A Mousebird Family and a Shrike Silhouette

We went for an afternoon walk down by the ocean walkway – a big stretch of indigenous fynbos plants that the birds love to visit. We walked there every afternoon for a while and each day we saw a host of different bird species, but I never took my camera with. I am at this point sure that these birds know that I want to see them through my camera lens. A couple of times I took my camera with, only for them to not make an appearance. But one afternoon I was lucky enough to catch a family of mousebirds sitting in one of the indigenous fynbos plants. I think their nest is in one of them, because for a while there were so many family members that wanted to enter the same shrub. Maybe there was some food hiding there, or it was a communal nest of sorts.

These are some of the most beautiful birds for me personally, and you can find them across the country. There are three species, and this one if I am correct is the white backed mousebird. They have a very distinct call, and every morning I hear them in my garden – I have timed their arrival now. When we have figs on the fig tree, you can almost set your watch each morning to their arrival. But these ones were not in my garden, nor does our fig tree have figs now.

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As we walked home, after the encounter with the beautiful mousebirds, I also saw a shrike sitting on the tops of the fynbos bushes, looking for its next prey. The sun was not perfect, and I only managed to get a silhouette shot in. But even this was in itself a beautiful moment, one in which you can clearly see the proud posture of this ferocious hunter. They usually impale their prey on thorns of local plants – in my home language their name translates to the hangman or something akin to an executioner. It shows their fierce and violent nature. But all of nature is brutal and only the strongest really survives.

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I hope that these photographs showed you some of the beauty we have in our local fauna and flora. These birds are for me always synonymous with fynbos plants, but this might only be because I grew up in the area. I associate the sounds and calls of these birds with the plants that grow you.

But for now, happy photographing and keep well.

All of the musings and writings are my own. The photographs are also my own, taken with my Nikon D300 and Tamron 300mm zoom lens.