Babies Growing Fast

Our babies are starting to grow quite fast and more pregnant mommies are expectant soon. Our eco-park at Mogale is expanding nicely.

The Ice Chick has tripled in size since she arrived 3 weeks ago. Mommy and daddy Blue Crane are very protective over their single baby. But poor Mr and Mrs Black swans, they lost one of their cygnets, and are down to two since they were born two weeks ago.

Last week a duiker gave birth but now it looks like poor baby duiker has been left on its own to fend for itself while mommy goes foraging. The little thing is so inquisitive and comes out of hiding to check us out. Every time the sound of the camera triggers, a shiver runs up the back of the duiker which is about a metre away from us. All the best little ones.

Ice Chick

The Ice Chick has been born, uhmm sounds a little close to the Ice Truck Killer, oh well I better explain where the name Ice Chick comes from.

At Mogale Business Park there is a collection of beautiful wild animals roaming around, and every now and then little ones are born. It has been nearly 4 years since the Blue Cranes procreated, and we were all waiting in anticipation when a pair of Blue Cranes started sitting on a nest at the beginning of the year. With a gestation period of over 30 days, the weather did not cooperate, we had the harshest heat waves followed by huge hail storms which wreaked havoc throughout the area. Fearing the worst, the pair of Blue Cranes stuck it out.

After work I did a detour around to where the Blue Crane nest was as it was about due for the two eggs to hatch. I was horrified to see the nest abandoned and went closer to investigate. With the same anxiety as an expectant father I discovered only one abandoned egg which should mean that maybe one chick hatched. Alarmed, I called the groundsman Richard, only to discover that he was out of town, so I went in search for the Blue Crane couple, and thankfully discovered them with their little waddling chick.

I was very relieved to find the happy family, and took some photos with my cellphone and sent them off to Richard, Lynda, and posted on social. Lynda replied with the name Ice Chick, due to this little baby survived hail stones as large as golf balls which destroyed the roof of a loyal mall, the Key West, and not to forget the falling branches from the tree under which the nest was built as it was hit by the hail. Ice Chick, well that did have a nice ring to it. Mommy Blue crane is staying very close and not letting Ice Chick stray too far, whereas daddy is running interference to the other animals who wonder a little too close for comfort.

Brave Girl

As I mentioned in previous posts, there was severe thunderstorms over the weekend which left destruction in its path in Gauteng. Okay I think the storms barely reached Category 2 storm but the high wind, lightning and hail left destruction in its wake.

My biggest concern when I arrived at work and saw all the damage, was the nesting Blue Cranes that were in the open elements. Fearing the worst, I rushed over I saw mother crane still proudly sitting on her nest amongst the fallen branches from the tree next to her which would have killed her. Poor girl, she sat on her nest while hail the size of golf balls fell around her and most likely slamming into her.

Who can blame her for taking over four years to work up the courage to go the family way? She is one brave bird.

Hello 2016

With 2016 work year finally started, it is time to see what has happened at Bosasa while I was away on summer break. First things first, while down in the slow veldt, my mom gave me a hand reared year old tortoise which she wanted to release into the wild. I offered to release Shelly, a name my mom affectingly called this baby Leopard Tortoise, into the Eco Park at Mogale Business Park which already has 5 adult and 3 juvenile tortoises, one which is a fully grown Leopard Tortoise, the others I am not sure what sub species they belong to.

So the first thing I did this morning was to introduce baby Shelly to another tortoise. Hello there little one. At first the adult was nervous with me being so close but Shelly soon had him or is it her out of their shell.

Later I found out that a baby Springbok was born last week in the park and that a Blue Crane couple has laid two eggs at the edge of the park this past weekend. That will be 21 days gestation and hopefully we will see our first baby blue cranes. I was informed by the excited grounds man that the last babies born here was four years ago. I couldn’t get too close as the male Blue Crane is very protective.

Demoiselle Crane

With an afternoon storm threatening, I took this photograph of the pair of Demoiselle Cranes, sitting in the foreground waiting expectedly for the large drops of rain mixed with small hail that would soon deluged us.

The Demoiselle Crane are the smallest of the crane family but the second most abundant, not in Africa but in Euroasia. In this photo along with the Demoiselle you can see 3 Helmeted Guineafowl running for cover, a single Black Swan, an Egyptian Goose, and a pair of Blue Cranes. All water off a duck’s back so to speak.

Baby Making Weather

It’s a dreich day, and as a teenager we used to call this type of weather BMW or Baby Making Weather because with the rain set in, you just want to stay in bed. Yes as I lay in bed listening to the pitter patter of the rain onto the roof I wanted to call in a Duvet Day.

Many moons ago I used to work for a corporate company which allowed employers to take a Duvet Day for when they just wanted to go back to sleep and this morning was one of those days. Sadly Bosasa does not recognise Duvet Days so I took my time getting up this morning and heading to the business park in the clouds.

The base level of the clouds is very low today which enshrouded Mogale Business Park in thick clouds. The office park has sort of a bonnie charm to it that reminds me of the highlands. Forget about the pink flamingos or the gorillas in the mist, we have blue cranes strolling through the mist. Now where’s my bed?