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

Helen and I spent five days in Giant’s Castle Nature Reserve in the central part of Maloti-Drakensberg mountains. This reserve gets its name from the towering peaks of the Drakensberg Mountains, whose shadows resemble a sleeping giant. The uKhahlamba Drakensberg Park is a World Heritage Site and Giant’s Castle is in the middle of it. We visited Giant’s Castle in July which was mid-winter in southern Africa. Winter is a fascinating time of the year to visit these mountains. The weather is constantly changing and with it the colour of the light and mood of the scene.

We spent three days in the hide and two days wandering around the Giant’s Castle reserve. Giant’s Castle Nature Reserve is known for its magnificent San rock art, many hiking trails and incredible vistas.

A telescopic view early in the morning in winter before the sunlight hit the buttresses in the upper berg.

The vulture hide is about seven kilometres north east of the chalet-style camp. Access to the hide is via a steep track from the Bushman’s river valley floor to the plateau where the hide is located. A 4×4 vehicle is required to negotiate the steep climb and dirt track on the plateau. The hide itself is on the cliff edge of the plateau on the eastern side of the Bushman’s river valley.

“The most beautiful gift of nature is that it gives one pleasure to look around and try to comprehend what we see.” ~ Albert Einstein

On top of the plateau there had been a veld fire which blackened a large swath of the grassland.

It was in the large burnt patch of grassland that we found this juvenile Southern Bald ibis. It was very busy foraging and took little notice of us on the dirt track.

A few hundred metres before we reached the hide we stopped to watch baboons and a Jackal buzzard perched on a sign post. The view looking east over these rocks at the sunrise.

This particular morning we had been at the hide for about half an hour and were just settling in when the sunlight spread out over the rolling slopes of the plateau on the western side of the Bushman’s river valley. It was very cloudy to the west and the plateau was draped in various shades of mid-winter brown.

From the hide we spent hours watching the White-necked ravens frolicking in the updrafts rising from the Bushman’s valley floor. The ravens were wonderful fliers and very playful. They seemed to revel in the wind currents.

This was the vista, just after sunrise, looking north-east from the parking area just above the Bearded vulture hide.

A view from inside the vulture hide looking south west along the hide’s feeding shelf. The hide and feeding shelf are positioned on the plateau’s edge on the eastern side of the Bushman’s river valley. There were many Red-winged starlings waiting for the bones to be put out for the day. Early in the morning, the colours were soft yellows, browns, blues and mauves, quite saturated before the sun rose and washed out that unique saturation in the early part of the golden hour.

Once it had warmed up somewhat and the updrafts and thermals began to develop then we started to see the raptors.

A view looking north from directly above the vulture’s hide across the Bushman’s river valley onto the rolling plateau toward the basalt buttresses in the distance.

“This curious world we inhabit is more wonderful than convenient; more beautiful than it is useful; it is more to be admired and enjoyed than used.” ~ Henry David Thoreau

Another view looking north from above the vulture hide across the Bushman’s river valley. A corner of the vulture hide is just visible above the yellow grass and between the two green bushes.

A view looking north west toward the snow capped basalt buttresses. It was a relatively clear sky and the sunlight had just spread across the plateau. In the middle ground is the Bushman’s river valley and above it the plateau was lit up by the morning sun. In the immediate foreground is part of the hide’s feeding shelf.

Another morning just after sunrise. The sun had risen high enough to cast beautiful soft light across the rolling plateau up to the steep sandstone cliffs which are capped by near vertical basalt buttresses. The golden sunlight painted soft mauves, browns, beiges across the scene. The sun was still too low to light up the green vegetation in the deep ravine leading down to the Bushman’s river valley.

A juvenile Bearded vulture soaring in the Bushman’s river valley with the boulder strewn Bushman’s river below in the background. The partly white face was an indication that this juvenile Bearded vulture was around four years old.

“Mother Nature is always speaking. She speaks in a language understood within the peaceful mind of the sincere observer. Leopards, cobras, monkeys, rivers and trees; they all served as my teachers when I lived as a wanderer in the Himalayan foothills.” ~ Radhanath Swami

” There is something hypnotic about watching a raptor soaring in the sky. Wings spread and fingers feeling the wind. Moving to a symphony we cannot see or hear.” ~ Mike Haworth

“Beauty and seduction, I believe, is nature’s tool for survival, because we will protect what we fall in love with.” ~ Louie Schwartzberg

Another view looking north west across the Bushman’s river valley. The early morning sun had only lit up the sandstone slopes and basalt buttresses. It is interesting to see the different colours as the sun rises and illumes the plateau.

“Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather.” ~ John Ruskin

I used a long focal length to take this image of the snow covered basalt buttress of the Drakensberg mountains. Again this image was taken early in the morning when the sunlight had only hit the top of the basalt buttresses.

The snow capped basalt buttresses made a wonderfully dramatic background for this high soaring Bearded vulture.

This adult Bearded vulture was soaring high above the Bushman’s river valley. The snow capped basalt buttresses provided some context as to the time of day and season.

Majestic and free.

An juvenile Bearded vulture landed on a large rock outcrop below the hide. It looked to be warming itself in the mid-morning winter sun. The black colouration of the face suggested it was around two years old.

A view from the hikers path just out of the Giant’s Castle camp looking west into the Bushman’s river valley.

“Nature’s beauty is a gift that cultivates appreciation and gratitude.” ~ Louie Schwartzberg

A male Buff-streaked chat looking into the valley while perched on a stem of a dry fern.

A female Buff-streaked chat similarly perched on a dry fern stem.

A Greater Double collared sunbird looked like a jewel in the green and gold flora.

A view from our chalet looking west as the sun was rising and progressively lighting up the valley. The babbling Bushman’s river was in this foreground.

“And forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair.” ~ Khalil Gibran

Early in the morning, a view from our chalet in Giant’s Castle camp, looking west to see the sandstone cliff and basalt buttress lit up by the golden hour sunlight.

“Aren’t we grateful for our brains, that can take this electrical impulse that comes from light energy and use it to explore our world? Aren’t we grateful that we have hearts that can feel these vibrations, in order for us to allow ourselves to feel the pleasure and beauty of nature?” ~ Louis Schwartzberg

We could not help but be entranced by the vast spectacular beauty of the place. Closer inspection revealed many avian wonders. For anyone interested in photography and birds, the Bearded vulture hide will delight. Your patience at the hide will be amply rewarded.

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

Have fun, Mike

Giant’s Castle vulture hide in the central section of the Maloti-Drakensberg mountains is a place where you can get lost in all the grandeur and the wildlife activity. Sitting in a hide for nine hours might sound boring until you try it. The hours melt away as your attention is caught by all the avian visitors and their fascinating interactions. The weather is always changing and with it the light, the clouds and the mood of the place.

“And in life, it is all about choices we make. And how the direction of our lives comes down to the choices we choose.” – Catherine Pulsifer

Just below the small bushes in the foreground is the Bearded vulture hide. The view looking over the hide across the Bushman’s river valley towards the basalt buttresses in the distant mountains which form part of the escarpment.

A view from the hide looking south west along part of the feeding shelf. The view is spectacular with the eye led to the near vertical basalt buttresses capping the steep sandstones slopes. The height of these mountains creates constantly changing cloud formations which add drama to the vista.

A male Rock kestrel came to visit on two occasions. This is a small kestrel with rufous upper and underparts. The rufous colouring is patterned with black spots. The adult male has a grey head which is streaked. The female is similarly coloured but does not have a grey head and her body plumage is lighter in colour. This adult male Rock kestrel was perched in a Natal Bottlebrush also called a Glossy bottlebrush. This beautiful kestrel can often be seen hovering above the Bushman’s river valley. Its diet varies from rodents (mice, voles and shrews) to reptiles (grasshopper, beetles and crickets) and small birds.

The male Rock kestrel can be confused with the Lesser kestrel. The latter also has a grey head and rufous upper parts but the upper parts do not have the black spotted pattern and the underparts are much lighter. The Lesser kestrel also has a grey bar on the trailing tip of the primary and secondary wing feathers. The adult Rock kestrel has light grey rectrices (large tail feathers) with a black tip on the trailing edge. The Rock kestrel is resident in South Africa whereas the Lesser kestrel is migrant from Europe and North Africa. Rock kestrels are usually only seen in pairs or singly.

A female Cape Rock thrush. The Cape Rock thrushes love the fat on the bones put out for the Bearded vultures. They can not compete with the mobbing boisterous Red-winged starlings. The male and female Cape Rock thrush are dimorphic with the female having a brown head and the male having a blue grey head.

A male Cape Rock thrush. These Rock thrushes prefer rocky areas and are endemic to southern and eastern parts of southern Africa. The Cape Rock thrush favours areas of relatively high rainfall and lower altitudes while the Sentinel Rock thrush is the high altitude specialist of rocky slopes and alpine conditions. The male Cape Rock thrush has a blue-grey head colour whereas the Sentinel Rock thrush has a blue-grey head and the that colour extends down its back and around onto its chest.

A proud looking Drakensberg prinia. This prinia is also called the Saffron prinia. Its preferred habitat is the Drakensberg forest edges, wooded gullies and bracken covered hill and mountain slopes. The Drakensberg prinia can be confused with the Karoo prinia but the latter has whiter underparts with heavier streaking. This prinia forages on the rocks and scrub around the hide for insects.

The Drakensberg prinia’s colouring is warm brown above and yellowish below with fine streaks mostly restricted to the chest and lacking on the throat and belly. It has a long tail which it tends to cock upwards. It has a whitish eyebrow and its eyes are a pale orange.

“The beauty of the natural world lies in the details.” ~ Natalie Angier

A solitary juvenile Southern Bald ibis. The adult is much more colourfully plumed with a bright red bald head and a decurved red beak. This ibis is endemic to southern Africa and its preferred habitat is the high altitude grasslands. According to Birdlife, the global population size is estimated at around 6 592 ± 837 individuals (adults and juveniles), of which 3 296 ± 419 are breeding individuals, across approximately 245 colonies.

We had a wonderful day in the hide and were on our way back to camp driving through a large burnt patch of grass on the upper plateau when we saw this lone juvenile Southern Bald ibis foraging through the burnt grass veld. It was too busy to take much notice of us.

