This article first appeared on page 19 of Birdwatching Magazine November 2024
The Cat, the frog and the blackbird… sounds like one of Aesop’s Fables. However, it is an experience bringing to mind how the animal kingdom, with the exception of many homo sapiens, looks out for their kin, and the commonwealth of nature.
A tiger stealthily steps through the Indian forest, every footfall avoiding a snapping twig or rustle of leaves. High above in the canopy, a troop of Macaques spots the predator despites its stealth and camouflage. First one and then the whole band screech and whoop their alarm calls. An unwary Chital raises its head… its dappled markings are not enough to keep it safe… warned by the monkeys it bounds away startling its fellows who scatter to confuse the tiger’s eye.
The sun was setting while we waited for the dining room to open behind the government hostel at the foot of the Drakensberg Escarpment our guide played the call of an Owlet. Lavender Waxbills were the first birds to be alerted, skittering in to look for the tiny raptor. A Prinia twitched in a bush top, a Crombec broke away from his skulking habit to flick his wings, and a Chin-spot Batis bravely flew right at the tape machine. Cordonblues and Firefinches, tits and sparrows added to the throng. A party of more than a dozen mongooses skipped through the ditch at our feet moving away from danger. Finally, an actual Pearl-spotted Owlet arrived to see off his electronic rival. The throng of passerines turned their attention to him, so he beat a hasty retreat.
On the edge of the Kalahari in southern Namibia we pulled up on a dirt track to consult the map. Alongside the road was a chain link fence, beyond which was a dusty plain with the odd mound. Atop one mound stood a Meercat. We were not perceived as a threat, but soon something else had the sentinel aroused. It began a high-pitched bark. Being birders, we scanned the empty blue skies for raptors. Later we learned that high pitched barks were specific to snake danger… this wimpy birder would have scattered had he known.
What has this got to do with my fable?
Today, sun broke through the summer rain and the blackbird sang ‘pretty birdeee’ to lift my spirits and tell me all was well with the world. My seventy-fifth birthday three weeks before had been the last sunny day, but the weather decided to honour our thirty-second wedding anniversary and allow a little sun to shed warmth. The Blackbird appreciated it along with three or four bumblebees on a lavender bush that normally crawls with dozens.
Then the song abruptly stopped. A long string of ‘chuk chuk chuks’ ensued. Looking out the study window I couldn’t see the cause. No Sparrowhawk or Magpie. Hawkeye took to the stairs saying… ‘It must be that EXPLETIVE DELETED cat again’. There is a new cat on the block that has found a way past our defences. Racing (well, as fast as our aging muscles allow) into the garden she went to confront the predatory beast. Before it fled she spied it cornering a large frog. She had been just in time as the Blackbird’s alert meant swift action and the frog appeared uninjured. I, of course, arrived too late to see it.
Like the bees and hoverflies, frogs have been thin on the ground this year. You’d have hoped the weather would have suited their spawning but apparently not.
It happened again today… we have our own Cat Alarm!
The moral of the story… look after the birds; it will help the rest of nature too.
