Some bird species on show.

Now what do you think was going to happen here?

It was a Pied Crow (Corvus albus), and it landed on a high tree across the road.

Anchored at home, I took the photos on the weekend outside in the garden, as I enjoy the sounds of bird song. One thing that aggravates me a bit, is that it is very difficult to get the birds on camera on the trees with dense leaves. Imagine hearing a strange bird sound clearly, but you cannot see it. It happens regularly, and only now and then do I actually get one of the birds. But thankfully Winter is on its way, and then the trees take their dresses off and we can see the birdies clearly.

Another crow arrived above the one sitting on the tree, and he took off with his score that you can see in his beak. It is the one at the right bottom.

Just a lovely shot of the moon.

A Southern Double-collared Sunbird (Cinnyris chalybeus) sat singing high up on another tree. I have another two shots of the sunbird, below, when he landed in our Cape Honeysuckle bush.

Our resident Cape Robin-chat (Cossypha caffra), below, also came to greet me. His nickname is "Robbie" and he loves to take a bath in each of our water bowls. Amazingly, he doesn't use the same water bowl twice. We have four water bowls in the garden, and he baths in one after the other. Cleverly, Robbie doesn't drink from the water bowls, as he drinks from the water bottle hanging in the tree.

A Speckled Pigeon (Columba guinea) was busy demolishing a termite heap.

It gave me a look, but I was no danger to it.

And so, it continued with its destruction of the termite heap, eating the termites along the way.

There are quite a few termite heaps in their early formations, and the birds love to eat the termites, especially the starlings.

The bird world is full of surprises, as lately we have very strong winds here and then there are no birds to be seen. They struggle to fly in the winds, and there is one predator bird that is a problem as it doesn't mind the winds, it is a Sparrow Hawk, and the hawk is a very strong and speedy flyer. When the doves spot the bird, they take off in their numbers wind or no wind, and that hawk is so fast that I saw him once taking a dove in flight. Sadly, it was way too fast and unexpected for me to take a shot of it. Maybe one day I will get a shot of its attack.
Such is life.

I hope you enjoyed the pictures and the story.

Photos by Zac Smith. All-Rights-Reserved.

Camera: Canon PowershotSX70HS Bridge camera.

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