A bird called Lorna.. a fresh angle..

Before I start this post .. I’m off down to Cape Town for business for a few days so I will be missing from the blogs, but I’ll be taking my camera to capture some photos of our fairest Cape and what it will show me… see you in a few days time, or at the earliest Thursday next week… See you…

Table Mountain (photo courtesy of www.capetown.travel.co.za)

Their famous Waterfront (Courtesy of www.sharkbookings.com)

Now lets get back to a bird called Lorna…

I named a bird after Lorna of Lornasvoice (to see her blog click here)… she has a certain likeness to this bird. She has a very special sense of humour (The bird and Lorna) and this likeness comes through in her posts.

Here are a few more photos of the Grey Crowned Crane (different perspectives)…

Coots cute eggs… breeding time for Coots..

The Red-knobbed Coot (Fulica cristata)

A noisy bird, an aggressive bird, it is likely to bully any intruder, even large birds such as Egyptian geese. It can be seen swimming on open water or walking across waterside grasslands. It is an aggressive species, and strongly territorial during the breeding season.

But what I hate about this bird – and I don’t hate many – its behaviour towards its own young is so aggressive, that only a few are likely to survive to adulthood.

I took a few photos of the birds with their young, lucky for them too far away to even throw a stone at them. They chase them, peck at their heads, how any parent can behave such towards its own young amazes me. Actually I hate this bird because of that. I accept that in certain species the young will fight in the nest till one is killed and then the other gets all the food. Natures survival of the strongest… but this is a parent against its own offspring….

I spoke to a pigeon about this and it informed me it closes its eye to such bad behaviour…

It also said the other alternate is to look the other way….

But as it looked down there was a Coot nesting below …

Were there eggs, would any of these survive??? I will be watching to see what happens…

Low flying birds near O.R. Tambo Airport…

I had to drop off a parcel for my son at the Anglo hanger at the airport. Leaving the security area I saw 2133 Grey-headed Gulls. (Don’t you believe that I actually counted them, but there were thousands.)

The sky was overcast so the photos weren’t good enough to post, but they were good enough to view and zoom into on the computer…. and to my surprise I noticed thousands of chicks in various stages of growth.

I returned to the site today (24th May) the sun was shining and I made a few captures….

Back in July 2012 I posted on this bird, (Click here to see the post) who would have thought I’d find their breeding ground.

Just look at all the chicks….

They take to flight fairly quickly when you move about…

But I’m not joking when I say there are thousands, if I was clever I’d be able to post my video clip, but I’m too stupid to get it on the blog…

When they circled above my head I thought they might be looking for food… or wanting to crap on my head… but when reading up on them… they were coming closer to attack me… and I quote from    http://www.biodiversityexplorer.org/birds/laridae/larus_cirrocephalus.htm

• The chicks flee the nest if disturbed and can run freely within a day of hatching, while their parents may attack intruders (such as humans) if they get to close.

I think these wanted to do more than make a deposit on my head… !!!!!

As you might be able to make out from the above photo that they are nesting at the end of a Gold Driving Range, I wonder how many have a close encounter with a golf ball or mistake a ball for an egg.???

Southern Red Bishop… wonder what’s he up to?

This little guy was very busy, looked almost industrious. Was it the seed he was after or measuring up for a nesting site? Who knows…

Looks like he wants the seed….

and now we’re happy….

Black-shouldered Kite.. Rat for Breakfast.

Black-shouldered Kite (Elanus axillaris)

Black-shouldered Kites measure 35–38 cm (13.8–15 in) in length with a wingspan of 80–95 cm (31.5–37.4 in), the adult Black-shouldered Kite is a small and graceful, predominantly pale grey and white raptor, with black shoulders and red eyes. Their primary call is a clear whistle, uttered in flight and while hovering.

Black-shouldered Kites love mice and rats… and this one was enjoying his breakfast today… RAT…