They screamed us awake last night.

And the only reason is that we think that a cat was around.

She must have been on a nest close by, when the cat arrived.

The spotted thick-knee (Burhinus capensis), also known as the spotted dikkop or Cape thick-knee, is a wader in the family Burhinidae. It is native to tropical regions of central and southern Africa.
The spotted thick-knee is nocturnal and squats on the ground during the daytime, making it difficult to spot. It hunts exclusively on the ground, feeding on insects, small mammals and lizards.

It nests on the ground, lining a scrape with grasses, feathers, pebbles and twigs. The female typically lays two eggs, and males and females rear the offspring together, with both bringing food back to the nest. The birds will defend the nest and adopt a defensive pose with wings spread and tail cocked and will even peck an intruder. Sometimes they will fake injuries to lead predators away from the nest.

Source

It looked like her right wing was damaged.

Here is a closer look at the wing.

And still a closer look.

The male sauntered over, and he had a lot of attitude.

And then he stopped to give me a look, as if I had anything to do with it last night.

See that look, not very impressed with me.

He even ruffled his feathers to show me that he was uptight.

He seemed to say, So, what are you going to do about it?

Nothing we could do, but we did see a big black cat strolling around the gardens earlier in the day. The lady next door also told us that she saw the cat, as the bird screams also woke her up. These are nocturnal birds which means that they sleep in the day, and they are active at night. That's why it was so strange to see them around in the day, but I think that they were worried about their nest. We felt so sorry for them, as they must have had no sleep, but there was seriously nothing that we could do about it. I don't know where their nest, and I don't want to get them more upset by going to look for it. So, the best was to leave them alone and let nature take its course. However, we will keep an eye out for that cat.

I hope you enjoyed the pictures and the story.

Photos by Zac Smith-All Rights Reserved.

Camera: Canon PowershotSX70HS Bridge camera.

Thank you kindly for supporting this post.