An uninvited lunch guest.

Robbie is renowned for his gatecrashing tricks to get food.

Come and see what he is up to now again this time. He is a Cape Robin-chat (Cossypha caffra), and he has learned the skill of how to become a house raider. The neighbor told us that Robbie pops into her kitchen every day wanting food, and she leaves some grated cheese slivers for him on the kitchen counter. I wonder how many other houses he visits in the neighbourhood, and the fear is always that he will run into a house cat or a dog.

A real cutie and he has learned to be careful of the little laughing doves here, but the amazing thing is that the two parent doves tolerate him, but the young laughing dove chases him away. We thought that all the doves would chase him away, but not so, only the young dove does. Robbie even brought his wife along a few times, but she is very timid and scatters with any movement. My wife told me that a dandelion seed came floating down toward the feeding spot, and as it landed close to Robbie's wife, she jumped aside and flew away.

Robbie decided that he now also likes to eat crushed raw peanuts.

Every few minutes he would watch the dove with great respect, so as not to get chased away.

But the dove ignored him and just kept on eating.

And Robbie also kept on eating.

Finally, the dove had a full crop, and Robbie had the nuts all to himself. But he doesn't eat much and he was soon full.

We have the habit of watching all of the wildlife that appears at our home, such as the Cape White-eyes, Sunbirds, Mousebirds, Shrikes, Sparrows, Ibises, Weavers, Wagtails, Guineafowls, and on occasion some other species. Then of course, we also get the birds of prey coming over occasionally. I know that it sounds like we have a big garden, but not so, as the front garden width is about 2.5 meters wide and about 20 meters long and includes the car's driveway.

We try to have the plants matching the surrounding nature, as the birds like it, and not only the birds as we also have toads, skinks, dwarf geckos, and a myriad of insects in the garden. Everything in the garden offers great photographic opportunities and I have posted a ton of them over the years. It will soon be butterfly and dragonfly time again soon and that always bring some nice challenges for me with the camera.
Such is life.

I hope you enjoyed the pictures and the story.

Photos by Zac Smith. All-Rights-Reserved.

Camera: Canon PowershotSX70HS Bridge camera.

Until next time, cheers!