This gif is made from a series of pictures taken of a mating flight of two Pale Chanting Goshawks – the birds were a long way away but the dance makes up for the lack of sharpness
Category: Birding
We joined the Honorary Rangers of the Agulhas Reserve for a birding weekend. The weather was cold and very windy, as only the Agulhas Plains can be. It was not really conducive to much standing around in the open but we did do some good birding just sitting in the car.Even though this is a birding page, you must have a couple of nice travel shots.
Agulhas has probably the most bizarre and intriguing lighthouse. More like a Medieval castle converted to lighthouse duties. It makes for an interesting picture.
The other side is more ordinary, but still an impressive structure.
You can see from the next picture just how powerful the wind was. Those are female weavers clinging on for dear life while the wild wheat blows under them.
Here is a picture of some of the birders returning from a bracing walk in a minor gale.
Flowers – you gotta have flowers. Actually, those white things at the feet of the birders in the picture above are these flowers.
There is a bird in the next picture. Promise.
See? There is a bird. Only a bit small. An LBJ (Little Brown Job) and it is a Large Billed Lark – after much deliberation.
We saw some fish eagles in the far distance and photographed them for id purposes. Turns out we got some rather pleasant landscape pictures as well. There are two fish eagles in there, but check out the landscape. Lovely.
Silhouette of a kite playing the winds.
Weavers sheltering from the wind.
Down at the watering trough.
A kelp gull found an ideal sheltering place.
A white chested comorant takes the early morning sun.
Terns sheltering from the wind.
Waves in the wind.
Here’s looking at you. Cape Spur Fowl.
Steppe buzzard readying for flight.
Cape Robin Chat. We had, by this time migrated to Riviersonderend.
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Sabine Gulls in Table Bay
Sabine Gulls are birds that do not normally come close to shore. They do however shelter from powerful storms. In the case of this video they are sheltering from a massive south easter wind in Table Bay.
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Black Crowned Night Heron
I couldn’t resist this image as the heron admired his image in the water.
I will add to these as I get more.
Cape Grassbird
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Bird Images from my Archive
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Little Grebe Breakfast
Also known as Dabchicks the Little Grebes are common on water bodies across the Western Cape. Their epic territorial battles are wild and noisy and totally unmistakable. What I didn’t know is that they eat frogs. They catch them by diving under the water for long periods and then reappearing with prey in beak. I was lucky enough to see the whole process enacted under the bird hide I was in.
The bird was swimming along and then suddenly disappeared. Only to emerge with a frog in in its beak.
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Our KZN Trip
We went to KZN in October and took lots of pictures – as usual. Join us in a brief journey through Hluhluwe and St Lucia
The Narina Trogon was the sighting of the trip so it takes pride of place and for the purists, we saw it in St Lucia.
Burchels Cougal or Vlei Loerie or Rain Bird. Such a beautiful bird
Wild Jasmine grows all over Hluhluwe.
It rained for most of the time we were there. Kept the temperature down, but was a bit disappointing for the birding.
This buffalo was getting rid of parasites in a hollow. Looked a bit foolish
The viz was awful and the sea rough
Together Diving.
Rhinos in Hluhluwe. Family outing
Warthog and Red Billed Ox Peckers
Crowned Lapwing
We went to Bontebok National park on Sunday. On the way down to swim in the Breede River we noticed a bird we didn’t recognise. Out came the birding books and the camera as this tiny, sparrow looking bird dodged in and out of the road margins.
The only bird that matched the description, had one small issue. It was completely out of range. The southern most border of its range was north of Ceres in the Tankwa Karoo. Diagnostic feature? Solid black under wings.
An SUV thundered past and the bird took flight.
Black under wings A communal “Oh!”
We get home and consult the experts and they agree that what we saw was a vagrant Black Eared Sparrow Lark.
Pardon the awful picture but seeing as how the picture is now on the Rare Birds webpage with my name attached it cannot be all that bad.
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Nest making
A double collared sunbird female collecting cotton scraps from stakes we used to support plants.
