Water is at the heart of ecological systems and at last, some decent rain has fallen and refreshed the landscape. The Cape’s ecological landscape has been designed around water harvesting and natural filtration along with providing biodiverse flora habitat for fauna. It hasn’t taken long to notice small changes in the range of species that have come back with the rain, especially the freshwater bird species around the wetlands and chain of ponds. I have spent some quiet, mindful time connecting with nature, watching and photographing various duck species feeding, preening on the water and in flight relocating between the various water sources. It is so much more peaceful watching natural ‘bird sorties’ over human initiated, long range destructive bombing raids!