Baraza

Category: Uncategorized | Date: Aug 22 2008 | By: baraza

From time to time I work from home where it’s quiet and peaceful - and I get to be inspired by all the animals around me. Right now I’m  watching bird wars at the feeding table - doves vs starlings vs weavers and bulbuls, vs the newly arrived squirrel and a slender mongoose!

We recently had some rain which brought all sorts of colours, smells and new creatures.

Flying ants, actually termites come out in the millions where upon they make a suicidal dash for my lights, crash into windows and leave their wings that litter all over the house. Swifts and housemartins get a rare feeding frenzy, moving at speeds to difficult to capture. The mass of bugs also attracts human predators - these dudus’ are considered an important source of protein for some tribes here.

At night the bats go crazy for the moths,- I took hundreds of photos through the window and on my verandah.

Most pictures were complete rubbish, but I thought you’d ilke these - the top bat is catching moths by flicking them off my window with it’s tail!

This bat is flicking a just caught moth into it’s mouth. Check out those massive ears! Anyone out there know what kind of bat this is?

I’m always rescuing bugs that can’t find their way out in the morning. This is a mayfly I think.

One of my most dedicated companions is Panda - I rescued her from a cruel breeder who was trying to persuade me that the sickly puppy was a pure German Shepherd with a white gene! She looks like a cross between a shepherd and a border collie although I strongly suspect she’s  actually an alien dog. Panda visits me several times a day, entering the house which is strickly out of bounds, stares at me with those heart melting eyes, and if I ignore her, I get a gentle tug on my arm by her fluffy paw.

If she could talk she’d say  ‘time for a health break, I’m going for a walk, you coming?’

I follow the flag that is her tail - afterwards she complains about the hours of painful combing to remove the vegetation that happily hitches a ride as she bashes through the bush. She’s a fanatic retreiver and sniffer … very hard to keep up with her - she can disappear for hours .. reporting back to her Alien Dog king I suspect.

Tags: Bats, flying ants

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