http://www.birdsandbeyond.co.za/

Birds and Beyond, Himeville (2025)

07/01/2025

An overcast day up the pass, got the guests some good birds with some flowers and frogs along the way even with it being a bit rainy.

18/12/2024

A day out on the Sani Pass with a guest, achieving a nice 120 on the list, the specials of Drakensberg Rockjumper and Drakensberg Siskin, Rock Pipit and Bush Blackcap, also Blue and Grey Crowned Cranes ending the day with a pair of Wattled Cranes.

17/02/2023

25/10/2021

20/02/2017

The Tale of the Fluff

Our Buffspotted Flufftail has caused us delight,
heartache, improved our social life and gave me sleepless nights since 6
January. The sleepless nights actually started long before that, it makes
the most haunting hoot nonstop all night, whoooop whooooop whoooop .... and
it is loud.
Lets start at the very beginning, when we moved to this house in 2007, the
flufftails were calling around us and Stuart wanted to desperately attract
them to our garden. We had the thickets they require and Stuart had the
water dish on the ground and mealworms to entice them. Then the cat saga
hit our part of the village, our birds in general declined and the
flufftails disappeared. In 2013 150 cats were euthenased in a house round
the corner from us. Three years later, thank goodness the flufftails were
back.
Now that the bird was calling again, Stuart renewed his efforts with free
food and bath facilities and on 6 January, a cool and wet day Stuart said to
me at lunch time "todays the day" and he put mealworms out and water in the
dish,played a recording of the flufftail and seated himself on the veranda
about 5m from the clearing. Not even 2 minutes later Stuart could not
contain himself, the jolly bird appeared in the clearing and ate the
mealworms. I managed to see it as well and shortly afterwards Erika
happened to pop in and she got a performance. From that day on, every
afternoon at about 17h30 we have had visitors on the veranda, the real
birders stayed 5 minutes and disappeared, but friends and others would sit
and enjoy a cup of tea or a glass of wine while watching this spectacle and
quite often our dinner had to wait till 20h00,not good for our constitution. 46
locals and overseas visitors saw the flufftail!
Great excitement, on 23 January the male was joined by a female, she
literally fell out the bush. Long discussions had taken place - what about
the females? Now the nightly calling stopped and we wondered what was
happening, is he building a nest? The male did make soft growling noises.
Both continued to visit every evening and took baths together.
Unbelievable!
On 29 January was the last time we saw the flufftails. We were not quite
sure what they were up to, but were worried as we had a cat on our veranda
two nights later. We could hear a flufftail calling in the distance.
Yesterday, 8 February I decided to prune a bush in the front of the garden
well away from where we thought the flufftails might be nesting. Barefoot
I am entering the Red Robin tangle hoping
I won't stand on a toad and as I am about to take my second step, an
unearthly hissing, growling, screeching starts underfoot. I froze and out
shot the male flufftail. Well, now we know he is alive and they have a
nest. We have not looked inside, they build a bower and the entrance is
facing away from us. We shall give them a bit of peace and then have a
peek. Flufftails both incubate for 15 days on about 4-5 eggs.
Will we get to see little fluffies?