Peter Connan's small-to-medium year 2015

[Tdgraves]

@@Peter Connan there are a few duplicates there - have you double counted??

[Peter Connan]

@@Tdgraves, i tried very hard not too, but let me know if i buggered it up?

[fictionauthor]

Wow!

[Peter Connan]

Somehow I missed this little fella:

 

Red-faced Mousebird:

 

 

 

Kempton Park, Gauteng, 1 June

[fictionauthor]

I'm guessing the other safaritalkers already know of your talents, Peter. Not only are these jaw-dropping amazing, but many of them are really bird portraits. I didn't know there was such a thing.

[Peter Connan]

Thank you for the kind words @@fictionauthor!

[Peter Connan]

Red throated Wryneck

3 July 2015

Kempton Park

 

 

[Peter Connan]

12 July 2015

Rietvlei Nature Reserve

 

Pied Wagtail (never seen them on the highveld before):

 

 

Ant-eating Chat:

 

 

Crowned Lapwing:

 

 

Cape Grassbird:

 

 

White-breasted Cormorant:

 

 

Sacred Ibis:

 

 

Egyptian Goose:

 

 

 

African Black Duck:

 

 

Comon Moorhen:

 

 

Ostrich:

 

 

Pied Starling:

 

 

Southern Pochard:

 

 

[Tdgraves]

Red throated Wryneck

3 July 2015

Kempton Park

 

Wryneck1ODP.jpg

 

Wryneck2ODP.jpg

Was this in your garden?

[Peter Connan]

Yes @@Tdgraves. One was even sloppily shot through the window.

[Peter Connan]

Last few from 12 July

 

Red-billed quela:

 

 

South-African Shelduck:

 

 

 

Spoonbill:

[ZaminOz]

Pied Wagtail... ahh that brings back child-hood memories. We had so many of them around the farm house!

[Tom Kellie]

~ @@Peter Connan

 

Returning for a second look, your amethyst sunbird beguiled me.

As an avian portrait, it has it all.

Wildlife photography competition worthy.

It bears repeated looks, as the color, composition and focus are what I'd love to eventually achieve.

Truly an exceptional image!

Tom K.

Edited August 18, 2015 by Tom Kellie

[Peter Connan]

Thank you Tom!

[Soukous]

terrific collection of images @@Peter Connan.

Alas my year has not even reached the tiny stage and is unlikely to get anywhere near big

[Peter Connan]

simply a great set of photos. my favourites - blue waxbil, the beautiful hoopoe, and we've seen the mysterious and fascinating "caped" black heron, and that 2nd photo of the diderick's cuckoos.

 

really brightened up my day sitting at the office desk. Thanks peter. More please!!

 

@@Kitsafari, I have no idea how I missed this post before. Thank you very much for your kind words.

[Peter Connan]

Seen near Polokwane/Giyane

6-12 August

 

(from this post onwards utill further notice, the D7000 has been replaced with a D750)

 

Little Bee-eater:

 

 

 

Brown Snake-eagle:

 

[Peter Connan]

15-16 August

 

Kempton Park

 

Wattled Plover:

 

Cape Sparrow:

 

Common Mynah:

 

Rameron Pigeon 9African Olive Pigeon?):

 

 

Red-billed Woodhoopoe:

 

 

[Peter Connan]

18 August

 

Kempton Park

 

Greater Flamingo:

 

And just bragging a bit:

Grey-headed Gull:

 

 

[Tom Kellie]

~ @@Peter Connan

 

Your ‘small-to-medium’ year is turning out to be delightful.

I'm learning from what you post, having no solidly grounded sense whatsoever of South Africa's birds.

There are Common Mynahs in South Africa? That's a surprise to me.

Were they introduced, or are they native? Hawaii has introduced Common Mynahs who loudly make known their presence in Honolulu.

Greater Flamingoes, too?

Wow! I had no notion that flamingoes might live as far south as the Johannesburg area.

The wood hoopoe is a special treat. Many thanks for posting that series.

I saw my first group of wood hoopoes in Kenya's Meru National Park last month.

The concept of ‘Big Year’ is unfamiliar to me. I see that there was a ‘Big Year’ last year and again this year.

Where does this originate? Maybe I've missed something which is well-known internationally.

In any case, I'm grateful that you continue posting such fine bird images for the enjoyment of Safaritalk members.

Tom K.

[Peter Connan]

@@Tom Kellie, the Mynahs here are also an introduced alien species. A large contingent of Indian labour was imported here when both SA and india were Briitish colonies. They have adapted well to urban environments and are officially considered a pest. It is even possible to get a permit to hunt them in urban areas with air rifles.

 

Flamingos live here year round. In fact, as you probably know their breeding grounds are under threat, and is the biggest factor affecting their population. They have fairly recently started breeding at a specially created facility at a mine slimes dam near Kimberley, which is even a bit further south. This is one of the only places in Africa where they breed aevery year, as the water level is not completely dependent on rain.

