When you look, it’s amazing how much wildlife you see. I think that’s true whether you’re in the back garden in East Yorkshire, sat in the garden in Maputo, or here where I am now at Machubo. The wildlife you see in each place is very different, but, it’s always there. I find it’s often about tuning in to it. You don’t see anything for ages. Then when you spot one thing be it a bird a beetle, a crab or a monkey, you suddenly spot them all the time. They’ve been there the whole time. It’s just been a case of tuning in to them. Once you have, it’s hard to tune out.
We were at a beach (Calanga) just down the coast from here a few weeks ago. Zoe pointed out a crab. A tiny thing about the size of my thumb nail or slightly larger. I hadn’t seen a single crab all day and we’d been on the beach for hours. I then looked and saw another and another. Once I looked, I spotted than the damp sand near the sea was simply alive with these crabs. They all had a little hole they had dug. They would site half in and half out. If you stayed still long enough, you’d see them scuttle out and start to move around. As soon as anything moved near their hole they’d dive back in totally out of site.
From the veranda here at the house we’re staying in at Machubo we’ve seen some amazing wildlife. We have a great view over the dunes and down to the Indian ocean. There is the constant sound of the waves. The beautiful green water comes crashing in with some impressive surf. The waves often create perfect tubes as they’re breaking and coming into shore. When we’ve looked that way out to sea for a while, you suddenly realise there’s an awful lot out there. Its not just a blue green desert. We’ve seen schools of fish where suddenly hundreds of them have leapt out the water just behind the surf. Then further out we’ve seen the breach and tail of some sort of whale. This hasn’t been with hours of staring and endless coffee to keep us going. This has just been a little patience five or ten minutes here or there and tuning in to what’s out there and what to look for.
Zoe’s often the one that spots these things first, although with the monkeys it was Harriett. We were just bringing up the BBQ (or Brai as the locals, with some South African influence call it) from the beach. She did initially think she’d spotted a lion. It was on four legs moving carefully through the scrub at the top of the dune. But once it got to the top of the bush and turned its head towards us, it was unmistakably quite a large monkey. We watched him for a good while. Then looking around we spotted a second. Within ten minutes we’d seen fifteen or so at least and spotted that the whole side if the dune was alive with them. They weren’t hard to spot. Where the bushes were shaking like crazy was a good sign that one or more of them were clambering around in there. They usually then popped their head out of the leaves to confirm the find. Others were scampering around happily on the open sand at the top of the dune, letting us see their hugely long tail, and for the males rather obvious bright blue undercarriage. The bushes were clearly full of some sort of fruit that they were all enjoying and stuffing down happily. They must have been with us for half an hour or so before Cocoa, the dog who lives here came bounding up the dunes and sped into the bushes. There was a lot of bush shaking as the troop dived for cover and scarpered off over the horizon of the next dune.
We’ve seen quite a lot of bird life here from the veranda too. We’ve seen lots through the binoculars, but its harder to photograph as birds tend to be quite small and a good distance away. Although we have been experimenting a little with getting pictures through a pair of binoculars using a phone camera. If anyone’s done this and got some good results some hints and tips would be most appreciated. The birds have been very impressive, but our knowledge of them is limited. With Portuguese being the native language, trying to stay relatively socially isolated and the South African border being shut, trying to get things like an English guide to the local wildlife has been hard. So, at the moment popping photos on Facebook and using help from our friends has been a primary identification method. We perhaps should try harder with the song as there is a lots of very clear bird song out there and with some work, we should be able to identify more of the birds through this method.
We are lucky here with the wildlife we have around us. I think more so than usual with the lack of tourists. But there is always wildlife around no matter where you are. Its just a case of tuning in and finding it.
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