Helen and I visited Giant’s Castle Reserve in late January this year. Apart from wonderful scenery and walks, the big attraction in Giant’s Castle Reserve is its Bearded vulture hide. We usually visit the vulture hide in winter when the Bearded vultures are breeding. This time we were interested to see how things change around the vulture hide in mid-summer, in terms of the variety of birds, breeding plumage and behaviour.

The obvious first change was the weather. It was mixed with mist, rain, overcast skies and patches of bright sunshine. At times, it was warm and other times as cold as it had been in winter. The vulture hide has been built on the edge of a terrace on a ridge on the south side of the Bushman’s river valley. In winter, the grass on the terrace is short, dry and yellow/brown which enables cleaner photography, without grass stems in the way. In summer the grass is long, green and verdant which makes photographing small birds tricker.

“Don’t let the weather dictate your photographic mood. Get up early regardless of the weather. The clouds can improve backgrounds. The light before or just after a storm can be unique. That break in the mist or storm clouds can be just long enough to create opportunities you never imagined.” ~ Mike Haworth

On the terrace in front of the vulture’s hide there are many exposed rocks. These rocks provide a clean foreground and the ideal opportunity to photograph small birds such as the Yellow-rumped widow bird and Familiar chat.

The vulture hide is booked for exclusive use each day. The Giant’s Castle staff provided us with a bucket of cut bones each day. We placed these bones strategically with the intention of trying to see the best flying and feeding behaviour. The cut bones have exposed marrow and plenty of meat and fat on them. It is amazing to see how many of the insect eaters, raptors and ravens favour the marrow and fat. The Red-winged starlings and White-necked ravens are particularly fond of the fat and marrow, and greedily feed on the bones. The Familiar chats and Cape Rock thrushes are similarly drawn to the marrow and fat.

The male Cape Rock thrush has a uniform blue-grey plumage on his head and neck. His underparts are a rust-orange and his back is brown. These Rock thrushes are normally seen in pairs and the female has a speckled brown, white and orange colouring on her head and neck. She has a white patch on her throat and her underparts are a rust-orange speckled with buff and dark brown. These Cape Rock thrushes love the marrow and the fat on the bones.

We saw many pairs of Greater striped swallows flying in front of the hide. They seemed to enjoy flying in the updraft which flowed up the ridge from the valley floor and over the terrace. The so-called “greater striped” refers to the size of the swallow not the size of the stripes.

“The hide gives you, the photographer, a chance to get closer to a variety of birds. You will better understand the bird behavior, and there will be many opportunities for capturing images of birds in flight.” ~ Mike Haworth

The two species that dominate the terrace and bones in front of the hide are White-necked ravens and Red-winged starlings. The White-necked ravens bully the smaller birds off the bones and help themselves to whatever they like. These bullies feed mainly in the morning and seem to really enjoying frolicking in the wind and updrafts which strengthen in the afternoon.

Once the bones have been put out in front of the hide you have no control over who gets to feed on them. There seems to be a family of Black-backed jackals that live further along the ridge in a rocky section where I think there must be some caves which provide shelter from some of the colder and wetter weather. One of the sub-adult pups must have seen the ravens and figured out that breakfast must have been served. All the jackals are very wary of the hide and are spooked by any movement or noise in the hide.

There is always great excitement when the raptors arrive. A pair of Jackal buzzards are daily visitors. They normally arrive individually and approach from the far end of the terrace. We have to remain alert all the time because there is usually no warning before they arrive. They suddenly appear over the crest of the terrace without a sound.

“One day your life will flash before your eyes, make sure it’s worth watching.” ~ Gerard Way

As with most birds, they initially fly in to a safe place and assess the situation to see if it is safe to feed. Once they are satisfied that all is well they fly in to feed.

The female Jackal buzzard is larger than the male and has a black neck with a whitish collar, whereas the female has a black neck and no white collar. Both sexes have rufous coloured tail feathers with a black bar at the trailing end. Both sexes have striking black, white and rufous coloured plumage.

We decided to spend a longer time in the hide on this trip. Normally we book the hide for two or three days. This time we booked for six days to see how things changed over a longer period. The longer period takes a lot of pressure out of the expectation of having to see certain raptors and other birds in a limited time period. It also removes concern about the weather and quality of light.

“Expectation has brought me disappointment. Disappointment has brought me wisdom. Acceptance, gratitude and appreciation have brought me joy and fulfilment.” ~  Rasheed Ogunlaru

Activity around the hide is affected by the weather. The large birds seem less affected but the smaller seed eaters, thrushes and chats are less active in cold windy, rainy conditions.

Explore, seek to understand, marvel at its interconnectedness and let it be.

Have fun, Mike