The last couple of days we’ve been working on painting the interior of the little house, apartment really, where we are staying. Because of which, we have had to make a couple of trips into town – one to buy paint, and the other to buy paint again – the first batch not quite having matched the second batch.

The good side of that is that on our first trip into town we passed some buffalo. Yes, buffalo. Wild buffalo. Casually grazing along on their way to a little watering hole. First an old bull, and then the small herd along behind him. Yes – we’ve learned to always take the camera.



The trip in the next day was just as exciting – if not more so. Well, it is always a wonderful trip as we wind through the mountains and past the lake on our way to town. But it’s even more fun when we see a pair of Oryx! They, too, were visiting the watering hole. Unfortunately, they were not close enough to the road to get a good photo. Unlike the buffalo, the minute they spotted James with the camera, they headed away from the road. Their caution is warranted – as they are hunted here. They are non-native and breed year round. With the movement to try and bring the land back to as near a natural state as possible, they’re not wanted. Still – it is pretty amazing for us to see an African antelope, or two, wandering around on our way to town!

And yes- BTW – I added some more ecards at Fre-ecards with the buffalo and more of James great photos of the scenery around here, and even a picture to color of the buffalo at Color Your Own.

Now besides that - I bought a goat last week! She is a lovely little Pygmy Nigerian goat named Cinnamon - and this afternoon I'll be picking up a second goat - Sweet Pea - to keep her company. Why would the bird watchers care?

Well, those lovely tiny fast birds who have been so blithely ignoring my feeding station immediately adopted the goat as their own little pet. They like her goat pellets at least as much as she does - maybe more! So now when I go down to feed the goat in the morning - the goat and a huge flock of little birds all greet me with joy and much baaaaaing and twittering. So far, the only ones that have been still long enough to identify are those striking little Black Throated Sparrows. From the melodies, I suspect some Song Sparrows and other little singers are involved - but they whisk away as soon as I get close. I swear - I'm going to put a little video cam on top the chicken coop. That is - the chicken coop is where the goat is right now. Her first job is to munch down all those five foot tall weeds so I can put some chickens in there. Then the goats will move to the "mule" pen which is also currently full of weeds...

Good birding!