The Trees Are Raining!

It's that time of the year again when we have the "Raining Tree" season. For anyone not familiar with this, it can seem quite mysterious and sometimes be annoying! In the evening certain trees start dripping water - though there may not be a sign of a cloud in the sky and it only "rains" puddles under the tree!

Sometimes you can hear the drops falling on the paving or on leaves or flowers that are lying on the ground. If you are standing nearby, you will also have it raining on you! It can be a puzzle!! :-?

Actually it's not the tree but a small insect that causes the "rain"! It's the nymph of Ptyelus grossus, (much easier called a  froghopper).To protect themselves from the sun the nymphs cover themselves with a foamy substance.



The insects get nourishment by piercing the bark of the tree with their mouthparts and sucking up the sap at a fast pace. They then eject almost pure water just as fast, and this drips from the tree to form pools on the ground below.
Although froghoppers are found in many other places in the world, many African people are very superstitious of trees that "rain" and there are lots of stories about them.

The area where we are staying, (including our garden), has a lot of trees that are used by these insects, so we often have to dodge the "raindrops". I had to laugh when I read about a man who was really complaining about the raining trees. He said that not long after he moved house, he discovered that the large tree outside the backdoor (and it towers over the washing line, as well), was a rain tree and that it dripped so much that everytime he and his wife went outside they had to use umbrellas when passing under the tree to get to the car! He was very upset and longed to chop the tree down, but they were only renting the house so the tree had to stay - to the froghoppers delight, I'm sure! :D

The "Rain Tree" in our garden.

Where's the Chameleon?

Where's the chameleon? - This is a question often asked in our family...the reason being that we have often been privileged to share our garden, (and sometimes our house), with these little creatures. Being really expert at camouflage though, they can 'disappear' quicker than you can imagine. One minute they are there and the next they have disappeared!
It always causes excitement whenever we discover a new chameleon in the garden or re-discover one that had disappeared for a while.

As with any wild creature, you are not allowed to keep them as pets without a special licence. Because of this, and because we believe that wild creatures should be free, we don't keep chameleons as pets - though they do make fascinating ones! We do sometimes "keep" them for a few days just to watch and learn more about them and of course, just to enjoy these amazing little animals which are part of God's incredible creation. "Keeping" them usually means filling a vase or glass bottle with a bunch of leafy branches or twigs - usually from the plant the chameleon was found on - and then 'adding' the chameleon. :) They become tame very quickly, especially if you handle them a lot. They seem to find us as curious as we find them!

Although they spend much time sitting still on a branch basking in the sun or waiting for prey, and although they have a slow, swaying walk, they can move quite quickly when they want to! Add to this that they are masters at camouflage and can change colour to blend in with their surroundings - no wonder they can vanish so quickly. Our "house" chameleons often decide to explore and then what a time we have finding them! They love to climb the curtains and often we will find them perched on top of the curtain rail.

Chameleons are such fascinating little creatures and there is so much we could tell you about the ones we’ve known, but instead here are some photos we’d like to share…
                                        

This is a photo of a baby Flap-neck chameleon. Unfortunately our camera wasn’t working at the time and we had to use the cell phone to take a picture. This little creature stayed with us for about 3 weeks before it decided it was time to move on.

We decided to post the following pictures as they are some of the best we have of ‘our’ chameleons. This particular chameleon made it’s home in a large flower bed not far from our kitchen window at one of our previous houses.

Here is a photo of the creature - a full grown adult Flap-neck chameleon - 140mm long.

In the photo above, the chameleon is ready to catch a bee. It's always so interesting to watch a chameleon catch it's prey. The long tongue (which can be longer than the length of it's own body) shoots out at tremendous speed - actually faster than the human eye can follow, at about 26 body-lengths per second.. The tongue hits the prey in something like 30 thousandths of a second! That's fast!! The tip of the elastic tongue has something like a suction cup on the end of it. When the prey sticks to this, it is pulled back into the chameleons mouth and eaten.  

The chameleon changes colour in response to mood, light, tempreture or it's surroundings. They can blend in so very well with the surroundings and are very difficult to spot...There is a chameleon in the photo below, but "Where's the chameleon?" can you spot it? :)

"All things bright and beautiful, All creatures great and small,

 All things wise and wonderful, The Lord God made them all."