Page 20 - Fourways Gardens September 2021

Birding

SpRING IN SOUTH AfRICA

B y James cL a R ke, B i R d P ho T o GR a P h s B y m a R y B R o ad L ey NauticalVoyager

Somebody spotted this sign outside a nursery:
Spring is here! I am so excited I wet my plants!

But when IS spring? So until some expert arbitrates, the answer,
like spring itself, must remain in the air.
I was told on good authority that, technically,
spring began last month - on 8 August and What happens in spring? They say a young
that summer begins on 6 November. man’s fancy turns to love and, being young
myself - well, relatively young if you bear
A reader, Frank Regment, disagrees and in mind the age of the Bushveld Igneous
quotes several dictionaries to back his Complex - my thoughts naturally turn to love.
assertion that spring begins in the southern
hemisphere on 21 September – one of I don’t necessarily mean the love that Photo credit: Jade Seok, Unsplash
the two days each year when the hours of American humourist, SJ Perelman, defined:
sunshine and the hours of darkness are equal “Love is not the dying moan of a distant violin. as 3.45am. Seriously. They are not singing;
(the equinoxes). Love,” he said, “is the triumphant twang of a they are raising a cacophony – a rowdy, full-
bedspring.” throated dissonance with all the harmony of
Encyclopaedia Britannica agrees with Frank. a panel-beating shop.
It states that the southern spring begins “on Nor do I mean the love described by a
22 or 23 September”. But Richard Overy of young schoolgirl: "Love cards like Valentine's First comes the demented screech of the
Roodepoort, who has taken a lifelong interest cards say stuff on them that we'd like to say Karoo thrush – that worm-hunting brown
in astronomy, tells me that the dates upon ourselves, but we wouldn't be caught dead garden bird with an orange bill that goes
which the seasons begin and end "are often saying." “Chree! Chree! Chree! Chree!” Just four skull-
based more on emotion than logic". He agrees piercing notes repeated every 10 seconds –
that spring began weeks ago, on 8 August, I speak of the emotion that makes you shout like the sound of somebody starting an old
and that mid-spring is at the Equinox. for a pen because you’ve smelt jasmine in the Chevvy truck on a frosty morning.
air and you’ve heard the first Piet-my-vrou
The seasons are: and you feel a jot-worthy poem coming on. This wakes the exuberant bulbul which
Spring (which lasts approximately 90 days) starts hysterically calling, “Wipe your FEEEET
begins 8 August Some years ago, I wrote that spring does not Gwegory! Wipe your FEEEET!”
Summer (approximately 89 days) begins really twang for me until the piet-my-vrou has
6 November spoken and, talking of bird calls, a reader says This sets off the sparrows with their incessant
Autumn (approximately 92 days) begins that the spring dawn chorus is all very well for Chinese torture call: “Chip! Chip! Chip! Chip!
3 February those who have earplugs but, being a new Chip!”
Winter (approximately 94 days) begins 8 May. mother who looks forward to a bit of sleep Then, like a cheap alarm clock, the crested
before the day begins, she is painfully aware barbet joins in: cheeerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!
Richard says the above dates agree very of “the disharmony of the dawn chorus”.
closely with those given in the 3 400 year And then the confounded hadedas. Several
old Chinese Calendar. The Chinese call the Many will agree – it’s not really a chorus at all; at a time. They sound startled, which they
four seasons (beginning with spring) Lichun, it‘s a racket and I ask myself: “Why are the early probably are. They shriek out their 90 decibel
Lixia, Liqiu and Lidong and say they begin on birds no longer quietly catching worms?” witch-like calls that seem to herald not the
4 February, 6 May, 8 August and 8 November. break of day but the end of the world: “Aar!
Can 1,2 billion Chinese be wrong? In high summer they begin calling as early Aar! Aar! Aaar de daar!”

Karoo thrush Bulbul pair Crested barbet

Fourways Gardens • 18 • September 2021