Three bird species below, and each with its own way of life.
This is what we call a Jackie-hanger, and there is not a good story about this critter. It is a female Southern Fiscal (Lanius collaris), and the male has a black head, while the female has a grey head.
A part of its hunting for prey consists of taking small birds from their nests, and then they hang the little birds on fences or acacia thorns to dry in the sun.
The southern fiscal or fiscal shrike (Lanius collaris) is a member of the shrike family found through most of southern Africa. It is also sometimes named jackie hangman or butcher bird due to its habit of impaling its prey on acacia thorns to store the food for later consumption. It was previously lumped together with the northern fiscal (Lanius humeralis). Together they were known as the common fiscal.
This below was when she landed on a high tree across the road from our house.
Then she popped down behind the tree, and came up to sit with prey.
The bug was too small for me to identify it.
Now to show you some geese in flight.
Two flew past at a distance, and they are Egyptian geese.
A bit later a trio of geese also came past.
And finally, I will show you the new youngster of some Speckled Pigeons that nest in a grape vine canopy at the house next door.
They sat at the top of a firewall above the roof of our garage. The hump at the left was the one parent that sat facing the morning sun.
And here you can see the juvenile sitting below the watching eye of the other parent.
The youngster was getting ready to fly, and soon the two of them were gone.
I said before that we knew the speckled pigeons as rock pigeons and we still refer to them by the old name, as we had a mountain range on the farm and the rock pigeons nested in the lower range of the mountains. What has changed now, is that they have invaded the towns, and one can see them all over. They don't mix with the other doves, and they don't eat with the other doves. We don't feed them, as then they will become more domesticated.
We have many farms here, and it is only natural that they will draw many flocks of birds to come and live close to the farms. Many species of birds of prey also breed here, but they don't come into the towns, and I normally only catch them in flight, or when I strike a luck and they sit in the high trees of the parks, or on the trees and lampposts on the fringes of the town. There is one bird, however, that we love and that is a local owl, we call it the local pest collector, and we listen to its call every night.
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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