Not even the big five could be as destructive as the tiny members of our wild life here in South Africa. The damage the small birds are doing to my roof is immense, and even loving all wild creatures with all my heart, I will at this moment happily wring all this birdies's little necks! And clever! I watched this Finch sitting on my wooden fence, and he was kind of singing like a strange song for a Finch, all the time watching the house with beady eyes! I ran to get my camera, and when I came back he was still chirping, but now there was a few different notes thrown in. I watched in awe, as suddenly his whole song changed, and when that happened, a whole bally flock of Finches descended on my roof from the mighty old Pine tree. Threw camera down and ran for my catapult! So now I spend my mornings shooting stones at the thieving birds, who just fly away to the tree, coming back chirping excitedly the moment my back is turned! Luckily for me, the two crows who nest in the tree usually came back from their hunting expeditions during mid morning, and as the Finches have much more respect for them as for me, they leave till the next morning.
There is also a lot of baboons on the rampage at this time of the year. The apple picking is now just over, and the moment the pickers leave, the baboons move in. There is always some undersized or stung apples left, and as food is scares up in the dry mountains, this apples are of much value to them. The problem is that they wreck the trees, tearing off branches! The farmers now have a kind of an alarm that goes off when the Babboons move in, but that makes for some loss of sleep many a night as the sound of that is earsplitting! My new neigbour is quiet about cutting down the old Pepper tree, so I sincerely hope that she had forgotten all about it. She had gone to Port Elizaneth to get the Labrador puppy, which is the sweetest little thing. Joy called her Sweetpea, and I have never seen such a clever pup in all of my life. Only about eight weeks old, I saw her stumble down the many steps leading into the garden, made a pee or otherwise, then scramble up the steps again. All this with lots of effort! Seeing this pup frollicking around, made me so sad, as I really miss old Hendrik, Irma's Labrador who died in my house. He was buried with a huge bunch of Arum lilies in his arms down on the river bank, but during one of the big floods we get here, all traces of his grave had disappeared. But Hendrik lives on, as a whole bunch of almost Labradors are walking the streets of Haarlem. Think he was one busy male!
My artist friend Johan and me went on a photo taking trip in the mountains, and this is one high up. On the top photo, if one take a good look, the Finch is sitting!