A Walk in the Garden

Once a week my friend Linda and I go for a walk at the Walter Sisulu National Botanical Gardens in Poortview. It’s a very special place for many reasons – but the one that is probably at the top of the ‘reasons’ list, is the annual drama around the family of Verreaux’s Eagles (Black Eagles) nesting on the cliffs near the Waterfall.

Last year the breeding season was a bit of a disaster as the father, Thulane, disappeared shortly after the hatching of one little chick. This left the mother Makatsa to fend for herself, while also feeding and protecting the little chick. She managed to do this bravely for quite some time (as all heroic mothers do) – and even ventured out at times to seemingly search for her lost mate. But when it became clear to her that Thulane wasn’t coming back, she promptly went out and found herself a new mate (you go girl!).

For a while, all seemed to go well in the eagle household and it even looked like the new male, Mahlori ‘adopted’ the little chick – which is extremely rare. But then tragedy struck and the little chick’s crushed body was seen lying on the rocks below the nest a few weeks later. It’s suspected that the young male kicked him out of the nest. The eagle couple left the area, leaving the empty nest behind – as eagles do when it’s not the breeding season.

The excitement was great when the eagles were spotted soaring through the blue sky again early in 2020! They inspected the 2019 nesting site and also the old one closer to the waterfall. Eventually they decided to use the same nest as last year and started with their annual renovations in preparation of the new breeding season. Soon enough, an egg was spotted in the nest, with a new chick hatching sometime in May. By then we were already in lockdown of course, so news of the chick’s progress was very scarce.

Thankfully all went well, and when the gardens reopened after the lockdown, we could see glimpses of the juvenile, Motsumi, from below as it moved around and later on started stretching its wings! Mom and dad went hunting and fighting off the pesky crows who seem to regard the new family as intruders in their territory. Apparently, it is quite normal for crows to attack eagles if their territories overlap. They try to get above and behind the eagles to almost climb on their backs to attack their necks from behind. The only way the eagles can get rid of the crows is to fly higher and higher until they reach an altitude that the crows cannot handle, so they drop off and ‘fall’ to a lower altitude. We sat on the lawn below the nest one morning and were privileged to witness one of these air-battles!

A week later the juvenile was so active on the nest we thought it was going to take its maiden flight. But it was not to be and when it finally happened, we were not there to witness the event.

It’s now been a few weeks since we last saw any of the eagles – we can only hope to catch a glimpse or two of them before they leave the gardens again in the summer to go and do whatever eagles do between breeding seasons. Hopefully the adults will return again next year for the next breeding season.

In the meantime, we will enjoy being entertained by other garden creatures like the big old tortoise, the Egyptian Geese, the Guinea Fowl, the Ibises and especially by the cheeky little Cape Robin Chat that stops us on the forest path next to the stream to demand food! Which we never have as we don’t believe in feeding birds in the wild. Obviously, there are people who do feed them! Anyhow, it is wonderful to see this tame little bird walking brazenly up to and around us – without feeling threatened at all!

Hopefully this piece of paradise will be around for many future generations to enjoy!

Disclaimer: I am not an expert on birds or their behaviour. I am learning a lot of stuff from my bird-watcher walking buddy and Professor Google! So, if you spot any inaccuracies in my ramblings above – please just ignore and spare my fragile ego…