A beautiful bird that posed so nicely for us just outside McGregor in the Western Cape. The bird has a call similar to the Mouse Bird so when we are birding and hear the distinctive three note call, we are never quite certain which bird we are hearing. In this case the identification was positive. This species of kingfisher actually seems to prefer dry land rather than water. An image of a mouse bird is here.
Some years ago my wife and I found a tiny insect. I photographed it (of course and posted it to iNaturalist and it was identified as a Planthopper. You can get an idea of how small the insect is by the arm hairs surrounding it. I ignored the dark thing on the back of the insect and I forgot about the observation. Two days ago someone saw my photo, took one look at the dark thing on the back of the insect and identified it as a wasp larvae.
I have been trying to get clouds to look good using stop motion photography. This is the first time I have gotten reasonable results. I just forgot to level the camera. Next time!
On special occasions, the Council switches on huge spot lights and lights the front face of Table mountain. Tonight is one of those nights.
Riviersonderend is a small town on the freeway between Cape Town and Gqeberha (formerly known as Port Elizabeth). The town was founded in 1922 and the architecture of some of the oldest buildings is Art Deco. The supermarket on the main road is one such building. It is not in very good state, but with a bit of judicious cropping, the beauty of the architecture stands out.
My house in Riviersonderend is a blend of Art Deco ship architecture and Cape Dutch architecture. The builders built according to Art Deco form, then pivoted to Cape Dutch Architecture with the small gable at the top of the square front.
I went out to try out a new lens for my camera and got this image of Lion’s Head with Scorpio setting head first.
Click the image for best viewing.
A lunar eclipse happened some time back. The images show Lion’s Head and the night hikers lamps. Lions Head is part of the Table Mountain National Park. Lion’s head is a popular hike and is done regularly at night especially when there is an interesting astronomical event happening as in the images below.
This post is not really for the faint hearted. Impaled dead reptiles feature.
In South Africa we have a small bird of prey called the Southern Fiscal. Note the hooked beak.
The bird gets its colloquial name Jackie Hangman from its habit of hanging its captured prey on thorns. The following picture is of a small Common Slug Eater that has been hung out in a lemon tree by a Jackie Hanger.
We went to the Tankwa National Park for a birding outing. The Tankwa is in what is called the Arid Succulent Karoo. With an average of 15 cm (6″) rainfall per annum the area is dry and water is scarce but the animals, birds, reptiles and plants survive in surprising numbers.
This is the second time we have been to Tankwa. Our previous visit is documented here.
This is the view from the front of the chalet looking out towards Sutherland where the South African Large Telescope is housed.
Because of the dust, sunrises are colourful.
The stars are beautiful but light pollution is ubiquitous. That is Cape Town in the distance – about 200 km as the crow flies.
There having been a very wet winter, the only major dam in the reserve was overflowing. We never did identify that bird.
Birds tend to be small and really difficult to photograph.
A mouse warming itself in the early morning sun.
A Spiny Agama suns itself on a rock.
A Black Backed Jackal surveys the world.
Gazanias grow where there is a little more water available.
Where there was once water. A few centimetres of rain causes wash aways an pools like this one.
This is a Sutherlandia commonly called a Cancer Bush, supposedly helps treat cancer. No basis for this claim that I know of.
This plant is still unidentified, it just grows out of the thin soil and produces these beautiful flowers.
During a visit to Intaka Bird Sanctuary we were treated to the sight of white breasted cormorants basking in the sun and in one case, heading out of the district.
