adult hadeda ibis

- a common silly joke around JHB, presuming one has heard the shrieks of 'ha-ha-HA-DE-dah'...
why do hadedah's shriek? Because they are scared of heights, so they are yelling 'where-the-F*CK-ARE-we'....

confusion reigns even more

what can I say. Dude collected posessions on friday, I have howled for 4 days solid, even while I did a 200 km round trip to pick up a small duiker (alsation sized buck)that had been hit by a car - but was pretty damn feisty nonetheless - and deliver him to our antelope-specialist vet.

Today he appeared out of the blue for 'coffee'. He had it. I am even more of a wreck than I have been for the last couple of weeks. Posts on either/both blogs to follow, once I have found where I mistakenly left my brain. Cos it sure as heck ain't with me today...

google search: why don't you find baby hadeda ibises

given their domination over JHB skies - especially at sunrise (!!) - a good question. Answer is because they mostly nest really high in very big trees, so any babies that fall before they fledge (and can therefore at least glide, even if not fly properly) are pretty dead by ground-impact time.

I wonder why more little (well, comparatively, at least) bodies aren't found, but my guess is that they are often confused with semi-adult pigeons. We get an awful lot of baby pigeons that are thought to be hadedas. And the rest are probably eaten by dogs etc.

But baby hadedas are really cute - picture an adult reduced in size to about a quarter, with fluff instead of feathers, and a beak of an inch or two in length. The pic is of a fledgling, so already has feathers and is quite a bit bigger

so the dudeblog is effectively dead

no reason for a dude blog without a dude, is there. Keeping it at the moment so that I can go back and torment myself late at night with it - cant work out how to copy it all formatted etc to anywhere else.

so friday two weeks ago I did the ultimatum/end the damn thing bit. Didn't see him till tues when he just arrived, said no decisions yet, and we were in bed before the kettle had even boiled. Lots of time and chat for the rest of the week, till eventually on tues I said that he needs to talk.

He did. I cannot remember a word of what he said, although I am trying desperately to recall it. Basically? Over. Gave back his keys to my house, some stuff still to exchange. I knew when I did the choice thing what he would have to choose, but it was the only way I could walk away from him. Even after that, he was still surprised by not being able to keep seeing me anyway as friends. I'm not his friend. I love him. I can't do casual anymore..

I am cold and numb and dead inside. Only wish that the deadness could get to the rest of me.