Cape Wagtail thinks it's Spring! - 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



I have a clear view from my bath into the bathroom court yard, where the Wagtails have been nesting in my Fan Palm for the last 2 seasons. While in the bath this morning, I was watching them through the open doors chasing the Weavers, who steal bits and pieces of the Fan Palm to build their nests with, and the reason soon became clear. Both parents were busily carrying nesting materials and obviously revamping their old nest for this season's babies. The Fan Palm's trunk is covered in a thick, coarse type of hairy stuff, and they have neatly hollowed out a space and lined it with lots of soft materials like feathers and woolly bits. Whenever the babies hatch and start to fledge, it's such a pleasure watching them in the court yard begging for food until they manage to get enough height to clear the wall and follow their parents into my garden.

Can I take it, then, that Spring is just around the corner...?

Wagtail - a water bird? - Maree

God gives every bird its food, but He does not throw it into its nest.
- J.G. Holland



Just outside my studio window, our resident Wagtail has been acting like a water bird - wading the soaking lawns, pulling out the insects and having a feast! She stayed, not minding the rain at all, except for the hardest down-pours, during which she disappeared for a while, but was back as soon as it cleared up a bit.

We've been having enormous amounts of rain, the garden is loving it!