The Breakfast (and dinner) Club - Birds of the Overberg
Living back in the city, though the gated premises we stayed on had a lovely stretch of green canal, the only personal green space we had was a small courtyard garden which had one very large pink Oleander tree/bush, all my pots and was completely paved. So in terms of birds, we did not really see much of them... we only got the pleasure of hearing them in the early hours of the morning - which I loved nonetheless, but it certainly did not compare to the amount of bird life we have around us now.
When we moved here the garden was horribly neglected and apart from the very large trees, pretty much everything was dead or dying. It remains a constant work in progress, but we are a far cry from where we started. When initially clearing through all the overgrown bushes etc. we discovered a relatively large olive tree hidden among all the chaos and lying next to it on its side, was an old, rather sad looking bird feeder made from the lid of a large metal drum.
Me being me - I wanted to keep it, so we "put it back together" and placed it under another tree where it could be seen not only by us, but by the birds too. And this... is where it all started, lol. Buying wild bird seed is now as much a part of our regular grocery shopping list as bread an milk are, lol. We have since moved the old bird feeder back to where it originally was, near the olive tree (which I think you can see in the background of the below photo) and have also now got several other feeding and bathing stations dotted around the garden.
I feed the birds most days, sometimes more than once a day - but the more you feed them , the more they come - so I do try to keep it to once a day maximum, otherwise it can prove costly when you start adding up the cost of bird seed over an entire month.
Playing host to the breakfast and dinner club is unquestionably one of the things I love most about our home. Sure, I have always loved birds, but now I get to live surrounded by them and in many instances they have gotten quite accustomed to my presence.
I definitely don't know all the types of birds which frequent our garden, but I have come to know a handful of them. We have a family of Francolins which have pretty much taken up residency in our garden. There are many in the village, but I know this is the same family because the one adult has white spots on him that look like someone spilled white paint on him. The Francolins are really quite sweet actually, as they will actually come right up to the top of the stairs and sometimes even step into the lounge to ask for their food if I have not fed them yet.
We have plenty of Cape Weavers too, which mostly occupy the willow tree on the one side of the garden and they build the most beautiful nests there. There are loads of sunbirds who absolutely love the nectar on the wild dagga bushes - which we have a lot of!!! They aren't around at the moment, but we also get LOADS of Southern Red Bishops which are just the most gorgeous looking little fellows! - I have not got any decent close ups of them, so nabbed the below online.
As I said, I am a total bird watching noob, so I don't even know the names of half the birds we get to see here, but I am definitely a keen learner, so I suppose that knowledge base will increase with time. Jude has a wonderful little bird book and a set of binoculars which were given to him many years ago by my late mom... as they used to sit outside and watch the birds in the early morning at my dads place when we visited there (which is in the same village we now live in). So, perhaps I should pull those out and start using them.
Larger birds of prey are also pretty common, which is always wonderful to see and we have even been blessed with quite regular visits by several owls in the early evenings. We have quite a few moles here, so I assume that is what attracts them to our space. Either way though, there is something notably special about being in the close presence of an owl.
Even though it is pretty obvious that our garden is already popular with plenty birds, I would love to make it an absolutely heavenly place for them to visit. We would also like to build an owl box to encourage more visits from them too... forever a work in progress I suppose - a labour of love which I am happy to pursue.
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Until next time...
Much Love from Country Bumpkinland, South Africa xxx
Jaynielea
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That's great; I love both the chirping and the colourful bustle. Hey - they eat mosquitoes too ;-))
Which brings me to a question: at dawn here, the birds go to sleep and the bats come out. Do you have them too?
Definitely an added bonus!!! :D
I am assuming you mean dusk? and yes, we have loads of bats here too - if you go stand out in the garden at that time of day they literally fly all around your head. I know they are only fruit bats, but they still give me the creeps haha!!!