Monday, May 17, 2010

Today's treat, and what you see today may not be here next season.

 My header is made up from 3 photos,  and not meant to confuse people, all 3 photos where taken on the same day. while sorting the photos out for different blog posts  I noticed all three had the same colour in them so it made for an easier subject in photo shop.

 the only thing I do with my photos on the blogspots is downsize and sometimes crop. I will give you a for instance on the first photo .

and crop the nearest squacco heron.

even though that photo was taken purposely to show the Nile in flood not the bird, if i wanted a photo just of the bird I would have focused the zoom lens and zoom on the bird itself.and getting a shot like this after cropping at the same range, this bird is actually the same left side bird in the first photo just after she caught the fish.

 Please take no notice of my ranting on about pollution  no one else does.
just enjoy what you see today  tomorrow they will not be here, and that is fact.
All the birds  featured on today's blog are on the  http://birdinginegypt.blogspot.com/

I went to what used to be my place of quiet last year,  this place has been butchered by the powers that be here in Luxor.. gone are the palm, banana and the favorite trees of the birds the fever trees there is 3 date palm left and this is where I sat for half an hour in the shade taking photos today, thankfully we have lazy workers in Luxor and a few branches and one tree that came down the Nile embankment have been left and the birds make full use of them,    first the photos of the view with the mountains of Thebes in the background looking across the Nile river from what was banana island , its no more an Island as most of the reed beds have been filled in by this greedy thieving council with help from the 300 million sterling they received for the once Crocodile island, Jolie Ville Maritem hotels,I say polluters of the Nile, have now changed the name to Kings Island, your guess will be as good as mine as to why, doubt if any king has stepped foot on that Island unless Dr Samir Fawak head of Luxor has promoted himself to king of Luxor. certainly acts as if he is stealing all the peoples land, then using it as a dumping ground so he can add more pollution to the Nile River see my website ,  

ALL the next shots are from where I sat under the tree  and slowly the wildlife started coming closer .
 if I moved  a muscle  the birds flew off  and yet across the inlet they where  bathing kids playing with boats lots of noise. but me who had some interest in the life  had to sit still.


Across to what was  the inlet  the carriage owners bring the horses for a mid day swim . those that treat the horses well that is  not many of  Egypt's working animals get treated like this,
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The little white egret  Squacco heron and pied Kingfishers use this dead branch as a fishing post  
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 Last year there was as many as a hundred  herons just in this one place  today I counted 20  herons in the whole of the inlet. gone are most of the kingfishers  last year they stayed  after the young were raised I only saw one pair with one fledgling a few weeks ago there was more than 30 k f birds here,  http://birdinginegypt.blogspot.com/2010/04/fishing-on-nile.html
They need trees  and branches to rest on 
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These fish are only a few inches in the water 
The nile is rising and in full flood  but the water is rancid people have to bathe And  drink  this polluted water.
 
First time I have seen a pied kingfisher miss its catch  maybe it was hot and went for a dunk?
 
 sparrows and bee eaters on a branch some 50ft away the stayed for about 15 minutes  catching flies bees whatever there was in the air,
 
one caught this  dragon fly as it  took off  not 5 ft from me. 
A police patrol boat rushes by  I know why  but I was staying where I was.
Then this felucca past,  no doubt the captain is a bit lighter in the pocket after being stopped by the police, but thats OK the tourists will pay for his loss.
 And a bag full of rubbish from one of the cruisers is heading for Cairo.
 .
The bee eaters are the Blue-cheeked bee eaters only  in these parts for a few months 
click on to see 
 .
 Ahmed with his biggest net catch of the season  he knows that next year this land will have a new road across, the inlet   all that we see today will be gone forever,
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I am yet to photograph one of these Live.
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From where I am sitting by the Nile This is all that is left of the reed beds that went 5 kilometers  around the Island 
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the land is being cleared to make way for gamal mubarak to make another fortune building another hotel/
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This little baby white egret has most likely fallen out of the heronry  unable to fly it will not servive the day. especially if it goes near the polluted ponds, in the next photo.
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 and I will leave you with  another photo for my Nile pollution page that is on  myegypt.co.uk website
 5 bags of rubbish from the cruisers, plus another several I saw floating past.
 there are no berths on the actual flow of the river from here to Aswan so these bags have been dumped from a moving cruise boat, most likely the same time as they dumped the sewage into the Nile.
 photos do not lie.
 

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