Saturday morning
(I wrote this yesterday, but then our internet connection went down for the day before I could finish)

I walked into town this morning with a couple of VSO friends, to take some material to the tailor to have a blouse made. I've only had the material sitting in a drawer for two years, so with two weeks left to go, I thought I'd better do something with it while I'm in a place with a recommended tailor. He'll also hem a pair of too-long jeans for me. All for a very reasonable price.

Walking home through the leafy suburb of Taba where I live, I spotted a large eagle-like bird clinging upside down to the top of a broken street lamp. It was manoeuvering to pull out pieces of grass that must have been placed there by another bird. I looked up the bird in my 'Field Guide to the Birds of East Africa' as soon as I arrived home and discovered it was an African Harrier-Hawk, recognizable by the white band across its black tail. According to the book, these birds "regularly steal young from cavity nests like those of swifts and weavers, using their long flexible legs to probe for and grab nestlings." So maybe that's what the bird was doing when I spotted it. The birds here are a wonderfully impressive sight, and I always enjoy watching them circling the sky in the afternoons. The large black and white crows, on the other hand, are nasty scavengers. One of them attacked my cat, Safi, when he was a kitten, so naturally I'm not very fond of them! They also jump up and down on the tin roof making a serious racket.

I wanted to post more photos today, but for some reason I can't upload them. Next time!