An untidy flock of hadedas flew over this morning. There must have been 30 of them, the largest group I have ever seen, which means that breeding is successful and we can anticipate an enormous increase in the population. They migrated from the Eastern and Southern Cape, apparently as a result of the proliferation of golf estates along the coastline. Their preferred foraging area is a nice clear piece of ground with lots of bugs and worms, which the fairways of golf courses provide in ample acreage.
On reaching the Cape, they must have thought they were in paradise, but as golf courses close down due to lack of membership or through the maintenance costs being prohibitively expensive and not capable of being covered by membership fees, and open fields shrinking to the point of non-existence due to another type of migration, these birds are now resorting to inhabiting urban gardens.
I often leap a foot off the ground when I round a corner and a hadeda flaps squawking from behind the shrubbery. It's enough to give me heart failure. The dogs have given up chasing them because they probably find that huge beak too intimidating (quite apart from Susie not being able to see them anymore) and so they are able to forage unhindered. There can surely not be an earthworm left in my garden or those blind worms that give me the heebies when I dig them up with a garden fork and they writhe as if in agony as they hurriedly bury themselves again. I can't say I will miss those, as I have always had a fear that I will chop them in half with a spade because they are underground - ugh! But if they get rid of cut worms and snails they may stay.
It is said that the hadeda's raucous call is linked to a fear of flying and certainly if you observe their random and untidy flight, it is not beyond the bounds of belief!
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