Well I wish we could get out and do some serious camping and birding for a change. I thought that the lockdown would never last this long and I am beginning to realise what cabin fever is all about. It is not all gloom however as working from home, I was able to rethink my feeders and put some up right in front of my study window where I get to watch the birds all day. I have put up some suet cakes, seed and fruit feeders. Attracting ,mainly seed-eaters in the form of Cape Sparrow, Grey-headed Sparrows, Red-eyed, Cape Turtle and Laughing doves, Red-headed Finch as well as Dark- capped Bulbul, Cape Glossy Starling, Crested and Black-collared Barbet. Other birds seen were Black-headed Oriole, which is an extremely rare visitor to the garden, Cardinal Woodpecker, Speckled and Red-faced Mousebird, African Hoopoe, Grey Hornbill, Black-backed Puffback and Tawny-flanked Prinia.
The feeders also produced some interesting results as the Lesser Bushbabies from the neighbourhood came in to eat the apples I put out for the birds. Now we see them regularly every evening and I have created their own feeding station as I can't imagine that they get enough te eat in an urban environment. Although they do eat acacia tree gum as a main source of food (we have a large Acacia karroo which is their favourite gum type I believe) , along with insects and some fruit.
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| Lesser Bushbaby - Nagapie |
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| Lesser Bushbaby - Nagapie |
I also set up a feeding stump for practicing my photography but it has one small flaw....it doesn't get much sunlight, with only small patches shining through the trees until after 12:30 when it is in full sun, so you have to be ready and quick when it happens. However, I think that this will improve as the sun moves towards the summer trajectory.. It is about 12m from our porch with the background another 7m beyond so that the background comes out blurred. Here are two from the weekend..
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| Cape Robin-chat |
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| Southern Red Bishop |
I have also played around with my camera settings, from AV - aperture priority I moved it to TV - shutter priority with much better results I feel. I set the speed to 1/1000 and auto ISO and then point and shoot. It definitely makes a difference with a higher percentage of shots coming out sharper. Here is one taken with this setting in the late afternoon light.
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| Tawny-flanked Prinia |
Until next time!
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