Marabou Stork (Leptoptilos crumeniferus)

My guess would be that you and I think of this as one of the ugliest birds you have ever seen, but that is also what makes it fascinating.

Biggest stork in Northern South African region, but mainly in central Africa. The naked head, and red throat pouch with big bill are some characteristics, as well as pulling head in to shoulders in flight.

Here are some pictures my wife took in Kampala, Uganda. Mobile shots but gives a good idea of size.

They are scavengers amongst other things seen with vultures at animal kills. These are some shots I took of a bird and it still remains a fascinating bird, the more I look at it.

Postcards from a traveling Mom.

I have just returned from a 7 day work trip. This time not far,  just to another city in our country, but when you are away from home, the distance does not really matter, except that you can get home faster in an emergency, if you are closer.

As you would have realized, if you have read my husbands posts before, I have the most wonderful and supportive husband who looks after our one year old on a full-time basis,  while I work full-time. Every now and then I am reminded of  how lucky I am to have him around.

This week I had a conversation with a colleague, who as a single parent who also travels for work and have to rely on a live in nanny to look after her toddler. She told me that she is about to fire the nanny as she came home every day the last week to a toddler with soaked clothes. Her daughter has regressed a little with her potty training  and she asked the nanny to just take her to the loo every hour and a half so that she does not have these accidents. My colleague told me how upset she was to find the child every night with every layer of clothing soaked through. I wanted to cry on her behalf. It must be heartbreaking to have to leave your child with someone, just to find out that this heartless individual does not give a hoot. So, although my husband and I some times have to deal with insensitive comments of people who does not understand our situation, we are very lucky that at least one of us can be the primary caregiver.

It is not easy to leave my family to travel for work, but it is what it is and for me to change jobs to find one does not require traveling, I would have to uproot my family and move to a big city, as there is not enough jobs around here for me, that would allow me to support my family. In a big city my son would not have the same quality environment to grow up in. I choose at this stage not to do so.

When I returned to work after my maternity leave and had to start traveling again, I thought that I would feel guilty all the time while being away, but this did not happen. Do not get me wrong, it is hard to say goodbye. Most of the time that I walk from the security check to the boarding gate, I struggle to hold the tears back, but when I board that plane, I remind myself that my job is to ensure that my beautiful son has food to feed him in his high chair, has a roof over his head and that we can send him to school and university one day. I am so grateful that I have a job that I love and a family that loves and support me at home.

Time to go and do some laundry so that I can pack my suitcase tonight. Off again tomorrow on the 6am flight. Until another time...

Wonderful Winter's Day

We awoke this morning with a mom in the house and perfect weather to add. So, naturally, we had to go walking and Boeta got a chance to play and connect with mom. Here are a few pictures of this walk.

Hope you enjoy your Saturday as much as we did!

A quick look at a monkey or two.

One of the places we visited on a recent holiday was "Monkeyland", near Plettenberg Bay, on the famous garden route of South Africa. You can follow the link for more info. I would like to show a few pictures of 2 of the primates we found there, with more to come later.

Vervet Monkey

A very common site in our region as they naturally occur here. Cute little monkeys, usually close to the roads in the trees, sometimes running across the road, making sure you are sharp and careful when you see them.

They just look like they are looking for trouble, don't you think?

Squirrel Monkey

Squirrel monkeys are omnivores, eating primarily fruits and insects. Occasionally they also eat seeds, leaves, flowers, buds, nuts, eggs and small vertebrates (from monkeyland site).

The main reason for this post is to show 2 of my favorite pictures of that day. I wish I was a better photographer, but it is still 2 nice shots of this "cute" monkey.

Hope you enjoy the shots.

A quick look at a monkey or two.

We visited "monkeyland" on holiday. It is near Plettenbergbay, on the famous garden route of South Africa. I thought to share a few pictures of 2 of the primates we saw, and will add more later.

Vervet Monkey

Medium sized monkey that we see a lot here in our region. They occur
naturally in Africa, South or the Sahara. Beautiful and active little things!

