October 31, 2012

Another quick shot from the patio - I really had no time to look for a better subject.

Very strong wind caused damage to buildings in town today.

It is also quite chilly and the winter woollies have been unpacked again.

Very strange weather for Northern Zululand!

October 30, 2012

Today has been a grey, rainy day and unusually cold for this time of the year.

My photography effort this evening was to stand on the patio and zoom in on this plant :)

I am thankful for a roof over my head and a warm bed

October 29, 2012

These weeds are really thriving all over my garden at present. 

However.... I do not have the heart to destroy them, because they produce such beautiful little daisies.

Rich in pollen and a favourite of many butterflies and other insects.

These macro shots show the various stages of budding beauty.

(click on the photo to open a bigger version)

This morning when I opened the back door I noticed that the Laughing Dove and chick was not longer on the nest in the Jacaranda Tree. Something must have happened during the night.

October 28, 2012

 Zoomed to the absolute limit but I just HAD to get a shot of the baby!

Despite bad weather and the distance, the little poser can be clearly seen.

On 12 October when I took a photo of the purple splendour of the Jacaranda tree that grows in the neighbouring property, I noticed the Laughing Dove sitting on a nest.

I have been watching the nest and for the last few days I noticed the puffiness of the parent - clearly keeping more than just eggs warm!  I was thrilled that it eventually made an appearance today.

The nest is too high for me to see into it - but from within my house, I can only see one chick.

Mom and Dad take turns on the nest - I do not know which parent this is.

I did not see any feeding taking place today - I must have missed it, because twice I noticed 

a second mature bird on a nearby branch.

Sadly, Mynah-birds are pestering them at the nest- probably to try and get hold of the baby?

Perhaps I should apply for maternity leave to help guard the nest and keep the Mynah's away!!

The Mynah-birds are a menace. They destroyed the Sun-bird's nest (posted earlier this month) and ate the eggs.

October 27, 2012

Today started off with great news - my friend's dog found his way home this morning!

*Reminder to self:: get ID tags with contact numbers for your pets!*

I was trying to get a perfect shot of these dainty flowers, when along came a fly...

I made good use of the opportunity and zoomed in as close as possible .

Although I have seen these flies often, I have never seen them with their wings overlapped.

Even in death their wings are spread as can be seen on my post of 22 June 2012.

October 26, 2012

A very dear visually impaired friend's dog ran away today after being beaten with a stick 

by a person in her employ. Hopefully Gizmo was picked up by some caring person who will 

return him after seeing the posters in town.

May you safely find your way home, Gizmo - your loving owner is devastated.

(I took this photo of Gizmo last year -  he is my boy Buddy's father)

October 25, 2012

Although the overgrown lawn is an eyesore I took a macro look and managed to see beauty in it.

Today was another wet day and remarkably chilly for this time of the year.

October 24, 2012

Another strange long-legged fly.

All sorts of beasties are making an appearance now that we are no longer in the grips of the drought.

October 23, 2012

I have no idea what type of fly this is.  It has a very hairy white abdomen. Unfortunately the lanky plant was swaying in the wind and this was the only shot that was not blurred.

October 22, 2012

I was fortunate enough to have this Damselfly settle within my field of vision while I was 

trying to take a photo of a spider.

Is there anybody out there that can tell me what the round object might be? 

 Is it a parasite? Is it a cyst?
Although I have taken photos of these insects before, I have never seen and cannot find
information about this on the internet.

October 21, 2012

Today I spent some time sorting through the bird photos that I have taken in the Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park  over the last two weeks. The collage includes Black Headed Heron (male and female), Jacana, Helmeted Guineafowl, Crested Guineafowl, Three banded Plover, Natal Francolin, Wattled Plover, Burchell's Coucal, Water Thick-knee (aka Dikkop) Little Egret and a Lesser striped Swallows

October 20, 2012

Another wonderful day spent in the Hluhluwe iMfolozi Park

The view "atmaggieztree" is pretty much the same as it was last week

The day started off rainy and rather grey!

My favourite photo of the day is of moments of interaction between these Crested Guineafowl

They were taking turns to preen  the other's crest

These are normally very skittish birds and I have never been able to get a good photo.

 Last weekend I saw only four Rhino - this week Rhinos were spotted in all the areas that we visited. 

The Park is very green at the moment and it is obvious that the animals have plenty of mud to bathe in!

These "Rhinoses" are selling for R30 at CNA to raise funds for the plight of the Rhino

As we all know, Rhino poaching has really got out of hand this year!

Nine de-horned Rhino carcasses were found in Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park in September.

(another four decayed carcasses were discovered this month)

This should look rather cute on my Kia Picanto!!

October 19, 2012

Spot the spider....
Judging by all the water trapped here, this has to be a very intricate structure of silk thread.
I did not see the spider until I downloaded the photo.

October 18, 2012

The nesting problem that I posted about on 6 October is in the process of being sorted out!!
The Lesser striped Swallows have started to carry mud to close the gap
at the top where the House Sparrows are entering.
I do not know whether the male and female are both involved in building the mud nest,
but this one has a very dirty mouth!  It settled on the wall about two metres away.
They are quite tame and don't seem to mind me, the camera or the flash.
I will take a photo of the progress on the nest over the weekend.

