I went outside this evening to say good-bye to some guests that we hosted for dinner. As they were driving out, I noticed a bunch of gnats flying in the air over my front garden. I looked down to see them flying out of a hole in the ground with little maggot-y things crawling around. That's when I realised they were termites, not gnats.Just as I was about to freak out, a flock of cape sparrows flew in from nowhere and started catching the termites in mid-flight. They were soon joined by two masked weaver birds. It was so cool, even though it reminded me of that scene in Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds (at least I wasn't the one being eaten!). The birds were so busy catching termites they didn't seem to mind me.
Being surrounded by flying termites and a flock of birds swirling, diving, catching insects all around my head was like.... well, it was actually a little like seeing snow fall for the first time. It was absolutely magical.
I'm a little mystified that I just used the words "magical" and "termites" in the same sentence, but that's the mercy of each day - there's always something new to learn. And if you've never seen a masked weaver bird, you'll have to come to South Africa and then you'll understand.
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