Male Pin-Tailed Sandgrouse (Pterocles alchata)
Hi again!!
We are in the middle of a nasty heat wave and the truth is that every living creature seems to be bearing the high temperatures as good as they can, even plants look tired, turning the green bright colours they wore a couple of weeks ago into yellow and brownish tones.
The good news is that this spring has been extremely wet, so, although the temperatures are above 38ยบ C during most of the day, there are still small spots of water in places where they don´t usually exist, but things change quickly in these extreme conditions turning a tennis court sized pond into a small poodle of mud in two days.
This more or less is what has happened where I took the pictures in this post. Two days ago, you could even find Netterjack Toad (Epidalea calamita) tadpoles in one of the temporary ponds that rain creates in "my little eden" (see same titled post). Everytime I visited the pond throughout the day, I was able to see different species of birds, but always amid these species I could find Sandgrouses (Pterocles spp.). Sometimes Pin Tailed ones (Pterocles alchata) other times black Bellied ones (Pterocles orientalis).
Pin Tailed and Black Bellied Sandgrouse prints, notice that they only mark three fingers.
So, my decision was made; in two days time, I was going to bring the camera and I was going to try to be lucky enough to take a few pictures, even if they are only flying grouses pictures, for these birds are extremely cautious and unless you have a good photography kit, which I don´t have, you can say goodbye to sandgrouses "sanding on sand" (bad joke, I know).
After two days, when I arrived at the pond, it was just a little poodle of mud !!
But guess who appeared there fluttering their wings, crying and leaving like crazy... yes, sandgrouses.
Obviously, I had no time to take any picture, so I decided to spend (what a beautiful way to spend time) the day just walking around and watching how the landscape had changed in just a couple of days.
After a few hours, when I could feel a storm was forming, I decided to leave and, as I passed again along the poodle of mud, I saw what seemed to be a couple of partridges in the middle of a crop field. I turned into predator mode and got as close as I could get to them, just to realize that the partridges weren´t what I thought...they where Pin Tailed Sangrouses and they were close enough to be photographed!!
Strange partridges aren´t they?
It´s in these situations when I really come to realize what a bad photographer I am. But hey, in the end what are pictures but a cheap way to catch magical moments?
Same couple.
As I was there, two more appeared flying, and I chose to stay still and wait for a good chance to see them rather than trying a good flying picture which would probably end with a warning call from them, a quick escape from the other couple and another bad picture taken. I managed to catch another pic:
Another couple!
How can these birds survive in such tough conditions?, and most of all, How can their chicks survive with no water?
At this point just a biology tip: Sandgrouses nest in very dry areas, where temperatures reach very high numbers and they usually nest fairly away from water areas (maybe a way to protect themselves from predators or at least to reduce the possible species of them), so, again, How do their chicks survive?
Here comes the magic:
Sandgrouses fly to water areas, they wet their special breast feathers, which are unique among the rest of the bird species, and they load themselves with water. Then, they fly to where the chicks are and they "breast feed" them with water. This plus the fact that chicks and adults look like a piece of land when they are not moving, helps them with the predator problem, allowing them to live in areas where very few animals can.
The first couple again.
After like 30 minutes of watching them, I crawled back to a place where they couldn't see me and got back to where the car was and left home, leaving the birds there without knowing I had been there.
Oh!, by the way, three hours later, a great storm took place.
Good thing I decided to leave.
