A nasty character...

...not really methinks, but you can make your own mind up about his antics.

It is a big Cape Crow (Corvus capensis), and I haven't seen one for a long time until now.

It was during our two-day break, and we had some great hosts at the place that we stayed in a beautiful little rural town. You can see the big properties that the people have in this town, and we had some great experiences during our stay. We are not the sit-at-home type, as we love to explore, and during this visit we were not denied. I will show you some more posts of some of our experiences here.
But for now, have a look at what I have to share.

Look at the lovely view that I had sitting with a mug of coffee outside.

After his drink, he popped up onto a fence.

I wish that you could have heard his deep cawing 'kaah-kaah', and a bizarre liquid 'kwollop, kwollop', and other gargling sounds. This is how our bird book describes his call.

He even looked at me to see if I was impressed with his call.

As he sat calling, there was a little spy (dove) sitting below the structure at the left-hand of the post, and I think that the spy made some sounds to draw support.

Support arrived to check the crow out.

I don't know if they were all looking at me, to say what now, or if they were checking each other out.

And there was another one coming in from the back. I am sure the crow looked at me to say what now?

He decided to rather go and sit somewhere else.

Just as well that he left, as there was an army of little doves sitting on a fence below.

What I like about this post, is that all the birds are wild and free, there is ample food for them to eat, and the place is a little paradise. The silence outside, and the air so close to the mountain, can easily make one's head spin. No traffic, no traffic lights, no sirens and alarm screams, just silence. Horses and cattle walk around all over the place. I will do a horse post soon to show you what we saw. We were very happy and at peace.

Yes, it was only a short two-day break, but for us it feels like a month away, as that is how the peace of the place affected us. That is all that one needs, every now and then, to just realise that there are places where one can go to fully recharge one's batteries. We were even considering staying for a while longer, and I know that the owners of the place where we stayed would have allowed us, but duty calls and we had to cut things short to get back to the millstone.
Such is life.

Note: The call of the bird book that I quoted is Birds of Southern Africa. ISBN 978-1-77584-668-0

I hope you enjoyed the pictures and the story.

Photos by Zac Smith. All-Rights-Reserved.

Camera: Canon PowershotSX70HS Bridge camera.

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