According to my mother-in-law, you know you're old when you own a bird book. Well I joined the upper ranks of adulting when my very own Photographic Guide to Birds of Namibia arrived in the mail. I spend an inordinate amount of time paging through the pictures and practicing my bird call enunciations. But only when I am alone- or does that make it sound creepy? The rest of the time I sit watching the birds devour their bird feed during peak hours and try to get the hang of being stealthy with my camera. Usually I buy the cheapest food I can find because we can go through 5 kilos per week, but we do reap the rewards. One time I mistakingly bough fancy bougie feed and a flock of lovebirds came and emptied the feeder in 2 hours, but it was enough time to take pictures.
Birds aren't the only thing visiting our yard. We have a mess of wicked fast lizards too. Most of them are drab brown. One in particular caught my eye with its bright yellow head. I scared it by accident and followed its path to the roof of our braai area where I mentally willed it to come down. When that didn't work, I climbed up to get a better look and chased it around the chimney like a ridiculous game of peek-a-boo. Turns out this resident lizard is missing a foot, and either has good luck or is crazy tough: last weekend we had our first snake experience when a 2 foot snake hunted this lizard around our yard. The snake literally jumped from rock to rock, and spiraled up a tree trunk before giving up the hunt. I sat freaked out and glued to my seat, imagining it crawling up my pant leg. Mark sensibly Googled the snake first to determine its lethalness (not for humans) and then grabbed his camera to capture footage before it disappeared for another day.
Today I spied the same lizard still as a statue amongst the same rocks he scaled to escape the snake. He must like it here. I think I do too.
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