Gymnogene perched on a branch looking forwards and to the left of the image.

Gymnogene perched on a branch looking backwards to the right of the image.

Gymnogene standing on top of the end of a tree branch with wings partially extended, being lifted by the wind. It is looking down.

Gymnogene standing on top of the end of a tree branch with wings partially extended, being lifted by the wind.

A visitor to the garden yesterday. This is a juvenile Gymnogene, also known as an African Harrier-Hawk. It was hunting for prey in the branches of a recently trimmed tree.

A photo taken at a low angle down a sandy beach showing a miniature maltese poodle on the left, and a Boston terrier on the right, both walking towards the camera. A short distance behind them is your humble author, made small by perspective, holding a leash that is attached to a harness worn by the terrier.

Patrolling the beach with my fearsome hounds...

In a pile of brown and green grass is a grasshopper with the exact same colours, blending in beautifully. The grasshopper is viewed side on, looking to the left of the image.

A beautifully camouflaged grasshopper, in the centre of the image.

An African Sacred Ibis flies overhead.

A cormorant perches on a tree branch, holding out its wings to dry.

A group of Lesser Flamingos, with a few Greater Flamingos mixed in for good measure.

A Cape Dwarf Chameleon keeps still in the branches of a bush. This was one of the rare times that I was specifically looking to find chameleons, and I actually found one.

Some pictures from another recent walk in my local nature reserve.

A group of four giraffes all walking to the right. Three adults and one juvenile.

A large male giraffe stands behind a very small fence, looking towards the photographer.

A female giraffe walks from left to right.

A man stands in the foreground looking towards two giraffes in the distance.

I spent last weekend in a small game reserve for a friend's bachelor party. It's easy to forget that scenes like this are less than an hour's drive from my home.

Same. Had shingles when I was 29. Now 18 years later I still have scars and occasional pain.
As soon as I hit 50 I'm getting the vaccine. Having large patches of skin blister and fall off is not something I want to repeat.

The progress is bonkers. In 1996 it would have taken my first modem almost 2 hours to download 11MB, which was already respectable speed for home dialup.
Today it takes 2 minutes to download 14GB.

I bought, read, and enjoyed Taking Wing many years ago, but I'm not qualified to judge any popular science books for accuracy, so I appreciate it when scientists like you can point the rest of us in the right direction.

Three greater flamingos coming in to land on a body of water, with legs splayed, wings akimbo, and showing all the grace and style of birds that give every indication of never having done this before.

Rietvlei walk. Some greater flamingos coming in for a graceful landing.

It was fun, but all things end eventually.
I still like seeing my name in the strip's thank you page. I get to claim credit for contributing to 0.000000001% of your work. 😁

I'm a bit out of the way here in SA, but have met up with a couple of culturniks who made it this far South in the past.
I was tempted to see who was available when I visited the UK last year, but my schedule didn't really allow for it.

Yup only follow people you actually know, like those from an email list that was last seriously active a couple of decades ago. 😁
🚀 🧠 <- my attempt at a Mind emoji...

I went to Wikipedia to see if it said anything confirming this nice shark fact, and it did!
The source it cited for this information was you... 😄

Yellow flowers. One of which has an orange beetle on it, the other has a bee.

Yellow flower with a black and orange moth on it. The moth has partially transparent wings.

Yellow flower with green and copper coloured beetles on it.

Rietvlei walk. A selection of insects on flowers.

Cape Skink sunning itself on the ground.

My contribution to #Skinktober is Trachylepis capensis, or the Cape Skink. This used to be the species I'd see most often during the day, but these days I see common dwarf geckos far more frequently.

Swarm of midges over reeds.

Swarm of midges over reeds with Arum lily in foreground.

Swarm of midges over a grass area with a wooden walkway in the background.

Swarm of midges over grass looking like little tornadoes.

Rietvlei walk. I had never encountered this, but we were eveloped by a midge swarm as the adult flies emerge from the water to mate. Luckily these were not biting flies, so the whole experience was just weirdly amusing.

Thorns in a tree

Closeup of thorns in a tree.

Rietvlei walk, and a nice example of why you should stick to the paths and not try to make your own way through the trees.

A palm tree after all of its dead fronds have been cut off.

The tree in question.

Follow up: more strong winds brought down more eggs and palm fronds, and for safety's sake I had to get all of the dead fronds removed from the palm tree. No more goose nest, but there are many others still in my neighbourhood.

Lone flamingo in the water.

Five flamingos, one of which has its wings open.

Flock of flying flamingos.

A group of feeding flamingos.

Pictures of greater flamingos at Rietvlei.

Goose egg held in hand to show size.

Goose egg next to chicken egg demonstrating size difference.

Strong winds caused the Egyptian Geese nesting in a palm tree in my garden to lose an egg. I've never seen one up close, and laying eggs that size must be an eye-watering experience.

Cape Spurfowl. Technically, a dinosaur charging right at me!

Sacred Ibis flying with Table Mountain in the background.

More pictures from my recent visit to Rietvlei.

Table Mountain and Cape Town, viewed across the water of Rietvlei Wetland Reserve.

Some pictures of my recent visit to my local walking spot, Rietlvei Wetland Reserve. Starting with a view that makes the location rather obvious, as you see Table Mountain and Cape Town in the distance.
More pictures to follow in the next few days.

Dolphins bravely defending paddle boarders from a Southern Right Whale.

Dolphins bravely defending paddle boarders from seagulls.

Dolphin bravely defending against aerial shark attack.

Dolphins!
Enjoy your trip to Cape Town next month, as you can see we have dolphins. All bravely defending us from sharks (we have those too). 😁

Silver Falcons flying in formation.

South African Air Force Silver Falcons aerobatic team from a few years ago.

Man taking a photo of a Banksy image in Bristol.

One of my favourite types of pictures to take is what I call metaphotography. Pictures of people taking pictures.

Southern Masked Weaver.

Southern Red Bishops.

Cape Weaver.

Pin-tailed Whydah.

Today's pictures are just a sampling of birds from my garden.

Dartmoor pony rubbing hindquarters on boulder.

Dartmoor pony head sticking out from behind a boulder as it rubs its hindquarters.

The happiest horse I have ever seen. This Dartmoor pony spent at least 10 minutes scratching its hindquarters on this rock.
You could almost hear it going "awwww yeahhhh".

And that's why the last Ubisoft game I bought was Far Cry 3.

Collage of every full moon in 2019.

A collage of every full moon from 2019, showing how the orientation and apparent size changes over the year.
Colour variations are due to atmospheric conditions. All pictures were taken with the same lens/camera settings and are otherwise unprocessed RAW images.