Archive for May, 2010
Bird of the week – Week 20 : African hoopoe
May 16th, 2010 | 
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Posted in The mainly rufous-coloured African hoopoe with its fluttering flight, somewhat reminiscent of a giant butterfly, presents a distinctive sight in the woodland, savanna, and gardens of Southern Africa. Its far-carrying, rather mellow call of hoop-hoop or sometimes hoop-hoop-hoop, repeated several times and usually made from a perch high in a tree, is a familiar sound to anyone who spends a little time in the bushveld. The sound travels well, though, and even once heard it might be difficult to locate the calling bird. The call gives the bird its descriptive Afrikaans name of “Hoephoep”. Its range is wide, taking in Africa, Madagascar, Europe, and even parts of Asia. In Southern Africa it is found in almost all areas save for the desert, although numbers vary considerably from place to place.
With a length of about 27 cm, the African hoopoe is more-or-less the size of a small dove and the male is slightly larger than the female. Although they have similar plumage, the female may be duller than the male. The head, back and underparts are bright rufous; the wings barred black and white; the tail black with a white at base; the bill is long and slightly decurved. They also have a crest that is normally kept flat, forming a point behind the head, but which is often raised on landing or when the bird is alarmed. The pinkish-yellow legs are rather short.
The African hoopoe is often solitary, or found in pairs. They forage for insects, earthworms, frogs and little snakes while walking on ground, often probing beneath the grass and leaves for likely morsels. They sometimes hawk for termites that are in flight and may be a familiar sight in sparse vegetation and even on garden lawns.
The hoopoes, which are usually monogamous, do not excavate their own nests, but nest in a natural hole in the ground, in a termite mound, a wall, or a hollow tree. In this nest the female lays a clutch of between 2 and 6 pale blue or olive green eggs, which hatch after an incubation period that averages 17 days.
In the nest, the nestlings are not the most hygienic of birds. They are able to produce a foul-smelling secretion (this may also be produced by the female parent during this time of early parenthood), said to smell like rotting meat, that is rubbed into the plumage. In addition they are able to direct a stream of faeces at any intruders. Nice!
The hoopoe is thought to be the “lapwing” mentioned in the Old Testament, and one of the reasons that Moses thought it unfit for food was because of its nesting habits. In Ancient Egypt it was believed that the bird could detect water and would indicate where to dig a well. It was also believed to be able to cure many diseases.
The hoopoe is the national bird of Israel.
The scientific binomial of the African hoopoe is Upupa africana; upupa being Latin for a hoopoe and africana being the Latin meaning from Africa. Thus a hoopoe from Africa, which seems quite appropriate, really.
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Botswana 2010 : Rooiputs Part 1
Our six night stay at Rooiputs turned out to be the highlight of our Botswana 2010 trip. This idyllic spot is less than 30 kms from the Twee Rivieren border post and sits on a hill just above the Nossob River. One has to take a detour to this camp but the road is no challenge and it doesn’t take long to reach the six well-appointed campsites. The sign maker either had a sense of humour or didn’t know how to spell!
Within hours of settling in we had dramas unfolding before us that had us grabbing our cameras to catch the action. We were sitting in the wooden A-frame having some tea when Hillary noticed an animal movement behind us. It was a mother polecat carrying her baby to a new hiding place. Rob and I positioned ourselves next to the hole, cameras in hand, and had rather a long wait until she briefly popped her head out to see what was happening. After doing that once or twice she decided to remain in hiding until she could get away under cover of darkness.
Back in the A-frame we heard a scratching noise above us and were excited to discover a big barn owl in the broken rafters. Birds are always a priority for us so Hillary filled a pan with water and attracted some of the many sociable weavers in the area,
but she hastily had to move it away from their van area when she realized who else was partial to a drink. Check out the trail that the puffadder left in the dirt leading to the pan.
That evening we took a drive along the road to the Kij Kij waterhole and saw our second lion of the trip – a very emaciated cub that didn’t look like it would survive very long.
Back at the campsite later we were having a braai when we saw a Cape fox sniffing at the hole where the polecat and her baby were hiding.
Hillary was most upset and wanted to intervene to stop the baby polecat being eaten. The mother, who had been very wary of us in the afternoon, suddenly decided that we could help her protect her baby and , acting as a decoy for the fox, she ran right into the A-frame where we were standing. Soon we had fox and polecat running around us totally oblivious of our presence. Funnily enough the Cape fox wasn’t interested in eating the mother polecat – his main aim was to get the baby.
This went on for quite a while until the polecat decided it would be safer to deposit her baby in a burrow right next to our braai fire, which she duly did when the fox was distracted. We never knew the outcome of the polecat saga, whether the baby was moved safely during the night or eaten, but the Cape fox came back to our campsite night after night. These were both truly magnificent animals and all the more pleasing to see because they are not so common.
