Mystery Monday - Part 9

No, it is not my shoe, but then again, it might be. :)

Montecasino - Bird Park - Part 3

It was a lovely day to spend outdoors. After so much rain, it was cloudy but no rain fell so it was ideal for photography.
They also have reptiles at the Bird Park. This is the Sungazer lizard which is large and can grow up to about 30cm (1 foot) in length. Their name comes from their habit of burrowing a hole and laying in it with their faces outwards and towards the sun.

The Spider Tortoise gets its name from the yellow web-like lines on its shell. They are one of the smallest of the species in the world and come from Madagascar, an island off the African coast.

The Golden Lion Tamarin or Marmoset as got to be one of the most spectacular animals around. They are small orange-yellow monkeys, weighing 500 to 600 grams. They live in the heavily populated coastal region of Brazil, where less than two percent of the forest remains.
They are endangered because their habitat has been fragmented into small, unconnected areas, each area only capable of supporting a small number of groups. Without intervention by the National Zoo, other zoos, organizations, and the Brazilian government, inbreeding would soon lead to the local extinction of many of these small populations of tamarins, and eventually of the entire species.

The Madagascar Plated lizard are normall found in the waters of tropical rain forests. They grow to the length of 70 cm (about 24 inches). Their flanks have a reddish or sometimes a yellowish tint.

The very rare Geomatric Tortoise is found in only a few surviving fynbos (fine leafed - a specific habitat in SA) areas and is regarded as the world's second rarest tortoise.

Odds and Ends - Part 3

Here are 3 new blogs which you might find interesting:

Jose E Hernandez has been to interesting places and has an extremely interesting blog on birds etc.
Adel an Robyn are two South African living in Egypt teaching English.

Mingfei's Easy Paradise, documents a bicycle trip of over 1100 km (600 miles) around China.

I came across this large dead tree growing on the side of a small hill. At one time, the ground came up to the middle of this picture. Now it has all washed away and all that is left are the roots clutching rock which they had brown around.
This spider had made her web in a hole at the bottom of a low wall. It was absolutely packed with dead insects and beetles which she had collected and stored away for her babies to eat when they hatched.
A slow Sunday drive passed the local dam gave me an interesting picture of the boats in the small harbour.
One day when I moved the curtain, this small gecko fell down and got such a fright, it shed its tail.

No sooner did this happen than the ants came around for a easy meal.

Two tiny little spiders came calling in the middle of the night.

This one had lost some of its limbs which do grow back.

Almost got it!!

I am still trying to get decent pictures of bees in flight but these did not turn out too bad. I think I am getting better. What is your opinion? :)

Mating Butterflies

Great Mormon (Papilio memnon) is from Asian and I took these pictures at our local butterfly house.
They fly up to 7000 feet in the Himalayas, but is most common at low elevations.

This butterfly is found in forest clearings. It is very common and is also seen amongst human habitation. It is fond of visiting flowers of Poinsettia, Jasminum, Lantana, Canna and Salvia. It usually flies 2 to 4 meters above the ground. The butterfly is known to mud-puddle. The males are much commoner than females. The female forms butlerianus and alcanor are especially uncommon.

Spittle bugs - Ceropidae

The nymphs live in a ball of spittle produced by mixing air with anal secretions derived from plant sap.
The spittle protects them from predators and drying out.
Some live underground on the roots of plants, others on grasses, shrubs and trees.

They are medium sizd with a cone shape head and rounded eyes.

Sometimes they are called froghoppers.

Flap-necked Chameleon (Chamaeleo dilepis) Chamaeleonidae

This is the largest chameleon (genuses Chamaeleo) I have ever seen and took pictures of it on my hand so you can get an idea of its size. When I first picked it up, it hissed at me and turned itself black in order to scare me off, but did it? No, not until I got my pictures. LOL!! Although not considered endangered, chameleons are a highly threatened group - particularly the flap-neck chameleon which inhabits populated and agricultural areas. They have many natural predators which include arboreal snakes, larger shrikes and certain raptors. Like most birds and reptiles, there is only about a two percent probability of survival to adult breeding age. The chances of successful breeding are even less.
The greatest threat to their survival comes from human activities. Destruction of habitat for development and chemical control of their (insect) food species severely restricts their range. Traditional, cultural ‘taboo’ results in unjustified persecution. Veld (grass) fires are probably the greatest killer, from which they have no escape. Their natural instinct is to climb up from danger, which takes them into the hottest part of flames. There is very likely 100 percent destruction of chameleons in a hot burn. I put it into my fishtank to crawl about and out popped this cricket to hitch a ride on its tail. :) Would you look at those claws!! A good thing he is not larger than he was or he would most likely have dug a hole in my hand with those nail. (And I thought mine were bad!! LOL!!) They are very pre-historic looking but here he was hanging on to my finger for dear life. After a while he calmed down and slowly got used to me handling him and started turning back to his natural colour. These larger chameleons lay their eggs in the soft sand soil while the dwarf (about 14 species) give birth to live young.

Mystery Monday - Part 8

Montecasino - Bird Park - Part 2

The diet of the Yellow-billed Duck consists of seeds, grain, tubers, grass, insects and their aquatic larvae. This species is usually found in pairs or small family groups but forms larger flocks when not breeding.
Typically these birds will weigh around 800 grams. In most cases, male birds can be distinguished from females with their almost black eyes, whereas the female has a more red/brown coloured eye.

Although these Rock Pigeons are supposed to be found in the wild, they are coming more and more in to the towns as their natural habitat is build up by houses. They eat seeds and grain and build a nest on outcropping platforms of sticks and grass.

The Scarlet Ibis comes from South America and their life span is approximately 15 years in the wild and 20 years in captivity.

The Spoonbill has a characteristic and distinctive feeding technique - wading about in the shallows while sweeping the partially opened bill from side to side through the water. The tip of the bill is very sensitive and the bird snaps it shut as soon as prey is detected. The diet consists of fish and aquatic invertebrates.
The Saddlebilled Stork is a common resident in the northern part of South Africa. It fishes in shallow water and will nip the spines off larger fish before swallowing it.
The males are distinguished from the females by having a yellow eye instead of brown.
Crowned Crane can be found in flock when breeding of up to 100 birds and can become quite tame.
The Black-headed Heron is very common and feeds on frogs, crabs, inscets and rodents. They will stand in the shallow water waiting for prey to come to them.

Lizard mating dance - Speckled Rock Skink (Trachylepis punctatissima) Scincidae

These two little lizards were doing their mating dance....at least, he was.
He kept the tip of his tail in an upright position the whole time.

The female would keep on turning around while he circled her.

This kept on for at least half an hour until something scared them off and they both disappeared under some old equipment we have in the yard.