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Tuesday, December 24, 2013

Christmas Bird Special

Dear Blogger friends, 

A very happy and blessed Christmas day to you all. I trust you're all spending the day with your family and/or friends. We're doing the latter as we're too far from our loved ones back in South Africa.

I'm not sure whether the Wild Bird Wednesday meme is open today but I just had to post a few of my favorite photos of birds spotted over the weekend.

My first image below is of a Long-tailed Cormorant, Juvenile. A few weeks ago I posted two juveniles sitting on a nest in just this spot. Now we're watching these two birds still in this spot, but who have "flown the coop" so to speak. (the other cormorant was behind the muddy bank when I took this photo) 
Long-tailed Cormorant, Juvenile

As we drove along the road through the bush, I noticed a bird sitting on a branch, quite a way into the thicket. Grant stopped, and although I have many photos of this bird (a Silverbird) I still took several photos. When I downloaded the photo later that day, I realized that I'd captured a beautiful image; the bird and the branch on which it was perched, stood out clearly against the blue sky while the background branches were mysteriously fuzzy.
A Silverbird on its perch against a fuzzy background


Although we birded for quite a while after the above two sightings, I am only going to post one other photo. Grant spotted this Black-shouldered Kite sitting high on the branch of a tree next to the road.  The Black-shouldered Kite is prolific right across Africa from just south of the Sahara to the point of South Africa. It is found everywhere. But for some strange reason, we don't often see them here where we live in Tanzania. 
 Black-shouldered Kite

I'm linking my post to Wild Bird Wednesday hosted by Stewart Monkton and which you can access by clicking here


9 comments:

  1. I love the little guy in the middle photo, Jo. What a sweetie.
    The juvenile cormorant doesn't look as if all his various parts have caught up with the other bits, but I'm sure it won't be long now.
    And the kite photo is beautiful, with the gorgeous blue background. A dignified bird with a rather evil red eye.
    Sorry I got behind in commenting, haven't been well and so much to do.
    Tomorrow is Christmas Eve here, and we still have to do some last minute shopping for the grandkids, then deliver some to the local part of the family. After Christmas we're going up-country a few hours to see two more of Dick's daughters and maybe the eldest one as well.
    Lindy is coming with us, and we're staying in a hotel. One of the girls bought hockey tickets for everyone, but I can't take a chance on leaving Lindy alone. She used to be great in hotels, but her blindness is getting worse, so she suffers from separation anxiety. I'd rather keep her happy than wear myself out in a crowd at the hockey game, worrying about the dog.
    Sigh.
    Your little dog looks so sweet. Tell her Auntie Kay already loves her, and Lindy sends a friendly woof.
    Love, K

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  2. Merry Christmas to you, too, dear Jo and your husband!

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  3. What a splendid post please keep it up i will be sharing this with my readers.It's onerous to find educated individuals on this subject, but you sound like you recognize what you're talking about! Thanks

    Cccam Server

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  4. Jo, these are wonderful bird sightings. The Kite is my favorite.

    Merry Christmas to you and yours! And a very Happy and healthy New Years!

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  5. The birds are lovely, Jo.

    Wishing you and your hubby a blessed Christmas and New Year.

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  6. Hello Jo!
    Great blog.
    Absolutely wonderful photos ...

    Merry Christmas, Jo!

    Greetings from far away Polish.
    Lucia

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  7. Merry Christmas dear Jo!
    hughugs

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  8. Nice shots!

    Merry Christmas to you and Grant!

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  9. Nice bird photos! I've seen cormorants in California and Texas but not yet in Pennsylvania. Merry Christmas!

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Thank you for visiting my blog and taking the time to leave a comment. I appreciate your feedback. Jo