Hornbills

Hornbills.

 

I think it was Ernest Hemmingway who said "There is not a day that went by when I woke up in Africa and I'm wasn't truly happy". Well Ernest clearly never got woken up at 4.50am on his Africa Gap year by a pair of Hornbills crowing outside his window. Imagine a Crow with a banana nailed to its face and then give it an ear splitting whining noise like a pissed of frightened cat. That is a Hornbill. Years of evolution has not been kind to these things, imagine trying to fly with a huge downward curving banana beak and you can imagine how these things travel – Pretty much like I do in a plane to be fair, must be something to do with my nose also. The meaning of their name I am unsure of – either because of their beak being mistaken for some kind of Horn (most likely) or my theory is that they sound like a fucking fog horn.