The Swallows finally finished the construction of their nest... It looks so nice, quite interesting to see that mud can really have so much colour!
I have not seen them move in or out of the entrance, but I hear them and occasionally see one sitting on the door bell (their perch). I'll be keeping a close watch...

Twins Turn 6

Fri 13 & Sat 14 Feb...
The place to be!
Katelin & Daniels Birthday Parties
Never had a car on Friday, so caught a Nedbank Capital London Taxi Cab to Parkhurst where fun was being had by about a million children, wow they were everywhere!
Katelin's birthday was first and this was a Hello Kitty theme with pink & white - it was so cute! Katie was wearing a beautiful pink party dress that really could have been perfect for Alice in Wonderland - she looked beautiful. Saturday was Daniels turn and the theme was dinosaurs and chamoflauge undertones, boys party harder that's for sure - man they were trying their best to destroy the hammock in the garden, swinging and clinging to it like monkeys. The slip 'n slide was a real success and worked perfectly down the slope in the garden.

All in all I think the children were really spoilt, they had so much fun and it was really well organised by mommy and daddy (Tracy & Deon) of course! I had fun with my camera and fast moving subjects - i think i did pretty well considering!

PS: Seems as though the sparrows are almost finished with their nest! Will post a pic shortly of the last few stages.

Toast To My Mum
- Joan Parker -

Love Love Love
xxx
Mom you overflow with love and kindness - goodness and mercy shall surely follow you!
Thank you so much for sharing your heart with us always. You are a strong, vibrant woman!
As you CELEBRATE 70 WONDERFULL YEARS here, we celebrate a lifetime with an incredible mum!
I think I speak on behalf of my big sisters when I say, "We Love You Very Much"!
From Your Girls
Angie, Bev, Chris & Debs

Bath Time...
This day I managed to get our regular visitors, the Olive Thrush, having a really good splash in our water feature.

It's actually quite amusing to watch because the edge on which they perch is fairly wide and in the centre, the bowl is about 6cm deep. The birds skirt around the edges for ages and usually drink or flick the water up.

Perhaps these birds have figured out the depth because the Thrushes are more often than not actually doing exactly what this little one did on this day - enters from one side, sort of swims across with great splashing and jumps out at the other end!

Till next time...

So there we were... "thinking" one thing and in reality something totally different was going on in our front door!
Yes we have a nesting pair of Striped Swallows, just not the "Lesser" variety!
How random is nature?
If it wasn't for the fact that I managed to get those first pics of the Lesser striped, I would have convinced myself that I'd been wrong in the first place.

It was only this weekend that we first realised that the birds had switched! Would love to know why this happened... but in any case...

We feel truelly blessed to have swallows building a nest right under our noses. Many people have commented on the mess it will create, but just as many people share our view of the blessing!

The pics are in order of events and as you can see top left is our little swallow and as you can see the nest growing as is his haste, I fear he is running out of time and he knows it, they spent the first night in the nest last night as you see it in the bottom right pic, I am sure the nest is not finished, normally it would be closed off and have a tunnel entrance! But I suppose it doesn't stop them from moving in a little early! I really hope they finish their nest before they migrate!

It has been such a treat to watch this little fellow construct this incredible work of nature! God is in the detail!

How Exciting!!!
We took one look at this little swallow and knew it was something special! Turned out it was not unique but definitely not common in Gauteng. It was the "Lesser Striped Swallow" and it seemed to be looking for a place to nest...

The two of them almost spent the whole weekend hanging around our front door entrance! It seems as if we are about to have a nesting pair taking up residence in our spot!

Date: 18 Jan '09
Species: Lesser Striped Swallow

Pintailed Whydah...
So noisy, so bossy and yet oh so beautiful!
I do miss him - he's still around but I can't hear or see him like this and that's because he only appears this way during his breeding season, he returns to normal when his job is done!!!
I spent hours keeping a watchful eye in my garden waiting for the opportunity to snap this little guy! At one point he actually flew into the house defending his territory! It's been a real treat watching him work his way around the garden... yes he does tend to fight off all the other regulars but they'll always come back!
Activity: Dec + Jan
Area: Fourways, South Africa