Welcome to The Great Petaluma Desert

Lord Nelson

<< return to South Africa Trip 1999

An abundance of bird life is ever present on Mafunyane. I love bird watching, and around 300 different species have been positively identified in the area. There must be many more, as I have not come to grips yet with the 'LBJ's'- the 'little brown jobs'! Also the raptors pose a never ending identification problem to me with their various feathered coats such as juvenile, intermediate and adult plumage, and so on!

There is one bird, however, I am very weary of (no, actually, I am downright scared of him!): the Ostrich! It was not exactly easy to establish these birds on the farm: you buy half grown chicks and raise them to adulthood, but this is easier said than done, the hazards are many! Over the past few years we lost several. The two remaining 'ossies' are luckily a pair, and we named the cock Lord Nelson. Why? Because when he matured and started moving away from the stables where he grew up, we regularly found him on or near the place which we call 'Trafalgar Square', an open area where 6 roads come together! Nelson is a real nut case. Every time his hormones get the better of him (which is for most of the year!) he starts acting like a lunatic and gets very aggressive! It shows: if his shins are bright red, you better stay away from him! He is defending Trafalgar Square and his wife by running straight up to you, and if you happen to sit in the wrong vehicle you risk a kick! End of last year he got himself a serious leg injury by kicking one of the game drive vehicles and getting his leg wedged between the floorboard and the body of the truck! He was limping for weeks!

I had told Jerry all about Nelson and true enough - we met him on Trafalgar square! His shins were nice and red. No desire to stop! Slowly we drove past him and carried on happily, but he followed us anyway for several hundred meters, just to make sure we don't come back! Further down the road we encountered the army ants, marching across the road. I swerve, brake and send Jerry flying. (I wasn't very popular at that moment!) We got out anyway, walked back and watched and discussed the ants for a while. When Jerry tried to pull a trick on me and said 'Nelson!' I jumped, obviously! I don't ever want to meet this bird on foot; after all he is 2 meters tall! And if he kicks it will hit you at abdomen or chest level! Well, there wasn't a Nelson anywhere near. Phew! Slowly we walked back to the Bakkie, got in, looked in the rear view mirror - and geez! There he was!!! Standing right behind the vehicle!!!! What a sneaky guy! We hadn't even seen or heard him coming! Last year Nelson and his wife started breeding! The first clutch of eggs was clear. That was to be expected. This year, however, they hatched 6 chicks - cute little striped furballs on sturdy little legs! It always amazes me how a chick that small can grow up to be a bird of that huge size, just by eating grass, seed, berries, succulents and the odd insect!!

Nelson was a fabulous father, keeping his family well away from the road. He had stopped chasing cars for a while, his chicks were more important! Sadly, a couple of weeks before Jerry arrived, the chicks disappeared in one night, all of them. Now Nelson is back to his old self again, defending his Trafalgar Square!

Maddy