Red-winged starlings are always at the hide. They are the first ones to greet you when you arrive early in the morning. This is one of nine species of starling in South Africa. Its closest cousin is the Pale-winged starling which I have only seen at Tiger Canyon in the Karoo. The Red-winged starling is glossy blue all over with striking red-orange primary wing feathers. The male and female are dimorphic with the female being of similar size to the male but has a grey head.

The Red-winged starlings are attracted by the fat on and marrow in the bones that we put out for the vultures. The bones are too big and heavy for the starlings to carry away and they are constantly pushed off the bones by the White-necked ravens. These starlings frequently squabble amongst each other over the bones. The squabbling is not only male on male but also male on female.

The male on male Red-winged starling disputes can get quite boisterous but never damaging. Red-winged starlings prefer rocky mountainous regions with cliffs and ledges where they breed. These starlings are omnivorous. They prefer fruit but will feed on the nectar of flowering plants and insects when they can find them. The fat and marrow on the bones in front of the hide make easy pickings and attract more than 10 pairs at any one time.

When flying, the red primary wing feathers of both the male and female Red-winged starlings are vividly revealed. The Pale-winged starling looks similar but their primary wing feathers are a very pale beige colour. The Pale-winged starling has an orange eye whereas the Red-winged starling has a dark brown eye colour.

A view of the entrance to the Bearded vulture hide from the parking area above. Looking past the hide, the cliff falls away into the Bushman’s river valley. Beyond the Bushman’s river valley is a rolling tussock plateau which leads to the foot of the basalt capped sandstone mountains with steep high, severely eroded faces which can reach 3300 metres height.

“Those who contemplate the beauty of the Earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life exists.” ~ Rachel Carson

White-necked ravens abound around the vulture hide. At times there must be over 20 ravens on the feeding shelf or flying around it. They, like the Red-winged starlings, are around to feed on the fat and marrow on the bones. The White-necked raven is the only raven species found in south Africa. It has a much deeper beak than a crow. The beak and neck muscles are strong enough to tear flesh and sinew off the bones. The White-necked raven has a deeper beak than even the Common raven which is found in the northern hemisphere.

White-necked ravens were highly social birds but there is a hierarchy. Every now and then, two evenly matched individuals would tangle. These ravens mate for life and known to be highly intelligent birds. The plumage is black in colour with a glossy sheen. The White-necked raven has pure white feathers on its nape.

At times the White-necked ravens got quite aggressive with each other but no one was seriously injured in these scuffles. The squabble was probably just re-establishing the pecking order. These ravens form flocks after leaving the parents. These flocks can be seen from the hide and the flock seems to behave like a gang. Once fully matured these ravens pair off for life.

White-necked ravens are wonderful fliers which seem to revel in the updrafts and wind across the feeding shelf. There is also a lot of sparring but no one seems to get hurt in these tangles.

We watch the Bearded vultures and the Jackal buzzards carry bones away from the feeding shelf in front of the hide. To our amazement, White-necked ravens could carry large bones away on the wing. They often dropped the bones when challenged by other ravens. These ravens have anisodactylic feet with the first toe or hallux facing backward and three toes facing forwards. The feet are strong and these ravens use a combination of feet and beak to lift large bones off the feeding shelf and fly to a more peaceful place to feed. The strength of the beak and neck muscles is evident.

Later in the afternoons when most the bones had been cleaned by the ravens and starlings, the wind would pick up and the ravens took to the sky and appeared to be having such fun frolicking in the wind. They are wonderful fliers and aerobatically jostled on many occasions with each other in the air.

We were visited almost every day by a Cape longclaw also known as an Orange-throated longclaw. Its orange-red throat has a black surround which is diagnostic. The crown is a greyish brown and there is an orange supercilium above the eye. Its upperparts are a light mottled brown which are cryptic and its belly is an orangish yellow. This bird has the GISS ( general impression of size and shape) of a large pipit.

The Cape longclaw prefers high altitude habitats with open grasslands. These longclaws are usually seen singly foraging for insects and seeds. They do not compete on the bones.

A Speckled pigeon flying toward the feeding shelf. These pigeons are fast fliers and normally arrived in pairs or small flocks. It has a red patch of skin around the eye. Its head is grey as is the chest and belly. Its back and wings are a rufous colour and the wings are speckled with spots. The neck feathers are larger and more prominent and are a rufous brown colour.

A male Speckled pigeon trying to get the attention of a female. The male puffs out his neck feathers in a courting display all the while bobbing his head up and down. These pigeons flew onto the feeding shelf to eat grass seed. They were not there for any part of the bones we put out.

We were also visited each morning by Yellow bishops in their non-breeding plumage, as it was winter. These small bishops foraged on grass seeds immediately in front of the hide.

A non-avian visitor, a male Black-backed jackal. We think a family of Black-backed jackals live in the rock crevices a couple of hundred metres to the south along the cliff. These jackals visited the feeding shelf in front of the hide each day we were there, and on some days more than once a day.

There was always tension in the hide when we watched the jackals and ravens take away many bones from the feeding shelf. The raptors only arrived later in the morning once the thermals and updrafts intensified making soaring easier. The starlings and ravens also made quick work of removing the marrow in the bones.

I hope the previous images gave you a sense that there is much more to the experience in the Bearded vulture hide than the raptors. Winter is an ideal time to visit the hide as the grass on the feeding shelf is low. This helps photograph the small seed eaters without grass stems obscuring the view. The same is true when we place bones on the far end of the feeding shelf, When the grass is long it makes photographing the raptors more tricky.

“We are the creative force of our life, and through our own decisions rather than our conditions, if we carefully learn to do certain things, we can accomplish those goals.” – Stephen Covey

You are guaranteed to see many White-necked ravens and Red-winged starlings but the sightings of the other birds was the luck of the draw. The weather is also highly variable which enables photographers to mix the bird and landscapes. Patience is needed as there are quiet periods but then no raptor gives you warning that it is on finals for landing so you have to stay alert the whole time.

“This is as true in everyday life as it is in battle: we are given one life and the decision is ours whether to wait for circumstances to make up our mind, or whether to act, and in acting, to live.” – Omar Bradley

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

Have fun, Mike

One of the two vulture hides in the Drakensberg is located in the Giant’s Castle Nature Reserve in the middle berg section of the Maloti-Drakensberg mountains. The hide was opened in 1967 and built to create a greater interest in vultures in response to their declining numbers. The hide is pre-booked for the day at the Giant’s Castle camp and only accessible by 4×4 vehicle.

“The best adventures are the ones that make your heart race and your soul sing.” ~ Jon Miksis

We usually get up to the hide by 6h30, at the latest, in winter as the sun only falls across the shelf in front of the hide by around 7h30. You are given a bucket of precut bones by the Giant’s Castle camp staff for the day you have booked the hide. Getting into the hide early gives us time to get organised and get our cameras ready for a day that awaits us.

“Jobs fill your pockets, but adventures fill your soul.” ~ Jaime Lyn

The raptors we have seen from the hide include Bearded vultures, Cape Griffon vultures, Jackal buzzards, Lanner falcons, Rock kestrels and Yellow-billed kites. I have never seen the Verreaux Eagles in all the times I have been to the hide, but I live in hope. The bones attract a variety of non-raptors which feed on the fat and marrow on the bones. The White-necked ravens and Red-winged starlings are particularly partial to the fat on the bones. There is also a Black-backed jackal family that lives in the crevices a few hundred metres from the feeding shelf in front of the hide. The jackals are also fond of the pickings.

With all the competition for the bones from non-raptors, we put out the bones strategically, both in terms of time and position. The vultures tend to only land at the south-western end of the shelf which is about 50 metres away from the hide. The shelf has a cliff edge that falls away into the Bushman’s river valley.

One day we were fortunate enough to be visited by both the Bearded and Cape vultures. My previous post described our Bearded vulture sightings and this post is focussed on the Cape vultures which are also called Cape Griffon vultures. Both the Bearded and Cape vultures are categorised as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). According to Project Vulture, the southern African population of Cape vultures is listed at 2 900 breeding pairs, of which approximately 1 450 reside in the Maloti-Drakensberg mountains- about 20% of the population. (Source: https://birding.krugerpark.co.za/birding-in-kruger-raptor-vultures.html)

With all the aerial activity along the Bushman’s river valley, the juvenile Cape vulture in the next image landed on the rock ledge at the far end of the feeding shelf but was keeping an eye out for other raptors in the sky above.

The Cape vulture is the second largest vulture in southern Africa after the Lappet-faced vulture. The adult has a wingspan of up to 260 centimetres. It stands around 106 centimetres tall and can weigh between seven and 11 kilograms. There is a slight size difference between the male and female with female being larger but in all other aspects the male and female look the alike. The brownish colour plumage, red skin on the neck and dark eyes are characteristic of a fledged juvenile Cape vulture.

The Cape vulture is an old world vulture, meaning it comes from the Africa, Asia and Europe region while the new world birds are found in the Americas. This vulture is endemic to southern Africa and breeds in South Africa, Lesotho, Botswana and Mozambique. The majority of (excluding the Palm-nut and Bearded) Old World Vultures have featherless faces with bald or almost bald heads and necks. Old World vultures find carcasses exclusively by sight and do not have a well developed sense of smell. They do have vocal chords so vocalise by mainly hissing and cackling at each other around a carcass.

The Cape vulture is often confused with the White-backed vulture but the Cape vulture is much larger and much lighter in colour being mostly whitish grey above flecked with brown. There are individuals that look mainly brown but this is probably due to dust bathing though generally the brown plumage is a indication of a fledged juvenile. The outer black primary feathers of the wing, the 12 tail feathers (in other species of this genus there are 14) and the inner dark brown secondary feathers contrast sharply with the lighter colour of the rest of the body, both above and below.

The blue grey head and neck are sparsely covered with white down but at the base of the neck there are a few rows of longer feathers forming a grey-buff collar. The eyes are pale yellowish-amber, and the bill is black. Juveniles and immatures are generally darker and more streaked, with dark brown eyes and neck skin has a reddish colour.

