Sunny Afternoon and the 'Chukarling'. 18 May

Chukar chick

Today we went out early.. 3 p.m. lovely clear skies, light winds, humidity dropped to about 30% and temperatures in the pleasant warm upper 20s celsius.

Sunbirds, calling in the garden and from the cape honeysuckle by our entrance.
Graceful warblers chiming noisily in the grasses just about everywhere.
Feral pigeons in flocks and foraging on the ground. They've taken to scavenging outside the pumping station.. husband theorizes that when the garbage truck comes to collect from a hopper down there it may drop some crumbs for them.
There's a patch of ground just outside a fence across the road where some people throw a load of breadcrumbs regularly.. it's usually haunted by a small flock of house sparrows and several pairs of Senegal doves.
Across the valley and above the hill to the east two Hooded crows were harassing a Buteo intensely. I had no idea from this distance what kind it was. One crow attacked the larger bird repeatedly while its mate glided back and forth lower.

(I stay with Buteo since in the U.K. birds in this genus are known as 'buzzards' but buzzards are something quite different in the U.S. Birds in the Buteo genus in the U.S. are known as 'hawks' but in the U.K. this word is usually used for the smaller hawks in the genus Accipiter. )

Chukar Partridge crossing the dry creek trail. Others probably around. At this time of year it's not unusual to see mom, dad and up to fourteen chukarlings. O.K. I made that word up;) The female will lay a clutch of eggs, let the male sit on them and take care of the brood then with hardly any delay go and lay another clutch and take care of that second brood. Then they pool the chicks, which can walk around pretty soon after hatching. My 11 yr old son found a tiny 'chukarling' a few weeks ago, I think it imprinted on him but he could not be available for it 24/7. Sadly, despite all our efforts and all my previous experience (in pet bird breeding and chick rearing of about half a dozen different species), it didn't thrive :(

Unlike domestic chickens, chukar chicks need a lot of live food, sawfly larvae, tiny green caterpillars, that kind of thing, and they also need the stimulus of other chicks feeding at the same time. Also, unlike fledgelings of songbirds, chicks even this age can feed themselves. Though we added protein to his feed (chukars need about 25% protein) he didn't seem to want to feed himself though he showed no signs of illness. (and there are limits to how much you can use gentle persuasion such as fingers, droppers and such) ::sigh:: we tried.

I teach my kids to leave fledgelings and chicks where they're found, (This is the standard advice of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds of which I was a member for many years) The parents are usually not far away, though often out of sight, and do a better job of taking care of the young than we would. Unlike mammals, our scent on them would not cause the parents to reject them, but they certainly should not be brought home. In this case however, my son found him wandering completely alone and disconnected from his family, up the road and into our neighbourhood. Perhaps a cat or something split them up.

Well, the situation did prompt me to put my yearly reminder on our neighbourhood e mail list to leave fledgelings well alone.

Chukars are abundant but protected birds at the present time.

We also saw and heard Collared doves, Greenfinches, Syrian woodpecker, (alarm)
a Eurasian Jay must have been uncomfortably close to a blackbird family because we heard the shrill alarm of blackbirds close to Jay activity.