Friday, May 21, 2010

Sitting still for an hour, they come to me.

 Please take no notice of my ranting on about pollution  no one else does.
just enjoy what you see today  tomorrow they will not be here, and that is fact.

I went to what used to be my place of quiet last year,  this place has been butchered by the powers that be here in Luxor.. gone are the palm, banana and the favorite trees of the birds the fever trees there is 3 date palm left and this is where I sat for half an hour in the shade taking photos today, thankfully we have lazy workers in Luxor and a few branches and one tree that came down the Nile embankment have been left and the birds make full use of them,    first the photos of the view with the mountains of Thebes in the background looking across the Nile river from what was banana island , its no more an Island as most of the reed beds have been filled in by this greedy thieving council with help from the 300 million sterling they received for the once Crocodile island, Jolie Ville Maritem hotels,I say polluters of the Nile, have now changed the name to Kings Island, your guess will be as good as mine as to why, doubt if any king has stepped foot on that Island unless Dr Samir Fawak head of Luxor has promoted himself to king of Luxor. certainly acts as if he is stealing all the peoples land, then using it as a dumping ground so he can add more pollution to the Nile River see my website ,  

ALL the next shots are from where I sat under the tree  and slowly the wildlife started coming closer .
 if I moved  a muscle  the birds flew off  and yet across the inlet they where  bathing kids playing with boats lots of noise. but me who had some interest in the life  had to sit still.
Across to what was  the inlet  the carriage owners bring the horses for a mid day swim . those that treat the horses well that is  not many of  Egypt's working animals get treated like this,
 ,
The little white egret  Squacco heron and pied Kingfishers use this dead branch as a fishing post  
 ,
 Last year there was as many as a hundred  herons just in this one place  today I counted 20  herons in the whole of the inlet. gone are most of the kingfishers  last year they stayed  after the young were raised I only saw one pair with one fledgling a few weeks ago there was more than 30 k f birds here,  http://birdinginegypt.blogspot.com/2010/04/fishing-on-nile.html
They need trees  and branches to rest on 
'

 ,
 ,
These fish are only a few inches in the water 
The nile is rising and in full flood  but the water is rancid people have to bathe And  drink  this polluted water.
 
First time I have seen a pied kingfisher miss its catch  maybe it was hot and went for a dunk?
 
 sparrows and bee eaters on a branch some 50ft away the stayed for about 15 minutes  catching flies bees whatever there was in the air,
 
one caught this  dragon fly as it  took off  not 5 ft from me. 
A police patrol boat rushes by  I know why  but I was staying where I was.
Then this felucca past,  no doubt the captain is a bit lighter in the pocket after being stopped by the police, but thats OK the tourists will pay for his loss.
 And a bag full of rubbish from one of the cruisers is heading for Cairo.
 
 .
 Ahmed with his biggest net catch of the season  he knows that next year this land will have a new road across, the inlet   all that we see today will be gone forever,
 .
I am yet to photograph one of these Live.
 ,
From where I am sitting by the Nile This is all that is left of the reed beds that went 5 kilometers  around the Island 
 ,
the land is being cleared to make way for gamal mubarak to make another fortune building another hotel/
 .
This little baby white egret has most likely fallen out of the heronry  unable to fly it will not servive the day. especially if it goes near the polluted ponds, in the next photo.
 ,
 and I will leave you with  another photo for my Nile pollution page that is on  myegypt.co.uk website
 5 bags of rubbish from the cruisers, plus another several I saw floating past.
 there are no berths on the actual flow of the river from here to Aswan so these bags have been dumped from a moving cruise boat, most likely the same time as they dumped the sewage into the Nile.
 photos do not lie.
 

No comments:

Photo log of birds to date

71 birds to date 13/5/10

Latest bird

Blue-cheeked bee-eater, merops superciliosus.

Avadavat (amandava amandava),
Barbary falcon (falco pelegrinoides) ,
Black Headed Gull (Larus ridibundus)27/2/10
Black-winged kite(elanus caeruleus),

Blue-cheeked bee-eater, merops superciliosus. 22/4/10


Bluethroat. Luscinia svecica
Caspian plover Charadrius asiaticus..4.4.10
Cattle egret (bubulcus ibis),
Collared Dove,Streptopelia decaocto 10/1/2010
Clamorous reed warbler , Acrocephalus stentoureus 23/3/10
Collared pratincole, Glareola pratincola 4/4/10
Crag Martin (ptyonoprogne rupestris),
Grey flycatcher Muscicapa striata
crested lark ( galerida cristata),
Common Snipe ,Gallinago gallinago ,23/9/10
Common Tern, (Sterna hirundo) 28/11/09
Common
sandpiper Actitis hypoleucos 28/11/09
Common bulbul, Pycnonotus barbatus.
Great Cormorant, phalacrocorax carbo.
Cyprus warbler, sylvia melanothotax 8/12/09
fan-tailed cisticola. cisticola juncidis
Ailsbury ducks
Kestrel falco naumanni

