I had a nice enough morning in Estabrook Park, but I kept waiting for a chance to photograph someone new or someone we soon won’t see for a while, but that chance never came. Oh, there are still plenty of pretty sights to see, don’t worry about that, but I’ve gotta recalibrate my expectations now that spring migration appears to be all wrapped up. Thus, I didn’t get a single picture today, which is just the opportunity I’ve been waiting for to show you a few more pictures from our recent trip to Africa.
I already showed you a southern red-billed horn-bill, but you will be stunned to learn that there are also southern yellow-billed horn-bills (Tockus leucomelas), and here’s the one we saw at Pilanesberg National Park.
This next picture may be a little confusing at first glance, and part of that is because there are two birds snuggling together as they hang from that little branch. You can see their two little black faces and beaks pressed together in the middle near the top of that pile of gray feathers, and you can see the left foot of the bird on the right wrapped around that branch and just below its face. These cuties are Speckled Mousebirds (Colius striatus), and besides snuggling, they seemed to like foraging together in a little flock of 6-12 birds in the trees around the Holiday Inn Parking lot.
Also near the Holiday Inn, close to where I spotted that crested barbet, there were at least three of these handsome Rameron Pigeons (Columba arquatrix) crowded onto the top of that evergreen tree. The name appears to have been recently changed to African Olive Pigeon, but that hasn’t percolated through to all my sources yet.
We’ve seen northern shovelers in Estabrook Park and South Holland, but I guess I shouldn’t be surprised to find that the shovelers in South Africa are not northern shovelers. Instead, this one at the fabulous Korsman Bird Sanctuary is called a Cape Shoveler (Spatula smithii).
I did see at least one mallard there, as well, but the far more interesting duck was this striking creature, a Yellow-billed Duck (Anas undulata).
I’ve already shown you a nice portrait of the fiscal flycatcher that hung out near the Holiday Inn, and I read that it is named after this similar looking bird, a Southern Fiscal (Lanius collaris), which is a shrike. I read that the name “fiscal” comes from the Afrikaans word for tax collectors, who were known to wear black and white, and it is believed that the fiscal flycatcher has evolved to look like the shrike to protect itself from predators, an example of Batesian mimicry.“
Finally, I’ve shown you bright green rose-ringed parakeets from South Holland before, and it turns out that they have also been introduced to South Africa, but I had no idea that they also come in blue, until now.
It’s supposed to be mostly cloudy and cool tomorrow morning, but the winds should be very light for our weekly wildlife walk, so if there are any late birds still migrating through, we should be able to hear them. Or you can just point out to me any of the dozens of perfectly fine species that’ll be here all summer. Either way, I’ll stop by the beer garden parking lot to look for you at 7am and again at 8.
Signs of Life in Estabrook Park 