21st January 2008
Wednesday, January 23, 2008 at 04:56PM Today was the most extraordinary day: perfect temperature, cool (for this part of the world anyway) but sunny, clear and dry, with a freshness in the air.
The river was already fairly high at midday...
...and kept rising during the afternoon...
...until by late evening it was the highest it's been this season.
During the course of the afternoon, the river gradually began to rise and rise until it reached the highest level its been in the past few months, even at the height of the rainy season. I think the storm which hit us yesterday has moved further inland, and this is what has brought the river down in flood.
Big crocodile seeks refuge from the flood in the calmer waters of the Mtito river mouth
As the water levels rose, a couple of big crocodiles sought refuge in the calmer water at the confluence of the Mtito River with the Athi. The Mtito is still only flowing gently, barely more than a trickle. I saw our goose family – with four nearly adult goslings in tow this time – flying low over the flooding river in the late evening. It really does seem to be an oscillating family – sometimes we see the parent birds on their own, sometimes just with one or two goslings, sometimes with all four surviving youngsters.
Our Egyptian Goose Family (above) fly low over the flood waters, while a Dikkop pair (below) sit on an island in the rising river as the afternoon draws to a close...
Red Dragonfly (click to enlarge)
I was out photographing flowers and butterflies in the afternoon – in fact, I did not get beyond a bush on the Little Serengeti for it was buzzing with butterflies and dragonflies, and I could not tear myself away. There were two different types of orange butterflies feeding on the bush (which I think is a bossia).
Dragonfly
(click to enlarge any image)
Dragonfly in silhouette
Orange & Black Butterfly
Orange & Black Butterfly with wings up
Orange Butterfly
Orange one (again!)
Christmas colours, a month too late!
The delonix elata trees are flowering there too – surely their flowers are among the most beautiful in the world? Even in death, as the flowers turn from white to yellow and orange, they retain an incredible beauty. You can see their new seed pods sprouting up next to the blossoms, perpetuating the cycle of life (below). Other bushes and trees are flowering and fruiting too – like the dark green bush with red berries that grow in such picturesque forms and colour combinations.
Trail of ants across road
click to enlarge
Ants in close-up
I came across an army of safari ants, moving in a long trail across the road – I just came across the tail end of them, but I was glad not to have stepped on them by mistake! They are not the most friendly of creatures when disturbed…
I couldn’t stop photographing the Village Weavers (aka Black-headed Weavers) coming to our birdbath and bird table today – they are just so striking with their sun-yellow feathers and fire-red eyes. There certainly were quite a crowd of them there today, all bickering amongst themselves (above), as if there were not enough food to go round…They’re all still busily building their nests too, as if preparing for Round Two of nesting - many of their fledglings from Round One keep coming to the birdbath too. In fact, thinking about it, all the birds in the photos are males, which suggests the females are already back, sitting on the nest again (a woman's work is never done, so they say...)
Weaver mania at the birdbath!
click any image to enlarge
A frenzy of nest maintenance activity...
The extra rain has also reinvigorated our balcony flowerbeds and our garden trees. The flowerbeds are bursting with the delicate blue commelina flowers, interspersed with the voracious, pretty indigofera. Outside, the terminalia tree transplants are thriving. The log which I photographed sprouting back on December 20th 2007 is still going strong. I still find it amazing that you can re-grow a tree from a cut-off piece of log.
Commelina profusion in balcony flowerbed
Raindrops on commelina flower (close-up)
Pretty pink indigofera in balcony flowerbed
New shoots on terminalia log looking very healthy and growing steadily
Flowering (or fruiting?) euphorbia...more images below...
The euphorbia flowers (or are they fruit now? It's hard to tell) are looking more extraordinary than ever. I like the star pattern created by the flowers when viewed from above.
Euphorbia Flowers...getting closer and closer...
Tomorrow will be full moon – today the moon rose in a still-blue sky an hour before sunset. Just after dark, we had an influx of flying ants which had hatched after the recent rain, and we thought we would be inundated by bugs all night – but half an hour later, all the ants had lost their wings, and we spent a perfect, bug-free evening, sitting on the verandah watching the moonlight dancing on the river below us and setting the world to rights, as we are wont to do…
Tanya
A Butterfly Question:
Can this butterfly really have chewed off a piece of leaf? That's certainly what it looks like. Can anyone explain this?
More Pictures:
[January Animals]
[January Birds]
[January Insects]
[January Wild Flowers]
[January Tree Watch]
[Our Life in the Wild]
[Our House & Home]
[Our Egyptian Goose Family Story]
By the way, my photo-journal is currently being reviewed by Blog Badly...strange, you may think, but my sense of humour runs to sarcasm and irony, so let's see what they come up with. As I said to them, "do your worst"...and if you want a laugh, interspersed with the odd bit of blogging sense, take a look at their site and dare to submit your own!
28th January 2008: Update on the Blog Review:
Mr BlogBadly was nice to me! In fact, he was super-nice! He rated my blog AWESOME, with National Geographic-standard photos... Now why aren't there more people like him in the world, I ask you!
Read the BLOG BADLY review about my Wilderness Diary...and while you're there, why not request a free review of your own blog? It may make you cry, but it'll make you laugh more!
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