I’m out of town this weekend, and got this post ready ahead of time, as I knew I wouldn’t be back in time to do my usual “What I’ve seen this week” post. I hope you enjoy this instead.
According to a quick Google search, there are 29 different hornbills in Southern Africa. So far, I’ve seen 5 of them. The variety of shapes and colours was the reason I wanted to create this post.
Now for the photos!
A crowned hornbill. South Africa, April 2015A red-billed hornbill. Botswana, April 2015A yellow-billed hornbill (or as my Dad calls them, flying bananas). Botswana, April 2015A ground hornbill seen on my first trip to South Africa, April 2013.A grey hornbill. South Africa, May 2015A red-billed hornbill. Botswana, April 2015
I just took a pause in editing the photos for this post for some breakfast, and spotted a pair of deer in the yard. It’s overcast and they are heading deeper into the bush, so no sense in trying to get a photo to add to the post.
This week, I’ve got some slightly better photos of the red breasted sapsucker that is hanging out at the top of my street, as well as some photos of a yellow bellied sapsucker (at least, to the best of my identification abilities, that is what it is, though they aren’t supposed to be in my area at all.
Here are my choices for the week, I hope you enjoy.
On my Saturday morning walk, I heard the loveliest singing from the trees, but was really having a hard time seeing the bird to get an ID. Once I loaded the photos onto the computer, I realized it was the yellow rumped warbler.A yellow bellied sapsucker?I believe this is a yellow bellied sapsucker… but if you have other ideas, please let me know!The red breasted sapsucker.The red breasted sapsucker loves to hang around the utility poles and make quite the racket.I was surprised that this bunny hopped out of the bushes and close to the road when he/she could easily see Spencer and I walking along. I snapped this just before a car came along; luckily it hopped back into the bush and not the other direction.
This African Hoopoe was tucked into such a shady spot of the tree, trying to do anything with the photo in colour just didn’t work. But I really like how this high contrast black and white edit has turned out.
The back yard continues to get busier, as more and more birds are heading into town. The warm weather has also meant trips to the garden centre to start sprucing up the yard, and getting some colourful flowers to contrast the sea of green.
This weekend has flown by, and there is still much to do, so I will leave it at that and get to the photos.
Wishing everyone a wonderful week!
Not the sharpest photo, but nice to have evidence of a few rufous hummingbirds getting along, and sharing the feeder.A pileated woodpecker seen on a morning walk.The purple finches have arrived, and along with the yellow pumped warbler, are filling the yard with lovely songs.The yellow pumped warbler – he’s quite a shy one!From the trunk up… I have no idea what type of tree this is, but it was one of the things that caught my eye while doing a photo walk downtown early this week with my local photo club.Lovely blossoms, but again I ave no idea what variety.I saw three deer while out on my bike Sunday afternoon, and then this single one spent a great deal of time in the yard on Monday.I snapped a few quick photos of this bird before it flew away; I was unable to tell until I got it on the computer that it is a red breasted sapsucker.Another view of the lovely deer that visited on Monday.Enjoying the backyard salt lick.