Sadness and sad.

While I was trying to get a decent image of this Hadeda walking on the garden wall, the door bell rang and I had to abandon the opportunity.
What struck me was that there was something strange going on with his beak.
Either there was something stuck or hanging from his beak .. grass? ... it never crossed my mind that perhaps his beak was misformed.

Late this afternoon, I noticed the same one on the neighbor's roof and identified him by the looks of the twisted beak.
For a moment he opened his wings, as if to beckon, which surely he was doing, as the next moment another Hadeda (his Mom?) touched down on the roof beside him. Without a moment to spare, she regurgatated, and he started eating and pecking to heart's content.
And then I knew that most probably he had a misformed beak ... oh, sadness.

These birds forage for food mostly on lawns and in gardens, and they use their pointed beaks to extract little worms and other insects from between the grass and soil .. and looking closely at this one, it is obvious that he will be have to be looked after for as long as he lives .. it seems that his lower beak is totally misformed and points away from his upper beak at a very akward angle.

These images were shot through a window, I apologize if the quality is not all that good.

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Another story that I came accross ...


Three Kuwait Ministries ban DSLR cameras in public

They have decided these cameras should only be used for journalism

Three Kuwait Ministries have banned the use of DSLR cameras, such as this Canon EOS 60D, in public, except for the purpose of journalism.

By Georgina Enzer
Published November 23, 2010

According to the Kuwait Times, three Kuwaiti ministries have now banned the use of Digital Single Lens Reflex Cameras (DSLRs) in public, leaving Kuwaiti camera owners at a loss as what they should do with their equipment.

The Ministry of Information, Ministry of Social Affairs and Ministry of Finance have decided that photography should be used exclusively for journalism, according to the online news site. The cameras are now banned in malls, on streets and anywhere in public.

The Kuwait Times interviewed a local hobby photographer, Mohammed Al-Eisa, who told the publication that he has decided to take photos of animals or still life as they don't mind getting their pictures taken in public and don't cause a scene.
"I started facing problems the very first day I bought my camera," the Kuwait Times quoted Al-Eisa as saying.

Another local Kuwait photographer, Mariam Al-Fodiry, has had similar issues, but because she is female, faces even more backlash, according to the Kuwait Times.

"Switching to abstract and landscape photography was one the options I considered after getting into enough trouble," Al-Fodiry said.

A third Kuwait photographer Majed Al-Saqer tols the Kuwait Times that sometimes people stop him while he is in his car with his camera, as if he were planning to murder someone with it.

Al Saqer said he is not sure what the real problem is, whether it is people taking photos of each other or the size of the camera.

What next?