"LOOK!!!! It's an EAGLE!!!" Cried my delighted BuckarooBaby. Sure enough lazily floating on the air currents above our heads was the majestic Eagle! We don't spot them often but there are a couple that live in our valley. Sighting them is rare and therefor always brings great celebration. Of course with my arms full of toddler I didn't get my camera ready in time for the shot. But ..... minutes later; there was anther enthralled exclamation "LOOK!!!! A HAWK!!!"
Sure enough, gazing down on the world from his lofty perch was this magnificent raptor. Strictly speaking he is a Goshawk - a Southern Pale Chanting Goshawk. I, equally astounded by the beauty and variety of the birds of prey, as I was astounded by the knowledge of my little BuckarooBaby! I had to rush the photos through to a retired wild life specialist friend to confirm what each of raptor was.
Summer has been very long in coming this year. Usually by now we are in the scorching heat of way over 40 C temperatures. Today was pleasant enough to leave home without a jacket. We decided to take a walk up our farming valley.
Our first - rather unpleasant - sighting was an entire troop of baboons. If you are not a South African farmer you will probably think that baboons are wonderful. We however know that they are far from wonderful. We spotted them trashing our neighbours fruit trees. They left in a hurry barking baboon swearwords in our direction. We weren't unhappy for long because after that we started seeing all the raptors.
The Goshawk is very common in our area. Of all the raptors we saw I could only get photos of two (the first photos and the next beauties). It took some effort trying to identify the second. We also have a Dark Chanting Goshawk but - after dragging in another friend who used to work in the wild life field - the combined efforts seem to agree that the next raptor is simply a juvenile Southern Pale Chanting Goshawk. Isn't he magnificent?!!
Eagle. Hawk. Falcon. Kite. The wind was not conducive to good photos. The raptors on the whole were also not accommodating towards paparazzi. Nevertheless I am happy with the couple photos I could sneak in. And that my enthusiastic little farm kiddos could watch the magnificent birds of prey.
The mountains are a riot of colour. The succulents at this time of year are spectacular. Whenever we ride or walk through the valley and hike over the mountains I am blown away by the reality of this magnificent world that we call HOME!
The fauna and flora are spectacular. Even the rock formations are something to behold. Bugs. Birds. Beasts. Today we also spotted some little duiker. The return of this little buck to our area reminds us of the return of the rains. Pheasant and guinea fowl fill the fields once again. Egyptian Geese arrive when we flood irrigate. Succulents and trees apparently long dead have started to bloom again. It is a sight to behold.
The original Dr Doolittle is non other than my Dad. Growing up @craigcryptoking and I have multitudes of fur and feathered memories of animals. In. The. House. And, better yet. In. Our. Beds. And. Plates. Of. Food. Based on my childhood, you would think I would have a better knowledge of wild life. But they were all rather wild to me. Although now I can tell the difference between adult and young Pale Chanting Goshawk. I had a good chuckle sending this last photo to my brother bragging that I had taken a photo of the Lesser Spotted Vulture......
What a joy to see the veld change from browns to green with flowers, bird life appearing and the buck.
Oh damn those baboons they are forever at it, never give up, we have the monkeys not as big nor bad looking, still a menace!
I do love the lesser spotted vulture in the last shot (also make good eating)_!
Have a great week ahead!
Such a joy!
When I left Natal I thought I'd seen the last of the monkeys.....now we have monkeys on steroids! In size and behaviour. They truly are a menace. I used to live in Imfolozi and we had both. Although the baboons mostly kept their distance - their Karoo cousins are past arrogant and aggressive
A wonderful week to you too!!
Baboons are a major problem and not scared to come up close to human settlements of late. Monkeys, every so often you will find the odd one brazen enough to try get indoors.
With no leopard to keep numbers down, our Crown Eagle a new resident in town that may assist in time, numbers of troops are exploding in size, need to train them to use condoms!
That is more a scary picture than a funny one! But maybe the Crown Eagle needs to work on more offspring to help manage the baboon numbers!
Crowned eagle raised one chick last year, hopefully settle into the area.
Baboon encounter was up in the Drakensberg, most in the area are putting tiles over the thatch to keep baboons out. Cape has a bigger problem with the big boys in town than we experience, hopefully it stays that way.
Ah yes, so you got some photos and yes that is indeed a Goshawk, might have been a mom and her youngster scouting the area.
We have baboons here in the mountain passes, but then again we also have leopards in the passes.
This is a photo that a friend sent me, as he works on the roads in the passes.
Did you really think that your brother would see that fancy chicken as a vulture 🤣
Cheersc and !BEER
What a remarkable experience! We've had leopard here, in bygone years but only at night and I could never get a photo. Not that I really want to get close enough to take one!!
Oh my brother knew very well that it wasn't a vulture. He used to get so mad during the school holidays because he could never sleep in. The guinea fowl would hop all over his bed and wake him up
Sad that they are gone and they guy in the photo was high up on a mountain cliff.
Baboons and monkeys are very scared of them and yet, there are many babons there.
They are working on the roads, retarring them in the Bain's Kloof Pass. A lovely and dangerous pass as we visited them there.
Hahaha, your brother must be happy that it was not Hadeda's that woke him every morning.
We used to eat Guineas on the farm up north when I was a child, as there were hundreds of them, but lately they are very scarce up there.
!PIZZA
Exactly! And who would want to eat hadeda.....
What perfect timing seeing you here now Zac!! Our little Sunbirds hatched. The little male is back with huge mouthfuls to feed the hatchlings. I'm about to post the photos. We are sooooooooooooooooo excited
Just visited your post and I am flabbergasted. Do you have Twitter, or should I Tweet it?
No. I don't twitter....I leave that to the birds ;) Thank you for your help!
Awesome post! Oh, these images bring back memories of my travels to the Ceder mountains. It had the same look. And the heat! What stunning images of the Hawk. You are so lucky. I am never fast enough to catch them still. And the flowers with their beautiful colors are amazing. I walked in the coastal town Kleinmond today and the mountains are so beautiful with the Fynbos growing strongly after the winter rains.
Thank you!! It truly is spectacular. I find the wild mountainside and the succulents almost more beautiful than manicured gardens because of all the have to face in order to survive.
That is so true! I am trying to mimic that in my own Fynbos garden. However, it is never nice to see plants die due to stress and lack of water. So sometimes I find myself watering them even though I know I should not.
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Looks like quite a lot of wild life out there.
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My goodness you are good with a camera! Love this. Your toddler knows more about birds of prey than I do!
You and me both!!