Camo Bird

Yay Friday, can a chance to take a walk just to get away from the stressful week. Yay it is over but yet I still feel that it is not over. Just take a walk down into the gorge. On the way back walking through the burnt ridge I stopped our resident spotted thick knee pair. River Song did not even see them as their camouflage is that good even against the black burnt veldt. 

Can you see it?

Can you see the bird hidden among the rocky ground? Clue: It is slap in the middle of the photo. The Spotted Dikkop or Thick-knee is well camouflaged in the rocky Protea Forest veldt outside my home. There is a breeding pair not far into the trees and I am trying to keep my cats away from the area but I am sure these ground birds will be able to take care of a cat as I once have seen their cousins, the Water Dikkops dive bomb my Italian Greyhounds when they came too near their nest, not to the dogs delight. Okay here are some close-ups of the Dikkop.

These are quite clever little birds, as they tend to try lead you away from their nest, which is usually just a shallow scrape in the sand and their eggs look like tiny pebbles. They are the perfect first line of my perimeter defence of my home as if anything moves in the veldt at night, you hear this shrill ti-ti-ti-ti-tee-tee-teee-teeee. Below is an easier can you spot the pair of spotted dikkops?