Blue mountains and birds

A bushy ridge separates the blue of the Soutpansberg from the grassy winter plain of the foreground. The photo was taken near the small northern farming town of Vivo in the Capricorn Municipality. The Soutpansberg and the Blouberg ranges lie to the west of Louis Trichardt in the north of Limpopo.

Cattle and game farming as well as extensive conservation projects keep nature closer to people’s minds here than in most densely populated and industrialised parts of the country to the south. Nature in tree diversity and panoramic sights are brought close by the colourful and noisy bushveld bird species that inspect people’s activities while staying alert; safe but bold, each according to movement habits of its specific nature.

Personal distance is always a bird thing, because one never knows with these people-animals who are to birds like the lesser cats, dangerous unlike elephants. Still, bird lore informs that people have an upside: Watch, they drop crumbs and other morsels, real clumsy litterbugs!

All know that wild birds should be free in nature. Should they ever be fed by people? Intermittent events in the veld may interfere with their capacity for fending for themselves in the wild, reducing their natural survival skills. In human residential areas sustained water and feeding stations for birds replace the removal of parts of nature by human development.

In bush and blue mountain country the people moment for feathery bushveld beggars still happens. A quick, deft dash for the item on the ground ends in victory for the bird, moments later perched safely with the prize in its bill and the cameras clicking. Close to the same as the good old days when every mouthful was obtained independently among the dangers of nature.