Quelea phenomenon
Monday 13th September, 2004Sorry it is just bird photos today, but
I was just so overawed by the sight of these Quelea (Quelea quelea)
that I had to try to do something to do justice to their numbers !
In this first photo, what looks like a swarm stretching from the lower left horizon across to the right side is one of at least 20 such rivers of birds we saw this one evening. Some were a mile or two away, while others .....
.... flew directly overhead. Literally darkening the skies with their numbers. The noise of their flying overhead was incredible, both the combined wings of thousands of birds flying a full speed, and their twittering, was something I will not forget to my dying day. It was truly a remarkable event to experience.
This shot I zoomed in to the fullest extent, but I really couldn't do their flight justice.
A few days later I was able to capture a number cavorting at the little water-hole, so included these shots now to give some context to the previous mass flight shots.
Tomorrow I will go back to a general coverage of the trip, and other animals, from 3rd Bridge to Khwai and our meeting with the 3 party in our group who were to join us there.
[Complete Safari and wildlife photo index]
In this first photo, what looks like a swarm stretching from the lower left horizon across to the right side is one of at least 20 such rivers of birds we saw this one evening. Some were a mile or two away, while others .....
.... flew directly overhead. Literally darkening the skies with their numbers. The noise of their flying overhead was incredible, both the combined wings of thousands of birds flying a full speed, and their twittering, was something I will not forget to my dying day. It was truly a remarkable event to experience.
This shot I zoomed in to the fullest extent, but I really couldn't do their flight justice.
A few days later I was able to capture a number cavorting at the little water-hole, so included these shots now to give some context to the previous mass flight shots.
Tomorrow I will go back to a general coverage of the trip, and other animals, from 3rd Bridge to Khwai and our meeting with the 3 party in our group who were to join us there.
[Complete Safari and wildlife photo index]