Graceful Prinia, Prinia gracilis 19/1/10
Great white egret (Egreta alba) 28/11/09 named" 12/09
Grey Heron (ardea cinerea),
Greylag goose (Anser anser),
Glossy ibis, Plegadis falcinellus4/12/09
Gull-billed tern Sterna nilotica
Hoopoe (upupa epops),
Hooded crow(corvus corvone cornix),
House sparrow (passer domesticus),

Honey Buzzard pernis apivorus,22/4/10
Hume's Tawny Owl. Strix butlery 15/8/2010

Laughing dove , streptopelia senegalensis
Lesser spotted Eagle,Aquila pomarina 19/1/10
Lesser whitethroat,sylvia curruca 18/3/10
Little bittern (Ixorychus minutes), i(1) female Aswan
Little stint, Calidris minuta
Little white egret (Egretta garzetta),
Little green bee-eater (merops orientalis),
marsh sandpiper,Triga stagnatilis,4.4.10
Moorhen (gallinule chlorous),
Night Heron (Nycticorax nycticorax),
Nile valley sun bird(Anthreptes metallicus
Olivaceous warbler (hippolais pillada),
Olive-tree warbler (hippolais olivetorum),
Pied kingfisher (ceryle rudis), all year
Purple Heron (Ardea purpurea) 28/11/09
Purple gallinule (porphyrio porphyrio),
Red rumped swallow (hirundo daurica),
Sandpiper (Actitis hytoleucos) 28/11/09

Sedge warbler, Acrocephalus schoenobaeus.

Senegal Thick-knee ,Burhinus senegalensis.


ssouthern grey shrike,lanius meridionalis,9/ 2010
Scrub warbler Scotocerca inquita), June
Spur-winged plover (hoplopterus spinosus),
.Streaked Fantail Warbler (Cisticola juncidis)
Squacco Heron(Ardeola ralloides) , may all year
Striated heron (butorides striatus), May
Stork, Ciconia ciconia), August
Temminck's Stint, Calidris temminckii. 4/4/10
Thrush Nightingale,Luscinia luscinia 13/5/10
Turtle dove(stretopelia turtur),
White wagtail ( motacilla alba),
Wood sandpiper (Tringa glareola) 2/12/09
Willow warbler Phylloscopus trochilus...
yellow-billed kite Milvus aegyptius
Yellow wagtail(motacilla flava), sept/
yellow wagtail ( black headed) 1/may 10
Water pipit, Anthus spinoletta.
Whitethroat, Sylvia communis
Wryneck, Jynx torquilla 8/4/10


Click on the photos to enlarge
http://skywatchegypt.blogspot.com/
http://egyptplants.blogspot.com/
http://birdinginegypt.blogspot.com/ myegypt bird blog
http://egyptwildlife.blogspot.com/ birds of Egypt
http://egyptswildlife2.blogspot.com/
birds of Egypt
http://www.nilelife.blogspot.com/ photos from around Luxor Egypt
http://www.nilelife2.blogspot.com/ photos from around Luxor Egypt
http://egyptdragonflies.blogspot.com/ Dragons and damsels
http://insectsonwings.blogspot.com/ butterflies and bugs
http://myegypttours.blogspot.com Tombs and temples of Egypt
http://mydeserttrip.blogspot.com/ new in the process of building lots of photos of the white desert already on. 30/11/09
http://reflectionsofegypt.blogspot.com/ A trip down the Nile
http://tonythevolunteer.blogspot.com/
www.myegypt.co.uk my website

free counters

Followers

About Me

My photo
MY BLOG LINKS CAN BE FOUND ON THE SIDE BAR. BIRDS, PLANTS,BUTTERFLIES,DRAGONS AND DAMSELFLIES.+ MY LIFE OUT AND ABOUT LUXOR. MY MAIN CONCERN NOW IS THE POLLUTION OF THE NILE AND THE EFFECT IT IS HAVING ON ITS PEOPLE AND WILDLIFE. POLLUTION OF THE NILE IS ON WWW.MYEGYPT.CO.UK http://egyptwildlife.blogspot.com/ http://egyptswildlife2.blogspot.com http://nilelife.blogspot.com/ http://nilelife2.blogspot.com/ MY WEBSITE WWW.MYEGYPT.CO.UK