There was no way that I could get around a palm tree to get the sun behind me.
This was too good to worry about the position of the sun, and I just had to cope with the conditions.
The African Harrier Hawk (Polyboroides typus) was previously known as a Gymnogene, which suited his athletic prowess as it is one of only a few bird species that can climb trees.
The two species of polyboroides (one in Africa and one in Madagascar) are large hawks with very broad, deeply slotted wings, long tails and long, slender legs which have the unique ability of being able to bend backwards and sideways at the tarsal (ankle) joint. This enables them to insert their feet into holes and cracks in rocks and tree stems to pull out bats, lizards, nestling birds, and other prey. Their unusually narrow small head also facilitates probing into holes. They have bare facial skin which changes color from red to yellow according to the bird's state of agitation.
Source: Book: Birds of Southern Africa. ISBN: 978-1-77584-668-0.
His call that he made alerted me to his presence, and so I went out to search for him.
They are famous for searching trees for prey.
And this one was scoping the trunk of the tree, as there are little pockets on the trunk that the birds and the squirrels use to nest in.
The wind caught him behind the head, resulting in a lovely look.
Then he was on his way, but I don't know if he saw anything.
A bit later he appeared lower in the tree.
I thought that he would attack something below him.
But not to be, as he rather stepped down and then disappeared behind the tree.
This is the tree that he was in, and you can see the glaring light of the sun.
As I said above, there was no way I could get behind this tree as it is on a private property, ringed by an electric fence. I don't know if the hawk knew that I couldn't get to him in that tree, maybe but I am only guessing.
Every season a pair of harrier hawks are born and believe it or not every season I get them on camera. Sometimes I even get them with their prey, mainly small birds and doves.
We also have a sparrow hawk that patrols the sky here every day, but he is way too fast for me to get him on camera. One just has to stand outside and to see a sudden rush of doves and smaller birds flying off suddenly to know that the sparrow hawk was on its way. But no problem, as I know that someday I will get him in flight. Things have gotten cold here over the last while, and we already had two cold fronts (winter storms) over the past weekend. I will do a post about it to show you.
Such is life.
I hope you enjoyed the pictures and the story.
Photos by Zac Smith. All-Rights-Reserved.
Camera: Canon PowershotSX70HS Bridge camera.
Until next time, cheers!
