Look at what we found in our garden!

I'm in the privileged position to live in a free-standing home with a big well-established garden. We have a lot of lovely big trees there which attracts all kinds of bird-life. This is great for our family as we are avid bird watchers. We even put out wild bird seed out for all our feathered friends and love seeing them congregate around the feeders.

To give an idea of some of the birds we have seen so far:

1. Hoopoe
2. Red-billed Wood-hoopoe also known in Afrikaans as a Kakelaar.
3. Crested Barbet
4. Black-collared Barbet
5. Rameron Pigeon
6. Red-headed Finch
7. Grey Loerie
8. Mousebird
9. Fiscal Flycatcher
10. Olive Thrush
11. Cape Robin
12. Glossy Starling
13. Burchell's Coucal
14. Cape White Eye
15. Bulbul
16. And many more.....

We have one tree that is especially loved by the birds in Summer and Spring. When it is producing it's bird-attracting berries we can usually just sit and watch as a swarm of birds of all kinds harvests the bounty.

We have one big dead tree in the one corner of the garden. It used to be upright and a favorite perching spot for the birds, but in the mean time has fallen over and is leaning up against another tree. Now, I have been threatening to remove the tree for a long time, but have just not gotten around to it.

So as luck would have it, when I finally arrange for a team to come and chop it up and remove it, I get a message from my wife. She by pure luck looked at the hidden portion of the dead tree and found a Barbet hole. We had noticed a pair of Black-collared Barbets keeping to the area, and now we knew what they were up to.

[Taken with Smartphone - Not greatest quality]

So the tree, at least for now, will remain. We are very excited as we have already heard babies chirping in the nest. The nest itself goes quite deeply into the tree trunk so it is next to impossible to see into it.

Black-collared Barbet

[Picture sourced from https://www.flickr.com/photos/dkeats/9307287131/]