October 17, 2012

Wildflowers are springing up everywhere in the garden.
I suppose some people would call them weeds ....

October 16, 2012

 Spotted-backed Weavers enjoying a bath

 Synchronised swimming?

A last suspicious look at the photographer before take-off

October 15, 2012

African Common White Butterflies.
Butterflies are often seen feeding on wet soil to obtain essential minerals and salts. 

The Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park is in bloom ...

October 13, 2012

During my last few visits to the Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park, I have stopped in the same spot each time

to take a photo. I regret not doing this earlier during the drought/before the fires!

 18 August 2012. After the fires.

 9 September 2012. After we had over 150mm of rain over two days.

Today! A remarkable recovery.

In future I plan to post a photo taken at this spot every time I visit the Park.

(Along with my regular daily photo, of course)

It would be interesting to follow the changing scene throughout the seasons.

(These photos will be labelled "atmaggieztree" should you ever want to search the blog to see them all together)

Today I mainly photographed the amazing variety of wildflowers that have emerged.

I need to do some major photo sorting and will post a collage of the flowers tomorrow.

Todays sightings include Rhino, Elephant, Buffalo, Lion (4 of the Big Five *big grin*) 

Zebra, Giraffe, Nyala, Warthog,  Baboon, Vervet Monkey and plenty of birds - mostly waterfowl.

October 12, 2012

It is impossible to capture the total beauty of the current view from my back door, 

(or the smell of the Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow seen along the bottom edge of the photo!)

While standing there after I had taken this photo, I realised that the flowers were not all there is to see...

Look for the white stars on the photo then scroll down!

My first discovery was a Brown Hooded Kingfisher sitting pretty just over the top the Y,T &T plant ...

 ... and then a little Laughing Dove nesting slightly higher, sleepily waiting for her eggs to hatch!

It just goes to show that there is always more to see if you take the time to have a good look!

October 11, 2012

This afternoon I found this Crab Spider on the shrub that grows below the Yellow Lantana bush.
It was clearly making its way up to where it will blend in perfectly with the surroundings.
I will try and find it on the yellow Lantana flowers over the weekend :)

October 10, 2012

The yellow Lantana has recovered well after the drought and is in full bloom again.
We had quite a severe thunderstorm last night with 15mm of rain.
This morning the garden looked so clean and fresh.

October 9, 2012

A macro shot of the ballpoint of my favourite red pen.
I was quite surprised to see how messy the point is, because it writes perfectly every time!

October 8, 2012

Today was back-to-school for the first day of the last term of 2012!
How time just seems to vanish into thin air these days...
It  was a moody overcast day today. By the time I managed to grab the Canon to go
hunting for a photo the light was not too favourable.
This is yet another weed that has taken over parts of the lawn at the back of the house.

October 7, 2012

We spent the afternoon at False Bay Park. It is part of the Isimangaliso Wetlands.

It is so nice to see water here again - a couple of years ago it was dry.

Although it was too windy for fishing we had a lovely time.

This is a Grey Headed Gull. We also saw Caspian Tern, Cormorant and Flamingo.

October 6, 2012

 Last year on 13 December I posted photos of a Lesser Striped Swallow that was (re)building a nest under the eaves in the courtyard at the back of the house.  The nest rests on an old wooden pelmet that I removed from the lounge and placed upright in the corner, meaning to move it into the garage later. 

Later never came because the Swallows decided it would be a sturdy foundation for a new nest!

For some unknown reason there no breeding happened in the nest last year.

The countless little balls of mud of different colours were evident of the distance these little birds probably flew to obtain material and the effort that went into building the nest. 

I therefore left the nest as is, also because I know that Swallows return every year.

Last weekend I saw House Sparrows carry grass to the corner in the area where the mud nest is. 

 Unfortunately I do not have a direct view of the nest because it is above the back door.

Every time I opened the back door a Sparrow would fly from the nest protesting loudly.  

I was under the impression that they had moved into the Swallow's nest.

This week I saw that the Swallows have returned - much earlier than last year.

I wondered what was going to happen because the nest had now been occupied by squatters.

Today I noticed that the House Sparrows enter above the Swallow nest!

There seems to be enough room up there and I hope that they have not broken into the roof of the nest.

If the nest is not broken, it would be very interesting to see if the 

Swallows are going to breed in the nest this year.

October 5, 2012

 Spanner set for midgets? 

Only 5cm long - I wonder what is was used for and how old it is

October 4, 2012

 Yesterday while I was moving the Amaryllis pots, a flower head accidentally broke off.

I stood it in a bowl with water, and this morning it was open and looking so beautiful.

The macro shots below reveal an abundance of pollen.

 I have never really looked at Amaryllis stamens before, and wonder why it only has two - two that look totally different. Could it be male and female?

October 3, 2012

This blue headed Tree Agama was sunning itself but scurried up the tree as soon as I approached.
I managed to zoom in on him and although he was mostly hiding, I managed a headshot.
I love the reflection in his eye of the bits of sky that is visible through the canopy of the tree.

October 2, 2012

As much as I like photographing birds, I find it very difficult to identify the little ones!

October 1, 2012

October already.... where has the year gone?
I decided to start the new month with a photo of the moon.
(I still think it looks like a cantaloupe that is past its sell-by date)