Night Time was called.

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I had a wonderful surprise, as I saw something last night in the early evening that I have never seen before.
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Moms and babies responded jointly to the night time call!

A small river runs past one of our shopping centers and whenever we go there to buy bread and milk, I spend my time on the riverbank while my wife does the shopping. We got there late due to a power cut, as we had to stay at home during the cut, for security purposes. So the light was not too good for photos, but I tried my best and here are the results.

The birds all responding to the night time call, made me think that it is the same as our human knock off time responses. When the clock strikes 5pm, at some places a bell, or an alarm sounds and then we all pack up and go home.
Come and watch this response.

Time to sleep, come all, time to sleep, time to sleep, come all, was the guinea fowl's call as he sat a far distance away on a hill.
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The first surprise, as the Guinea fowls had babies and they walked past us.
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All of the birds gathered at the bottom of the hill and then they walked into the tall grasses.
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So, I thought that was it, but then another surprise appeared and I have never seen this before.
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Here it was and yes, it was an even bigger surprise!

I have heard about these birds, but we have never seen them before. So I thought that they were Cape Spurfowls, but not to be, as these had dark crowns on their heads. Maybe done at the local bird hairdressing salon:)
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They are Grey-winged Francolins (Scleroptila afra). Endemic to the Cape area. And they had babies.
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The kids look exactly like the mother, and it is so great to see that they have survived the predators. Five kids. Wow!
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Seemed like there was a young Red Bishop officer controlling the traffic :)
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I was so happy to see this and it was a real great gift to get this on camera, especially in the bad light.
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I love this little river and I have posted many happenings here in the past. It is a pleasant little stream and a huge parking lot hides it from public view. The birds and the crabs love the area, as well as the bugs on the flowers, and it is an ideal spot for photography.
As you will see in the first photo, the mountain range is on the horizon and the wind was fiercely covering the mountains with clouds, that I will show you in another post.
But for now, this will have to do as we are waiting for our next power cut.

I hope that you have enjoyed the story and the pictures.

And That's All Friends.

Photos by Zac Smith-All Rights Reserved.

Camera: Canon Powershot SX70HS Bridge camera.

Thank you kindly for supporting a post on behalf of @papilloncharity

photography photographylovers francolins streams babies proofofbrain neoxian silverbloggers ecotrain
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59 comments
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I have no observation of The Grey-winged Francolins (Scleroptila afra). It is too south for me visiting South Africa. I should be very lucky to see this bird. But I do have Red Bishop Euplectes orix https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/104169475 and I have enjoyed the observation very much. Reeds near creek full of Red Bishops 😁

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Sad that you will not see the Francolins and yes, the reeds are indeed full of Red Bishops.
Here are a few of them as evidence!

All still youngsters and when they mature, then they will split up onto their individual roads.

!PIZZA

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Mother Nature is always good for a surprise, my friend, and this time she showed you her love by showing you something you didn't expect 😀
The Guinea Fowls look sweet, but the Grey-winged Francolins look so cool with their hair style - a great and nice surprise and I don't think the light was too dark for lovely photos 😊

Have a !PIZZA from me, served with !LUV
!invest_vote

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Good afternoon Hannes, 2 power cuts already done this morning and now another two will arrive from 4pm today.

I was a bit worried about posting the Francolin's hairstyle, as now the youngsters and the ladies on Hive will pester me to give them the mobile number of the birds hairdresser 😜 !LOLZ

Glad that you liked the photos my friend 😊

Cheers and thanks.

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Sell the number, Zac, you will make big money 😂 !LOLZ

You're most welcome, my friend 😊

Have a !PIZZA from me, served with !LUV
!invest_vote

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Hahaha, I will have a mad bird hairdresser instigating his flock of vulture clients to come and poop on my car every day for a year 🤣 !LOLZ

Cheers and thanks.

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👉👍😂 !LOLZ

Have a !PIZZA from me, served with !LUV
!invest_vote

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(Edited)

🍕 PIZZA Party!

I gifted $PIZZA slices here:
joanstewart tipped papilloncharity (x2)
littlebee4 tipped papilloncharity (x2)
johannpiber tipped papilloncharity (x3)
@papilloncharity(4/10) tipped @bravofenix (x2)
papilloncharity tipped birdwatcher (x1)
papilloncharity tipped joanstewart (x3)
papilloncharity tipped littlebee4 (x1)

Please vote for pizza.witness!

