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.
Intaka Island is a wetland and bird sanctuary resulting from a requirement to preserve an existing wetland and provide water purification.
You can see the website here:
We recently visited the sanctuary and enjoyed the peace and serenity offered by the place despite being in the middle of a built up area of Cape Town.
Floating water weed covers part of the main pool.
We went to Vrolijkheid this last weekend and were stunned by the spring flowers. The birding was not great, but we got some lovely pictures none the less.
Now for the birds
Coot feeding time.
Grebe and gone
And a clicking stream frog.
And a large ant. The Afrikaans name is “balbyter” literally ball biter.
I have joined the Ignite Photographic Club and they have a monthly assessment session. Everyone is invited to submit one photograph and one of the committee assess the photographs.
Last month was F is for faces. So I got creative. Portraits of me by various artists.
Clock wise, starting top left.
Self portrait i.e. me
John Robert
Veronica Reid
Amanda Hayes
And the back view: Amanda Hayes a cutout of a much bigger painting titled The Watcher.
Here is the full painting : The Watcher – and I swear I was looking at a sunset, and not the naked woman. 🙂
It has been a cold and wet winter. Floods, wind and icy conditions but there is an upside. The storm clouds look great in black and white
Not really black and white. I was playing with an app on my phone and managed to capture this
This gif is made from a series of pictures taken of a mating flight of two Pale Chanting Goshawks – the birds were a long way away but the dance makes up for the lack of sharpness
Recently I found that most creative people have a portfolio so I decided it was time I created a brag page so here we go.
I am a generalist or less politely a jack of all trades. Whichever title you want to use it means I am curious about practically anything so to save you from browsing through the entire website, I will provide a short summary. So here goes
Painting – oil, acrylics and pastels. Acrylic first
Oil
Pastels
Charcoal
Photography – photograph anything that takes my fancy, flowers, sunsets, stars, landscapes and birds.
A glacial pavement just outside Nieuwoudtville when we were part of Pangea.
And then there are the other things
Baking
Bee keeping. Bees Bearding a hive to keep it cool
Hiking
Renovating a house in Riviersonderend
We joined the Honorary Rangers of the Agulhas Reserve for a birding weekend. The weather was cold and very windy, as only the Agulhas Plains can be. It was not really conducive to much standing around in the open but we did do some good birding just sitting in the car.Even though this is a birding page, you must have a couple of nice travel shots.
Agulhas has probably the most bizarre and intriguing lighthouse. More like a Medieval castle converted to lighthouse duties. It makes for an interesting picture.
The other side is more ordinary, but still an impressive structure.
You can see from the next picture just how powerful the wind was. Those are female weavers clinging on for dear life while the wild wheat blows under them.
Here is a picture of some of the birders returning from a bracing walk in a minor gale.
Flowers – you gotta have flowers. Actually, those white things at the feet of the birders in the picture above are these flowers.
There is a bird in the next picture. Promise.
See? There is a bird. Only a bit small. An LBJ (Little Brown Job) and it is a Large Billed Lark – after much deliberation.
We saw some fish eagles in the far distance and photographed them for id purposes. Turns out we got some rather pleasant landscape pictures as well. There are two fish eagles in there, but check out the landscape. Lovely.
Silhouette of a kite playing the winds.
Weavers sheltering from the wind.
Down at the watering trough.
A kelp gull found an ideal sheltering place.
A white chested comorant takes the early morning sun.
Terns sheltering from the wind.
Waves in the wind.
Here’s looking at you. Cape Spur Fowl.
Steppe buzzard readying for flight.
Cape Robin Chat. We had, by this time migrated to Riviersonderend.