A short stay in the bush makes one very aware of the food chain and how every animal is in danger of being eaten. One soon understands why the animals are so nervous, or alternatively, relaxed around other beasts that don’t pose a threat to them.
Our stay at Rooiputs had certainly started on a very positive note – we looked forward to what the next few days had in store for us.
Bird of the Week – Week 19 : Lanner falcon
There are a large number of Cape turtle doves at Nossob in the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park and they visit the waterhole in their droves, literally scrambling over each other for a position at the edge of the water.
Sitting and watching from the bird hide we noticed that every few moments they would take to frantic flight, often for no apparent reason at all. But on occasion the reason was clear; a Lanner falcon coming in fast and horizontal flight across the open veld. Sometimes it seemed as though the falcons were just taunting the doves as they made no real attempt to do any harm, or perhaps they were just flushing the birds for a second falcon to do the actual strike, although we never witnessed this behaviour.
But several times we saw a single falcon hurtle over the waterhole with a more deadly purpose, striking a slower moving dove in full flight and bringing it crashing to the ground in a burst of flying feathers.
In a flash the falcon would have the hapless dove pinned to the ground and a few seconds later it would be dead, its neck apparently broken. Even a relatively plump dove would then be seized in the talons of the hunter and carried away in apparently effortless flight.
The Lanner falcon is fairly widespread through Africa, the Middle East, and southern Europe, preferring mountains, agricultural lands and open country to forests. It has also been widely used in the sport of falconry in various parts of Europe.
It is a medium sized bird with a length of about 40 cm, the female considerably larger than the male, and weighing a little over 500 g. It is similar in plumage to the Peregrine falcon, but is a little larger, Generally solitary or found in pairs, larger groups are sometimes seen around waterholes. The major part of their diet is made up of birds, but they will also take small mammals and even insects on occasion. They are inclined to hunt by horizontal pursuit, rather than stooping from a great height, the method favoured by the Peregrine falcon.
The call of the Lanner is a harsh “kak-kak-kak”, or a more piercing “kiree” that may be repeated several times.
The Lanner falcons are monogamous and do not make a nest, laying their eggs in a scrape on a suitable ledge, or sometimes taking over the old nest of one of the species that nest high up on trees or pylons, such as crows or herons. The female lays 3 or 4 creamy white eggs that hatch after an incubation period of about 32 days.
The scientific name for the Lanner falcon is Falco biarmicus; Falco from the Latin for a falcon, while the origin of biarmicus seems to be the subject of conjecture.
Botswana 2010 : Nossob to Twee Rivieren
To say that the roads in the Kgalagadi are bad is an understatement. They are atrocious. If one is not bouncing over bone-shaking corrugations, then its heavy sand that makes the going tough. We had left Nossob at first light and headed across the dry riverbed into Botswana for the Mabuasehube leg of our trip. Driving through thick sand is best tackled early in the day as the sand is harder and more compact after a cold night. As the day heats up the sand becomes softer and more difficult to drive through.
The scenery along the way in the early morning was magnificent. There were lots of paw prints along the track and one occasionally had glimpses of shy buck and other animals as they moved away into the cover of the bush. In spite of the sand and corrugations we were in good spirits, looking forward to this long-awaited part of our holiday.
We stopped a couple of times along the route as the corrugations were making my ears sore from the vibrating. About forty kilometers along the way we suddenly smelt smoke in our car. This caused instant alarm. Had a fire started under the vehicle – a distinct possibility if grass had caught somewhere in the undercarriage and ignited. Rob and I both jumped out and inspected the scene. No fire, luckily, but I heard a number of swear words when Rob saw oil pouring out of the right front wheel area. When Jon drew up and inspected the damage he pronounced that our problem was a broken shock-absorber. Not good news when we still had about 110 kms to go on a road that probably wouldn’t improve.
By now Jon and Hillary were also very concerned about their Oryx van. It was taking a pounding from the corrugations and after a brief chat we decided to head back to Nossob with a view to getting our car repaired. Easier said than done. Turning around on this road was a nightmare, not only because of the soft sand, but the whole area alongside the road was undermined by rat burrows. Eventually we found a suitable place and managed to get both vehicles facing in the right direction. No mean feat with a caravan.
Our next problem presented itself very quickly. Rob and I were ahead and came to a rather steep sandy hill with a turn at the top. We managed to get about three quarters of the way up before we bogged down in the thick sand. Fortunately we were able to reverse out and make our way backwards down the hill to try a second time. Jon told Rob to go up at speed and keep the momentum going as he went around the corner at the top. Strike two was met with the same result as our first attempt. We got stuck in the same spot. Once again Rob was able to reverse down. The situation was concerning as we weren’t towing a van and we were busy churning up the road for Jon.