The Cape vulture has passive soaring wings. This type of wing has a long wingspan and is relatively broad. Wing dimensions are of biological interest for several reasons. They can be used to predict and understand the habitat selection and hunting methods of the bird.

The passive soaring wing type has a low aspect ratio meaning its wingspan relative to the width of the wing is comparatively low which is ideal for soaring. The large wingspan enables the Cape vulture to glide for long distances catching thermals and riding updrafts as it flies. Long wings are better for gliding, but harder to flap quickly so are not good for quick acceleration. In the case of the Cape vulture in the Drakensberg, the large wingspan dictates its preference for roosting and nesting on cliff ledges. The vulture can just dive off the cliff to get airborne as minimal flapping is required. Like the Bearded, the Cape vulture makes use of the cliff and mountain updrafts to fly along the cliffs and the length and breath of the Bushman’s river valley which varies around two kilometres wide. Flapping is energy intensive so being able to soar gives these vultures an extended foraging range which can be up to 150 kilometres.

The first five or six long primary wing feathers spread out, creating “slots” which reduce wingtip turbulence and so reduce drag. The primary wing feathers provide control and thrust while the secondaries provide most of the lift on the wing.

Wing loading is another important way of assessing how (and how well) a bird flies. Wing loading is the ratio of wing area to weight. The relatively low wing loading of the Cape vulture dictates its soaring duration and its manoeuvrability at slow speeds. The slowing flight speeds gives the vulture more time to scan the ground for carcasses. The vultures also watch each other carefully while flying to get an indication of whether there is food on the ground. A quickly descending vulture invariably creates a chain reaction and others seem to come from nowhere as they are usually much higher up so are not easily seen.

“Every thread you discover in the local web of life leads beyond your place to life elsewhere.” ~ Scott Sanders

It is interesting to see this Cape vulture landing with full flare of its wings and tail feathers which act as an airbrake. The slotted primary wing feathers are spread to enhance control at lower air speeds and even the alula wing feather is extended. The alula is the freely moving first digit, a bird’s “thumb”, which typically has three to five small flight feathers. In normal flight, the alula is held flush against the wing. When flying at slow speeds or landing, the bird moves its alula slightly upwards and forward, which creates a small slot on the wing’s leading edge which adds lift at slower airspeeds.

Immediately after landing this adult Cape vulture walked over to the edge of the rock shelf and peered over into the valley below possibly to see if it was going to have any immediate competition in the feeding area by another raptor.

Having satisfied itself that the “coast was clear” it ran back to feed on the flesh on the bones we had laid out. If there had been many vultures on a carcass, this vulture would probably have run toward the carcass with its wings out in a threatening display.

The Cape vulture fed among several White-necked ravens which did not seem to be bothered by the much larger vulture. The Cape vulture tore off the flesh and fat on the bones but it would normally go for the muscle and internal organs of a large carcass. It has a strong and sharp enough beak to tear open the tougher parts of the carcass. Farmers donate carcasses to the vulture project but only the ones that have not been treated with veterinary products which are harmful to the vultures.

“The web of life both cradles us and calls us to weave it further.” ~ Joanna Macy

One noticeable feature of the Cape vulture is the blue-grey bare skin breast patches either side of the crop. Some think these bare skin patches have a thermo-regulation function. Perhaps they may also have a brood patch function as can be seen on Saddle-billed storks. Vultures also thermo-regulate by hunching their bodies and tucking in their heads in the cold, and opening their wings and stretching their necks in the heat .

The dynamics on the feeding shelf changed when the male Black-backed jackal arrived to claim his share of the bones. These two species seem to be old antagonists and probably quite evenly matched one on one. The male jackal appeared to have a disjointed jaw, possibly an old injury which made him a little more wary about tangling with this large vulture.

I have never seen a Cape vulture fly off the feeding shelf with a bone, unlike the Bearded vultures and Jackal Buzzards and even the ravens. The Cape vulture’s feet although large are not built for catching live prey or carrying off large bones. Its feet are strong enough to hold a part of the carcass or bone to enable it to rip apart muscle tissue and tendons. The Cape vulture has anisodactylic feet which has the first digit, the big toe or hallux, as a backward facing toe and three forward facing toes with the middle one being the longest. Vultures have weak feet compared with eagles, and a relatively small hind toe, which is capable of gripping but not killing.

The Black-backed jackals have to be careful as the Cape vulture has a powerful hooked beak and can be aggressive when defending its food. The bird reference book, Roberts VII has noted the curious ‘foot show’ sometimes performed by the Cape Vulture. It half opens its wings, walks about on stiff legs and then raises one spread foot while hissing loudly all the time. This display is thought to be driven by the conflicting impulses of fear and aggression.( Source:https://birding.krugerpark.co.za/birding-in-kruger-raptor-vultures.html)

This Cape vulture decided to leave the feeding area after having been pushed by the Black-backed jackal. The large wings are not ideal for flapping so this vulture just dived off the cliff edge to get airborne.

This is the highest flying vulture, preferring to fly at a heights of around 8 000 metres. To be able to hunt at this height means that their eyesight has to be outstanding. These vultures are estimated to be able to see with 20 times better resolution than human beings, and eight times further. Vultures tend to watch each other and other raptors when flying to see if they have discovered a carcass on the ground.

According to the Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT), the Cape Vulture was listed as Endangered on the IUCN’s Red List of Threatened Species, but in 2021 it was ‘down listed’ to Vulnerable. This is a remarkable conservation success story and testament to the tireless efforts of multiple generations of conservationists in southern Africa. This achievement resulted from a concerted effort by various organisations, including the EWT, BirdLife South Africa, and wildlife rehabilitation centres such as Moholoholo, VulPro, and others.

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it is the only thing that ever has” ~ Margaret Mead

The number of Cape vultures had been steadily declining since at least the 1980s when it was first classified as endangered. Between 1992 and 2007, in South Africa alone this species has declined by 60-70%. By 2021, the total population of mature individuals is estimated to be approximately 9,600-12,800 individuals and was assessed as Vulnerable. (Source: https://projectvulture.org.za/the-vultures/cape-vulture/).

Cape vultures are thought to be subject to many threats. Reduced abundance of large carrion, especially during nesting, targeted or inadvertent poisoning, loss of foraging habitat, and unsustainable harvesting for traditional uses are thought to be the most important factors.

“There are no shortcuts to any place worth going.” ~ Beverly Sills

According to Vulture Conservation Foundation, vultures play a crucial role in the environments in which they live. These scavengers do the dirty work of cleaning up after death, helping to keep ecosystems healthy and prevent the spread of disease. Vultures have extremely corrosive stomach acid that allows them to consume rotting animal corpses. These scavenged leftovers are often infected with anthrax, botulinum toxins and rabies that would otherwise kill other animals. When vultures consume carcasses, they keep diseases in check.

“Shallow ecology is anthropocentric, or human-centred. It views humans as above or outside nature, as the source of all value, and ascribes only instrumental, or ‘use’ value to nature. Deep ecology does not separate humans – or anything else – from the natural environment. It does see the world not as a collection of isolated objects but as a network of phenomena that are fundamentally interconnected and interdependent. Deep ecology recognises the intrinsic value of all human beings and views humans as just one particular strand in the web of life.” ~ Fritjof Capra

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

Have fun, Mike

The Giant’s Castle hide was built in 1967 to enable birders and photographers to better appreciate vultures, especially the Bearded vulture. The remaining southern African population of Bearded vultures live in the Maluti-Drakensberg mountains in South Africa. While you are likely to see a variety of birds from the hide, the grand prize is the Bearded vulture because of its rarity and unusualness.

“Our relationship with nature is more one of being than having. We are nature: we do not have nature.” ~ Steven Harper

According to the African Raptor Centre, there are estimated to be 100 breeding pairs and 320 birds remaining in the wild in the southern hemisphere. This makes it one of the most threatened vultures in southern Africa. The decline in numbers has been caused by less food availability due to the expansion of human settlements, electrocution by overhead power lines, collisions with wind turbines, and farmers poisoning bait to kill Jackals. Bearded vulture body parts are also used in ceremonial and traditional medicine purposes.

The vulture hide in the Giant’s Castle Nature Reserve is located on a shelf on the eastern side of the Bushman’s river valley. The shelf, where most of the feeding occurs, expands from just wider than the hide itself at the north east end of the shelf, about 25 metres wide in the middle of the shelf and 50 metres at the south eastern end of the shelf. One of the photographic highlights of your time in the hide will be when a Bearded vulture lands on the south eastern end of the shelf.

If you are lucky you may see the Bearded vulture flying in to land on the south eastern shelf. Alternatively, it may suddenly appear over the edge of the shelf. So often it looks like it is going to land only to turn away at the last moment. Every time this happens there is great excitement in the hide.

The uncertainty of how or when a raptor will come in to land on the rock shelf dictates that you have to be alert and ready to shoot photographically all the time. Fortunately, my avid birding wife, Helen, is an excellent spotter which significantly improves my photographic hit rate.

Interestingly, despite its large size the Bearded vulture seems to be relatively timid in front of the hide, perhaps it is just wary. On this particular occasion, the adult Bearded vulture landed at the far end of the shelf. It did not walk over to the many bones scattered on the shelf but kept looking over the edge of the shelf and after a minute or so it took off again.

The adult Bearded vulture is mostly dark gray, rusty, and whitish in colour. It has grey-blue to grey-black upperparts. Its creamy-coloured forehead contrasts against a black band across the eyes and lores, and bristles under the chin, which form a black beard that gives the bird its English name.

The Bearded vulture is one of the largest vultures in Africa with a wingspan of up to 2.9 metres. It can stand up to 125 centimetres in height and weigh up to just under eight kilograms. It is the only raptor with a beard. This beard gives the vulture its scientific name ‘Gypaetus barbatus’ which literally means ‘bearded vulture-eagle’. Bearded Vultures are big shaggy looking raptors which look more like eagles than vultures. The Ruppell’s Griffon and Lappet-faced vultures are heavier than the Bearded but have a similar wingspan.

