FOR several mornings now I have lain in bed in the first light of day listening to the rain bird sending out his unequivocal message.
It’s a lovely sound, a sort of liquid, descending gurgle, a very unmistakable trademark of this rather special bird.
Sometimes there are two of them out there giving me a haunting duet, one politely following the other, talking conspiratorially among themselves about rain, I suppose.
It is of course a Burchell’s coucal, Centropus burchellii, or uFukwe to the Zulu.
It occurs throughout much of Africa south of the Sahara and on the Arabian peninsula, and here in South Africa it ranges in a wide band along the coast, from a little way up the West Cape around to the Mozambique border and then in a broad sweep inland, covering much of the northern and central interior.
When it first became known as the rain bird is anyone’s guess, but it is now very much in common usage. It is supposed to herald rain, but does it? I hear them out there just about every day, even on days that have turned out to be absolutely glorious, and not a rain cloud in sight.
My guess is that they, like us, get their weather forecasts from the South African Weather Service.
I have mentioned this before – if there is one item on television that is never missed in this household, it is the weather forecast at the end of the 6.30pm news.
I did a two-week survey some years ago on just how accurate was the forecast, and I don’t remember the details but the South African Weather Service did not come out of it well.
In fact recently for two days running we were issued dire warnings of ‘severe thunderstorms’ down our way, backed up by the rain birds of course, but both days turned out to be just peachy.
But this column is not a South African Weather Service-bashing exercise as I am pretty certain that all weather services right around the world have the same problems, particularly now that global climate change is making life just that much more interesting.
I do have a weather related question, though. Virtually the entire country appears to be in the grip of one of the worst droughts in years, with terms like ‘in living memory’ sometimes being bandied around.
KwaZulu-Natal is no better off and we down here on the lower South Coast could certainly use some decent rain.
And yet we have no water restrictions. There is the occasional plea for us not to use hosepipes, but that’s about it.
Why no proper, enforceable restrictions to ease the situation in the region’s dams and rivers? I’m sure most people understand the severity of the situation and would be willing to comply with restrictions before conditions worsen and we have a full-blown crisis on our hands.
Perhaps the answer is to apply water restrictions of our own, hope for the best and keep listening out for the rain bird. Cheers!
PS: Meanwhile, drought-stricken KZN has been declared a disaster area.
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