THE OTHER FLIGHTS ON THE GOLF COURSE

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After a really long hiatus from photographing hornbills, I’ve broken the “drought” with new set of Oriental Pied hornbill images. Long story but if you prefer not to read about it, too bad, I’m going to share it anyway. The original idea was to add The World’s Lowest Hill location on FourSquare but I stopped way short of that and was justifiably distracted by a score of hornbills that were tree-hopping on the Panaga golf course. It was the largest gathering of hornbills I had ever come across in a single location (I lost count after number 15). For more pictures of hornbills, feel free to use the search tool.

Yup, she spotted me, looked me up and down then ignored me completely. Not entirely a bad thing. How do I know it's a she? I don't.

I inched my way towards these two that were unperturbed by my presence. The afternoon was breezy and the pair managed to sit tight while the palm leaves waved up and down.

One after another, the hornbills took off from the lowly palm trees to reach great heights of the taller trees in the neighbourhood. At this point I heard familiar buzzing noises beetles or cicada fading into the distance. Hornbills regularly feed on small insects including lizards and young birds.

This photo gives you an idea just how low the hornbills sometimes fly. Presence of humans not a deterrent when they're looking for food.

A hornbill in flight is always a sight to behold as it glides gracefull through the open skies

One of a number of atrificial nest boxes installed by the Panaga Natural History Society to provide additional nesting opportunities. Because hornbills live among us, the environment today may not be conducive to encourage population growth. Human intervention is sometimes necessary.

“World’s Lowest Hill” entry on FourSquare has to wait another day.