing the birds.

frozen chicks

26-07-2007
It is cold windy and rainy here in Cape Town.. We feared that the newly born weaver chicks were frozen to death in their little featherless bodies. At first sight it seemed quiet and miserable out by the nests. Then we saw the female with food in her mouth. Yes she is feeding. There must be something there still. It is not making as much noise as yesterday. I wonder if it is sick or weak or frozen.