We have been in our Park Road house since the mid 1980s and have planted lots of trees including several yellowwoods. All yesterday we heard the birds performing and we thought it must be a boomslang which we have had in the trees in our garden.
At dusk, led by our semi-tame drongos, backed by the robins, a major calamity was announced and when the doves flew off I saw a long, feline tail sweep over the summerhouse and into the Brazilian pepper. Jim rushed to get the camera, I retrieved the game spotlight – it was a small spotted genet that wasn’t rushing anywhere… It took its time and probably raided the doves’ nests but we couldn’t be sure.
Then it settled in the yellowwood (we planted it in the late 1980s and it is now a substantial tree) and checked out the view unperturbed by the spotlight, giving Jim plenty of time to take a good picture. The genet then continued hunting, threading its way through the branches and away – we could follow its path with the help of the Drongo escort party’s noise which seemed to go towards the veggie patch!
We told our neighbours who had never seen a genet in their gardens either. So our forest and that of our neighbours is working for wildlife. But the birds are surely not happy with this new addition to our wildlife along Park Road!
Eve and Jim Cambray