Rob let the tyres down even further and I elected to stay out of the car as he made his third attempt at crossing the dune. Hillary had walked to the top of the dune to watch proceedings – obviously wondering how Jon was going to fare with the caravan if Rob did make it over. With the engine roaring Rob sailed over on his third attempt. My heart was in my mouth when Jon, knowing he had only one chance, took to the hill at great speed. With the van swaying dangerously as he neared the top, he made it over – to great cheers from both Hillary and me. If he’d got stuck on that hill it would have been a disaster.
At Nossob we decided that we would spend two nights at Twee Rivieren whilst Rob and Jon took our car to Upington for repairs. The corrugated drive to Twee Rivieren further pounded both our vehicles but we were treated to magnificent red dune scenery along the way. As we came over the hill and saw the Auob River bed filled with animals, our depressed spirits lifted somewhat. A pair of giraffes gave us a magnificent ‘necking’ display.
This part of the Park, although much busier, abounds with wildlife and we would have an opportunity to explore the area once the car was repaired. We saw this collared cheetah sitting under a tree.
Rob and Jon had all four shock absorbers replaced in Upington whilst Hillary made alternative arrangements with the Botswana Parks Board for the balance of our trip. Our new destination would be Rooiputs where we would spend the next six nights.
Bird of the week – Week 18 : Secretarybird
We were driving slowly along the road from Polentswa to Nossob in the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park when we saw a Secretarybird in the distance. Although we had seen many Secretarybirds over the previous few days, we stopped to take a closer look. Next to the Secretarybird was a brown bundle that morphed into a Tawny eagle as we watched. It took to the air and quickly flew to a nearby tree. Had we disturbed it? The Secretarybird immediately took a few steps forward and picked up a snake – it looked like a puffadder – that had been abandoned by the eagle. We watched in amazement as the Secretarybird swallowed the snake whole in great gulping movements, dipping forward and throwing its head back to facilitate swallowing. Had the Tawny eagle killed the snake and abandoned it to the Secretarybird, or had the Secretarybird killed the snake and been temporarily robbed of it by the Tawny? Whatever the course of events, it was the Secretarybird that enjoyed the spoils in the end. Its meal complete, it stalked off in the regal manner of its kind. Amazing! The photos are not of very good quality due to our distance from the scene, but well worth looking at.
We drove on and came upon the waterhole at Polentswa in the late morning to find a group of fourteen Secretarybirds gathered together. These magnificent birds are classified as “near threatened” and this is the biggest group that we have seen in one spot.
They are very large birds, up to 150 cm in length and weighing up to 5,000 g. They are pale whitish-grey with a drooping, conspicuous crest of feathers that gives them their scholarly “secretary” appearance; the tips of their wings, tail, and thighs are black. The bare parts of their long legs are pinkish-grey and the orange patches around their eyes is quite striking. They are therefore easily recognizable and very unlikely to be confused with any other species. The sexes are alike, although the males have slightly larger crests that the females.
Secretarybirds are found throughout Africa south of the Sahara, except for the more thickly forested areas. Although they are uncommon through most of their range, they are conspicuous birds that are not easily overlooked. They are usually found in pairs or in small groups, but, as indicated in the second paragraph, they may gather in larger groups at waterholes, especially in arid regions. Although they can fly well, soaring to great heights, they are usually seen on the ground. They take off after a short run and when landing will also run a short distance with their wings spread wide.
While feeding they walk, nay, stride, slowly across the veld catching their prey on the ground. They may catch prey in their beaks, or, when hunting a larger rodent or a snake, they may stamp on the unfortunate creature with their feet. Smaller prey is swallowed whole. In spite of their reputation as snake-killers, they eat mainly insects, lizards rodents and the like, with snakes making up a very small proportion of their diet.
The Secretarybird is monogamous and the nest of is a large, flat platform of small sticks up to 2,5 m in diameter, with a central depression that may be lined with grass, usually located on the top of a thorn tree. The female lays a clutch of 1 to 3 while or pale blur-green eggs that hatch after an incubation period of approximately 42 days.
They are mostly silent when away from their nests, but when roosting they utter a croaking korr-orr-orr.
The Secretarybird appears on the coat of arms of both the Sudan and South Africa.
The scientific name for the Secretarybird is Sagittarius serpentarius, Sagittarius from the Latin for an archer, perhaps referring to the fact that the “quills” dangling from the back of its head resemble a quiver of arrows and serpentarius from the Latin meaning pertaining to a snake, probably relating to the birds diet.
