I know, I know. This is going to be another of those seemingly ubiquitous blog posts about avoiding African birdlife. I’ve actually no idea if anyone will read this: it’ll likely get lost in amongst other transient literary offerings like “We missed a Jacana” and “Grey Hornbill Evasion”. Still, needs must.
It’s actually great that after such a horrible journey yesterday, today’s trip back was so uneventful that Hoopoe Avoidance was the biggest thing that happened in the approximately 3 hour long drive. But after a great start to the day and a good 6km along the beach in Suiderstrand and beyond, I set off into the sunshine and headed home. It was a lovely drive: Radcliffe & Maconie joining me for much of it, and then The Lathums filling in for the last 45 minutes or so. The roads were deliciously empty, the scenery was beautiful and all was well.
In fact – and here we go – the only even mildly concerning incident was just north of Bredasdorp, just round the corner after the R317 Stormsvlei turnoff – you know the one.
A sudden flash of orange across the windscreen: had someone flung some Clivias at me (again?). This is always happening to me*.
But no, this was an African Hoopoe, with a bright orange body (like a clivia) and its black and white wings only visible as it dodged across the right hand side of the car. I probably missed it by a few metres.
The hoopoe made it safely into the (alien) trees on the other side of the road. I continued heading north on the R316 towards Napier.
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That’s it. That’s the blog post.
* it’s not