2018-07-23: Monochrome Monday

A giraffe reaching for a choice morsel, high up in an acacia tree.

Because of an abundant wet season, there was a lot of food (and relatively speaking) a lot of water on offer in the desert while I was there last April.

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2018-07-22: What I’ve seen this week

It’s been a great week for bird watching and wildlife, though I don’t have a ton of images to show for it.  As I expected, the hummingbirds are slowing down dramatically, with only around a half dozen birds remaining, but the purple finches, nuthatches, chickadees and pine siskins remain in force, clearing out two seed feeders every couple of days.  I had a pair of western tanagers through the yard on Thursday, but sadly they flitted through so quickly I couldn’t get any images.  I’ve only had three very brief sightings of the tanagers this year.

After the sadness of finding the destroyed robin’s nest the previous week, I was a bit surprised to find a robin (I assume the same mama, but perhaps a different one) building a nest feet from where the previous one was destroyed.  Fingers crossed she is more successful this time and the cats stay away.

The star of the week though was the bear cub that visited the yard Thursday around lunchtime.  It was on it’s own, and frankly seemed a bit small to be away from its mama, but I never caught sight of any other cubs around or the mom.  He was in the grass near some of my potted plants, making for some nice images out of my dining room window.

I hope you enjoy my choices for the week.

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Taking photos out through a window isn’t ideal, but I do get a great vantage point for creating images.
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Taking a moment to stop and smell the flowers.

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Mama robin tucked into her nest on my well pump house.
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A garter snake that I found basking on the pavement when I was taking Spencer for an afternoon walk.  I was grateful no cars came by while I was walking, and when I returned it had moved into the safety of the bushes.

2018-07-17: Deer in the yard

I missed putting together my Sunday post, but I didn’t want to miss the opportunity to share this adorable deer and fawn that briefly popped by the yard last week.  They showed up for only a couple minutes at the end of a miserable rainstorm, so I am glad I looked out the window at the right time and had my camera handy.  I didn’t recognize the mama, so I only shot a couple of images out the window, as I didn’t want to spook them.  Most of the local deer are used to me being out walking so it probably wouldn’t have been an issue to pop my head out the door, but I actually wouldn’t have had time as they only popped over for a brief visit to the salt lick and then vanished back into the bushes.

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A mama deer and fawn making a brief appearance in my back yard.
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A bundle of cuteness – I love living in the country 🙂

2018-07-16: Monochrome Monday

A cheetah family portrait to start the week.  There’s always one looking in the wrong direction… 🙂

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A family of cheetah huddle together on a blustery afternoon on the Phinda Game Reserve in South Africa.  May, 2017.

2018-07-09: Monochrome Monday

A trio of antelope images to start the week.

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A steenbok pauses for a quick photo op before disappearing behind the scrubby trees growing in the sand.  Hoanib Camp, Namibia.  April 2017.
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A group of oryx get photobombed by a grazing springbok.  Ongava Game Reserve, Namibia. April 2017.
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A lone nyala bull checks out his surroundings.  Londolozi Game Reserve, South Africa. May 2017.

 

Wishing everyone a fantastic week! 🙂

2018-07-02: Monochrome Monday

I didn’t plan on taking yesterday off of posting, but I had a last minute invite to play golf, and decided to do that instead of sit in front of the computer.  While I do my best to keep to the schedule I have set for myself for posting, sometimes a bit of leeway is in order, especially to take advantage of the all too short summer we have up here.

As for today, I wanted to share some more images from this fantastic leopard sighting.  The interaction we got to see between the cubs, and the cubs and their mom had all of us on the vehicle laughing.  The cubs raced around, climbing on everything in sight, tackling, chasing and biting at each other and then took the occasional break to have a cuddle with mom before repeating the process over again.

I hope you enjoy my picks for today.  Wishing everyone a fantastic week ahead.

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The cubs pause at the top of a fallen tree to survey the landscape below.  They didn’t pause long before they were off again, exploring the ravine.
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What goes up, must come down.  
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There was some rather serious tail biting going on just after a shot this image.  Mom does not look too impressed!
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