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TEAM TALK
The Cutting Edge
By Mariette
BE SWEET AND SAVE A TWEET
7 June 2017. A date that will forever be imprinted in
many people’s memory. A day that changed their
lives forever. The day that many animals got dis-
placed and / or lost their precious lives.
The devastating Knysna fires. So severe it affected
most of the Garden Route. Destruction at its worst. A
person can’t even begin to imagine the severity of the
impact this had. Until you come face to face with this
reality. And then it hits you. Hard. Really hard!
En route to the Western Cape, 5 weeks after tragedy struck, I was confronted by this terrible and emo-
tional sight. Homes lost. Entire livelihoods gone.
Barren land. Habitats destroyed. Affecting humans and ani-
mals alike.
This prompted me to create awareness to the plight so many
wild animals face out there. Not because of fire only, but also
because of drought. When food sources are so scarce its a
constant battle for the tiniest of creatures to stay alive and
thrive.
After discovering a group on Facebook
(Garden Route Bird Relief Program) it
was heartwarming to see how the com-
munity rallied together to save the lives
of our feathered friends. Their once
thriving habitat destroyed. Left with
little to no food and water.
Our wild animals are all subjected to continuous environmental changes. They
need us and they need us NOW!
For this reason I started a “treat tree”
at home for our feathered friends. It
features a lot of different seed feeding
stations for our little seed eaters, as
well as fruits for our little fruit feeders. And then off course
some bird nectar for our little nectar feeders.
In the process I also learnt something new! When making bird nectar please do NOT add ANY colour-
ants or other additives at all (I never knew this as I always strictly followed instructions supplied with the
feeder bottles, by adding red colourant to attract the birds)!
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