Archive for October, 2010
Bird of the week – Week 43: Bokmakierie
October 31st, 2010 | 
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Posted in The call of the Bokmakierie is a delight to hear. The paired birds almost invariably call in duet and have quite an extensive repertoire, but often containing a bok, bok, bok followed by a krrreee response. Hence the birds common name. We watched a pair in the southern Cape of South Africa with great delight as they put on a performance that lasted several minutes. Their heads were thrown back, their bills wide open as they bobbed and called to the sky in a well-choreographed duet, occasionally pausing in order to touch beaks as if deciding on the next tune to be performed. They sing at any time of the year, usually from the top of a bush, a fence roof.
A fairly large shrike, about 24 cm in length, the Bokmakierie has a grey crown and an olive green back, the eyebrow, throat and underparts are yellow and it has a broad black gorget. The tail is black, tipped with bright yellow and with green central rectrices. The eyes are brown, the hooked bill black and the legs bluish-grey. The sexes are similar in plumage, but the males are bigger than the females.
Classified as a “near endemic” in the southern African region, the Bokmakierie is found throughout most of South Africa, but is uncommon in Zimbabwe and the drier areas of Namibia. Within its range it is found in a variety of habitats ranging from riverine thickets to open grasslands and thornveld. They feed on insects, frogs, lizards and even small snakes.
Bokmakieries are monogamous and build a cup-shaped nest that is usually well hidden in a densely leaved bush. The female usually lays a clutch of three bright green-blue eggs that are spotted with brown, and which hatch after an incubation period of about 16 days.
The scientific binomial for the Bokmakierie is Telophorus zeylonus; Telophorus from the Greek for “to carry far”, perhaps referring to the Bokmakierie’s ringing call,  and zeylonus from the Latin for Ceylon ( now Sri Lanka) – this is a bit odd for a southern African near endemic! Apparently Linnaeus, who gave the bird the name, thought that the specimen had been collected in Ceylon. Thus a bird with a far carrying call that comes from Ceylon. Half right!
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Just for today….
Just for today
Do not worry
Just for today
Do not Anger
Just for today
Honour your parents
Teachers and elders
Just for today
Earn your living honestly
Show gratitude to every living thing
Just for today, ask
Where are you hurrying to?
You will see the same moon tonight
Wherever you go!
Izumi Shikibu
Just for today, follow your bliss
Don’t ask so much what the world needs.
Go out and do what makes you come alive,
because what the world needs most
is people who have come alive.
Howard Thurman
Namaste! Have a beautiful day!
Bird of the week – Week 42 : African mourning dove
Southern Africa is blessed with a great variety of doves and pigeons; around fourteen different species are resident here. Some are common and widespread throughout the region, others not. One of those that is quite limited in its distribution within the region is the African mourning dove, restricted to the northern river system in Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe, and the area around the Kruger National Park in South Africa and adjoining Mozambique. Within this range it may be locally quite common.
One of the “ring-necked doves”, with a conspicuous black collar, fringed with white along its upper edge, on the back of its neck, the African mourning dove is of medium size, about 30 cm in length, and is distinguished from other similar grey doves in the area by its yellow eyes and the patches of red skin that surround the eyes. The head and back are grey, the underparts are paler grey. The bill is blackish; the legs and feet pink. Males and females are similar in size and plumage.
African mourning doves are usually found in pairs in riverine acacia or other forests, or on farmlands and have adapted well to human activity. These doves are quite terrestrial, they often feed on the ground on seeds, and within farmlands on fallen grain. They  also eat some fruit and termite alates. Their call can often be heard at night, a loud krroooo, okrroooo or coo, coo.
Mourning doves are monogamous, nesting in a flimsy platform of twigs lined with finer vegetation and located in a tree or bush. The female usually lays a clutch of two white eggs that hatch after about 14 days.
The scientific name for the African mourning dove is Streptopelia decipiens; Streptopelia from the Greek for “a collared dove” and decipiens from the Latin for “to deceive or cheat”, apparently because it is so easily confused with some of the other doves in the area. It hardly seems a good reason to call a bird a cheat!! So, a dove with a collar that deceives or cheats.
Weekend at Arnhem Cave
We’re always scouting for camping venues close to home, and have discovered a great farm about 140 km east of Windhoek. Not only does it have campsites and chalets, but Namibia’s largest cave system is situated on the property as well. As an added bonus, the farm is serviced by a quiet dirt road, which makes it ideal for Rob to cycle to without having to worry about traffic. So we headed off to Arnhem Cave for an adventure weekend.