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Forced out a little later than normal came with resounding surprise results, what a lovely sighting!

Birds as you mentioned not seen often, low lighting obviously the time of day they move!

@tipu curate

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(Edited)

Thank you Lady Joan and already had 2 power cuts this morning. 2 more to come today.

Clicked the time at 6:30 that they move and will go back there to see what else is to be found. There are many reeds and a flock of young red bishops are also around.

Thank you kindly for the tip 🙏

!LUV
!LOLZ
!PIZZA

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Our power goes for scheduled then hope and pray none of the circuits go down when switching on, as happens all too often....

Birds were having an absolute party this morning during loadshedding catching flying ants once again, we are saturated after 3 days straight rains again....

!LOLZ with !LUV and !PIZZA for dinner (actually spaghetti)!

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That is bad and thankfully it only happened once here and then we were out for 5 hours. The system was not built for regular on and off switches and so the transformers simply blow up.

So great to see birds having a party with flying ants and hope that you got some on camera?
Rather saturated (not flooding) than dry and very hot days methinks.

!LOLZ
!LUV
!PIZZA

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System never built for the loads demanded today, switching off was never heard of everything was built with pride.

Birds were squabbling over the rising ants, did not take video with the speed they were doing, hopefully some nice captures...., yet to look!

Just out of daily loadshedding... black out, power outage whatever they wish to call it now.

!LUV
!WINEX

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Everything is falling apart my friend. Electricity, roads, hospitals, municipalities and then we read of billions that was stolen.

Black outs indeed, as I have always called them that 😡

!LUV
!WINEX

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Lets list a couple from over the year, about time following the money trail led to convictions....

South Africa lost R1.5 trillion through corruption in just years between 2014 and 2019 - News24
A staggering R8.5 billion worth of vehicles are stolen and hijacked in SA annually - Tracker SA
3 trillion, 94% of contracts investigated at Passenger Rail Agency of SA (Prasa) were found to be irregular or corrupt, R50 billion was fire- ... MoneyWeb

That is the tip of the iceberg, now wanting to "Go Green Technology" I see another Kimberly hole where another handful are waiting in the wings to rape some more. Don't even mention rape in this country is is/has been raped from top to bottom with no discrimination in between.

!PIZZA

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Such a sad reading and imagine how that stolen money could have helped the people in the country.
Instead they are left in squalor, while the thief's feast.

!PIZZA

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Dear @papilloncharity , it is a great blessing that you can count on this small estancia, with a beautiful river included, which gives you from time to time always pleasant surprises like the birds Grey-winged Francolins.

The camera, your inseparable companion, as always knew how to read your instinct and did a great job despite the scarcity of light you were facing.

It's fascinating all the nature stories you can tell through photography!
.

I hope that this Christmas I can also give you a new experience with the natural beauties of your land.

¡Happy Holidays!


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Thank you and I have to compliment you on the design of your comments.
It is wonderful to read and to see your kindness. Bravo!

Thank you also for the compliments and the wishes.

!PIZZA !LUV !LOLZ

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No!, thank you very much for giving us the opportunity to get to know the natural and cultural diversity of your beautiful land.

A big hug!


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I am passionate about nature and we live between the mountains and the ocean. They supply me with constant photo opportunities.
So it is a pleasure to share my passion and a big hug also to you!

!PIZZA

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I had the Guinea fowls three years ago. They are so beautiful and I like them so much. But they cry very loudly and my neighbours were against them (

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Great that you also had some and we have tons of them here in the wild.
Ours only cry out loud when they are threatened.

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Aaawwwww cuteness overload 🥰😊 how wonderful you saw all of them. That’s a rare sight!
Thanks for sharing these amazing captures with us Zac 👋🏻😊

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Thank you and the Francolins, especially with their babies are indeed a very rare sight.
I couldn't believe my eyes 😲

My pleasure to share Jackie!

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So beautiful Zac, you are welcome.

Thanks a lot. Have a wonderful evening and enjoy the week further! 👋🏻😊
!PIZZA

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Thank you Jackie!

!PIZZA

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