Go away

Saw quite a few birds in the last few days in Botswana, but the most amusing one was the Grey Go away bird. It is pretty big and not shy of humans but his amusing call is what catches the attention. (don't miss the moon)

The bird is named for its alarm call "Kuh-we" which sounds like "go-away" and is thought to alarm other species of approaching predators or other dangers such as hunters. You can hear the call at the start of the video.
I found these mouse birds eating (or rather destroying) the flowers of the Moringa tree (drumstick) Their activity was more of destructive nature as they were not eating them but just plucking it and spitting it

The sunbirds too come in flocks looking for the Moringa flowers

This Little Bee eater was sitting pretty, well protected by those thorny branches and pretty flowers

Talking of thorns, I was standing under a thorny tree when I saw this masked weaver bird flying in and out with green leaves busy weaving his nest. I got some bottom view of his activity where he was modelling his entrance door and spitting out the excess leaves.

While I was shooting the weaver, the Groundscrapper Thrush was eyeing me with some concern from the sidewalk.

The Crowned Plover got himself well camouflaged in the dry grass. His movements too were such that he used to stand still for a long time.

Towards the end of the video I managed to get a long shot of two Red-billed Buffalo Weavers up in the tree

These blue birds were pretty. I am assuming it is the blue waxbill finch

The next morning I was off again hoping to catch some early birds. I started off with the sunrise

Considering the array and variety of birds in Africa, there is a possibility of part 2 for this blog.

Vanilla Pods

It is a good sight to see the vanilla pods hanging in the garden where fifty percent of the flowers were successfully pollinated. Now we wait for them to dry so that we can use them to extract the vanilla.

Here is another picture, clicked more than a month ago where you can see the flowers blooming, ready to be pollinated. The dry flowers still clinging on, shows that they have been successfully pollinated.

The bottle you see is from nuttie artzz. It looks better at night when the lights come up inside the bottle.  This season the yield of drumstick was pretty good. One of the regular visitors is the purple sunbird who goes in for the nectar from the Moringa (drumstick) flower.

The Ashy Prinia prefers to hang around or maybe even hang on the Moringa. No threat to my Moringas as the bird weighs only about 7 to 10 gms.  (Google facts)

Instead of throwing away the Mosami (sweet lime) seeds, I tried germinating them.  Most of the seeds sprouted which I planted in this pot.

As they grew I saw some designer leaves and found out who was responsible for it.

Clicking flowers against the sunlight makes the picture pop up.

I think the sunflowers also wait for the sun to rise.

As I was clicking the Begonia, this bee wanted to make a guest appearance.

The tomatoes came at the right time considering the upward trend of the price.

Nothing like some homegrown spices. Uprooted this lot from the 1ft x 2ft rectangular pot and got 1.4 kg turmeric. Now to dry and grind them for some organic turmeric powder.

The bulbs (roots) are saved for replanting in the next season.

The chiilies are just growing and hope to get a good yield after repotting.

The brinjals (aubergine) that came up this time is of a different variety.