Wakey Wakey
I was woken this morning at 5 A.M. by the sounds of squirrels calling out to mark their territories. It’s not the first time this has happened and they tend to be very incessant. It actually gets quite irritating after a while so I decided to get my own back. We have some CD’s that are compilations of African wildlife and their various vocalisations. I decided to see if this particular squirrel would react to my playing of another squirrel in his territory.
The result of my little experiment was hilarious. I played the call outside the tent and after a few seconds the squirrel came racing over, tail bobbing and lightly calling. He was looking around wildly for his competitor. He obviously wasn’t sure about the size of this newcomer and wanted to suss him out. He was sitting on the top of the tent looking around the place for this invader but couldn’t figure out where the sound was coming from. The amazing thing was that when I played the call again he actually shut up and stayed quiet. The only thing I can think of was that the call i had on my CD had come from a big dominant male in his territory when the recording was made. It solved my morning wake up problem though and now I just have to sort out the Elephants!
Speaking of Elephants. I was out for a run with my earphones in and practically bumped into an Elephant taking an auld drink at the river that runs down through the valley. This dry riverbed sometimes has a little water and it meanders to an end nicely in a pool on our side of the college fence. I don’t know which of us got more of a fright but I didn’t take long to back track the way I had come! A bit of trumpeting ensued and I had obviously upset the poor beast a little bit. I’ve attached a picture of the bridge with the aforementioned Dumbo drinking after obviously recovering from her earlier ordeal! Needless to say I’ll be paying more attention on my next run!
Shoot em up!
We went back for a second helping of Ramboesque shooting at the firing range this morning. There weren’t too many takers so myself and James ended up going on our own. We met up with Piotr de Leowe. He’s an old school Afrikaaner who runs the range. He has a lot of military background so he showed us how to use the gun and the best way to aim and hit our targets. The targets were placed 25 metres away this time as opposed to 15 the last time so I found it a little bit harder to hit the Bully. We benefitted from the fact that there were only two of us so Piotr gave us some good tips. I found the shooting quite difficult as I held onto the gun while reloading without letting the muzzle drop. My shoulders were literally hanging off me by the end! I enjoyed it though and it gave me a little bit more time to see the correction position to stand and hold the weapon. The kick back wasn’t too bad as we were only using .303 rounds. We have to shoot for our practical FGASA test with the .458’s though which are a lot heavier and give an extreme kick back. I’m looking forward to that though and see if my aim has improved. I blame the auld eyes regardless as they aren’t what they used to be! I wouldn’t be winning any teddy bears just yet!
I was woken this morning at 5 A.M. by the sounds of squirrels calling out to mark their territories. It’s not the first time this has happened and they tend to be very incessant. It actually gets quite irritating after a while so I decided to get my own back. We have some CD’s that are compilations of African wildlife and their various vocalisations. I decided to see if this particular squirrel would react to my playing of another squirrel in his territory.
The result of my little experiment was hilarious. I played the call outside the tent and after a few seconds the squirrel came racing over, tail bobbing and lightly calling. He was looking around wildly for his competitor. He obviously wasn’t sure about the size of this newcomer and wanted to suss him out. He was sitting on the top of the tent looking around the place for this invader but couldn’t figure out where the sound was coming from. The amazing thing was that when I played the call again he actually shut up and stayed quiet. The only thing I can think of was that the call i had on my CD had come from a big dominant male in his territory when the recording was made. It solved my morning wake up problem though and now I just have to sort out the Elephants!
Speaking of Elephants. I was out for a run with my earphones in and practically bumped into an Elephant taking an auld drink at the river that runs down through the valley. This dry riverbed sometimes has a little water and it meanders to an end nicely in a pool on our side of the college fence. I don’t know which of us got more of a fright but I didn’t take long to back track the way I had come! A bit of trumpeting ensued and I had obviously upset the poor beast a little bit. I’ve attached a picture of the bridge with the aforementioned Dumbo drinking after obviously recovering from her earlier ordeal! Needless to say I’ll be paying more attention on my next run!
Shoot em up!
We went back for a second helping of Ramboesque shooting at the firing range this morning. There weren’t too many takers so myself and James ended up going on our own. We met up with Piotr de Leowe. He’s an old school Afrikaaner who runs the range. He has a lot of military background so he showed us how to use the gun and the best way to aim and hit our targets. The targets were placed 25 metres away this time as opposed to 15 the last time so I found it a little bit harder to hit the Bully. We benefitted from the fact that there were only two of us so Piotr gave us some good tips. I found the shooting quite difficult as I held onto the gun while reloading without letting the muzzle drop. My shoulders were literally hanging off me by the end! I enjoyed it though and it gave me a little bit more time to see the correction position to stand and hold the weapon. The kick back wasn’t too bad as we were only using .303 rounds. We have to shoot for our practical FGASA test with the .458’s though which are a lot heavier and give an extreme kick back. I’m looking forward to that though and see if my aim has improved. I blame the auld eyes regardless as they aren’t what they used to be! I wouldn’t be winning any teddy bears just yet!
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