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Panel Beating PDF Print E-mail
Written by Michelle Greve   
Tuesday, 10 June 2008

Taken (with kind permission from Michelle Greve) from SABirdnet ...

 

On Saturday morning we went up the Ngoye for what ended up being probably the most expensive birding morning we've ever had. We left the car at the birder's hut and spent the morning walking in the forest with the local bird guide, S'bo, where we had several lovely sightings, including green barbets (which initially proved to be somewhat elusive: quite vocal, but not allowing us to have a glimpse of them), a brown scrub-robin, yellow-streaked greenbul, green twinspot and chorister robin-chat. Upon returning to the birder's hut, we found that my father's (recently bought and still in an impeccable condition) green Land Rover Discovery had been ruined on all panels - by ground hornbills! We had heard the hornbills calling close to the hut and had initially trekked through the forest, following their calls, but had then decided to return to the car via the walking trail when we noticed, as we were approaching the birds, that their calls were coming from the direction of the car. Only as we were almost at the car did we realise what was happening - the knocking sound that we had heard reverberating through the forest for over an hour, and which nobody had been able to place (it sounded like somebody was hitting nails into corrugated iron - yet the bird guide didn't know where in the vicinity of the forest any building was being done), had all along been the hornbills seeing their reflections in the car and attacking the 'stubborn intruders'! They dented and scratched all side panels, esp. the lower part of the car, but also some of the bonnet and the back door, and, judging by the muddied 'footprints', they had obviously been all over the roof too. They also managed to dislodge part of the bumper on the back of the car.
We couldn't believe it!

Well, we still took a lovely drive through the forest afterwards and had a magnificent sighting of a male narina trogon and a martial eagle. So, except for the damage to the car, an altogether lovely day! A piece of advice: make sure your car isn't clean when you take it up the Ngoye.

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