For reasons of several beers and a fairly spectacular fillet steak, there will be no blog post today.
Please accept my apologies and tune in tomorrow for more excitement.
Category: this is south africa
Beware the Beagle Eagle
A [collective noun] of eagles in Durban’s western suburbs are thought to be to blame for the death of a Maltese poodle and the disappearance of several kittens in the area. This is obviously very sad for the owner of Buttercup (for it was she what was killed), but is great news for birds everywhere. Not only because it proves that the Crowned Eagles (Stephanoaetus coronatus) is successfully adapting its diet despite human intrusion into its territory, but also because it is adapting its diet (in that area) away from the Hadeda Ibis. And that’s obviously good news for Hadedas.
Those of you who are aware of the size of a Hadeda (they stand up to 85cm tall) will now understand that the Crowned Eagle is a bit of a monster.
It’s not South Africa’s biggest eagle, either. Both the Martial Eagle and the Verreaux’s (Black) Eagle (seen here) are bigger, but anything that has Hadedas as its first diet item of choice is to be applauded. Feared. Is to be feared. Yes.
There are no Crowned Eagles in Malta, which is probably why the Maltese poodle is so very prolific there. Incidentally, I guess that there are loads of Hadedas as well. I don’t know. I’ve never been, but I suppose that they must be everywhere. Malta is basically a hot lump of rock populated by nasty, yappy, hair-shedding little shits and annoying, honking, drably-plumaged birds. I’m so glad I don’t live there.
Fortunately, there are no Crowned Eagles in Cape Town either, and that means that our beagle is safe in our back garden. From eagles, at least. The hadedas remain an ongoing issue.
Found another video
Belatedly, I’ve found another video from our recent trip to Sanbona – must have overlooked it on the SD card when I was downloading stuff last week.
I have no idea what has happened to this video.
I came here in May 2018 and it was gone. It's not even on Youtube anymore.
These are the three female (tawny) lionesses on the reserve. There are probably cubs around and that’s why they are a bit feisty at the moment. Our ranger said it’s not unusual for there to be brief tussles like this, but it’s rare that any serious damage is done.
It might not be unusual for him to see this, but it was certainly a first for me.
Further proof that I am not a proper photographer
I had a great time shooting things in the game reserve last weekend. I bagged a few elephants, some white lions, a couple of cheetahs and even a rhino or two. Just with the camera, of course. Anything else would be considered very naughty, although would have made for some superb biltong.
I’m obviously not a proper photographer though. Halfway down to Agulhas last night, I suddenly realised that I hadn’t even brought my camera with me. How careless is that? A real ‘tog would never have made such a rookie error.
I do still have my phone with me though, and – as we discussed earlier this week – there’s definitely a place for cellphone photography in my world.
This is just another example of how useful a ubiquitous camera can be; even if it isn’t quite as powerful, versatile and downright good as “the real thing”.
Western Cape Number Plates
Here’s a comprehensive guide as to where in the Western Cape those two and three letter C codes belong. Why not print it out and take it along on your next (Western Cape) road trip to amuse the kids, the wife, or the (intelligent and literate) beagle? It’s also useful as a tool to work out where hitch-hikers want to end up.
(click it for bigness)
From this map, you can see how the curse of generally poor and overly aggressive driving has leached from CY into CF. CF is a particularly thin area, and thus it seems likely that CL will soon be affected. They’re already mostly drunk on the heady mix of fine wine and Afrikaans in Stellies, and I fear that the curse of the CY may be altogether too much for the roads to handle.