15th October 2007

It’s been the week of the mighty Martial.

The Martial Eagle is an impressively large eagle, with dark brown head, upper body and wings, a speckled white chest and powerful white legs, equipped with enormous deadly talons.

A few days ago, I was sitting on the balcony just after lunch when I heard the Dik-diks down below shriek out their warning whistles. As I looked up, a massive eagle swooped by me at eye-level, and before the Dik-diks were able to reach the safety of the undergrowth, the eagle hit one on the back of the head with the full force of its great weight and huge talons - and the little antelope was dead.

Probably nervous at being so close to our house, the Martial abandoned its kill almost immediately (though it stayed in sight, surveying the surroundings from a large baobab tree to make sure no other eagle stole its prize), and then at around 5.30pm, when things had quietened down, it returned to feed.

At one stage a Bateleur flew over, and although far superior in size, the Martial nevertheless spread its wings and hunched over its prey (see below), to protect it from the prying eyes of this potential scavenger from above. Then it continued to feed and ate its way through a third of the Dik-dik, before leaving again, just at the onset of dusk.

I felt sure that overnight some opportunistic by-passer – a jackal or hyena, or even a leopard – let alone a genet cat, civet cat or white tailed mongoose – would come and steal away with the treasure, but lo and behold, when I awoke the next morning, there still was the Dik-dik carcass, exactly where the eagle had left it. The Martial itself seemed in no particular hurry to reassert ownership of its booty, and it was not until 9.30am that it returned to finish off its meal, by which time a Tawny Eagle was also trying to get in on the act, but being a lot smaller than the Martial, it did not stand much of a chance.

See more photos of the Martial on its kill...

A couple of days later, just after I had counted a staggering 22 Dik-diks all together on the sandbank to the left of the balcony (not including the ones I could see below me, and to my right), a juvenile Martial Eagle dropped out the sky and all of a sudden there were only 21 Dik-diks, now all hiding under the bushes and whistling in distress and alarm. When the eagle abandoned the Dik-dik carcass later on in the afternoon, we went down to have a look, and noticed that the dead antelope had a splayed back hoof. Whether the young Martial had observed this and deliberately picked this particular animal as his target, or whether the handicap had simply not allowed the Dik-dik to reach cover in time, would be interesting to discover…although I shouldn’t think we ever will know for sure!
We see the young Martial every day, flying overhead or sitting on his favourite perches in well-positioned trees, always keeping a lookout for more unsuspecting prey. He will keep his juvenile colouring for 3 years, with his white head and grey and white wings, although he is the size of the adult already.

While I was waiting for the Martial to return to feed, I took some snaps of other birdlife around the house...a Black Bellied Sunbird, and a Superb Starling, and also our resident family of Egyptian Geese. We've been following the fortunes of this family, ever since the seven goslings emerged as fluffy little chicks from their nest several weeks ago. One gosling was lost on the first night but from then on, the parents have successfully managed to keep all 6 goslings alive, and look at them now!

Comments

[robin]

i'm starting at the beginning, but just want to say this is so inspiring and compelling and your words and photography are wonderful! Thanks for sharing!!!

[Tanya]

Thanks Robin - I appreciate your kind comments...and I'm glad you are enjoying the read!