July started with a mysterious full moon.
During the month of July I added 3 more species to my lock-down list.- Southern Red Bishop, Brown-backed Honeybird and a Brown-throated Martin. The latter was also bird number 80 on my garden list. I hadn’t seen a Brown-backed Honeybird from my garden for years.
A few weeks later he appeared again.
The noisy Green Wood-hoopoos showed off their brilliant colours in the sunlight.
There was a moment when the Crested Barbet and the Grey Go-away bird needed to share food. The Barbet may be much smaller than the Go Away-bird, but he had a BIG attitude.
I love how this little Tawny-flanked Prinia was looking up at the sky.
I just loved how this Speckled Mousebird looked in the morning light.
A couple of other birds also looked pretty in the morning light – a Black-collared Barbet and a Red-eyed dove.
The Cape Robin-chat is a daily visitor, as is the family of Grey Go-away birds.
I saw a pair of Speckled Pigeons doing a bit of “adult gymnastics”. The next day these two were all lovey dovey, and I wondered if it was the same pair.
The Southern Boubou put in a couple of quick appearances during the month.
The Rose-ringed Parakeets always flies high over my house like little rockets.
I did a little birding my my home pent ad again. It ws a little quiet though, with the highlight a Grey Heron. In the cemetery the Spotted Thick-knees and Kurrichane Thrush were some of the birds around.
South Africa’s Covid numbers continued to climb and there was no indication that we would move to lock-down L2 any time soon. So I would continue as I had been since March 2020. But on 30 July 202 I received excellent news – the Walter Sisulu botanical gardens would finally open! August was going to be an exciting month for sure!