[Tom Kellie]

@@Tom Kellie, the Mynahs here are also an introduced alien species. A large contingent of Indian labour was imported here when both SA and india were Briitish colonies. They have adapted well to urban environments and are officially considered a pest. It is even possible to get a permit to hunt them in urban areas with air rifles.

 

Flamingos live here year round. In fact, as you probably know their breeding grounds are under threat, and is the biggest factor affecting their population. They have fairly recently started breeding at a specially created facility at a mine slimes dam near Kimberley, which is even a bit further south. This is one of the only places in Africa where they breed aevery year, as the water level is not completely dependent on rain.

 

~ @@Peter Connan

 

Thank you so much for this detailed clarification.

Unfortunately, unlike most Safaritalk members, I'm not at all familiar with most wildlife conservation issues.

My professional career has centered around field observation of interrelationships of species. The impact of human activities was never a focus of my work.

Therefore reading Safaritalk has been a revelation in many ways, as I've almost never given time to learning about threats to species, having instead concentrated on how they interact with one another in their natural habitats.

Thus I didn't know anything about flamingo breeding grounds. It's a subject which has never arisen in my reading.

You've helped me by pointing this out. There is so much about which I'm ignorant.

I appreciate knowing the background of the Common Mynahs. As there are avian species which live in Asia and Africa, I didn't know whether Common Mynahs were that sort.

Safaritalk is a great help for filling in gaps in information for someone like me who has limited understanding. I'm grateful for your patient explanations.

Tom K.

[Peter Connan]

Sorry @@Tom Kellie, I forgot to answer your last question.

 

I am not sure where the term originated, but i geuss it bacame known in 2011-2012 when a movie by that name was released.

 

A copy from Wikipedia, since I know you can't access that:

 

The Big Year is a 2011 comedy film directed by David Frankel, written by Howard Franklin and starring Steve Martin, Jack Black, and Owen Wilson. It was based on the nonfiction book The Big Year: A Tale of Man, Nature and Fowl Obsession which was written by Mark Obmascik. The book followed three men on a quest for a Big Year - a competition among birders to see who can see and identify the greatest number of species of birds in North America (north of Mexico) in a calendar year. The film uses the same premise with fictional characters.

Filming took place from May to July 2010.^[3] The film was released on October 14, 2011, in the United States and was a box office bomb, grossing only $7.4 million against its $41 million budget

[Tom Kellie]

Sorry @@Tom Kellie, I forgot to answer your last question.

 

I am not sure where the term originated, but i geuss it bacame known in 2011-2012 when a movie by that name was released.

 

A copy from Wikipedia, since I know you can't access that:

 

The Big Year is a 2011 comedy film directed by David Frankel, written by Howard Franklin and starring Steve Martin, Jack Black, and Owen Wilson. It was based on the nonfiction book The Big Year: A Tale of Man, Nature and Fowl Obsession which was written by Mark Obmascik. The book followed three men on a quest for a Big Year - a competition among birders to see who can see and identify the greatest number of species of birds in North America (north of Mexico) in a calendar year. The film uses the same premise with fictional characters.

Filming took place from May to July 2010.^[3] The film was released on October 14, 2011, in the United States and was a box office bomb, grossing only $7.4 million against its $41 million budget

 

~ @@Peter Connan

 

That's extremely helpful, as it fully explains a concept which I'd never have otherwise guessed.

Utterly fascinating!

I'm definitely not in any sense a birder. They're skills, motivations, habits of thought and expertise are far afield from my more prosaic attitudes toward nature, including birds.

Therefore until you wrote the above, I hadn't the slightest notion as to why these threads were called a ‘Big Year’.

Thanks to you, it all makes good sense now.

Were I to undertake a ‘Big Year’ where I live, it would almost surely be a year of magpies, sparrows, magpies, sparrows, magpies, sparrows, magpies, sparrows...

For that reason I'm delighted to travel in Kenya where the bird variety on safari keeps my camera shutter busy.

When I'm in South Africa a little over one month from now, I'm hoping to spot an unfamiliar bird species or two.

There are no targets. Anything I haven't seen in Kenya would be fun to see. The Sabi Sands trip report of @@Tdgraves inspired me with its bird variety.

Your own South African bird photographs are an additional incentive to look upward while in South Africa, not only at ground-based predators.

With Gratitude for Your Explanation,

Tom K.

[Peter Connan]

A visit to the Walter Sisulu Botanical Gardens in Roordepoort last weekend:

 

African Black Duck:

 

Amathyst Sunbird:

 

 

 

White-breasted Sunbird:

 

 

Black-collared Barbet:

 

Southern Boubou:

 

Fiscal Flycatcher:

 

 

Cape Rock Thrush: