Page 32 - Fourways Gardens May 2021

Nature

head, spreading his wings so they were
parallel to the ground and flashing its
vivid, white-patched underside. Medo, who
was merely being nosey, retreated, almost
apologetically. Neither he nor the cats
bothered the dikkops again.

Dikkops live mainly off beetles and termites,
of which I had a large surplus, as well as
small lizards.

I was annoyed at the dikkops’ name change
some years back. It was to comply with the
name used outside South Africa. On the
other hand, the name ‘dikkop’ meaning
dikkopS, ‘thick head’ is hardly flattering. But thick-
knee was no improvement and the
hAdedAS And scientific name for the genus, Burhinus, is
just as unflattering – it means thick nose.
their BABieS The dikkop has one of the great bird calls
of the African night. Sasol Birds gives it as
“whi whi whi WHI WHI WHI whi whi” while
Roberts Birds has it as “noisy, mournful
piping: ti ti ti teeteetee ti ti ti”.
B y Jam E s Clark E , Pho t ogr a P hs B y m ary Bro adl E y
The dikkop demonstrates how some
had never appreciated the singular They were neither fazed when people birds have become totally habituated to
habits of the spotted thick-knee – or walked past with dogs – nor by the suburban living even to the extent they
the spotted dikkop as I prefer to call it presence of at least three cats living close can sit right next to a roadway, almost on
I until I saw one at the end of March by. Even a heavy truck passing, noisily, three the kerb, trusting their parenting skills to
–
this year, sitting as still as a statue at the metres away failed to cause them to blink. ensure that their young understand the
base of a tree. We were on our daily dawn safety code. They do not even blink when
walk when we noticed it in the middle of After three or four days, we saw the chicks. somebody walks past with a dog.
somebody’s driveway. Their camouflage was so brilliant, they
were barely visible as they nestled down in
It sat there day after day. We never saw it a flower bed next to mum who eventually
move but guessed it was a female sitting tucked them under her wing. Next day,
on eggs. They usually lay two of them. the restless family of four had moved
200 metres away and a day later we saw
The dikkop in Gauteng usually starts them at the end of a cul de sac. Mum was
breeding in early spring, peaking in covering the chicks under her wings while
November, and quits around Christmas so Dad was close by – still standing perfectly
why was this one three months late? Why motionless.
was it rearing newly-hatched chicks in
April when cold weather is about to start? Hours later, a chick was missing and was
never seen again.
Fortunately, the weather was like summer. The chick (resting in a flower bed) was able to walk
Global warming? We wondered. Even the I recalled how a pair settled in my garden on the first day of hatching. Here, we see it at five
old paperbark tree in front of my house when we lived in Bryanston. Their home days and eight days old.
was sprouting new leaves in mid-April. took only minutes to make – a barely visible
scrape in the grass right in the middle of the
While the female sat perfectly still, the lawn. I had to mow around their nest and,
male kept vigilance two or three metres despite the noisy mower, the presence of
away – also as still as a statue. We saw our Alsatian, Medo, and our two cats, the
them daily and neither bird was disturbed birds successfully raised their chicks.
by our presence or by Mary trying to
adjust her camera to compensate for the The nest became even more difficult to
birds’ ultracryptic colouring which, in see as the grass grew around it and, on
certain light, renders them very hard to one occasion, I saw Medo approach it.
see. The male (I think) advanced with lowered

Fourways Gardens • 30 • May 2021