It is also the only bird known to decorate itself. The plumage on the chest, neck, shoulders and legs of the adult Bearded vulture are a creamy-white. This vulture stains it’s creamy-white legs, chest and neck feathers a rusty red by bathing in soils or water rich in red iron oxide deposits. The reason for these vultures staining their white chest, legs and neck feathers is not fully known. One theory postulated is that the colour displays their prowess. Another theory is the iron oxide provides an antibacterial effect. This species of vulture cannot produce carotenoids, which are antioxidant compounds that protect cells from free radicals in the body. Many bird species acquire carotenoids through their diets but the Bearded vultures’ bone and marrow diet does not provide these antioxidants. Another intriguing idea is that the intensity of plumage colour of Bearded vultures with access to red soils was correlated with age. The older the adult the more brightly coloured.

“The more clearly we can focus our attention on the wonders and realities of the universe about us, the less taste we shall have for destruction.” ~ Rachel Carson

Another unusual feature of the Bearded vulture is its ability to concentrate blood in the scleral ring around the eye. This is different to the carotenoids which pigment the lores and base of the beak of the Bateleur and African Harrier-hawk. The latter two raptors can also concentrate blood in their lores to produce an intense red colour. Again it is speculated that Bearded vultures evolved the large scleral ring and the pale yellow iris to convey information about the status of the individual. This signal is reinforced by staining their plumage with iron oxide, which ore closely matches the iris colour in the species.

The scleral ring in birds consists of ossicles that are fixed as small plates by cartilage joints and have no articulation to other parts of the skeleton. The scleral ring is red because it is full of blood. It is thought that when a Bearded vulture is stressed or feels threatened, it forces more blood into the scleral ring causing it to expand and turn more of the eye a red colour.

The shape of a Bearded vulture’s wing is also noteworthy. Its wing is classified as a passive soaring wing. This wing type has a low aspect ratio, meaning the ratio of the wing span to the average width is low even though it has such large wings. Low-aspect-ratio wings generally provide greater manoeuvrability but at the cost of greater drag (air resistance).

Air from high-pressure areas beneath the wings flows over the wingtips into the low-pressure areas above the wings causing wingtip turbulence, which increases drag. Eagles and vultures reduce this drag problem by flying with their primary feathers extended, creating slots between them. Each primary feather serves as an individual high-aspect-ratio wing, reducing wingtip turbulence and lowering the stalling speed of the wing so that the bird can remain aloft at a slower speed.

The vulture’s wing loading is also low because the ratio of the bird’s weight to wing area is low. This factor allows the vulture to glide with extended wings for long periods. The large wings are harder to flap so the Bearded vulture lands on the edge of a cliff or rock shelf where it can dive off when it wants to get flying again.

The mechanics of flapping flight become harder the larger the bird because the mass increases faster than length. A bird twice as long as another is on average four times as heavy.

Bearded vultures are master wind riders. They make use of updraughts produced when the wind blows over the mountain ridges to get and stay airborne. They also gain height by tacking or flying in alternate directions at right angles to the direction of flow of the wind. There are many wonderful sightings of Bearded vultures flying past the hide, in some cases 30 metres away at eye level.

These vultures also catch thermals to gain height and are at times at least 400 to 500 metres above the hide. They can also be seen flying low through the Bushman’s river valley possibly only 30 metres above the valley floor looking for food.

“Wonderful how completely everything in wild nature fits into us, as if truly part and parent of us. The sun shines not on us, but in us. The rivers flow not past, but through us, thrilling, tingling, vibrating every fiber and cell of the substance of our bodies, making them glide and sing.” ~ John Muir

Bearded vultures do land on large rocks near the Bushman river valley floor. They can sit on the rock for as long as half an hour just looking around. The rock needs to be high enough for the Bearded vulture to dive off.

We spent a few days in the hide during winter and at times it was very cold. On one day it snowed on the upper sections of the higher mountains. This got me to thinking about how these vultures keep warm enough to fly in the really cold air for extended periods.

These vultures are well-adapted to their cold mountainous hunting grounds. Their broad, stiff overlapping contour feathers prevent the icy wind from penetrating the soft, insulating down underneath. Bearded vultures spend 80% of daylight hours soaring gracefully on the wing with their bare feet tucked in their shaggy feathers to keep them warm.

When feeding, Bearded vultures can swallow whole or bite through brittle bones as large 25cm long and 3.5 cm wide. Their powerful digestive system quickly dissolves even large pieces of bone. Their stomach contains a strong acid (with an estimated ph of 1) which is capable of dissolving the digested bones in just 24 hours.

These vultures also seek the bone marrow. To access the marrow from bones too large to swallow the Bearded vulture has to crack the bones open. To do this they carry the large intact bone to a height of between 50 metres and 150 metres above the ground and then drop it onto specific flat rocks below called ossuaries; this smashes the bone into smaller pieces exposing the nutritious marrow. After dropping the large bone, the Bearded vulture descends to inspect it and may repeat the process if the bone is not sufficiently broken. Once cracked the Bearded vulture extracts the exposed bone-marrow with its rough, scoop-like tongues. The ‘dropping skill’ is learned and requires extensive practice by immature birds which can take up to seven years to master. The energy content of this marrow diet is 15% higher than a meat diet, but requires a lot more work.

Each day you have booked the hide, you are given a bucket of bones to put out for the Bearded vultures. There have been many days when the Bearded vultures repeatedly glided past the shelf in front of the hide where the bones are placed and they never landed to swallow or pick up bones. All the while the White-necked ravens were tucking into the meat and fat on the bones with relish. The passing vultures were definitely looking and seeing the bones but seemed happy to continue gliding back and forth along the ridge supported by the updraft. The Bearded Vulture, like other Old World Vultures, depends on sight to find its food. This is in contrast to many New World vultures that have a highly developed sense of smell.

Vultures can be divided into two age categories. New World vultures, which are from North, Central, and South America; and Old World vultures are from Africa, Asia, and Europe. Old World vultures have also been around longer than the New World vultures.

Old World vultures look like their eagle and hawk relatives. They have large, grasping talons, a voice box so can vocalise, and build nests made of sticks on rocky platforms or in trees. They have stronger feet than the New World vultures, but they are not designed for grasping, and large broad wings that allow them to stay aloft for most of the day, and a large, powerful beak with a hooked tip. Bearded vultures are usually silent but when participating in a breeding display they communicate by means of a high-pitched whistle. I personally have never heard the vocalisation from a Bearded vulture.

The Bearded vulture tends to be solitary, but when breeding they may be seen in pairs. The female is larger than the male.

The Bearded vulture reaches sexual maturity between five and seven years of age. Interestingly, the age of the Bearded vulture in the period until it reaches sexual maturity can be reasonably accurately estimated from the colour of its plumage, especially the head and neck. The next image shows an adult Bearded vulture flying with its juvenile.

The age of the juvenile to adulthood can be estimated by looking at the transformation colouration. Roberts Birds of Southern Africa gives an illustrated aging chart of the Bearded vulture. The juvenile’s head, neck and belly changes colour as do the secondary wing feathers and the wing coverts.

The juvenile fledges about 110 to 130 days after hatching, and it depends on its parents for food for between seven and 12 months. In its second year, the juvenile’s head is entirely black and the first signs of a beard is growing. The breast is mottled black, brown with tinges of fawn colour. The scapular shaped tail feathers are black.

In the third year, the head shows the first signs of white on the neck and cheeks, and the eye brow is starting to whiten. The breast feathers are becoming progressively lighter with more fawn colouring in them.

In the fourth year, the lores are prominently black, the cheeks are whiter and the forehead is becoming white. In the fifth year, the face and neck are even whiter and the underwing coverts are becoming more mottled while the secondaries remain black.

In the fifth year, the head and neck are whitening further and the secondaries are becoming lighter and the underwing coverts are becoming blacker. The upper wing coverts are becoming more mottled black, white and fawn coloured.

By the sixth year the head and neck feather are progressively lighter and often have more iron oxide red colouring. The chest and belly feathers become progressively whiter coloured with red oxide and the secondaries are lighter.

Most people think that a bird’s knee bends backward, but in fact what we think looks like a knee is actually the bird’s ankle/heel joint. The knee is hidden under feathers close to the bird’s body. Since everything under the ankle is the foot, it is easy to see that a bird actually walks on its toes. The Bearded vulture has anisodactylic feet meaning that it has three toes pointing forward and first one, the hallux, pointing backwards.

On our last day in the hide, we were fortunate to have a juvenile Bearded vulture frequently fly past close to the hide at eye level.

The ravens drop many of the bones over the edge of the feeding shelf so the Bearded vultures fly just below the ridge looking for the dropped bones. Looking down on the juvenile Bearded vulture you can see the beautifully coloured upper wing coverts and its scapular shaped tail feathers.

After a few fly pasts, the juvenile landed on a large rock shelf below the hide.

This gave me an opportunity to get a close up of the juvenile showing the wonderful colouring of its head, neck, chest, belly and legs. These vultures always perched on a rock shelf with a steep drop off so that it could take off by just diving off the shelf.

The intriguing aspect of being in the hide is that you have time to ponder about all the adaptations and behaviours of the birds you are watching. Inevitably, more questions arise accompanied by more wonder. Over a few days in the hide you get to understand the behavioural patterns of the various birds which helps anticipate more interesting photographs. Invariably, we would get up to the hide at first light, which in winter was around 6h15. The sunshine only fell on the hide shelf around 7h30. This gave us time to get our cameras set up and have a cup of hot coffee and rusk to warm up. Once the sunshine had cast light on the hide shelf we put out some of the bones at strategic places with the hope of getting particular types of photographs. Within minutes of the bones being put out, the White-necked ravens and Red-winged starlings would appear and begin to feast on the flesh and fat on the bones. The race was then on as to whether the ravens, starlings and Black-backed jackals would finish off the bones before one of our sought after raptors arrived. Although we spent nine to 10 hours in the hide each day it was great fascinating and fun.

