Glimpse of a bygone era In the dog box Coming alive Eye-opener

• Date: 03 December 2020
• Published date: 03 December 2020
• Publication title: Constantiaberg Bulletin

What did she think killed it? "Perhaps it was a squirrel… they are tree-rats and can be quite nasty... or maybe it was a crow. Clearly the adult hadeda wanted the dead chick out of the nest."

Hearing that she was now focused on seeing an African goshawk spotted in the area, I hauled out our well-thumbed copy of Roberts Birds of South Africa to find a coloured plate of this bird painted in flight by Norman C.K. Lighton for the 1981 edition. Although frequently visible in wooded areas and mountain forests, this "extremely bold bird has come into heavily built-up suburbs of large towns and is very rapacious. It is a menace to poultry".

I have never seen this bird, but I might well have heard it as it has the habit early in the morning to circle high up and make clicking notes every three to six seconds, which it can keep up for half an hour. I've often wondered what bird it was clicking away so high in the sky but now thanks to Austin Roberts I think I now know.

Roberts died in a car accident in the Transkei...