Right-of-way – Flightless Dung Beetles

In the Addo Elephant National Park, it is not just Elephants and other large animals that have right-of-way, when you drive around. The small insects do to, and in specific the "Flightless dung beetle" (Circellium bacchus).   They are now restricted to the Addo National Park, as this is the only area with animals like elephant, rhino and buffalo, still remaining in their natural area. They live by eating fresh dung or rolling it into a ball to bury for later use. The females also make "brood balls", which get buried underground, and they mate, underground, laying 1 egg into the ball. They are definitely some of the most important insects within the Addo National Park, the cleaners. We found one on the tar road, and it seemed it was very particular on the direction it wanted to go, steering the ball over the road.   When you walk or drive in nature, remember to give 'right-of-way' to all creatures you encounter, they are all giants in their role in the ecology of a region.

Lions

A compilation of pictures taken at similar breeding facilities...of Lions. These last 2 are still favorites of mine. I took this with an old video camera a few years back and this is not in enclosures but in a big reserve. First pic shows the male in size and second pictures the KING is laying down watching over his kingdom... Melting into the African environment..

Gardening - Aloe speciosa

Aloe speciosa, one of my favorite aloes. I love the color of this Aloe, bluish-green with lovely long leaves hanging down. The head is mostly tilted towards the sun, making it another interesting part of the plant.

The inflorescence is a tall upright with, initially red flowers, turning white as they mature, making for a wonderful look when the plant is flowering. In contrast the reddish stamens and orange anthers make it just that more special on closer inspection.

They grow in the Eastern Cape and Western Cape provinces of South Africa on rocky slopes. We saw a few of them when we walked the Zuurberg mountains, part of the greater Addo Elephant National Park.

[caption id="attachment_851" align="aligncenter" width="474"] Zuurberg mountains[/caption]

They grow nice and tall and can reach up to 5 meters, but this takes a long time. The plants in my garden is 3 years, in the garden, and my guess would be at least 5 - 8 years old.

Southern Ground-Hornbill

I have only seen them once, many years ago, in the Kruger National Park and took pictures with an 35 mm film camera. I still want to share them with you. This is one of those birds that stayed with me all these years. Why? Look at them, they walk slowly with those big feet, they have these big bills, but the thing that stood out to me...they have big long eye-lashes. I always remember that when I see these pictures.

The males facial skin is red and females have a small blue throat and extensive red neck pouches. Juveniles have yellow patches. Usually in family groups, hunt for small mammals, reptiles and insects. Rare outside reserves.

[caption id="attachment_689" align="aligncenter" width="474"] Juvenile in the back.[/caption]

Previous birding post:

Black Oystercatcher

Gemsbok (Oryx gazella)

Pale grey with white underparts. There is a black stripe along the back ending in a patch on the rump. Black between grey and white on the rump and down the legs, also on the head. I guess the most magnificent of these animals are the horns, exceptionally straight, both sexes have them.

Males average 1.26 m and females 1.25 m at shoulder height with average weight of 240 kg for males and 210 kg, females.They love arid, semi-arid open grassland, scrub and open woodland, but they are true desert animals too.

Reference:

Smithers' Mammals of Southern Africa: A field guide. Edited by Peter Apps. Struik publishers, 2000

Pied Kingfisher (Ceryle rudis)

A pretty common kingfisher throughout most parts of Sub - saharan Africa. Only black and white kingfisher in Africa.

This one is a female and only varies from female by a double band on the breast, being the male. Interestingly, I read somewhere once that they have helpers when breeding and a scarcity of food occurs. Helpers usually, offspring or non-breeding individuals, increase as the food becomes less. Wonderful how nature works.Previous birding post:

Knysna Toraco

Spotted (Karoo) Prinia (Prinia maculosa)

Another of the fairly common birds in Addo Elephant National Park. Their main food is insects. They can regularly be seen with cocked upward tails, which is fairly long. They are endemic to Southern Africa, mainly S.A. and very Southern Namibia.

They are heavily streaked from above breast, flanks to vent. You hear the fast 'tit-tit-tit-tit' a lot in the open.

Below is the same bird while feeding in insects, also seen in pictures.

Reference:

A comprehensive illustrated field guide: Birds of Africa, South of the Sahara. Ian Sinclair, Peter Ryan. Struik publishers, 2003

Southern Red Bishop (Euplectes orix)

Unmistakable sparrow-like seed-eater, related to weavers. You cannot miss them in the field, usually near reedbeds and rivers, where they weave their nests.

Sexually dimorphic, that is the males are black and bright red in breeding season, while the females and non-breeding males have cream-colored eyebrows, with bottom parts heavily striped. I took these pictures in Addo Elephant National Park.

Greater double-collared Sunbird (Cinnyris afrea)

Another of the birds I photographed in the Addo Elephant National Park.  The Greater Double-collared Sunbird is endemic to South Africa. Sunbirds are invariably iridescent, colorful (males) and females usually fairly dull. They have decurved bills adapted to get nectar from the base of the flowers they frequent.

This specific Sunbird, has a big red breast band with fine purple band above red and green-blue head and back, all iridescent and changing as light hits it. As I said female is pale grey-brown. Best picture I got was this one.

They were all over this Cotyledon specie plant, possibly C. orbiculata or velutina. A succulent plant fairly common in our region.

Did you see the nectar fly, and the tongue? They live in tall shrubs and forest fringes, hilly areas and gardens.

For a novice photographer like me, this is a tough assignment to capture, but hopefully you get an idea of the beauty of these little active birds.

References:

A comprehensive illustrated field guide: Birds of Africa, south of the Sahara. Ian Sinclair, Peter Ryan. Struik Publisher. 2003

Moonshine, Dolphins, Birds, Rocks and Walks

It occurred to us that we have not really introduced "our rumbling ocean" in pictures to you. We bought our house 2009/10, on the Eastern Cape sunshine coast. We fell in love with the region immediately as it reminded us of our other favorite place in the Western Cape province of South Africa, where I asked my wife to marry me.

We have a fairly nice view of the ocean from our deck, where we sit on every occasion we can, and we even give our son breakfast there.

[caption id="attachment_443" align="aligncenter" width="474"] View[/caption]

Our favorite thing to do, is taking walks whenever we can. I take our son in the stroller for as many walks as I can, when we have good weather, which is often, as he enjoys it and you will or have seen many pictures of him in the stroller.

[caption id="attachment_444" align="aligncenter" width="474"] Walking[/caption]

We are also lucky to have great big pods of dolphins frequenting coast, swimming up and down the coast, hunting, every day. This time of the year the whales also come down the coast and a little later we see them with their calves.

[caption id="attachment_449" align="aligncenter" width="474"] dolphins[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_450" align="alignnone" width="474"] Southern right whale[/caption]

We have a nice variety of bird life both at the coast and inland in natural protected forests surrounding us.

At night the ocean can become a little town by itself, as the squid fisherman with their strong lights come fishing, we have counted upwards of 60 boats at times.

In essence that is our rumbling ocean with a final note on the beach right in front of our house. It is not a beach, but rocky ocean front, that attracts many fisherman, but we luckily do not have a massive contingent of holiday makers near us every year, the beach is about a kilometer further away, making this a quiet place even in summer holidays. Here are some more pictures of that rocky coastline responsible for the rumble, sundown from the deck and moonshine.