On our way back from the airport and I saw something in the distance.
A friend asked us to take him to our airport this morning as he is flying off to Nigeria to go and manage some road working crews.
We didn't linger around after dropping him and returned back home. On our way back there was this beautiful surprise waiting for us at a distance from the highway.
Come and see.
The beautiful Table Mountain below said good-bye to us on our way back home, as we had to take a left turn to get on the highway.
A couple of kilometers along, I saw something in that yellow stretch of land and I pulled the car to the left off the road to stop. Emergency flashers on of course, although I stopped on the grass siding well clear off the road away from the speeding cars.
Yep! That's what I saw! A pair of Blue Crane birds (Grus paradisea).
The blue crane (Grus paradisea), also known as the Stanley crane and the paradise crane, is the national bird of South Africa. The species is listed as Vulnerable by the IUCN.
While it remains common in parts of its historic range, and approx. 26 000 individuals remain, it began a sudden population decline from around 1980 and is now classified as vulnerable.
In the last two decades, the blue crane has largely disappeared from the Eastern Cape, Lesotho, and Swaziland. The population in the northern Free State, Limpopo, Gauteng, Mpumalanga and North West Province has declined by up to 90%. The majority of the remaining population is in eastern and southern South Africa, with a small and separate population in the Etosha Pan of northern Namibia. Occasionally, isolated breeding pairs are found in five neighbouring countries.
The primary causes of the sudden decline of the blue crane are human population growth, the conversion of grasslands into commercial tree plantations, and poisoning: deliberate (to protect crops) or accidental (baits intended for other species, and as a side-effect of crop dusting).
Source
Our national bird, also printed on our coins and as you saw above, they are now endangered. The question is how many more bird species and animals will disappear that our children's children will not see. All because of the "progress" of mankind.
I was blessed to get this couple this morning and we also saw them last year in another area. There are some caring farmers that allow the blue cranes on their properties and one can only hope that their numbers will increase.
Such is the life of the lovely blue cranes.
And That's All Friends!
Photos by Zac Smith-All Rights Reserved.
Camera: Canon Powershot SX70HS (New) Digital Bridge camera.
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