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The Peace
of the Bushveld
- James Clarke
"It is so peaceful here," said my St Louis,
Missouri companion as we sat overlooking the Letaba
River, beer in hand.
"Go-way!" screeched a grey loerie in that
voice that sounds as if it smokes 30 a day.
"In St Louis there's really not much peace,"
he said
A nearby yellow hornbill went "Wurk, wurk, wurk,
wurk, wurk, wurk, wukwukak, wukwukak, wukak, wukak,
wukak, wurk, wurk, wurk."
"People don't realise how noisy the world has
become," he went on.
"Ha ha ha ha de hah!" screamed a pair of
hadedas in unison as they flapped frantically to gain
height. (I am told that hadedas scream like this because
they are afraid of heights.)
My friend revelled in the warm afternoon sun. Revel,
revel he went. And in the silence that he perceived
a crested barbet sounded off: kekekekekekekekekekekekekekekekekekekek
- like an alarm clock. A large gang of arrow-marked
babblers babbled hysterically.
"Victor! Victor!" called a greater honeyguide.
And here was my friend basking in the peace and quiet.
Technically speaking, it WAS peaceful.
Acoustics experts can explain it. Their definition of
noise is "unwanted sound".
People can be driven mad at night in the suburbs by
a single barking dog, yet their spirits are lifted as
high as 1.5 metres when they hear, in Kruger Park, a
100 decibel lion's roar in the night.
And look how everybody automatically says "shhhhh"
and how they raise their eyes in delight when, during
a Kruger Park braai, they hear hyena. They wouldn't
do that for a Parkurst Jack Russell.
The African bush is rarely silent but its sounds are
therapeutic.
And of all the sounds of the bush it is birdcalls I
find the most fascinating.
Ornithologists, in helping people identify birds, are
at pains to describe them so that people might recognise
them.
I have used Kenneth Newman's descriptions (Newman's
Birds of Southern Africa) for the sound track of this
column so far but take, for a moment, the yellow hornbill.
Newman has it going "Wurk, wurk, wurk," etc;
Roberts' Birds of Southern Africa says it goes "kok-kok-kok-kok,
breaking into a garbled kowakowakowakowak in display".
In earlier editions Roberts insisted it went "tock-tock-tock-tack
(rising), tschadeck-tschadeck..." Has the hornbill
changed its accent?
I suppose, in the highly competitive field of producing
bird guides, one author dare not interpret a call the
same as another. Sasol Birds of Southern Africa says
the yellow hornbill goes "tok tok tok tok tok tokatokatoka".
Peter Ginn in his birds of Botswana says it goes "tock-tock-tocke-tocke".
Ian Sinclair in his Field Guide to the Birds of Southern
Africa has it going "tok tok tok tok tok toka toka
toka".
A friend insists they go "goback-goback-goback"
which, let me tell you, is very close.
Roberts used to say the black-eyed bulbul (toppie)
goes "come back to Calcutta". I have never
heard a bulbul say this. Nowadays the authors of Roberts
say it goes "klip klop kollop". Ken Newman
says it goes "Wake up, Gregory!" which, to
my mind is pretty well spot on except I think it says
"Wake up, Timothy!"
Sasol's book has it going "cheloop chreep choop".
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