We left early to ensure that Rob rode mostly in the cool of the day and by doing so we were assured of abundant wildlife on the lonely road. I drove a short way ahead and waited for Rob at various points along the way. We both saw loads of kudu, hartebeest, warthogs, black-backed jackals and shy little buck in the early morning light. As the day warmed up the meerkats peeped curiously out of their burrows, keen to see what we were doing when we stopped to watch them.
If we made the slightest movement, or grabbed a camera, they dashed back into their holes and popped up a few meters further along! It was lovely traveling like that, as the journey itself became as pleasurable as the destination and Rob had a good workout on those hills!
Our campsite, under enormous acacia trees, was really nice and we had an ablution block to ourselves, complete with resident bat that eyed us every time we ventured in.
The birdlife around the camp was also good so we knew we’d be fully occupied the whole weekend with walking, caving and photographing the birds and animals.
We booked a tour to visit the caves and were soon being led deep into the bowels of the earth. The caves stretch for 4,5 kms underground and are well worth a visit if you aren’t scared of bats, because they host the largest bat population in Africa with five different varieties being found there. It’s a bit disconcerting having bats flying past your face in their dozens, but their radar is excellent and they never actually touch you (don’t believe that myth about bats going for your hair – it isn’t true!)
The five varieties of bats found there are:
1.   Giant leaf-nosed bat (Hipposideros commersoni)
2.   Long-fingered bat (Miniopterus schrelbersi)
3.   Leaf-nosed bat (Hipposideros caffer)
4.   Egyptian slit-faced bat (Nycteris thebalca)
5.   Horseshoe bat (Rhinolophus denti)
We learned that more than 100 000 tonnes of bat guano was mined there during the Second World War Apparently bird guano is rich in mineral nitrates and was used for the manufacture of both explosives and fertilizer. When, during the war, the use of bird guano collected at the coast was curtailed, the farmers turned to bat guano as an alternative organic fertilizer as it wasn’t subject to the same restrictions, and Arnhem Cave came into its own as a large scale guano producer.
The grotesque remains of a porcupine from the 1930’s is also on display in the cave. It was very hot and dusty down there and I was relieved to leave at the end of an interesting tour.
There are pleasant walks on the farm and at the end of the day it was wonderful to sit under the stars with a crackling fire and a cold beer reliving the experiences that we felt so privileged to have had.
Bird of the week – Week 41 : African Jacana
In Afrikaans it has the delightful name of “Grootlangtoon” which can be translated as “Big long toe”. This is wonderfully descriptive of a bird that has toes so long that they trail behind the bird when in flight. In English it is sometimes called a Lilytrotter, which aptly characterizes the reason for the long toes, for the African jacana is able to trot effortlessly across the floating waterlilies on lakes and pans in southern Africa that are its preferred habitat.
The size of a small chicken, with a length of approximately 30 cm, the African jacana is very distinctive with its chestnut coloured body; the front of the neck and sides of the face are white, fading into a yellow breast. The back of the neck and the thick eyestripe are black, and the frontal shield and the bill are light blue. The eyes are dark brown and the long legs and toes are grey. Â Although the sexes are similar in plumage, the females are distinctly larger than the males.
Found throughout Africa south of the Sahara, save for the very arid regions, the African jacana is a common resident on many inland bodies of water that are host to floating vegetation. They are found in small groups, in pairs or even solitary, walking over the floating plants (or running if the vegetation threatens to sink beneath their weight!), or through the shallow water adjacent to the fringing reeds as it examines the vegetation for food; mainly insects, crustaceans, small fish and seeds.
Jacanas are quite vocal, the call being a screeching “kooworr” as well as a variety of other sounds.
African jacanas are polyandrous, and the females may lay up to ten clutches of eggs per season, leaving the males to incubate the eggs and bring up the chicks on their own. Each clutch consists of an average of four brown eggs, streaked with black, laid in a nest that is built on the floating vegetation. When the last egg has been laid the male takes over and the eggs hatch after an incubation period of about 23 days. Often material is added to the nest during the incubation period, as the nests are inclined to sink. Changing water levels may also force the males to move the eggs a short distance to a better position. The eggs are at risk during incubation due to the predation of mongooses and snakes.
The scientific binomial of the African jacana is Actophilornis africanus; Actophilornis from the Greek for “a bird that loves the shore”, and africanus from the Latin for “of Africa”. Thus an African bird that loves the shore. Seems clear enough, doesn’t it?
