Day 6
Trip Start
Dec 04, 2010
1
9
44
Trip End
Jan 18, 2011
Zimbabwe, Harare, Zimbabwe
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
DAY 6
TUESDAY December 14th
Today will be a busy day packing for our two week trip to Lake Kariba. We will be staying in what Debbie's mum calls their "fishing shack" on a small island. I know it has three bedrooms, a bath and electricity so it couldn't be too much of a shack. Its about a six hour drive and then we unload the truck onto the boat. Not sure how long of a boat ride it is to the island. But I do know that the whole excursion will be trip enough that we'll need to be pulling out quite early tomorrow.
Yesterday, I spent a chunk of my day bird watching. If I ever get to post photos you will be amazed! Right next to our cabin (lodge) is a nesting "Paradise Fly Catcher". (Does that mean he catches paradise flies or he catches flies in paradise? Hmmm?) Anyway, the male sat on the eggs all day. The nest isn't much bigger that a hummingbird's nest, so the little bird with its ten inch split tail really hangs over. The tail is bright orange and the little guy's head is bright blue. He steals spider's web to wrap his nest together and fix it to a branch. I've got some great pictures, you'll see. You could google it. Also, next to us is a large tree called a "Fever Tree". It is full of vicious thorns and is the favored home of the yellow and black "Speckle Backed Weaver". Their nests hang all over! In that tree alone there must be forty or fifty of them hanging. They are easy to see because the weaver uses the leaves from the tree in its nest so the tree is mostly bare. I watched them for about an hour yesterday and (yes, please try to picture me standing still under a tree for an hour) I was so amazed at their skill. I got great pics of this as well. These too, you will see some day! They carry up grass and actually weave it to form their home. They start with weaving a circle and fixing it to a branch. They keep weaving, using their little beak to poke the grass in and out, until they have a nest, a little bigger than a softball, complete with a cute little round front door.
When the structure is sound they begin to decorate the inside with leaves from the tree. According to Gordon, they do this to attract the female. When their groovy little house is ready the males do a funny shake-a-little, fluff-a-little, kind of a dance to get the girls to come check out their pad. If she likes it, she moves in. If she doesnt' like it she flits away, dashing the poor fellows dreams. This is so agonizing to the poor guy that he will pluck all of his hard work from the branch and let it fall to the ground. (I'll be bringing one home for sure!) Then he gets right back to work on a new and improved structure! What a guy! Well, I need to get packing now. But remind me to tell you about the "Champagne Frog" in one of these posts!
Cheers!
