They have taken over the streets. It is their space, not ours. We drive carefully and ask them permission to pass by. They accommodate us when we pass them, driving over their tar kingdom. They patrol the streets and clear them from the seeds which they eat. Their tapping toes on the tar signal their arrival as I grab to get the camera (again!).
Their dinosaur figure feature as a stark contrast to the black tar road. They have taken what is theirs and I am merely witnessing it with my camera.
Jokes aside, it is wonderful how they have adapted to the streets. It is obviously not ideal and we are to blame for taking their land, but they have come to call these black tar roads their home.
Plenty of plants and weeds litter their seeds across the black streets and very often you find big flocks roaming them. The peck away we as passersby merely drive slowly to avoid their busy schedules.
Their toes and nails clicking and clacking on the road is a cacophonous sound echoing. Their chit-and-chat calling is something of nightmares (because they wake you up in the morning as they sit on the wall right outside of your bedroom). But their beauty is unmatched and I have come to love these ugly tar dinosaurs.
My granddad loved to tell us stories about how he caught them and sell them to the people who ate them. After all, they are wild game. But I have never thought about consuming them. But that is such an interesting line to draw. I mean, where is the difference between a chicken a duck, and a guineafowl? We are sometimes heartless creatures.
They ran to the grass as a car passed. I also needed to get out of the road. People are driving as if they have permits to kill. But alas, we all jumped out of the road for the green clearance.
That is when they decided to hop the fence and I saw these couple of beautiful one's on the wall. They looked for dogs on the other side of the fence, but they saw none. I said my goodbyes and watched as they moved on. They are true nomads of the streets. And I miss their poetry when I wake up in the morning and they do not sing it to me. Only sometimes do they visit me and my garden.
The whole family conquered the streets. How wonderful to see them so plentiful. I know it is not in the number of pre-industrialized concrete jungles joined the game. But they are flourishing in the few numbers that do exist. Sad, but what can we do but let our weeds sprout so that they can eat from them?
In any case, I hope you enjoyed a couple of photographs of the helmeted guineafowls. They are wonderful creatures and I really do love them. Apparently, they are also good against ticks as these are their favorite snacks. The absence of these ticks in the garden is probably a homage to their skills?
Alas, such is life and her beauty!
Happy birding, and stay safe.
All of the musings are my own. The photographs are also my own, taken with my trusty Nikon D300 and Tamron 300mm zoom lens.