Black-headed Oriole - Maree

W&N watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm 

The Black-headed Oriole (Oriolus larvatus) is a frequent visitor to my garden (Tarlton, Gauteng, South Africa) and I’m always thrilled to hear his liquid call, upon which I rush out to refill the oranges and apples, which seem to be his favourite fruit.

The Black-headed oriole is common and widespread, occurring throughout sub-Saharan Africa, from East Africa to southern Africa. It is quite adaptable, occupying a variety of habitats, including savannah, woodland, parks, farmland and gardens. It eats a variety of invertebrates, fruit and seeds, often foraging in mixed species flocks in the tree canopy. The nest is a deep cup of woven old-man’s beard strands, moss and grass, placed between stems of a fork in a slender tree branch. It is usually placed between the stems of a fork in a horizontal branch, often far from the main tree trunk, usually 6-9 metres above ground.

Bright yellow in colour with black head and black flight feathers, it has a flesh-coloured beak and grey feet. In the Northern Hemisphere, the Golden Oriole is bright yellow with black wings.

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Bushman Rock paintings - Maree

Watercolour sketch in my Moleskine Watercolour Sketch-book 

Ancient Bushman paintings like these can be seen in many parts of South Africa, especially in the Drakensberg mountains. The Bushmen, or San, are thought to have been the first modern human inhabitants of Southern Africa. Only a few thousand survive today, living mostly in the desert regions. Their art tells of their ancient lives, with particular emphasis on hunting and the animals around them. 

During a visit to a rock painting site not far from where I live, located north-west of Klerksdorp, North-West Province, South Africa, I did a couple of sketches in my Moleskine Nature sketch-book and since then I've painted a couple of these on the walls in my house.
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A couple of 'rock paintings' on one of my bathroom walls

The Bushmen are a hunting and gathering people of the Kalahari Desert in Southern Africa. There are many interesting aspects of their culture, but their connection with the natural world is mostly expressed through their rock art and healing/trance dances. The healing dances and the Bushmen’s rock art are both central to the Bushmen’s way of life. 

Bushman rock art today is widely threatened by erosion and vandalism. Some of the best known examples are under protection in South Africa’s parks. 

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Listen to the Guinea fowl - Maree

Be grateful for nature. Pay the thunder no mind – listen to the Guinea fowl. And don’t hate anybody. 

W&N watercolour on DalerRowney 220gsm heavy-duty sketching paper.

The Helmeted Guinea Fowl is an African family of insect and seed-eating, ground-nesting birds resembling partridges, but with featherless heads and spangled grey plumage. They are the ultimate low-cost, chemical-free pest control and if your garden is already established and can withstand the scratching, you’ll have a healthy and pest-free garden. And be rewarded with some wonderful antics from these lovely birds. 

It is interesting to note that they are monogamous, mating for life. The hens have a habit of hiding their nests, and sharing it with other hens until large numbers of eggs have accumulated. Females lay 25-30 tough-skinned, smallish, creamy eggs in a deep, tapering nest and undergo an incubation period of 26-28 days. The chicks are called “keets” and are highly susceptible to damp. In fact, they can die from following the mother through dewy grass. After their first two to six weeks of growth, they can be some of the hardiest domestic land fowl.

They are highly social birds, and hate to be alone. When you see a lone guinea fowl, it usually means trouble, like that the family has been scattered by a predator. Guineas spend most of their days foraging. They work as a team, marching chest to chest and devouring anything they startle as they move through the grass. When they discover a special treat — a rodent, for example, or a small snake — they close ranks, circle their prey, and move in for the feast. All the while, they keep up a steady stream of whistles, chirps, and clicks, a sort of running commentary on the day’s hunt. 

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Morning is my favourite time

W&N watercolour on DalerRowney 220gsm heavy-weight sketching paper - sunrise over our smallholding, view towards the neighbour's property

Morning is my favourite time when everything is new; 

flowers drink the morning dew and skies are painted in a golden hue.

Each tree stands tall and stately – different shades and different face. 

