bird watching

this morning went on a bit of an expedition. i needed to go to fill up the dam on sondela and on the way i saw smoke. so what i had to do is do to the highest point on the farm which was on the koppi. when up there i realized that the smoke was quiet far away and so just sat down to chill for five minutes. when driving back to fill up water i had to drive next to the fence to where i was going. when driving a kudu decided to come and run next to me on the other side of the fence and kept trying to jump over on to our side. it is quiet interesting that even though it has the ability to clear the fence with ease the kudu male would rather jump against the fence intill finding a weak point so the fence just breaks over. when getting to the water hole i was amazed to see a wild bore crossing the road in broad day light when the animal is in fact nocturnal. while i was waiting for the dam to fill up i decided to use my time to go bird watching. the first two birds i wanted to get a picture of but every time i got close they just flew away as usual. so i decided to climb under the tree and sit under the birds getting closer and able to identify them easily. the most irritating bird was the cardinal wood pecker which i could hear but couldn't find. the problem was that because it was so quiet out in the bush the sound of it chipping the tree echoed over the veld making life more difficult. but in the end i got some nice photos to upload and a list of birds to give.

the dam that had to be filled up

first attempt to the shrike photo

crimson  breasted shrike in flight

view from under the tree

wild fig on the koppi

kudu jumping against the fence