“The fact is that no species has ever had such wholesale control over everything on Earth, living or dead, as we now have. That lays upon us, whether we like it or not, an awesome responsibility. In our hands now lies not only our own future, but that of all other living creatures with whom we share the Earth.”~ David Attenborough

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

Have fun, Mike

Giant’s Castle is a chalet-styled camp in the Giant’s Castle National Reserve in the middle berg section of the Drakensberg mountains in South Africa. The camp is built on a ridge above and on the east side of the Bushman’s river valley. Apart from wonderful hikes and beautiful scenery, it has a treat for birders with the added attraction of a Bearded vulture hide. This hide was built and opened in 1967 in an effort to increase interest in the vulture population. The hide is located on a shelf on the east side of the Bushman’s river valley. The shelf is about 25 metres wide and there is a cliff edge on the west side of that shelf which falls off to the Bushman’s valley floor an estimated 700 metres below.

“Look closely at nature. Every species is a masterpiece, exquisitely adapted to the particular environment in which it has survived. Who are we to destroy or even diminish biodiversity?” ~ EO Wilson

The hide can only be visited by a pre-arranged booking at Giant’s Castle camp and is only accessible by a four wheel drive vehicle.

“We don’t own the planet Earth, we belong to it. And we must share it with our wildlife.” ~ Steve Irwin

The location of the hide enables visitors to watch and photograph birds (raptors, ravens, starlings and many more species) which fly along the ridge and also all the birds that land in front of the hide to feast on the meat and fat provided with the bones. Local farmers donate carcasses for the raptors and this is supplemented by two buckets of cut bones with the flesh and fat still on them which the hide visitors take up to the hide when they visit.

“You must take personal responsibility. You cannot change the circumstances, the seasons, the wind, but you can change yourself.” ~ Jim Rohm

It is important to stress that baiting is not allowed in competitive wildlife photography. In addition, the bones provided by Giant Castle management which are placed by visitors in the feeding area are accessible to all wildlife around the hide including raptors, ravens, starlings and Black-backed Jackals alike. There are clear warnings in the hide for visitors not to secure the bones with wire or string and pegs or nails to prevent them from being removed. Bearded vultures feed almost exclusively on bone and can swallow bones more than 20 centimetres long. The vultures can uproot the pegs and nails and if the bones are swallowed together with the wire, nail or peg, the latter can kill the endangered vulture. In addition, the bones provided by Giant’s Castle management are free of veterinary products which are harmful to the vultures.

“We are free to choose our actions, . . . but we are not free to choose the consequences of these actions.” ~ Stephen R. Covey

The hide attracts a wonderful diversity of birdlife and also helps the resident Black-backed jackal family. The raptors I saw from the hide were Bearded and Cape vultures, Jackal buzzards, Lanner falcons, Rock Kestrels, Yellow-billed kites and Secretary birds. I have not yet seen a Verreaux’s eagle, but I live in hope. There is a wide variety of starlings, longclaws, sunbirds, bishops, canarys, rock-thrushes, chats and the ubiquitous White-necked ravens and even Bald Ibis, which can also be seen at or near the hide.

“I think the most important quality in a birdwatcher is a willingness to stand quietly and see what comes. Our everyday lives obscure a truth about existence – that at the heart of everything there lies a stillness and a light.” ~ Lynn Thomson

In this post, I describe and show a few images of a specific raptor, the beautiful Jackal buzzard. This raptor, in my experience, is a daily visitor to the vulture hide. The Jackal buzzard is endemic to the southern Africa, and can be found in South Africa, Lesotho, Eswatini and the southern part of Namibia. This species lives among mountains, and on adjacent savanna and grassland. It is resident and non-migratory throughout its range. The Jackal buzzard is one of the two larger Buteo species native to Africa, alongside its close cousin, the Augur buzzard. The Jackal buzzard’s distribution overlaps that of the Augur buzzard’s only in the middle of Namibia.

Buzzards, as described in “The Raptor – Guide of Southern Africa by Ulrich Oberprieler” are essentially smaller versions of eagles but have unfeathered lower legs. There are six species of buzzard found in southern Africa of which the Jackal and Augur buzzard are the most similar.

The Jackal buzzard has strikingly coloured plumage. Its back, legs and part of its under-wing are all black (or slaty-grey to almost black). Below its chin, around the throat and chest are a rich rufous red-brown. There is considerable pattern variation on the chest which can be from pure rufous to white or combinations of those two colours.

When flying, its rufous tail and chest are clearly seen. It has a distinctive underwing pattern where the coverts are dark with the flight feathers being white with a black trailing edge and fine indistinct grey barring on the white flight feathers. The rufous tail feathers have a black trailing edge. The rest of the underparts are a slate grey to black mottled with white flecks.

Beyond its unmistakable colours, the Jackal buzzard has a short tail, broad wings, bulky body and large beak compared to most other buzzards with the exception of the Augur buzzard. Juveniles can be identified by their mainly brown colouring, with rufous on their underside and tail.

At the Bearded Vulture hide, fresh bones are provided for the days you have booked the hide. It is up to the visitor to place the bones where he or she thinks they will provide the best viewing of all the birds, raptors, ravens and passerines, as they fly in and out. When sitting in the hide you have to keep alert the whole time. You seldom get any warning that a Jackal buzzard is flying in. These buzzards normally fly in from the far end of the viewing shelf and they do without a sound.

In my experience, it is only on rare occasions that we see two Jackal buzzards in the feeding area at the same time. Normally feeding raptors in the wild would be frowned upon but this is one of several Bearded Vulture conservation projects and many other birds besides the Bearded vultures benefit from the bones. The Bearded vulture species is highly threatened in South Africa, due mainly to habitat loss, poisoning, power line collisions and traditional medicine. The conservation initiatives have led to the construction and management of Bearded Vulture hides to create safe feeding areas and raise public awareness of the threats these endangered vultures face. They also facilitate essential research into the species.

The Jackal buzzards face considerable competition for the bones from the ravens in the feeding area so they often pick up a large bones with plenty of flesh still on them and fly off with them to eat in peace.

The Jackal buzzard can usually be found in a mountainous, or at least hilly, environment. It is one of the few hunting birds that can live at an altitude up to 3 000 feet above sea level. These buzzards can also be seen in open woodlands, grassy savannas, and semi-desert areas. In the next image, this adult Jackal buzzard had landed on a large rock shelf around 80 metres from the hide which was an ideal staging area. It looked around to see if it was safe to come closer and then took off to fly closer to where some of the juicier bones were placed.

Away from this type of feeding area this raptor feeds mainly on small mammals (such as mice, moles and dassies or hyraxes). It is also known to prey on lizards, snakes, smaller birds and even road-kill and other carcasses, when the opportunity presents itself.

Eagles and hawks belong to the family Accipitridae. Buzzards are included in the hawk family. The basic differences between the two families can be seen in flight. The first difference is size. Eagles are much larger, heavier looking and have longer straighter wingspans. Hawks have a similar appearance, but the wings of hawks tend to be more rounded, and they have short, broad, rounded tails and a stocky build. Both eagles and hawks have passive soaring wings with long primary feathers that spread out in flight creating “slots” that allow the raptor to catch thermals and provide stability and aerodynamic efficiency when soaring.

The Jackal buzzard has a sharp, barking call “weeah ka-ka-ka or kyaahh-ka-ka-ka” which sounds remarkably similar to the call from a Black-backed Jackal, hence the name. The female Jackal buzzard’s voice is deeper than that of the male. On occasions, the Jackal buzzard will call while flying in the Bushman’s valley and that is a signal to keep your wits about you as there is a chance of seeing this visitor suddenly appear over the edge of the cliff. The sound of the Jackal buzzard’s call carries far in the Bushman river valley which has high cliff walls and must be about two kilometres wide.

The hide provides food for the all the birds so you do not get to see the Jackal buzzard in its usual hunting mode. These buzzards normally hunt small animals from a prominent lookout perch. Once it sees its prey it swoops down onto it to make its kill. The Jackal buzzard also hunts for prey on the wing while hanging or soaring in strong winds. As can be seen from its behaviour at the hide it is also prone to scavenge when it can.

If the Jackal buzzard takes off from the far rock shelf you have time to photograph it either flying away or flying closer towards the hide. You hold your breath for the few seconds the raptor is in flight. As a wildlife photographer it is thrilling to try to capture dramatic images of this raptor flying towards you.

A perfect aerodynamic shape with those slotted primary wing feathers providing active directional control and lateral stability. The aerofoil shape of the three quarters of the wing closest to the body is clearly evident. This Jackal buzzard did not blink as it was flying towards me. Imagine moving at speed with the wind in your eyes and not blinking. With few exceptions birds do not blink by closing their top and bottom eyelids completely. They have a third eyelid, a thin semi-transparent membrane that closes sideways across the eye called a nictitating membrane. The membrane momentarily obstructs the bird’s vision, but because it is transparent the raptor never loses sight of the prey even when the membrane is drawn across the eye.

A Jackal buzzard female is larger than the male. The prevailing theory seems to be that it is because the female spends much more time tending the nest and young than the male does. Her larger size allows her to better protect them from predators. Males, being smaller, usually catch smaller prey more often. Smaller prey items are easier to come by than larger creatures, so his compactness allows him to bring home more food. The male does share some nest duties, but for the most part he is out hunting food for his mate and their offspring.

Eagles, buzzards, goshawks and Bearded vultures have anisodactylic feet meaning they have three front talons, with the middle talon being the longest, and one rear talon, a hallux. This shaped foot is found on birds that usually perch.

“The more closely you look at a bird the more you see and the more questions emerge. There is a marvelous integration of beauty, functionality, and adaptation which creates mystery and wonder.” ~ Mike Haworth

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

Have fun, Mike

Ravens and starlings are the guardians of the castle.  

“When you do what you want, not what you wish” said the first raven. “When you no longer seek your reflection in others eyes” said the second raven. “When you see yourselves face to face” said the third raven. “Then”, the ravens intoned in unison, “you will have found what you truly seek.” ~ Adam Gidwitz

The setting is the vulture hide at Giant’s Castle located in the middle berg of the Ukhahlamba Drakensberg Park World Heritage Site, a spectacular mountain range in the middle of South Africa.

The starlings were sitting in the bushes around the hide as we arrived before sunrise. The ravens were circling, flying passed,  and landing and taking off from rocky ledges close by.

For most people there would be nothing unusual about this scene but I have some context.

“Memories are contrary things; if you quit chasing them and turn your back, they often return on their own.” ~ Stephen King

I went to a boarding school about 35 miles south east of Bulawayo in Zimbabwe, called Falcon College. I arrived at the school in early 1966. As a junior everything was new, bigger and more intimidating than usual. Every Saturday evening the school showed a movie on a reel-to-reel movie projector. Not too many weeks after we arrived at the college, the movie one the Saturday evening was ‘The Birds’.  A 1963 American horror-thriller film ‘The Birds’ and produced by Alfred Hitchcock, loosely based on the 1952 story of the same name by Daphne du Maurier.

The story began in 1963, when Melanie Daniels, a young socialite known for rather racy behavior and playing pranks, meets criminal defense attorney Mitch Brenner in a San Francisco bird shop. He wanted to buy a pair of lovebirds for his sister’s eleventh birthday, but the shop had none. Mitch, knowing she was a lawyer, plays a prank on Melanie by pretending to mistake her for a salesperson. She is infuriated but intrigued by his veiled advance. She finds his weekend address in Bodega Bay, purchases a pair of lovebirds, and makes the long drive to deliver them. While he goes into the barn she sneaks the birdcage inside the Brenner family home with a note. While leaving she is attacked near shore on the town side and injured by a seagull. Melanie gets to know Mitch and his family, mother Lydia, and  younger sister Cathy. She also befriends local school teacher Annie Hayworth.

When Melanie spends the night at Annie’s house they are startled by a loud thud; a gull had killed itself by flying into the front door. At Cathy’s birthday party the next day, the guests are set upon by seagulls. The following evening, sparrows invade the Brenner home through the chimney. The next morning, Lydia, a widow who still sees to the family farmstead, pays a visit to a neighbouring farmer to discuss the unusual behavior of her chickens. Finding his eyeless corpse, pecked lifeless by birds, she flees in terror. After being comforted by Melanie and Mitch she expresses concern for Cathy’s safety at school. Melanie drives there and waits for class to end, unaware that a large flock of crows were massing in the nearby playground. Unnerved when she sees its jungle gym engulfed by the birds, she warns Annie, and they unwisely evacuate the children. The commotion stirs the crows into attacking, injuring several of the children. An amateur ornithologist dismisses the reports as fanciful and argues with Melanie over them. Shortly thereafter birds begin to attack people outside the restaurant they are in, knocking a gas station attendant unconscious while he is filling a car with fuel, which spills out onto the street. A bystander attempts to light a cigar, igniting a pool of gas and is incinerated. The explosion attracts a mass of gulls, which begin to swarm menacingly as townsfolk attempt to tackle the fire. Melanie is forced to take refuge in a phone booth. Rescued by Mitch, she returns to the restaurant, where Melanie is accused of causing the attacks, which began with her arrival. The pair return to Annie’s house and find that she has been killed by the crows while ushering Cathy to safety.

“The pattern created an association which revived a memory! I closed my eyes and was transported. The image was vivid, the feelings returned, as did the smells. I could hear the wind in the trees- I was back there again. Oh the timelessness of these memories.” ~ Mike Haworth

Melanie and the Brenners seek refuge inside the family home. It is attacked by waves of birds of many different species, which several times nearly break in through barricaded doors and windows. During a night-time lull between attacks, Melanie hears the sound of fluttering wings. Not wanting to disturb the others’ sleep, she enters the kitchen and sees the lovebirds are still. Realizing the sounds are emanating from above, she cautiously climbs the staircase and enters Cathy’s bedroom, where she finds the birds have broken through the roof. They violently attack her, trapping her in the room until Mitch comes to her rescue. She is badly injured and nearly catatonic; Mitch insists they must get her to the hospital and suggests they drive away to San Francisco. When he looks outside, it is dawn and a sea of birds ripple menacingly around the Brenner’s house as he prepares her car for their escape.

The radio reports the spread of bird attacks to nearby communities, and suggests that “the military” may be required to intervene because civil authorities are unable to combat the unexplained attacks. In the final shot, the car carrying Melanie, the Brenners, and the lovebirds slowly makes its way through a landscape in which thousands of birds are ominously perching. The plot was sourced from Wikipedia. A group of ravens is called an “unkindness” or “conspiracy,” which seems fitting, since ravens are traditionally considered creepy; and seeing many of them in one place can induce “Hitchcockian” flashbacks. A murder of crows also seems fitting in this context.

“Passages in time shall leave timeless evidence in their wake.” ~ Anthony T. Hincks.

The thing that made the movie so scary was the peculiarity of it all. Perhaps the moral of the story is beware of people bearing lovebirds as gifts. After the movie was finished we had to run back to our dorms in the pitch dark along a road with large trees on one side, with strong winds blowing their branches causing them to creak in the wind!  I still have a clear recollection of that evening over 50 years later. 

The congregation of starlings in the bushes around the hide and the ravens flying around the hide in numbers just reminded me of some of the scenes in the ‘The Birds’. Thank you Alfred Hitchcock for the memory, thankfully I was never ornithophobic ( a fear of birds)

“Look, listen, consider and then make your own mind up.” ~ Mike Haworth

Fifty five year old movies aside, many birds were attracted by the bones in front of the hide. White-necked ravens were the dominant species. They ruled the bones and even managed to fly off with some of them. There are three species of crow in south Africa, the Pied, Black and White necked raven. There is a physical difference between crows and ravens. The latter are bigger, have a larger deeper bill and make more of a croaking sound whereas the crows make more of a ‘caw-caw’ sound.

The White-necked raven has a much shorter tail than the common raven. Its  bill is large and looks laterally compressed and is deeply curved in profile giving the bird a very distinctive appearance. This bill, the largest of any passerine at 8–9 cm in length, is black with a white tip and has deep nasal grooves with only light nasal bristle covers. The White-necked raven is very similar to the Thick-billed raven found in the horn of Africa. This powerful beak enables the raven to effectively tear meat and fat off the bones. It is also strong enough to fly off with surprising large and heavy bones.

Crows and ravens are known to be highly intelligent birds and are able to use tools, form cooperative units and are able to mimic the human voice when in captivity.

We only found White-necked ravens up in the middle berg. 

Ravens are known to mate for life and live in pairs in a fixed territory. When their youngsters reach adolescence, they join gangs and these flocks of young birds live and eat together until they mate and pair off. It was quite possible that we saw a gang of adolescent ravens dominating the non-raptors around the hide. One raptor that had them scattering for cover was the Lanner falcon. It was so much faster and more agile than the ravens. It stooped on them multiple times for about half an hour and certainly had them on edge for quite a while thereafter. 

“Look at this life – all mystery and magic.” – Harry Houdini

In the early to mid morning, the ravens just sat around feeding on the fat on the bones and chasing away any other birds which wanted to join in the feast. By lunchtime and in the early afternoon, when the wind got up, the ravens started to play in the wind in what looked to be just for the sheer joy of it. There was a natural updraft on along the ridge in front of the hide and the wind gave it extra power. The ravens spent hours just frolicking way above the valley in the wind.

The ravens were good fliers showing remarkable aerobatic feats in midair.

The White-necked raven is a persistent and tenacious bird and seems to enjoy mobbing the passing Bearded vultures. On one occasion a raven dive-bombed a Bearded vulture and hit it so hard that we heard it from the hide.

Needless to say the ravens gave way to the Black-backed jackals which regularly stole the bones in front of the hide.

Red-winged starlings also loved the fat on the bones. They formed pairs and would protect one another at the bones, when the ravens were not around. These starlings have distinctive red-primary wing feathers. The male has a mainly iridescent dark blue-black plumage. The female is similar but has a greyish head and neck.

This starling is a cliff nester, breeding on rocky cliffs, outcrops and gorges. There is a pale-winged and red-winged starling found in southern Africa. The pale-winged has mainly white outer primary wing feathers with a slight orange colouring on the outmost primaries. It has a yellow eye and is found mainly in the west side and the Cape of south Africa and Namibia, whereas the red-winged starling is found mainly in the north and east of southern Africa.

Similar to other starling species, the red-winged starling is an omnivore, feeding on a wide range of seeds, berries, nectar from plants such as Aloes and  invertebrates such as the beetles. As we saw from the hide, they will also scavenge on carrion and food scraps from humans.

“I marvel at the richness, variety and unexpectedness of it all – there is more to see than you can imagine” ~ Mike Haworth

Explore, seek to understand, marvel at its inter-connectedness and let it be.

Have fun,

Mike

In mid July, Helen and I went up to Giant’s Castle for a few days with the idea of spending some time in the vulture’s hide, photographing all the avian comings and goings, especially the raptors and especially Bearded Vultures. The hide is popular so bookings over the weekend are hard to come by. As a result we took two days before the weekend and one day after to visit the hide. When in the hide it is a time to be quiet and watch.

“When I am still, I fall into a place where everything is music.”~Rumi

The Giant’s Castle Nature Reserve is in the Central Drakensberg region of the Ukhahlamba Drakensberg Park World Heritage Site in South Africa. Giant’s Castle camp is positioned on a shallow plateau overlooking deep valleys running down from the face of the High Drakensberg. The Bushman’s river flows in a shallow valley in front of the Giant’s Castle camp.  One of the first things you will notice in the camp is the quietness. It is blissful. The only sound, other than birds and the odd baboon, is the sound of the Bushman’s river flowing over the rocks in the valley below.

“Be still, and the earth will speak to you” ~ Navajo proverb

Being wildlife photographers and keen birders, the vulture’s hide being close to Giant’s Castle is a key attraction. The vulture hide is isolated and affords quiet and beautiful vistas without human disruption.

“Be still. Stillness reveals the secrets of eternity. “ ~Lao Tzu

The idea is to get into the hide about 6h30 in winter about 30 to 40 minutes before sunrise. It is light at this time but the sun has not yet risen. It is often a time a sublime beauty with soft light. Then slowly unheralded, the sun begins to peer above the horizon and starts to paint the distant mountain peaks with mauves, pinks and apricots. It is a time of stillness, almost as if Mother Nature is holding her breath. It is windless and the air is crisp. 