I’m viewing morning’s painting, done with Nature’s brush of Grace.

The sun peeks slowly in the East, then rises with its smile;

Another morning greeting and we walk another mile.

UNKNOWN 

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African Joy and Sorrow - Maree

"The triumph of life is the joy experienced thereafter." 

- Maree 

Guinea standing on the wall, forlornly calling his missing wife.

A couple of years ago, one of my guinea fowl sitting on eggs was killed by a dog, leaving 10 eggs, on the point of hatching, without a mother. I gathered all the eggs and put them in a basket with a hot water bottle, trying to keep them warm to see if any of them would hatch. Two days later still nothing, but on the third day I heard a weak peep-peep from one of the eggs. None of the others showed any sign of life, so I decided to take matters into my own hands and open the one that was peeping. I gently peeled away the shell and lifted out a perfectly formed little guinea fowl, and placed him on the warm towel, drying his little body with a soft cloth until he lifted his little head and stared me straight in the eye. 

That was the beginning of a beautiful, long relationship with "Guinea", who spent five years following me everywhere and providing us with endless hours of pleasure with his surprising antics. He even lured a wild guinea fowl female from the wild (they used to pass through our property in large flocks, travelling from one field to another) and together they reared 5 clutches of beautiful little guinea fowl, all of whom stayed on our property for many years. 

When Guinea's wife disappeared one day, he was inconsolable, standing on the wall and calling for hours in that haunting 'phe-twee, phe-twee, phe-twee' that is so typical of the South African bush. After that, he would often disappear for a day or two until, one day, he didn't come home at all. I hoped and presumed that he had found another family and was happily roaming the fields surrounding our property. 

“This life as you live it now and have lived it, you will have to live again and again, times without number, and there will be nothing new in it, but every pain and every joy and every thought and sigh and all the unspeakably small and great in your life must return to you and everything in the same series and sequence -- and in the same way this spider and this moonlight among the trees, and this same way this moment and I myself. The eternal hour glass of existence will be turned again and again -- and you with it, you dust of dust!”

 - Friedrich Nietzsche 

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Golden Bishop (Euplectes afer) - Maree

“Birds are a miracle because they prove to us there is a finer, simpler state of being which we may strive to attain.” 

- Doug Coupland

W&N watercolour on in my Moleskine Nature Journal

For years I’ve been entertaining and been entertained by the Red Bishop in my garden (Tarlton, Gauteng, South Africa) and yesterday, for the first time ever, I had nine new visitors – Golden Bishops! My heart fairly bounced when I saw the splashes of golden yellow amongst the red of the Red Bishops at the feeding table – it looked like a colourful table setting for the festive season, mixed with the softer green-yellow of the Weavers. I immediately fetched my Bird Book, just to make sure, and to make notes, which I always do when I find somebody new in my garden.

I did a quick sketch while he was on the reed at my pond and then referenced the colours from one of my bird books. This is the Golden Bishop’s breeding colours and he is difficult to distinguish from the Red Bishop when not breeding, but is generally much paler below, with faint streaking confined to the sides of the breast and the flanks.

This bird is known as the “Goudgeelvink” in Afrikaans and when not breeding, is nomadic in large flocks over grasslands. They prefer to breed in reed beds surrounding dams and near rivers.

It is locally common in the Eastern half of South Africa, with more localised populations in northern Namibia, northern and south-eastern Botswana and Zimbabwe. In the breeding season it mainly occupies marshes or seasonally flooded areas, but when isn’t breeding it can move into dry habitats such as cultivated areas.

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What big teeth you have! - Maree

Derwent graphite pencil sketch in my Moleskine 200gsm Nature Journal

Croc Valley in Ballito (on the North Coast of KwaZulu Natal, South Africa), offers crocodile and snake feedings, bird watching and a swamp forest incorporating a nature walk across the swamp on a wooden board walk. The area is now a nature reserve where crocodiles and other reptiles used to roam freely in this area. Every time I go to the Ballito, I take a drive out to Croc Valley for a cup of tea and a hike through the swamp forest, which takes approximately three-quarters of an hour to complete.

