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Suburban garden KwaZulu-Natal

On living harmoniously with vervet monkeys

It is less than two weeks to us leaving our home and garden and moving 1700 km (over 1000 miles) across the country to an entirely different environment and climate zone. Of the wild creatures that have visited our garden over the years, we will particularly miss the vervet monkeys.

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Suburban wildlife in the autumn-winter garden

On mini walking safaris around our suburban garden here in KwaZulu-Natal I often take my camera with me as invariably I find something worth a second look. Here are some pics of a few of our visitors taken during the months of autumn into winter

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My camera and eye: Strange fascination

A photograph arises from the relationship between the photographer and the camera, from the eye looking through the lens in the moment, and it attains meaning through those receiving the image long after the click.

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Black cuckooshrike – named for the unicoloured male, this is the female

Recently a bird I had not noticed in the garden before caught my eye. With all that barring on its underside could it be a cuckoo I wondered? It sat for a fair amount of time in a small tree not far from one of the birdbaths, quietly watching.

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Fungilorious: Four trees hosting fabulous fungi

The variety in shape, form and colour of the fungi that fruit in our garden, usually during the wet and warmth of summer, is incredible. In addition to the mushroom/toadstool forms that were featured in last week’s post, some other forms of fungi include bracket, crust, puffball, bird’s nest, earthstar, stinkhorn, coral, jelly ears, saddle and cup.

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Mushrooms and toadstools in our garden

To my amazement, not everyone with gardens is delighted to find mushrooms and toadstools growing there. Of course many fungi are in gardens anyway, but they are usually unseen until circumstances are right for some species to seemingly spontaneously erupt into fruiting.

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Encounters with flowers and their visitors

Many flowers not only please the eye but brighten the mood – so this post features some mood brightening flowers. And there’s more! All of the featured flowers have attracted a visitor. Some of the visitors might be cheering and others less so, but they are all interesting. Guaranteed!

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A diminutive and dynamic presence: The African firefinch

I hear the tinkling call of visiting African firefinches more often than I see them. They forage on the ground and in low vegetation, venturing out into open ground when undisturbed.

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Visitors galore! A garden birdbath during dry July

The garden birdbaths attract many birds and vervet monkeys too, plus of course insects, such as bees and wasps. I have also seen geckoes venturing out to drink from the rim. The birdbaths are especially heavily used during the winter, which is our dry season.

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