Avian antics

The hadedahs have become firmly established in the Cape Peninsula – an unwelcome species with their raucous shouts startling you as they come in to land on your lawn or roost in a nearby tree. Even worse, they emit vast quantities of poop which splatters on the walls of the house, leaving it looking like the revenge of the kids who didn’t get sweets at Halloween.

They remind me of the dodos in that endearing movie, Ice Age, perhaps because of the senseless squawking when they’re gathered together. A small flock has now established a breeding site in the milkwoods nearby. They are cousins of the elegant and infinitely quieter sacred ibis, who fly over my house twice a day.

This evening as I took my customary walk along the seafront, the swoosh of wings made me look up as a small group of sacred ibis passed overhead. I was astonished to see a hadedah third from the front on the left-hand side. Being a bigger bird, he soon overtook the others and found himself in the front. I can only imagine what went through his mind: “Hey, guys! Look at me! I’m in front! Where are we going?”

Suddenly, you could see confusion in the ranks. The ibises wanted to go right and the hadedah wanted to go left. He had just remembered that he lived in Kommetjie and didn’t have to fly over the bay to his night roost. The v-formation collapsed in disarray as their erstwhile leader took a short left, then gave themselves a visible shake before regrouping into organised lines and resuming the homeward flight.

What an amazing thing to witness, even more so because hadedahs don’t fly in v-formation. He must have been sucked into the slipstream when they passed him by.