And to end the week...nomination for Liebster Award!

A wonderful day with mom coming back, and to add to the excitement, a nomination for the Liebster Award, by Dorian's Hand Blog. This is an award given to new bloggers, by fellow bloggers who enjoy their content and want to recognize it. As we are 3, mom, dad and son, contributing to the blog, we should all give each other a hug on each one's contribution and in a choir we thank Dorian and mum for nominating us.

We love reading their blog as we can recognize so much of what is happening in our house. Please do yourself a favor and visit Dorian's Hand here:

http://dorianshand.wordpress.com

There are rules to accepting this award, something the 3rd member and smallest, in our choir, do not yet really understand. They are:

1. Thank the Liebster Award presenter who nominated you and link back to his or her blog.
2. Post 11 facts about yourself, answer the 11 questions you were asked and create 11 questions for your nominees.
3. Nominate small (no more than 200 followers) blogs who you feel deserve to be noticed and leave a comment on their blog letting them know that they have been chosen.
4. Display the Liebster Award logo.
5. No tag-backs, meaning you can’t just re-nominate the person who nominated you.

11 Facts about us, from the youngest point of view.

1. I love kiddies programming on the TV, mom and dad tapes for me, but I really love advertising and stop everything to watch it.

2. Our first language is Afrikaans. Daddy says that is why he sometimes struggle with word spelling.

3. Daddy loves succulent plants, he has (had) more than I could ever count, but some must be on holiday, because daddy says they left for a better place due to lack of time we spend with them.

4. Mom is a food technologist and seems to know a lot more about all things food than daddy. He always uses food mommy prepared in advance.

5. We live in South Africa, mommy says it is the last country on the tip of Africa.

6.  I am an only child, mommy says she was one too, and it means I am loved so much they do not want more, or it means I will get more presents. Mostly they say I was a special gift.

7. Daddy has a degree in Genetics and Animal Physiology. He says it will help when he teaches me about nature and biology one day.

8. I like throwing stuff, anything, but round things especially, to chase and throw again.

9. Daddy says, I have the combined names of his daddy and brother. Luckily it is just 2 names.

10. I like to sleep, but I prefer to sleep in mommy or daddy's arms, at least until I am asleep, which they let me do once in a while.

11. Mom and Dad says I am a perfect mixture of them and our family as a whole, I even have Grandpa's ears, wonder what he uses?

The 11 answers to questions given:

1. What is your favorite thing about nature? Peacefulness, being in the moment.

2. What do you still do to play? Daddy swings me round and round, I love that and he seems like it too.

3. What family member changed your life the most? Mom and Daddy says it was me, I say it was them!

4. What is your favorite food? Fruity custard after dinner!

5. If you could go back as a kid, what is the first thing you would do? Hmm, I am still not a kid!? Dad says he would go play with Grandpa by the beach, which they did a lot.

6. What is your favorite book ever? Moms and their babies (animals) with windows to slide.

7. Where have you traveled? Mom can take this one, Vietnam, UK, Nepal, China and many, many other countries.

8. Who is your favorite children's character? The bunnies!

9. Who is your hero? Dads

10. Who was the teacher that made the biggest difference in your life? Dad says his language teacher, because he cannot spell correctly and makes up his own idioms, because he does not know the correct ones! Mom loves it and laughs a lot at dad.

11. What is your favorite post from your blog? The history in a chair!

http://ourrumblingocean.wordpress.com/2014/06/12/forgotten-memories-within-a-chair/

We would like to nominate the following blogs: (We have been blogging for a short period and still finding blogs daily which we love.)

1. http://atrampinthewoods.wordpress.com/

Dean takes you on magical view of plants and animals with nice commentary to go. Nice read and eye candy.

2. http://dorneawhale.wordpress.com/

Dorne is a writer. I love reading her posts, easy reading, combination of funny and serious.

3. http://nowimamother.wordpress.com/

Brand new, but like it enough to have already made a comment. Support new contributors in parent world!

4. http://gregjoder.wordpress.com/

My earth, newish to us, but like the way he does it and nice change of pace, great for nature lovers.

