Showcasing the beauty of Mother Nature
After seeing this challenge, I decided to go through the photos I took of fish eagles throughout my last trip to Southern Africa. I saw them from a lot of different vantage points, including from above, which is a unique way to watch birds.
I hope you enjoy!
For some time, I have been wanting to have more structure to my blog posts, a schedule to keep me from posting three things in one day, then nothing for a week. This weekend, I think I have come up with a workable plan. So before I get on with the photos for today, I’ll fill you in on what to expect in the coming days and weeks.
Since I have moved, I have been a bit lazy getting out with my camera, concentrating instead on editing the mass of photos I brought back from my last trip. I’ve really been missing being out with my camera, so I am going to start a weekly Sunday post titled What I’ve seen this week. Hopefully with this I can get back to wandering around with the dog and my camera, getting pictures of the local birds (and hopefully some deer or a moose too!).
Some of the fabulous bloggers I follow regularly post Monochrome Monday and Wordless Wednesday posts, and I am going to add those two as regular items, as I always enjoy seeing what others come up with.
Tuesday and Thursday I will dedicate to creating posts for the photo challenge that interest me from that week.
Friday and Saturday I am going to leave free to post whatever I have felt like shooting or editing that week.
Please feel free to leave a comment as this progresses and let me know if the new, more structured format works.
Since I am doing some housekeeping, this is a perfect time to mention that I have signed on with Fine Art America. I still have my Smugmug account, and over the coming months, will determine if I will focus on one, or keep both. Links to the two sites are below. Any of the photos the I post here, that I have added to the sales site, will have a direct link included below the photo. As always, if there is something you are interested that I have not yet added, please let me know and I will make that happen.
And with that, no one to the first instalment of What I’ve seen this week.
Wednesday was supposed to be a very strong evening for the aurora, but the near full moon made it very difficult to see much of anything. I did manage to catch a couple photos though.
This morning I took my camera out while walking with Spencer, and as we were heading home, heard some vigorous chirping and turned back to see if I could see who was making all the noise. It turned out to be two juvenile and one adult hairy woodpecker. The sky was very dull and the light was really not in my favour, but it’s another new bird species for me.
That’s all for this evening. I hope everyone has had a great weekend.
We had a new bird in the yard yesterday, and after some searching, I believe it is a red crossbill (female). I wish the photos were a bit sharper, but I got these with my zoom fully extended from some distance away; I was more concerned with identification than having a perfectly sharp photo. The crossbill is a year round resident of my area, so hopefully I will get more opportunities in the future.
The first thing I thought of when I saw this weeks photo challenge was seeing all of the big five in a single game drive.
It was our first game drive leaving from Chitwa Chitwa, and the first of the big five we came across were the elephants. We ended up in fairly dense bush amongst a large herd, and I know some of the other people in the vehicle were a little nervous of the proximity! At some points, we were completely surrounded by them (I was thrilled!!!)
The second we came across was the leopard. She was only steps away after we started moving away from the elephants. We followed her through the trees as well, and spent some time with her as she rested atop a termite mound.
We stopped for a sundowner drink and spotted a group of 3 rhino in a mud wallow off in the distance. The light was fading, and the viewing was certainly better without the camera.
Just as we were getting back into the vehicle after our drinks and snacks, Surprise our ranger pointed out a couple buffalo crossing the road off in the distance. The photo is awful, I knew it would be when I snapped it, but I thought I should take it as evidence of seeing 4 of the big 5 in a single drive.
As we were heading back to camp for dinner, we followed the tracks of some lions, and came upon them resting quite close to the camp. And with that, it was the big 5 all within the space of 3.5 hours! An absolutely amazing time.
Of course, most people know by now that I am thrilled to view anything when on a game drive, from the smallest bird to the tallest giraffe and everything in between. Here are a few other interesting sights from that drive.
Have a great day everyone!
I just came across this photo of a saddle-billed stork, which I think is a stunning bird. I feel a bit mean now calling one of it’s relatives creepy (see this post if you missed it Photo Challenge: Creepy
Everyone should have figured out by now – I absolutely love photographing African animals!
For the which way challenge this week, a selection of animals blocking the way.
I did a quick scan through my last batch of travel photos to find a few mellow shots to share.
I hope you enjoy!
I guess truth be told, I don’t find the maribou stork creepy per se. It’s more thinking back to kids stories about storks bringing home new babies. I can only imagine a small child seeing one of these birds after hearing one of those tales, and then spending time being terrified about what might actually show up at home.
Whether they are really creepy or not, here are a few photos of maribou storks, creeping through the Okavango Delta in search of dinner.
A new visitor stopped by the yard this morning! I fired off quite a few shots from the porch, mostly so I could ID the bird, and then wandered closer. He or she didn’t mind my presence, and continued working up and down a couple of birch trees, picking off tiny insects. The red-breasted sapsuckers are a summertime visitor to my area, according to my bird app, so I am very grateful for the opportunity to view and photograph today.
Anyone that has read more than a few of my blog posts knows that I love elephants. I could spend an entire day happily watching them; scratch that, I’m pretty sure if I saw them every day for the rest of my life, I wouldn’t grow bored of being around them. I find them fascinating, beautiful, amazing and peaceful creatures, and being in their presence, even just for a few moments, is a blessing.
Here’s just one of many, many photos I have, I hope you enjoy.