“Compose yourself in stillness, draw your attention inward and devote your mind to the Self. The wisdom you seek lies within.” ~Bhagavad Gita

“Everything inside and around us wants to reflect itself in us. We don’t have to go anywhere to obtain the truth. We only need to be still and things will reveal themselves in the still water of our heart.” ~Thich Nhat Hanh

One of the things I like about the hide is it is placed on a shelf in middle berg with a sharp cliff drop off to the valley about 800 metres below. This drop off provides an updraft for the birds around the hide. The larger birds use the updraft to glide up and down the valley and to play.  For those who do not appreciate the nuances of the activity around the hide it can be very boring. It is quiet but active for those who look. The hide is conducive to being quiet, and looking and listening.  The peace is soothing and the more you look and listen, the more you see and hear.

“A quiet mind married to integrity of heart is the birth of wisdom.” ~Adyashanti

For those who watch the natural stage in front of the hide nature begins to reveal herself. At times it is very quiet and at other times new players emerge and the drama can become intense. In the case of Bearded Vultures the drama is usually around landings or when the White-necked ravens start to harass the Bearded vultures. Both Bearded vultures and ravens are good fliers and capable of adept aerial maneuvring. At times nature follows patterns but not always. Often out of the blue the ravens will attack a Bearded vulture flying by. No one rings the bell to wake you up, you have to be ready with camera setting in place to get the shots when the action takes place. Often it is over in a few seconds. When it happens it is as exciting as any lion kill.  From a photographic point of view this is an exciting time and difficult action to capture because it happens so fast.

Time in the vulture hide is spent with long periods of little action, then all of sudden out of the blue something dramatic happens. Despite long period of nothingness, you cannot let your attention lapse for a few minutes as no bird announces its arrival. It flies into the photographic zone with not  a sound.

“We cannot see our reflection in running water. It is only in still water that we can see.” ~Taoist proverb

Watching this large bearded vulture glide past, ever watchful and aware, triggers something inside you. Its vast wing span and effortless riding the updrafts on the ridge shows a wonderful sense of freedom.

The juvenile Bearded vultures have black heads and they get progressively lighter and eventually get white feathers when they are mature. The aging of the juvenile is set in its face colouring and the development of its beard below its beak.

Bearded vultures are able to swallow bones as large as 20 centimetres in length. These vultures are able to digest bone within 24 hours. It is not that they have unusual digestive tracts or break down the bones mechanically but rather it is the concentration of acid in their digestive system. Small bones are swallowed whole and larger ones are dropped repeatedly onto rock slabs, called ossaries, to break them into small enough fragments to be swallowed. Bone forms 70-90% of all their food intake. This vulture’s oesophagus is highly elastic and expands to allow the passage of large food items, but it has no clearly defined crop. The Bearded vulture is the only species of vulture to have this large storage region in front of the stomach. Bearded vultures use their oesophagus to store food. Source: Journal of Raptor Research June 1994 by David C Houston and Jamieson A Copsey.

“Mystery creates wonder and wonder is the basis of man’s desire to understand.” ~ Neil Armstrong

We were very fortunate to see a family of five bearded vultures, two adults and three youngsters flying by. The youngsters looked to be of different ages judging from their colouring.

This was a juvenile probably three years old who was starting to get the adult colouring on its head but its body colouring was that of a juvenile.

“I would rather have a mind opened by wonder than one closed by belief.”~ Gerry Spence

Judging from the colouring on its head this juvenile was probably around two years old. Its head was still black but its face was starting to lighten.

The same juvenile from a different angle. The sun rose in the east and the valley in which these Bearded vultures flew was on the west of the hide so the only way to get the glint in the eye was relatively early in the morning when the the sun was low enough.

The adult bearded vultures have white feathers on their head and the feathers on their back and wings get almost black. The rust colouring on the white head feathers comes from dust bathing in iron rich soils and dust. The eyes are pale yellow, surrounded by conspicuous red eye-ring. The red ring is not just a marking around the eye, it is part of the eye itself. It is called the scleral ring. It’s red because it is actually full of blood, and it functions as the vultures’ threat displays. When a Bearded vulture is stressed or feels threatened, it will force more blood into the scleral ring, causing it to expand and turn more of the eye a red colour.

“Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced.”~ Soren Kierkegaard

One of the highlights of any hide visit is when the bearded vultures come in to land in front of the hide. Alas, this seldom happens and it did not happen in the three days we were in the hide. The area in front of the hide is the formal feeding station for these Bearded vultures because they are so endangered. There are estimated to be only 350 pairs in this region. Habitat loss is the key threat to these vultures as human habitation continues to encroach into their wild areas. Each morning before we travelled up to the hide we collected a bucket of bones from the camp office. The bucket of bones is part of the feeding scheme. The bones often have a lot of fat on them which the ravens, starlings and smaller birds seem to really enjoy.  The jackals also take their fair share of the bones long before the Bearded vultures get to them.

While I was putting the bones out in front of the hide, I peered over the ridge and saw two adult bearded vultures sitting on separate rocks about three hundred metres away. These raptors are very skittish and as soon as they saw me they flew away.

“The more you wander, the more you wonder.” ~Mike Haworth

Despite their size, Bearded vultures appear to be timid by nature. They are regularly harassed by the White-necked ravens who are much smaller but act like terriers of the sky.

“Every man, when he gets quiet, when he becomes desperately honest with himself, is capable of uttering profound truths. We all derive from the same source. We are all part of creation, all kings, all poets, all musicians; we have only to open, only to discover what is already here.” ~Henry Miller

It is only when you spend a long time in the hide do you appreciate that you are not the centre of the universe and that nature will reveal herself when she is ready.

“Wonder is very much the affection of a philosopher; for there is no other beginning of philosophy than this.”~Plato

Watching these incredible raptors turn in the sky is a sight. They have huge wing spans and seem to be able to effortlessly manoeuvre in the air currents along the ridge. They can cross the two kilometre wide valley adjacent to the hide in seconds.

This adult Bearded vulture had its legs down after having just dropped a bone. Despite their large talons their feet are relatively weak and not as strong as the talons of eagles. For a long period, these bearded vultures were persecuted on the presumption that they killed young sheep which is how they gone their name lammiergeir -a name is derived from the German word Lämmergeier, meaning lamb-vulture. 

When you have spent a couple of days in the hide you have a deeper appreciation not only for the vast beauty of the landscapes from that position but also the natural flow and rhythm along the ridge. To watch the raptors effortlessly use the updrafts to glide up and down the ridge and watch the ravens frolic in the wind gives us terrestrial beings a yearning for that kind of atmospheric freedom. The wildlife clearly knows this is a feeding station and takes full advantage of the resource. 

“Learn to see the wild places in your soul, to cherish the hawk whose wide wings are your own. Learn to trust that trembling heart whose swirling depths call you to give what cannot be given. Let that eager mind that rides the updrafts san beyond the unknown. ” ~ Susan Landon

Explore, seek to understand, marvel at its inter-connectedness and let it be.

Have fun,

Mike

The vulture’s hide at Giant’s Castle is a raptor hide first and foremost. The setting on the edge of  a middleberg ridge is spectacular. Placing the bones for the raptors, mainly for the Bearded Vultures, supplements their natural food sources which is diminishing due to loss of habitat and is the main purpose of the feeding. The fat and marrow on the bones attracts a variety of smaller avian opportunists. The larger ones are White-necked Ravens and Red-winged Starlings.

“I learn from everything I look at, good, bad or indifferent. I follow my eye reflexively; if it is drawn toward something, I pay attention and try to find out why. You train your eye, build up a mental image bank, and constantly try to pinpoint why some things are convincing and others aren’t.”
~  Roberta Smith 

All the avian activity seems to attract a number of other species from chats to bishops, and pigeons to sunbirds and shrikes. Obviously they don’t feed on the fat or marrow but there are a grasses which disperse seeds and a number of indigenous trees along the edge of the cliff which attract nectar feeders.

“We all live under the same sky, but we don’t all have the same horizon.”  

~Konrad Adenauer 

I have preconceived ideas about ravens and crows after seeing Alfred Hitchcock’s film ‘Birds’ one Saturday night as a 13-year-old in my first year of boarding school at Falcon College in Zimbabwe in 1966. The movie really scared us as kids. It was about many types of birds, but mainly crows or ravens which menacingly gathered at the local school. As soon as the adults attempted to get their children away from the school the birds attacked them, savagely. The plot progressed from bad to worse where the birds began attacking homes and started killing people. As a movie it made an indelible impression on my young mind with clear recollection 50 years later. After the movie was finished, we had to get back to our dormitories in the pitch dark. Needless to say we ran back as fast as we could as if our lives depended on it. In the movie all sorts of birds attacked the people in the village but the crows and ravens really stuck in my mind.

It is evident that ravens and crows are highly intelligent birds. They work in packs and are playground bullies intimidating birds smaller than themselves but deferring to larger raptors. These White-necked Ravens will hustle even Black-backed Jackals which are much larger, but only if they have numbers on their side.

On the second day the wind started to blow quite hard. The smaller birds sought cover, but the ravens reveled playfully in the turbulence. Their flying skills have to be seen to be believed – they are master “wing men”. A Lanner Falcon arrived at one point and started dive bombing these ravens. It was an amazing sight. The Lanner was smaller than the ravens, but was considerably faster. It harassed a few ravens repeatedly, nearly hitting them on several occasions. You can only marvel at both species’ flying skills. 

“Seeing is a gift that comes with practice.”

~Stephenie Mills  

The seed-eaters were more sedate and easily scared by any shadow moving quickly across the ground near them.  With falcons and buzzards around, the seed-eaters needed to be very wary. A few Speckled Pigeons flew onto the vulture’s dining table to forage for grass seeds. They are not well camouflaged on the grass but their colouring is perfect when they are on the rocks.

Seed-eaters abounded. There were groups of canaries and a few yellow bishop males (with their girls) also flew in to feed on the grass seed. They were very skittish being at the bottom of the food-chain. The next image is of a Yellow Bishop male in non-breeding plumage.

“There’s a saying among prospectors: Go out looking for one thing, and that’s all you’ll ever find.”