It’s only when you’re up close and personal to these magnificent animals, that their power, strength and size is VERY apparent! Although this chap looks half asleep, the guide assured me that he was fully alert and aware of his surroundings!

This is a Nile Crocodile and they feed mostly on vertebrates like fish, reptiles, and mammals, sometimes on invertebrates like molluscs and crustaceans, depending on species. They are an ancient lineage, and are believed to have changed little since the time of the dinosaurs. They are believed to be 200 million years old whereas dinosaurs became extinct 65 million years ago; crocodiles survived great extinction events.

 The swamp forest walk

 The croc enclosure

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The Playful Crow - Maree

“Even the blackest of them all, the crow, Renders good service as your man-at-arms, Crushing the beetle in his coat of mail, And crying havoc on the slug and snail.
 - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Pilot Fineliner Black Ink sketch and watercolour in Moleskine 200gsm Watercolour Sketchbook Black Crow – Corvus capensis. Found: Africa

Ample press is given to charismatic animals such as dolphins, chimps and the like, but few, when talking of intelligent beings, think to mention the crow or raven. It is, however, easy to understand the natural aversions some people have towards these birds: They’re lacking in any type of floral-like beauty; they have a cacophonous and sometimes incessant caw, and are cunning thieves to boot. 

But if you look closer, and get to know these beautiful birds on a more intimate level, you will see not just see ‘plain black’ feathers, but beautiful iridescent colours of purple, blue, green and brown. And discover a great intelligence, and even a sense of humour, not normally associated with birds. 

They are smart, ingenious, protective, adventurous, and full of engaging play; I recall my 27yr-old crow, Coco, watching intently as I planted my pansy seedlings, only to up-root them the minute I turned my back, cawing in laughter as she fled my mock chase! 

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Survival in the African Bush

“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.”
- Charles Darwin

New-born antelope calf hiding in the grass in the African Bushveld. Location Krugersdorp Game Reserve, Krugersdorp, South Africa.

The antelope is one of the many medium-sized mammals holding the African food chain together. Unlike deer that renew their horns annually, the antelope has strong permanent horns, that antelope mainly use to defend their herd or to fight other antelopes.

After mating, female antelopes give birth to a single calf or, more rarely, twins, after a gestation period that can last up to eight months. A mother and her newborn calf are vulnerable to predators, and antelopes have had to evolve different strategies for surviving this period. For most antelope species, the female gives birth in dense cover and leaves the calf while she feeds. The calf comes to its mother when she calls it, and once fed, the calf will hide away again. Once in its hiding place, the calf remains completely still, blending into the surrounding landscape becoming almost invisible. It will run away only if it is on the verge of being discovered.

Did you know that small antelope, such as Dik-diks, tend to be monogamous? They live in a forest environment with patchy resources, and a male is unable to monopolize more than one female due to this sparse distribution. Larger forest species often form very small herds of 2–4 females and 1 male.

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Spring Spring Spring

Now the spring is really here, I saw my first swallows this day last week and the numbers are building everyday, yesterday when I looked out of my kitchen window there was a Northern Wheatear on the phone line, the first I have seen this year, then suddenly another one appeared alongside.

These birds, like the swallows, winter in Africa and breed in Europe , mainly on high ground, so on the coast we only see them passing through.

This is the third in the series, following the life of my neighbours apple trees. I'm a bit late posting this one as the trees are now in full bloom, but I will try to up date more often.

Red Bishop - Maree Clarkson

I hope you love birds too. It is economical. It saves going to heaven.

- Emily Dickinson

The Red Bishop on my fence post...

The Bishops have returned to my garden this Spring and I was so excited! The male's buzzing song alerting the female to the nest he's building for her is always the first to alert me of their return and, contrary to the male, the female is brown and very inconspicuous. He only carries these colours during the breeding season and in Winter reverts to brown similar to the female.