Cape Town Guinea Fowl

[Gill-b]

I've tried uploading videos to the gallery. They have to get approved and will not link directly to the post like the YouTube ones do.

Ah, okay, good to know. Thank you.

 

[Gill-b]

Giving chase to one of the youngsters.

 

[Gill-b]

It is predicted that we will get our first snow for this year over the coming weekend, so the Guinea Fowl are in for some very cold mornings.

A map of South Africa showing the snow prediction for the weekend. The top arrow, which I placed on the map for you, indicates very roughly where our neighbourhood area is located.

We do not get snow on the ground in our neighbourhood area, but we can see the snow on the mountain peaks of Hottentots Holland Mountain range from, and to the East of, our house. It is a somewhat rare occurance, but it does snow on Table Mountain (which we see looking to the West of our house) - perhaps blanketing it once or twice every 2nd or 3rd year.

A HaPpY 4th of July to all my Backyard Chickens' American peeps. Hope you have a warm and wonderful day.

 

[Gill-b]

The predicted storm hit us at around midnight, Saturday night - Sunday morning. There was lighting and thunder with wind speeds progressively getting stronger. Sunday morning there was no sign of any of the Guinea Fowl. In our area the wind reached speeds of 45km (about 28 miles) per hour, and there was continuous rain during the day with hail in the afternoon. There was more thunder and lighting during last night and I woke up wondering if the Guineas would be absent again today.

It was a relief when they did show up; and they were wet and VERY hungry!! So I gave the garden birds a double ration. Both Two-toes and Hop-a-long made it and they were in the first flock of 20+ Guineas to arrive. Another flock of 15+ Guinea Fowl showed up about half an hour after the first had left. This is the first time that two different, relatively large flocks came here on the same day.

Dark morning with dark clouds.

Just a bit of morning sun making it through the clouds.

"It's raining!" The camera on my mobile caught some of the rain drops as the light from the flash reflected on them.

 

[Gill-b]

...and they have another week of rain to weather. Please wish them luck.

 

[Gill-b]

Woke up to a blustering day and the Guinea Fowl looked totally feather ruffled. The wind speed is at 54km (about 33.5 miles) and everything, trees and all, including me, is struggling to stand outside in one spot.

All the regulars where here in one flock. The arrow on the left is pointing at Hop-a-long and the arrow on the right is pointing at Two-toes (if you enlarge the picture you might just make out the white toes). The Guinea that is unable to place its foot flat when it walks came hobbling along from around the corner a few minutes after I took this above photograph.

This picture above shows Hop-a-long on the right. I also put out the cooked rice left over from last night's dinner. I just want to double check that it is okay to feed them that? The other garden birds love it.

The wind "lifting their skirts" and blowing them in the wrong direction when they are forced across the street.

I did not get a photo of it but there was a Guinea Fowl on the pitch of my roof being forced by the wind to act like a weather vane. The poor thing was blown this way and that! I am ashamed to say that I could not help laughing at the sight of it.

Anyways, I am staying indoors for the rest of the day. Hope you are having a good one.

 

[Gill-b]

Well, it is STILL raining here.

It has been raining for seven days straight with only short breaks between cloud bursts. We have had cyclone warnings from the media; with more rain predicted for this coming week. My garden is flooded for the first time since I have lived here, which is nothing compared to the flooding happening in parts of the country causing damage and road closures.

The Guineas are making an appearance, but erratically and in mixed up flocks, as if they break apart and then gather in different combinations; so I have up to three different flocks visit me at any given time on any given day with different member combinations... if that makes sense?

In this above photograph is: Hop-a-long in the middle, and Two-toes on the right. You can see more clearly the two white toes and the four white claws. Notice the wind blowing the Guinea on the far left.

Only Hop-a-long showed up yesterday, all on its own, so it had a really good helping of food. I stayed crouched down next to it, in the rain, while it ate and we had a bit of a "chat".

I am expecting a decrease in the Guinea Fowl numbers by the end of winter, but I am rooting for my favourite "upderdogs". Please wish them luck too.

 

[Gill-b]

I went through the few videos of the Guinea Fowl that I have been taking with my new mobile phone. I found some interesting moments, of which I captured some single frames for a better study of the scene.
Take a look at this example of Guinea chasing and feather pulling...

If you enlarge the image and take a closer look at the top middle picture, you can see at least one feather in the Guinea Fowl's beak.

(I thought of you when seeing this, @R2elk , and of each time I see one of your posts explaining to someone new to Guinea Fowl that Guineas behave differently to chickens.)

 

[Evadig]

This is really neat; I didn't know Guinea Fowl were wild over there! It looks nice where you live @Gill-b. I wish we could get some of your rain; here we're having a drought - it hasn't rained for a few weeks.

 

[Gill-b]

I didn't know Guinea Fowl were wild over there!

Yip, Africa is their continent of origin. Guinea Fowl are indigenous (occurring naturally) to Africa; and rank among the oldest of the gallinaceous birds (heavy-bodied ground-feeders that includes chickens, turkeys, quail and other landfowl, but not waterfowl). In South Africa the Helmeted Guinea Fowl are abundant in virtually all open-country terrain, which makes them a common sight. Here where I live in Cape Town, they are considered more as garden birds than wild birds, since they forage and nest in our yards.