Wildlife in the City

Today I'd like to invite you to join me on our veranda that overlooks a green valley and watch some of the wildlife in our garden here at Lily's Cottage.

Listen carefully to the various bird sounds in the video; of course you'll hear the weavers and doves chattering away while having breakfast, but the loud haa-haa-de-dah sound you hear is the Hadeda Ibis, said to be the most raucous bird in Africa; quite an apt description although it often is a tad too early so they do annoy some people, but we're so used to it as it's part of life in South Africa!

We've had some really quaint bird feeders over the years, but they don't last very long as they're destroyed in no time by monkeys that troop through our garden in search of food, so we now scatter the bird seed on the ground.

The garden birds that come to feed are mostly Weavers, Doves, tiny little Frets and the tiny Firefinches like this one that's darting very nervously around the bird bath as the neighbour's cat stalks them as well.

All the birds take turns in having an early morning swim or bath like this Turtle Dove.

We cannot blame the monkeys as us humans are invading their natural habitat with more and more housing developments, so they naturally start foraging in our gardens as their source of food is being taken away from them!

They seem to enjoy bird seed as well, as we often find them scratching in the ground where we've scattered bird seed. They used to feast off our papaya trees, but both these giants fell over last year as unknown to us ants had been invading their roots.
I have shared this photo before but it really is too good not to share again and it shows the papaya tree with the red crested Turaco flying off; something we've only managed to capture that one time as these are very shy birds; although they make themselves heard very loud and clear!

The monkeys enjoy drinking and cooling off in the various bird baths that we have around our home.

Here's a tiny new-born latching onto Mom.

Lastly I have to share with you the Swallow nest that's been at our door entrance for many years already, but they return each year. One can see the different colours of mud that they've used over the years to repair this nest.
They've left already to fly some 9600 kilometres across the sea to the UK, an amazing migration that takes place every year as the seasons change.
They gather in certain areas just before flying back, we saw it one year in the Drakensberg; was quite a sight seeing so many of them together.

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Original Content by @lizelle
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