Giants Castle Vulture Hide South Africa
Giants Castle Bearded Vulture hide, also known as the “Lammergeyer hide”. It is very popular and has to be booked well in advance. Bookings open in November every year. It is located in the Giants Castle Nature reserve in the Central Drakensberg Mountains, Kwa-Zulu Natal Province, South Africa.
It offers unsurpassed opportunities to photograph the endangered Bearded Vulture, also called the “Lammergeyer” and Cape Vulture. Other birds at the vulture hide to be seen are eagles, ravens and a variety of buzzards.
The well camouflaged vulture hide is on top of one of the ridges, and is built into a rock face. You need a 4×4 vehicle to get to the top. We were three people visiting the hide in mid-September. Every morning, we had to collected a bucket of bones at the Giants Castle Hotel. We used to put out the bones on the edge of the cliffs in front of the hide.
As it was still very cold, one have to be equipped with a warm clothing. Geared with a big flask of coffee and snacks, the big wait started. The landscape of this area is breath taking. Annette celebrated her birthday spoiling herself with a frisk morning hike. Kobus, our friend and I, were waiting for the birds to arrive, whilst having some hot coffee. The personnel at the hotel have included a picnic lunch pack for us for every day. We left too early to the hide, to have breakfast at the hotel it self .
Giants Castle Vulture Hide
For the first few hours, the only visitors that we had were Ravens and Red Wing Starlings. We had our first sighting of Cape Vultures, when they circled the hide several times a bit later during the morning. Later on, they were joined by a juvenile Bearded Vulture, that glided graciously past the hide several times. It was only later in the afternoon, that we had our first sighting. An adult Bearded Vulture, circling around the hide. It is truly a majestic big bird. The ravens are very active, and we took some good acrobatic pictures of these birds.
The Cape Vulture also known as the Cape Griffon and in Afrikaans it is called “Kransaasvoël”. An Old-World vulture and endemic to Southern Africa. It is also one of the largest vultures in Southern Africa, with an average length of up to 115 cm and wingspan of up to 2.6 meters. It’s color is a creamy-buff with dark flight and tail feathers. They are normally the first to land at the hide. Once they have landed, changes for the bearded vulture to land are much better.
These birds are one of the largest vulture species, has an average length of up to 125 cm and a wingspan of up to 2.8 meters. It is reddish yellow or white plumage on the head and breast with grey tail and wings. They are characterized by its long, narrow wings, elongated body shape, and long, wedge-shaped tail.
Bearded Vulture
Adult Bearded Vultures have the distinguished black strip over the eyes. Bristles at the beak that looks like a beard. Due to water that is rich in minerals, and rust colored and bathing in red dust and mud they are frequently more red and orange. The bearded vulture does not have a bald head like other vultures and has a thick and powerful neck. Due to its very different appearance from other vultures, they can easily be mistaken for an eagle.
The juvenile bearded vulture is chocolate brown with golden underparts, but also has the distinctive dark beard. I took fantastic fly-by pictures of this majestic bird. Like other vultures, the Bearded Vulture is a scavenger. It feeds on dead animals and bones, with a diet of about 85% of bone marrow. The name “Lammergeyer” is attributed by farmers, who for many years believed that these birds caught small lambs. It commonly takes bones to a weight of 4kg up in the air and then drops them onto rocks to break them. If the bone does not break, then the process is repeated until the bone breaks to smaller pieces. They then eat the bone marrow and smaller bones. The bird has strong gastric fluids that can easily digest the bones.
A Jackal Buzzard won’t leave a free meal and is also a frequent visitor to the hide, competing with the ravens.
The Cape Vultures really kept us busy, and we had some beautiful pictures of them landing and taking off again. I saw some incredible photos from other photographers, who visited the hide. Both the Cape Vulture and Black Backed Jackals competed for the meat. The photos are just awesome. Maybe one day..
Cape Vulture
A female Buff-Streaked Chat also made a beautiful picture. Excellent D.O.F. and the out of focus mountain in the back ground. They normally love to perch on rocks and high places. They are endemic to Southern Africa.
The male Buff-Streaked Chat. These Chat’s love rocky areas. They are very photogenic and very tame.
Red Wing Starlings, are common to the hide. They are normally first to arrive. We practiced focusing on them and the crows before the big birds arrive.
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