Sunbird

Sunbirds seem to be infrequent visitors to our garden, but maybe that is because they tend to move fast between food sources without lingering too long - so we just don't notice them. Nevertheless i was happy to snap this guy yesterday morning. I'm not onehundered percent sure of the ID, but i think its a subadult Amethyst (Black) Sunbird? If anyone knows i would happy to have a confirmed ID. Unfortunately my camera was set up for BIF because i was hoping to capture the flock of ring necked parakeets that sometimes fly past in the morning, so the shutter speed was somewhat high:

Puff Adder, Muldersdrift

I love things like this because they absolutely never happened in Dublin. Anyone who knows me will know i love snakes, so i was very excited when driving home from Muldersdrift this afternoon at around 16h00 to sopt this little guy crossing valley farm road just before Beyers Naude. This is quite a busy road so i was somewhat supprised. I pulled over and was walking towards him when another car came down the road straight for him. Amazingly the guy saw me waving and swerved to avoid him - allowing me to shoo him off the road and into some think bush.

Not that Mr Puffie seemed to appreciate it, he was like a mamba on tik and without tools was difficult to get closer than a meter or so, none the less i managed to snap this pic on my cell phone. Sorry for the poor pic, mobile phones arn't great ... but as you can see he is quite a pretty puffie for this area:

Southern Masked Weaver

I love Southern Masked Weavers. This raucous little weaver is surprisingly loud - He is part of a colony that nests accross the road and can always be relied on to wake me up at the crack of dawn during the summer months. He is also the chief destroyer of my cannas, which he uses for his many failed and or rejected nesting endeavours - as can be seen from these snaps.

Rameron Pigeon

The Rameron Pigeon, or African Olive Pigeon is one of my favourite visitors to the garden. They are usually found in cool, moist forest canopies, but have become increasingly common in Johannesburg gardens over the last few years as more people are planting indigenous trees - especially the karee and wild olive which they seem to love. It is often said that Johannesburg is the largest man made Forrest in the world, I'm not sure if that is true, but if the increasing population of Rameron pigeons if anything to go by perhaps it is! Although I frequently see them they are quite secretive so i was happy to get this snap through the foliage!

Olive Thrush

One of the things i've really enjoyed about being back in Jozi is the numbers and diversity of bird species around, i must start a garden birds list to keep track of the visitors. Most people here probably take it for granted, but I have been getting pretty excited - probably because in Dublin I rarely got to see more than seagulls and magpies.

One of the first I noticed was this olive thrush nesting right outside my window. She is quite bold and did not seem to mind my presence, coming and going frequently during the day.
Sadly the nest was destroyed in the violent storms we've been having over the last few weeks. However, the thrush's still frequent the same tree and can often be spotted in the mornings on my balcony where she comes to crack snail shells and birds eggs she has managed to steal.

In the picture above she had just dropped a snail and is trying to spot where it fell.I'm keeping an eye on them to see if they try to nest again before winter, although there has been no activity at the nest for a few days now.