"birding" fun

[Don Boose]

A wonderful image! Merry Christmas, Kevin and all who follow this thread.

Don

[SCEtoAUX]

Great pic, Kevin.

[whulsey]

That is a cool photo.

[Kevin WS]

Thanks, everyone. They are very cute birds and tend to line up like that.

Here in Johannesburg, I went recently to the other side of town - to photograph the horse I used in the Christmas card - and also in an effort to locate an owl there. No luck with the latter but it turned out I didn't know really where to look.

In the area, there are a couple of what we call pans - basically small wetlands that turn into little lakes. They are very much under threat and a few have gone, but a couple of small ones remain with (for the moment) relatively intact ecology. One has enough micro-organisms in the water to support a small flamingo population.

Here are some pics of the flamingos (Greater Flamingos) I found there... They are filter feeders (which is why most of them have their beaks here in the water), feeding on brine-shrimp and algae.

Enjoy!

I'll post some of the other birds I saw tomorrow.

[Kevin WS]

Here are a couple of pics now of our largest heron - the Goliath Heron. Standing straight this bird is about 5 foot (1.5 metres) tall.

A solitary bird, they are very very wary of humans.
A heron at rest.



Ambling across the pan...

[FRD]

Wow! Great photos!, Marji and I have just started bird watching, we hung up two small feeders for the local wren population, the feeders are constantly occupied during daylight hours...

[SCEtoAUX]

Nice heron pics. Bet that bird has a big wingspan.

[whulsey]

Wow, the heron is great. Nice photos.

[Kevin WS]

Frd, Doug and Wayne - thank you very much for your comments. Appreciated!

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Frd - welcome to the world of birdwatching. I hope you have many happy hours.

For the last few years I cannot afford to buy specific bird food for the birds, so I dry or toast leftover bread, and crumble and use this, along with excess raw veg and chopped up fruit. The birds remain happy and it does not cost me extra!

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Doug - the Goliath Heron is actually the worlds biggest heron.

The wingspan is huge - up to 2.3 metres or 7 and a half feet!

The bird (for a bird) is also heavy - up to 5kg or 11 pounds.

[Kevin WS]

Been a bit quiet here.

Here is one of my favourite birds - a Cape Robin-Chat - that I caught in the garden here. Happy with the shot as they tend to hide most of the time in the undergrowth.

Feeds on insects and mates for life. Also, maintain their territories for life. The female is very drab and dull, and difficult to spot in bushes.