Thursday, January 13, 2011

Raptor and locust



I found this raptor sleeping quietly in its own down near the Gariep Dam. Strangely the corpus lies near the feathers and if a car caused the damage then it makes no sense. The body would have been flung far from the impact zone. Ed R's 'Royal Road Test' springs to mind. I have always admired this guy's errant genius and incontrovertible taste in roofless cars.

My expert friends from the department of birds tell me it's a Pale Chanting Goshawk which sounds non sensical, pale not being a logical qualifier for a chant. But the name is beautiful. I thought it was a Gabar Goshawk. Either way it's immature. I mean what nut would try and eat a locust off the tar when I car was coming, or...not?

Find a crop attached. The lighting is subtle and a fly can be noted on the fluffy bum of the bird - wings and two big eyes.