Our birds in Africa
We saw many miracles in Africa. Unprecedented wild animals, exotic birds, inhabitants of African rivers – just do not count. But most of all I was surprised by our Russian birds, which are temporarily staying here, while frosts are starting to crack in the north. Winter these nomads spend in the warm regions, and in the spring they return to their homeland. During the trip along the Limpopo River, my colleagues and I settled down on the beach for a snack. We bite, watching the soft water flowing. Almost red it is from the land, which flows. It seems that this is not water, but a warm, lifeless kissel. But no, the crust of bread thrown into the river almost instantly appears circles. And now there is no crust. So there is fish in Limpopo. And somewhere in the backwaters, maybe hippos are hiding.
The crocodile from afar, from the water watching our meal. By the sounds can be judged: and the forest around is not lifeless. A long-tailed, like forty, and equally noisy bird, a
Zasobiralsya already on the road? Already for the songs matured? It’s very possible. Flying birds at the home sing. In the Moscow region in May we hear not only the singers already nesting, but also flying farther north. And this, perhaps, already at the start, a voice tries.
We spent more than an hour tramping around Limpopo. It’s hot and stuffy.
Immediately, at Limpopo, we still saw the countrymen. At least two hundred white storks and half a hundred steppe eagles were walking around in the same company in a rare shrub that was flooded during the floods of the river, and they gambled with something. Neighborhood and concentration of birds are extraordinary, but peace and tranquility were in this mixed flock of hunters. If we were approaching, the birds flew up, but immediately fell, and again hunting began. Looking closely, we understood: storks catch locust grass.
We saw the storks almost every day. They grazed under the feet of the zebras, sat on dry trees by the ponds, paced in search of lizards and mice on the yellowed hills. The sight of birds that are here in Africa is the same as in the homeland, proud and independent. Not very shy, but not very trusting.
Several storks were seen on the southernmost tip of Africa – at Cape Agulh. Here they hunted someone in the company of “our” starlings. Think of a distance from the Smolensk village: the Mediterranean Sea was in the way of birds, deserts, the African rainforest… All overcame and now feed, gain strength for the return journey.
And at the end of February, in the Kalahari desert, we could not believe our eyes: again the storks, and in quantities that it is impossible to imagine at home: five hundred or more heads! Birds were sitting at a shallow lake with a moving black and white carpet – calm, unhurried. It is impossible to feed with such a number. The lake clearly served as a point to which the storks had gathered from a large area, and that meant: the whole huge pack was ready for a long journey to the north.
Closely approaching the car the birds were not scared, but immediately took off as soon as we tried to come closer. The sky was covered with outstretched wings. Streams of hot air Kalahari raised birds higher and higher.
The flight of storks and eagles is easy. At a height they slip in the streams of warm air, and a greater road is given to them easier than birds, constantly waving their wings, for example swallows, which are very tired from large flights. Sometimes, riding a rising stream, storks in some points of intercontinental travel are mixed with eagles. From the bottom it seems: a battle ensued between the birds. In fact, they are spinning, gaining altitude, and no one is hindering anyone.
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