The vulture’s hide at Giant’s Castle is a raptor hide first and foremost. The setting on the edge of a middleberg ridge is spectacular. Placing the bones for the raptors, mainly for the Bearded Vultures, supplements their natural food sources which is diminishing due to loss of habitat and is the main purpose of the […]
Tag: Crow
South Africa: Rich in National Parks
During my (relatively short, I might add) lifetime I have had the privilege of visiting the majority of South Africa‘s national parks and game reserves. What a wealth of natural heritage we possess! When people from abroad look at some of the work in my photographic portfolio, they are amazed at the diversity of wildlife […]
Fish Crows: Egg Thieves
Crows are smart, and because of this I’m somewhat fascinated with them. They’re not particularly attractive birds, but they have a lot of ingenuity. I’ve read stories of crows working together to steal food from gulls. One crow comes up behind the gull and pulls a tail feather, distracting the gull. When the gull looks […]
Return of the Yardbirds
Lots of you probably know the Backyard Bird Count is happening right now. It’s sort of a cool concept. If you’re unfamiliar with it, check out this link for more info. (Above: badass cedar waxwing and ping pong ball ruby-crowned kinglet) My best yardbird is still the harris’s sparrow (not a very common bird). There […]
Bladder control, mild hypothermia and kinglets
It’s approximately 23 degrees in the library right now, so since I’ve lost the feeling in my hands and I’m banging around on the keyboard like a camel or something, I can’t write you up another novel this blog around. So here are just a few quick and very important notes: I saw The Waterboys […]
Free-tailed funnel cloud (reprint from June 2011)
When Doppler radar first arrived in the area known affectionately to Texans as the Hill Country, the local television station meteorologists were understandably eager to show off the weather forecasting capabilities of their newest toy. Unfortunately, they got off to a less than impressive start. Night after night that summer, evening thunderstorms were forecast but […]
Baby Birds and Cave Arms
Why hello there friends, hello. Not to be one of those talk-about-the-weather-all-the-time types, but crapballs! May 2nd and I was decked out in long underwear, gloves and hat again today. So confusing.(Above: Black-and-white Warbler with a caterpillar), below: Painted Bunting hunkering down in some thistle) Black-capped nestlings-they’ve hatched. Golden-cheeked Warblers have fledgies. This season is […]
Birds on the east coast
This is the second blog to look at Mansur Al Fahad’s trip two weeks ago to the east coast. He saw a very large number and variety of waders, some of which gave almost as many identification headaches as the gulls. However this blog looks at some of the non-waders he saw. All the pictures […]