African Summer Skies

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Good Fences, Good Crows

I tend to feel sorry for crows. They are much maligned and not at all sought after when we go out birding. Crows seem to be harsh in nature and chase the smaller birds from the garden. They have a strident call which grates on the nerves. They seem to breed incessantly too and if not controlled, crows can cause the local bird population to disappear. We found this to be true on a Mozambican island holiday. We'd gone there to snorkel and of course to bird. There was not one of the bird species offered in the tour catalog; instead there were hundreds and hundreds of crows.  I'm not sure about the next allegation: but perhaps they also raid nests of fledglings and eggs? 

Anyway, the long and the short of it is crows aren't much loved by birders.  

However,  last weekend it was  a pair of crows who created an ideal opportunity for me to get photos of fences, which is the purpose of this post. When we rounded the explosives magazine on Sunday morning, Grant stopped and pointed at a pied crow eating something off a small bank inside the barbed enclosure. 

The fuzzy line across the crow's body is part of the barbed wire fence

Crows eat anything and everything so I'm not sure what this bird was enjoying so intensely

The barbed wire fence is more visible in this photo

The crow in the first photos walked off the screen to the right; immediately another crow strode into the picture

A crow struts confidently along the ridge

I'm linking my post to TexWisGirl 's Good Fences Thursday which you can visit here

Here's wishing you all a very Happy Thursday!

Woodland Kingfisher call...

...and excited barking. No words needed! 

I'm linking to Wordless Wednesday here