Hartebeesport Dam - Part 3

It has a combination of of a zoo and reptile park. This is a Caracal which looks very much like your lynx with its tufted ears and is about the same size.

The tortoise here have laid an egg which I is probably not fertile or else they would have buried it. A Serval has extremely long legs and can jump 6 feet in height. It lives off birds, rodents and whatever else comes to hand. The Black-backed Jackal is one of two species found here. A sunglazer lizard has lights which it can bask under when there is no sunlight and acts as a temperature control for him. One of the more beautiful snakes they have is this Burmese Python. The Suricats or Meerkats are a joy to watch...... especially these youngsters which were romping around playing. They have so much energy and never seem to be still for a minute.

Chequered Leaf Beetle (Cleridae sp)

It is very small, 4-5mm in length.

This is on grass seed so you can compare the size. They are herbivores and feed on flowers and leaves.

Centurion Waterfront

I have never done night photography before much less anything which is moving so I decided to challenge myself to a session.

Please enlarge these photographs by cliciking on them to get a better view of them.
Not too far from where I live we have a water fountain in the center of a small lake. The lights and the water out of the sprays are set to music and quite spectacular to see. The closest I could get to it was about 50 feet.

My first attempt came out like this.....not very good as you can see!! :(

But I soon got the hang of it.

I had gone there unexpectedly and only had my small P&S with me.

Next time I will take my 400D and the tripod as I am sure I can do much better than this.

If you enlarge the pics you will see a lot of ducks in the foreground on some sandbanks.

Some of the spraying water shots are fairy good but I think I needed a higher ISO on these.

Some of the spraying water shots are fairy good but I think I needed a higher ISO on these.

Any ideas, advice or suggestions would be welcome?

Bottle Fly (Lucilia sp)

It is amazing to find that these pesky critters can be so colorful.
But flies are flies and I can sure do without them in the summer no matter how colorful they are.

Sea Anemone

I was right in saying this was a difficult one although a few people guessed it was something from the sea so they were on the right track.

This is going to be the last Mystery Monday for a while. Thank you everyone for playing. It has been fun!!

The ornately colored sea anemone is named after the equally flashy terrestrial anemone flower.

A close relative of coral and jellyfish, anemones are stinging polyps that spend most of their time attached to rocks on the sea bottom or on coral reefs waiting for fish to pass close enough to get ensnared in their venom-filled tentacles.Their bodies are composed of an adhesive pedal disc, or foot, a cylindrical body, and an array of tentacles surrounding a central mouth. The tentacles are triggered by the slightest touch, firing a harpoon-like filament into their victim and injecting a paralyzing neurotoxin. The helpless prey is then guided into the mouth by the tentacles.

Some old wildlife slides - Part 2

The Serval is of the cat species and are never seen during the daylight hours, preferring to hunt at night. Their main food consists of rats and mice. They have very long legs and have been know to jump great lengths and heights in order to pounce on their prey.
The Sable antelope is one of our most beautiful animals. It stands approximately 5 feet at shoulder height. Groups consist of mixed males, females and juveniles. There are not often seen as they prefer dense bush in which to live and browse.

When they flap their ears, elephants are using this as a means to cool the blood in the thick veins situated at the back of them.
Leopards are creatures of the night. Mainly they eat medium sized buck which they are capable of taking high up into the trees so that lions, hyena’s and other predators cannot take it away from them.
The Tsama Melon is also found in these arid regions and supply out larger antelope species with water as there are not many river or streams there. They are about 6/7 inches in diameter and extremely hard to break open.
The Warthog has to be the most ugly creature we have and is similar in size to a wild hog. They eat a great variety of food and are known to dig up bulbs and tubers in times of drought.
We mostly see two species of squirrel, the Ground and Tree Squirrel. This is the Ground Squirrel and is found in our more arid, semi-desert areas. They live in burrows under the ground and fold their tails up over there heads for shelter as there is not much else to shade them from the hot sun.

Mystery Monday - Part 25

This is going to be a very difficult one I know. I will send hugs and kisses to whoever gets this right. :) The only person who might, is Dale.

Hartebeesport Dam - Part 4

HAVE A WONDERFUL AND HAPPY 4TH OF JULY MY FRIENDS!!

Hartebeespoort Dam is situated about half and hours drive from where I live and is nestled amongst some medium-sized mountains. The area is lush and green for most of the year with only he grass turning brown in the winter months. Some of the houses there are copies of the old Dutch houses which were put up by or early settlers.
There is a small complex where you can get a bite to eat or drink and has a small souvenier shop for the tourists.

The dam itself is fairly large and man-made, with many water sports on it from fishing, various kinds of boating and sailing, skiing etc.

Across the narrow part near the dam wall which has a hyrdo plant in it to generate elctricity, these houses can be seen but definitely not afforded, by most of our normal mortals.

Of course the area is full of flowers which in turn are full of bugs like this ladybird/bug larvae.

Spiders are everywhere even though most of the species found there are tiny.

It is a good place to go and relax. There is a houseboat which takes you out for lunchtime cruises and a small but lovely little zoo as well. The area has some nice hiking, cycling and horse riding trails so is very popular on a Sunday. The small restuarant is always full of people who come there on moterbikes for their 'breakfast-run'. For the birding enthusiast, it is a paradise.

Some old wildlife slides - Part 1

I participate on another forum and have been posting there for a year now. When I started, I did not yet have a digital camera and posted some of my wildlife slides on it. To celebrate being there a year, I went back to the slides and dug some out to post again. Please excuse the poor quality and color on them but they are VERY old!!

What would a post of the things of Africa be without a picture of a sunset?? Whether it is summer or winter, I love to watch the changing colors in the sky during these times and never fail to be amazed at the variety.

This is a Monitor Lizard. They grow to about 6 foot in length and we have two types, the Water Monitor and the Ground Monitor. They are very similar in looks having only slightly different markings, but their choice of habitat is completely different as their names imply. Our largest eagle, the Martial, is it's worst enemy and I have seen them get into big fights.
This smallish buck is called a Klipspringer (translation: rock jumper). It stands about 2-2.5 feet to the top of it's head and is found on most rocky outcrops where they are quite at home. The male and female mate for life and they stay in the same area all year through. They will have one youngster at a time which will stay with the parents for about 2 years. Only the males have horns.
The name Hippopotomus is Greek for "River Horse". They weigh about a tone and love basking on the sandbanks when it is not so hot. They are very agile for their size and are said to have caused more deaths in Africa than the lion.
The Cape Buffalo is not scared of anything although they are the favorite prey of lions who mostly go for the young and sick amongst a herd. Both sexes have horns and the males often form herds on their own returning only when they want to mate with the females. I have seen huge herds of 200-300 during the early morning or late afternoon when they go down to the rivers to drink water.
The Bat-eared Fox is small, maybe 1 foot at shoulder height and mostly come out to forage at dusk and dawn. They are insect eaters and with those huge ears, are capable of hearing the smallest insect living under the soil. They are very adept at digging these out to eat.
The home of the lion!! It is quite amazing to think that these beautiful creatures were once found in Europe and are now confined to small pocket areas in Africa only.

Ant Behaviour

These ants had built their nest inside a fallen tree but it is the first time I have seen any of the species build such a strange entrance to it. Has anyone seen them do something like this before?

They had also taken grass and covered the opening in the wood.

On parting some of the grass, I found that they had a lot of larvae inside.