The Killer has Landed!
He arrived, circling above the gardens in our complex!
This is not an ordinary eagle or falcon, as it is known as a "Gymnogene", a name given because of his double jointed knees. One of only two raptor bird species that can climb trees.
His modern name is the "Harrier Hawk" and although he is beautiful, he is also highly dangerous!
Look at this adventure today!
The warning calls of the Egyptian geese alerted me to a danger and I rushed outside!
Not too soon, as here the gymnogene landed in a tree on a neighbor's property!
Searching in a tree where he must have spotted one of the new young squirrels!
This is what he was looking for, but this young one was safely in our own garden.
This guy is very hungry due to the rain and he was determined to find something to eat!
The male goose took off to attack him and I also rushed towards the property where the tree is!
Now this gate has not been opened for a very long time so I climbed in a great hurry over the wall!
But I was too late as the goose had scared the hawk off and there he goes!
Flying away to search somewhere else for a meal!
The hawk is going to struggle to find something in this weather and as long as he doesn't find it here all is well.
We are so thankful to have the Egyptian geese as our watch dogs Lol.
Here's more information about the Gymnogene!
"The African harrier-hawk, harrier hawk, or gymnogene (Polyboroides typus) is a bird of prey. It breeds in most of Africa south of the Sahara. The only other member of the genus is the allopatric Madagascan harrier-hawk (Polyboroides radiatus)".
"The African harrier-hawk is omnivorous, eating the fruit of the oil palm as well as hunting small vertebrates. Its ability to climb, using wings as well as feet, and its long double-jointed legs, enable this bird to raid the nests of cavity-nesters such as barbets and woodhoopoes for eggs and nestlings".
"It has been known to prey on introduced species such as feral pigeons, house sparrows and eastern gray squirrels".
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_harrier-hawk
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You're so fortunate seeing the Harrier Hawk so close but thank goodness it did not catch its prey close to your house! They are magnificent birds!
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Magnificent birds indeed Lady Lizelle, but thankfully between the geese and I we managed to scare him off. He will be around again no doubt as he has seen the young squirrels, but we will keep a watch.
Blessings and thank you my friend!
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WOW awesome shots but climbing over that gate is perhaps even more impressive :)
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Hahaha, desperate times call for desperate actions my friend.
Blessings and thank you!
LO that they do, I know I think I wouldn't with my bad knees, but I kind of know I would do it myself in a similar situation LOL
Blessings
Hahaha, that's why they call us the crazy's my friend!
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Being normal all the time is so over rated I think
Hahaha, I don't think that we belong to the normal club my friend Lol.
LOL I do think you are right but looking at some people who consider themselves normal I do not want to be in that club
Cheers to that my friend!
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You are a clown sometimes, but thankfully a good clown hahaha
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That gymnogene looks like a killer! Wow. Glad all your friends were safe and I hope the falcon found his lunch elsewhere! !Tip
A beautiful bird Lady Melinda, but yeah, he won't eat our squirrels Lol
We have two new summer arrivals over here and I am sure that you are going to like them. Ever heard of an "African Paradise Flycatcher"?
I was amazed as my first time to see them.
Blessings and thank you for the tip!
I will look forward to seeing it! Just the name alone sounds magical!
Santa Claus jumped in the way with yesterday's post Lady Melinda and I will do the paradise fly catcher today.(Saturday)
Hope that all is well at your side.
Blessings!
Ha! This the season for Santa! 🎄🎅🎄
Hahaha, oh yeah, Santa's popping out everywhere one looks my friend.
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wow beautiful photographs of flying harrier-hawk. Thanks for share with us.
Glad that you liked the Harrier Hawk my friend.
Blessings and thank you!
I did some ops in some of the remotest parts of Asia where they use geese like we use guard dogs!
Nasty buggers, indeed!
In lak'ech, JaiChai
Hahaha, there are also some farmers here that have flocks of geese guarding their properties my friend.
During a visit one has to be very careful when you step out of your car Lol
Blessings!
Beautiful shots of the hawk!
I'm glad you had the goose as a watch dog too! It would be so sad to see it take some of your, almost pet, squirrels!
Is that a rare sighting or are they fairly common in your part of the world?
Thank you and their is a family of three that live around these parts my friend. I have seen them off and on and everyone is talking about them, warning others with small pets such as kittens and such.
It is so good to have the Egyptian geese around.
Blessings!
Howdy sir papilloncharity! It's interesting that the goose is able to scare away a big hawk!
Those geese are known in the animal kingdom as fierce fighters Sir @janton. Even the bigger house cats are scared of them!
That's pretty impressive considering they have no sharp beaks or talons!
So true and yet they attack fearlessly Sir @janton.
Blessings!
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Amazing looking hawk photos. I never heard of one like this. Your geese are wonderful and able to chase him off before he caught the squirrel.
Thank you Lady Jo, nature certainly holds many miracle animals.
Imagine having "double jointed" knees.
Between the geese and the pied crows they keep this area safe.
The geese do the job on the ground and the crows attack the intruders in the sky.
Blessings!
Ooo... that looks like a big eagle! Nice photos I must say!
Thank you and oh yes, he is a big guy.
Glad that uou liked the post my friend.
Blessings and thank you!