I opened a curtain...

...and look what was sitting on a lamp post in the road.

Early morning and my habit is to always open the curtains when I sit down in our study. And so, when I saw the bird on the lamb post, it galvanised me to rush outside.

The first five photos will show you his upper body, and the next five are action photos. He is well known to us, although last season we didn't see him and we nicknamed him "Pirate" as he only has one eye. Don't ask me what happened to the other eye, as the general feel was that it is injured in a fight, but then again, they always shove their small heads into holes where they search for bird and mouse nests. A great relief to see him again, and four days later we knew why he came to hang around here. But that I will show you in another post.

He is an adult African Harrier Hawk (Gymnogene), (Polyboroides typus). We have always known them as Gymnogenes, but somebody decided to give them a new name, Harrier Hawk. He is also the biggest of the hawk family.

Every time when we see this face with the lost eye, we feel sorry for him, and if he loses his other eye then he will die.

Yes, we have seen them raiding nest and flying off with chicks and even newborn squirrels. A lady across the road from us screamed when the Hawk tried to grab her little dog. The bigger came to its rescue and chased the hawk away.

Hey!, he said. You again. Greetings and a long-time no see!

Now for some action shots below.

He turned around and fluffed on the lamppost, but I was ready for him, as I knew he was going to fly.

There he went, but not in the direction that I thought he was going to fly.

He landed on a rooftop.

Fluffed once more.

And whoa, I thought he was going to fly towards the right from the rooftop, but instead I could only get this one shot of him flying over my head.

Skinny legs, this guy, and one would expect them to have much stronger legs, but if their legs were thicker, they would not be able to climb trees or to scratch with their claws in search of prey.

***"Their long tails and long slender legs have the unique ability to bend backwards and sidewards at the tarsal joint. This enables them to insert their feet into holes and cracks in rocks and tree stems to pull out bats, lizards, nestling birds, and other prey. Their unusually narrow, small head also facilitates probing into holes". ***

Source: Book: Birds of Southern Africa. ISBN: 978-1-77584-668-0

Now, I wonder if you can tell me what bird this is in the picture below?

I hope somebody will recognise it, and it is not a European Honey Buzzard (Pernis apivorus).

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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