Here are our questions to the nominees:

1. What is your favorite fruit?

2. What is your favorite thing to do on holiday?

3. If you could choose, who would you like to be for a day and why?

4. If finance was not an issue, where would you like to go?

5. Why do you blog?

6. What type of novel is your favorite?

7. Which family member had the biggest influence on your life?

8. What is the one thing or person you cannot be without?

9. What is your favorite animal or plant?

10. What hobby would you love to do, but do not have time or the knowledge currently?

11. What is your favorite post from your blog?

To all the nominees, WE love your blogs and wish you all the best in future blogging. We will be there to read. Thanks again to Dorian and her mom! You have a great blog, which we follow with great interest.

Creating space for a growing boy.

We started the week (Saturday) with frustration and tiredness. This started to reduce by Monday and on Tuesday, things picked up again and we looked forward to Friday, when mom comes home. The week has been the opposite to the weather, sunny and warm from Saturday to Wednesday, cloudy, raining and winter cold again to Friday, a week of lost and found, losing bottles, finding them, losing my mind and finding it again. It has also been a week of creating space for my growing son.

I used our nanny panels to block off some areas, but his play space doubled. It means we do not have enough blocks and some tile space is now open, but it must happen at some stage and after a month of walking, he seems to protect himself better, still a keen eye will be necessary.

The blue bin is used to add and remove toys for the day, also to teach him to put them away. He also loves playing with the earth ball. It is used to kick (dribble), throw and I try to show where mom is, when she is away.

Then the 80 + year chair gets to be pushed around again by another baby. He loves this, squeaking, as the old chair works its magic again.

Above, his favorite bottle, loaded with milk and tea, usually! So glad we did not lose it. He also loves sitting on his haunches, while inspecting and doing things.

What a week we had, we got new space to play in, learned all kinds of new lessons. For now, we are focused on MOM, she is coming home tonight. A mother's touch is definitely needed now and then, even for an active little boy and his dad.

Spotted (Karoo) Prinia (Prinia maculosa)

Another of the fairly common birds in Addo Elephant National Park. Their main food is insects. They can regularly be seen with cocked upward tails, which is fairly long. They are endemic to Southern Africa, mainly S.A. and very Southern Namibia.

They are heavily streaked from above breast, flanks to vent. You hear the fast 'tit-tit-tit-tit' a lot in the open.

Below is the same bird while feeding in insects, also seen in pictures.

Reference:

A comprehensive illustrated field guide: Birds of Africa, South of the Sahara. Ian Sinclair, Peter Ryan. Struik publishers, 2003

Southern Red Bishop (Euplectes orix)

Unmistakable sparrow-like seed-eater, related to weavers. You cannot miss them in the field, usually near reedbeds and rivers, where they weave their nests.

Sexually dimorphic, that is the males are black and bright red in breeding season, while the females and non-breeding males have cream-colored eyebrows, with bottom parts heavily striped. I took these pictures in Addo Elephant National Park.

Taking care - love this

Greater double-collared Sunbird (Cinnyris afrea)

Another of the birds I photographed in the Addo Elephant National Park.  The Greater Double-collared Sunbird is endemic to South Africa. Sunbirds are invariably iridescent, colorful (males) and females usually fairly dull. They have decurved bills adapted to get nectar from the base of the flowers they frequent.

This specific Sunbird, has a big red breast band with fine purple band above red and green-blue head and back, all iridescent and changing as light hits it. As I said female is pale grey-brown. Best picture I got was this one.

They were all over this Cotyledon specie plant, possibly C. orbiculata or velutina. A succulent plant fairly common in our region.

Did you see the nectar fly, and the tongue? They live in tall shrubs and forest fringes, hilly areas and gardens.

For a novice photographer like me, this is a tough assignment to capture, but hopefully you get an idea of the beauty of these little active birds.

References:

A comprehensive illustrated field guide: Birds of Africa, south of the Sahara. Ian Sinclair, Peter Ryan. Struik Publisher. 2003