~Robert Flaherty  

A single Cape Longclaw came to visit. Its characteristic orange-coloured throat makes it easily identifiable. Its long claw is also evident. 

There was also a resident pair of Buff-streaked Chats in front of the hide. They were versatile feeders eating insects and pecking at the fat and marrow on the bones. These chats will also feed on nectar when available. The male is the bold black and white coloured bird with a buff chest and breast.

The female Buff-streaked Chat is just as confident but is an altogether simpler looking bird. The streaks on her buff breast and chest are clearly evident. These chats seem to prefer rocky areas, ridges and rocky outcrops. The Drakensberg is the only place I have ever seen these chats.

“These beautiful days…do not exist as mere pictures – maps hung upon the walls of memory to brighten at times when touched by association or will…They saturate themselves into every part of the body and live always.”

~John Muir  

This male Cape Rock Thrush added to the eclectic variety of smaller birds in front of the hide. He seemed to enjoy the fat on the bones but also eats insects and small berries from the surrounding flora. This thrush’s blue-grey coloured head is its distinctive feature. The female has the same rufous chest and belly but its head is a buff colour, not the blue of the male.

The Cape Rock-thrush prefers a mountainous rocky habitat, so the hide area was perfect for it. It is an insect eater but took advantage of the insect proxy provided.

Besides ravens there were many Red-winged Starlings there to greet us first thing in the morning. They loved the fat on the bones. Interestingly, by midday they all disappeared only to return later in the afternoon. The female Red-winged Starling has a grey head and has the same distinctive brown-red primary feathers as the male.

“The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible.”

~Oscar Wilde

A mid-morning view looking south from the vulture’s hide.

A male Red-winged Starling perched in a Glossy Mountain Bottlebrush tree. The Red-wings were feeding on the buds and nectar from the scarlet-red flowers from this tree. He was tucked in as the wind was blowing and it was a little chilly.

A female Red-winged Starling in the same Glossy Mountain Bottlebrush tree. The red flowers really stood out in the yellows and browns of winter.

“Humanity has passed through a long history of one-sidedness and of a social condition that has always contained the potential of destruction, despite its creative achievements in technology.  The great project of our time must be to open the other eye: to see all-sidedly and wholly, to heal and transcend the cleavage between humanity and nature that came with early wisdom.”
~  Murray Bookchin

We heard and saw male and female White-bellied Sunbirds but could not photograph them. We did not see any Malachite Sunbirds on this trip. We were fortunate to see the endemic Bokmakierie. This is a bushshrike which has a typical shrike beak with that sharp down curving hooked tip,  signifying its predatory nature.  The name, Bokmakierie, comes from its melodious call notes, often uttered in duet, from the top of a bush or tree.

The Bokmakierie has brilliant yellow underparts with a broad black collar separating the throat from the breast. This bushshrike has a grey head and thin yellow eyebrow. The back and wings are olive-green. 

The Bokmakierie is endemic to South Africa and Zimbabwe. It is a shy bird and is normally seen in pairs. We only saw this individual. I look at the colours of this bird and am spellbound by the stunning combinations. I doubt any fashion designer would come up with the palette and hue of the colours seen on this bushshrike.

“For me, a landscape does not exist in its own right, since its appearance changes at every moment; but the surrounding atmosphere brings it to life – the light and the air which vary continually. For me, it is only the surrounding atmosphere which gives subjects their true value.”

~Claude Monet  

Explore, seek to understand, marvel at its inter-connectedness and let it be.

Have fun,

Mike

 

 

The title is literal and metaphoric with a slice of licence. In my first post from Giant’s Castle last week, I featured the Bearded Vulture, an endangered mountainous region’s unique bone-eater. The national park supplements the food for these endangered Bearded Vultures which birders and photographers put out in front of the vulture hide. Inevitably, by putting out the bones, this food source attracts an assortment of other scavengers. Many of the bones have been sawed in half exposing the bone marrow which opens up the variety of avian opportunists one is likely to see. The fat on and marrow in the bones attracts a wide variety of wildlife.

“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is most adaptable to change.”

~Charles Darwin

In this post I will show you some images I took of the Jackal Buzzards, the Cape Vultures and a Black-backed Jackal which came to partake in the feast in front of the vulture hide. I reiterate that under normal circumstances, feeding or baiting the wildlife for photography purposes is not allowed. The feeding of the Bearded Vultures at the Giants Castle hide is a special situation encouraged by the national park. 

The hide is located on a ridge  about 1500 metres above the Bushman’s river valley floor. The ridge provides perfect updrafts for the raptors to approach the hide. In winter, we get into the hide around 6h30, around half an hour before sunrise. As the first horizontal rays of sunlight blazed onto the hide’s foreground many birds were ready and waiting, mostly Red-winged Starlings and White-necked Ravens. One of the first visiting raptors to the hide’s breakfast table was a Jackal Buzzard.

The Jackal Buzzard is endemic to South Africa and the southern parts of Namibia. The English name of this bird comes from the loud yelping calls, similar to those of the Black-backed Jackal. The Jackal Buzzards are perch hunters but if necessary will take to soaring to look for food . The Jackal Buzzards near the vulture’s hide have become habituated to finding food at the hide and seem to visit every day, and often more than once a day.

“Adaptability is not imitation. It means power of resistance and assimilation. “

~Mahatma Gandhi

The Giant’s Castle vulture hide’s breakfast table with a spectacular backdrop.

The bones put out to feed the Bearded Vultures also attract the Cape Vultures. This is one of the southern Africa’s largest vultures with a total length of just over one metre and a wingspan of around 2.5 metres. This large vulture has a creamy-buff colour, with contrasting dark flight- and tail-feathers. The head and neck are almost bare skin as seen with the Lappet-faced and White-backed Vulture implying that they get their heads right into the carcass when feeding.  The eye socket has a bluish tinge and the eye is  yellowish and the beak is black.

Since 2015, the Cape Vulture has been classified as endangered on the IUCN Red List. The global population estimate has been revised to 4,700 pairs or 9,400 mature individuals according to IUCN but the population is declining overall but interestingly is reported to be increasing in select areas.

Apart from a slight size difference (female larger) there is little difference between the sexes making it difficult to differentiate between male and female. As with other vultures these raptors are superb fliers.

“Adapt or perish, now as ever, is nature’s inexorable imperative.”

~H.G.Wells

Black-backed Jackals regularly visit to hijack the bones in front of the hide. They have found this to be a convenient source of food.

Usually one Jackal arrives and does not seem to fuss when the White-necked Ravens are around. By contrast, the Jackals have been known to get into a tangle with the Cape Vulture over ownership of the bones.

On each of the two days in the hide we saw the Black-backed Jackal. It arrived early in the morning just after sunrise. The jackal’s coat appeared much thicker than that of a Jackal found in the lowveld where the temperature is much warmer. It can be very cold in the Berg even in summer. The coldest I have ever been in my life was in mid-November (summer time in the Drakensberg) in the Berg above Injasuti. When we were out hiking a massive thunderstorm rolled in so quickly that we were caught on the side of the mountain for the night in the rain. I have huge respect for the variable weather in the Berg.  Hikers and photographers should always be prepared.

“The art of life is a constant readjustment to our surroundings.”

~Kakuzo Okakaura

On both days at the hide, the Jackal took a few bones. Presumably it stashed them in the long grass out of sight from the hide and then took them, one by one, back to its den. This jackal knows only too well it has competition from the vultures. It must have seen some vultures high in the sky above it.

The Jackal Buzzard frequents mainly hilly and mountainous habitats. It is one of few raptor species to be found on altitudes above 3000 metres. The nesting season is from July to September, which probably improves the chances of seeing them in late winter to early spring in Southern Africa. 

The adult Jackal Buzzard has a black head, neck, throat and upper-parts. On the upper-wing, the flight feathers are black, narrowly barred pale grey, and show broad, black tips. It has a rufous chest and rufous coloured tail feathers.

“All fixed set patterns are incapable of adaptability or pliability. The truth is outside of all fixed patterns.”

~Bruce Lee

On the underparts, the breast is usually rufous with white upper edge contrasting against the black throat, and black markings on the lower edge. Lower breast, belly and under-wing coverts are black with narrow ‘greyish’ white bars. Flanks, thighs and vents are white or rufous. The bill is black with yellow cere. The eyes are dark red-brown. The legs and feet are yellow.

One of the key features of hide photography is that you have to keep watching all the time, ready to capture images  of these raptors as they appear in a split second from below the edge of the cliff. You can wait for hours to get a glimpse of them and in two or three seconds they have flown in and landed. 

The female has similar plumage to the male but she is larger and heavier.

“A wise man adapts himself to circumstances, as water shapes itself to the vessel that contains it.

~Chinese Proverb

The Jackal is dead quiet. It slinks in at the edge of the ridge, quickly assesses friend and foe and whether there is any potential food and is gone within a minute of so. If you are distracted while making coffee you will miss the photographic opportunity.

A Cape Vulture flew in on the second day. It did not go for the bones but just sat on the cliff edge. 

These raptors are always looking around, probably wary of competition or threats. This Cape Vulture sat at the very edge of the cliff so could easily escape by launching itself off the cliff.

This lone Cape Vulture looked to be just sunning itself on a Sunday morning. The White-necked Ravens know only too well that this raptor has a long flexible neck and can easily give them a savage peck if they venture too close. Once it was rested and had warmed up, it took one hop and it was again riding the updrafts along the ridge.

“Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change.”

~Stephen Hawkins

We had a number of visits from the Jackal Buzzards. On this occasion this bird tried to pick up a large joint, but not without some objection from the raven.

Having decided the bone was too heavy, it flew off over the edge of the cliff not to be seen again that day. The Jackal Buzzard normally feeds on insects, small reptiles, mammals, birds and carrion.

Fortunately, this beautiful raptor is listed as “least concern” on the IUCN Red List.

“More and more  we try to effect an adaption to life by means of external gadgets, and attempt to solve or problems by conscious thinking rather than unconscious ‘ know-how’. This is much less to our advantage than we like to suppose.”

~Alan Watts

Explore, seek to understand, marvel at its inter-connectedness and let it be.

Have fun,

Mike