Showing posts with label Swallow. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Swallow. Show all posts

Sunday, May 10, 2026

A few from Blacktoft Sands and our local patch

 



Avocets at Blacktoft getting on with things !



Common Sandpiper on our evening stroll

Garganey at Blacktoft, we were there for a couple of hours and it never stopped feeding ! Afraid never close and with a biting northerly I felt near hypothermic ! Home for hot soup !



Lots of Godwits from Ousefleet Hide


and a very distant wood sandpiper

Sunday, October 19, 2025

A few more birds from Kruger

 

Striped Swallows


Ostrich - absolutely massive ! We say alot of these birds probably because the vegetation was so low


Lappet-faced Vulture



Giant Kingfisher


African Pied Wagtail


Black Sparrowhawk

Black-bellied Koorhan

Common Waxbill

Cinnamon-breasted Rock Bunting

Crested Barbet

Crested Guineafowl

Golden-breasted Bunting



Golden-tailed Woodpecker

Gorgeous Bush Shrike


Hoopoe

Long-billed Crombec



Melba Finch


Mocking Cliff Chat

Mozambique Batis - a new bird for us

Yellow-billed Oxpecker

Purple Heron

Red-billed Firefinch

Red-billed Wood Hoopoe

Saturday, October 18, 2025

A few birds and mammals from our recent trip to Kruger National Park

 


White Helmet Shrike, one of the birds of the trip. Not easy to photograph from your car window and we did turn around many times. Cracking birds to see.


Warthogs, always snorting through the grass and not the prettiest things


Tawny Eagle - these were everywhere


Swainsons Frankolin



Sabota Lark


Mosque Swallows, there wasn't many hirundines yet made it back all still on their way


Kurrichane Thrush


Jacana


Giraffes - everywhere, standing tall. Beautiful to see and one of God's mystery mammals, just how did they evolve to look like that ?!


Every river bank had it's resident crocs,  we saw some absolute whoppers. I think they are hideous but also mesmerizing !


Brown Snake Eagle with a lizard lunch that it is eyeing up nicely !


BOOMSLANG !! Now you have to look closely and you can just see it through the twigs coming down the tree. The sound of a hundred birds scalding gave it away and Simon knew it must be a snake so with his beady eyes and new bins he soon had that found but getting me onto it took about 10 minutes ! Other people kept stopping so we just told them we were birding. I couldn't see it so there was no chance he could pass directions through car windows. Eventually I saw it, just hanging there, what a find !!

Arrow-marked Babblers


African White-backed Vulture
We saw lots of vultures as there was lots of food for them !


African Fish Eagle


Africa !  Many, many mixed herds like these, relaxed and feeding away. Just love how one zebra was rolling and having a dust bath. Beautiful scenes and memories.



Three very distant lions sleeping on a river sand bank. Picture taken from one of the bridges. Every lion we saw was in good condition and full of food.