Friday, March 30

Flying away......

Autumn grasses

It's that time of the year when summer visibly, audibly, departs on the wings of our birds.

European roller



This is when the European rollers and Red backed shrikes are most visible, perch hunting from road side bushes, fattening up before their long migration back to Europe and Asia.






Red backed shrike











Southern carmine bee-eater







The Southern carmine bee-eaters, so often sighted swooping through the air, just a week ago, have almost totally disappeared. The same with the European bee-eater.


European bee-eaters

















Barn swallow





Barn swallows are amassing on telephone wires and dead trees preparing for the long flight back to the United Kingdom.







Woodland kingfisher




And one of the most lovely summer sounds, the call of the Woodland kingfisher, is becoming an echoing
memory.








Wahlberg Eagle



Many of our summer-visiting raptors have already departed, but we have still been rewarded with the occasional sighting of the Wahlberg Eagle.

Farewell beautiful birds.........

See you next summer.


8 comments:

OneStonedCrow said...

Lovely - at my home in the north of Nam I seem to have more birds hanging around during winter ... perhaps many of yours come visit me then ... :)

Coral Wild said...

Hey there Graham
Welcome back to the "connected" world:)
I'm sure that any bird with even a little bit of sense would prefer balmy northern Namibia to the long trek northwards...
Sue

chl said...

Wow, great photos!
Sue we look forward to your adventures. We are always taken back to our time with you and the bush. How we enjoyed S Africa.

God Bless.
Cynthia Langslet

Coral Wild said...

Thanks so much Cynthia...
That trip we did together to Sabi Sand still stands out as one of the best ever:)
Hope you both get back here soon.
Sue

Andrea said...

Thank you for visiting my blog.
For me it's always a great pleasure to discover a beautiful blog like yours.

Coral Wild said...

and thank you for your return visit Andrea. I look forward to seeing more of your posts.

Lonicera said...

Those contre-jour grasses... love them. For every lovely bird shot you get, I wonder how many dozens you have to delete. Not as many as me I'll bet. I'm absolutely hopeless with birds. In the days of film I rarely photographed birds because it would have bankrupted me. Maybe that's why I take so many bad ones now - lack of practice. Enjoyed this post very much.
Caroline

Coral Wild said...

I'm glad you enjoyed the post Caroline. Sorry I haven't replied before but I have been away on safari again:)
Hasn't photography going digital made such a HUGE difference in our lives.
As for the birds, I don't think I have ever successfully captured any "on the wing" so you are definitely ahead of me there!