20 Sept 09- Pete's Pond Part 3

I have never been a bird watcher. Most of my emotions about birds have been formed by how often they crap on my car...
In Africa I began to take pictures of birds for my sister who is generally more fond of them than I. And a funny thing happened- I found that I really enjoyed the challenge of shooting birds with a camera! And most of my life I have thought I would only enjoy shooting them with something more permanent. Hunh.

I've gotten quite a few good pictures of birds, and added to them at the pond.

Perhaps the single most common bird around Mashatu- Guinea Fowl

Stork

One incredible thing that is actually quite common is the flock of little tiny birds. The incredible part is how tightly they stick together, almost as a single distributed organism.

One flies, they all fly.

The noise their wings make is amazing! LOUD, and it doesn't really sound like hundreds of flapping wings, at least to me. It sounds more like a strong gust of wind through a strong tree. I tried to get pictures that showed them, but as usual, the shots I was able to get just don't really do the job.

But here is what I got:

Eventually we received the bad news that our plane was on the way and nearly there.
We had to return to the airfield.

We were ALL very grateful to Afke, the cam operator on duty and Afke's friend who allowed us to invade the Hide and hang out for a few hours.
Thank you all.