The birds and the bees

I am sitting at my kitchen table enjoying a scene, through the open door, that many dedicated twitchers can only dream of - although their dreams probably don’t involve my dogs left over lunch; the Speke’s Weavers, Red-Cheeked Cordon Bleus, Fire Finches and three or four varieties of LBJs are fighting for space with the bright orange and blue lizards who consider the kitchen steps their private solarium. There is a Purple Grenadier vying for my attention, tapping on the kitchen window.

The birds are frequent visitors either to the dog bowls or more regularly our front terrace where my partner loves to spread seed for them in the early mornings and then watch them descend for breakfast. The sun birds – we have three couples in the garden – prefer drinking from the sugar water bottle, of which the brilliant red colour has been donated from my precious store of gel food colourings that were carried by hand from Cape Town (such specialties are still a rarity in Kenya).

 The view from the front terrace is spectacular. We are constantly reminding ourselves how lucky we are to live, not just in Kenya but on the edge of Nairobi National Park. Zebra, Buffalo, Impala, Eland, Giraffe, Lion, Ostrich, and even Rhino wander into our field of vision every day. It is a scene that visitors spend their life savings to see and we can sit for hours watching it for free. Sometimes we are lucky enough to have a closer view as the only barrier from the park is the river, which is easily breeched. The old buffalo with broken horns is a frequent visitor. Often staying for a few days, keeping our grass down, he sleep at the top of the property near the front gate, a deterrent to any would be intruders. Following a few days residence during the recent rains,  he did not even bothered to ‘ask’ to have the bottom gate open so he can wander home. He would not have been able to get across the river until it went down (which took about 2 weeks). My concern, following all the rain, was for our bees. The hives are at the bottom of the garden. There is still a high tide mark half way up the top section which means the honey and the workers are safe but what of the queen who lives in the bottom half and can’t mover herself out of danger? We shall have to wait until we can get to the hives (and have someone brave enough to face the remaining bees) before we can discover her fate and if we have a decent crop of honey to add to the larder.