day one
I attempted to take a picture every ten minutes, but then I made a trip to Wynberg, when I returned the wind had put a stay on construction
day two
day three
morning noon evening
day one day three day threw it in da water
On the third day, when I went into the garden, the nest seemed untouched. I looked up, Avis Faber if that is the right Latin form, for indeed he deserved Latin on this day, sat on the telephone pole, his bright yellow coat against a dark looming sky, a bird on a wire, or a wired bird. When I returned at mid day to see if there had been progress, his new nest had disappeared, and in the evening, I noticed the neigbouring nest had also disappeared, and stepping back, that all but one had disappeared ! Compare the photographs from today, and on day one ! Where had all the nests gone, all the nests, all but one, the remnants lay below floating on the pond. I wonder what drove this great undoing: frustration at not getting the attention he'd hoped for from his market, the opposite sex, the desire to remove all possible dangers (lurking place for snakes) to the current eggs in the remaining, rather heavy looking nest, or irritation at my flashbulbs and prying presence, proving that a system cannot be observed without altering it perhaps ? Oh sorrow sorrow, I'd say, if I hadn't seen other birds tearing their nests to shreds, over the years, it may have nothing to do with my observation at all...it seems to be a characteristic of the craftsbird. After all that trouble, tear it to pieces, or as some do, chuck it in the skip. It is incredible how I identify, across the barriers of different language, taste in music, body covering, form of locomotion and size... we are kin ...of a kind
well I guess its the end of the story, and I'm not the one whose scripting it ;)
years later....same tree, different time, new bird, new pond
a few years later
The time when I watched the weaver building a nest, I noticed that he made a hoop, then another hoop at an angle to that one, and then slowly closed it in, getting tighter and tighter, and the process of closer and closer weaving 'inflates' the nest slightly giving it some of its roundness. Brilliant, and where do they get this idea of an inflating home ? Over the years we notice that each male weaver has a style. There was the round nest guy, and the usual pear, and double bottomed pear, but shapes made by one bird at one time tend to be uniform. Recently, ever the watchful lover of nature, my husband Stephan noticed that we had a bird building double decker homes for the first time. It is unique in the 20 odd years of watching them build.
As you may be able to discern below, the nests are attached to the thorny branches of our acacia tree, it overhangs the top pond, and the guava is in the background. This avian architect likes the top pond, but avoids the bottom one, there are no nests above the big bottom pond, and this is also unique.... but there is more
As you may be able to discern below, the nests are attached to the thorny branches of our acacia tree, it overhangs the top pond, and the guava is in the background. This avian architect likes the top pond, but avoids the bottom one, there are no nests above the big bottom pond, and this is also unique.... but there is more
This observant husband of mine noticed that three houses away, there were also double decker nests, in the same week..... the photograph below is taken from our stoep, looking over the garage of our neighbour opposite, into the next garden, about 100 meters away through the rain saturated winter air
Is it safe to assume its the same bird building both groups of nests because they tend to have only one style per bird ? Does this prove that our hard working architect is spreading his investment portfolio and building in two different gardens ?
What a busy bird !
Has anyone seen this before ?
Check out my other page on weavers in the garden technologies