Autumn Chameleon

Hello everyone, hope you're all well and enjoying some winter weather at last. As you may have guessed from the title, this post is all about a chameleon that we found on a private trip into the South African Bush with the lovely rangers from Mongena Game Lodge. The plan of this "morning" excursion was to look for insects and reptiles, basically all the small things that are often forgotten about in favour of the larger charismatic mammals. I say morning as we left very early to watch sunrise in the bush and got back around lunchtime! 

We found many very cool bugs and even a shrew but the one thing I really wanted to see was a chameleon and after much searching in the bush we couldn't find one, being autumn they were starting to go into hibernation so we knew it would be tricky, but on returning to the vehicle what should we find right in front of it but a flap-necked chameleon (Chamaeleo dilepis).  

This poor little chap was very cold and covered in dew drops which strangely made it even more beautiful, so here are some of the photos I took of the chameleon covered in dew drops and looking for some sun to warm up in. 

I was so happy to see my chameleon and be able to spend so much time with it, a huge thank you goes out to the rangers for their perseverance in looking and for their patience while I photographed it. I'm definitely hooked on these wonderful little creatures and look forward to planning another trip soon to go and look for them and spend more time with them and the other wonderful smaller things. 

For now though, time to go. Have a lovely day. 

Bye for now. 

Victoria x

Everyone Loves Penguins!

I'm not sure what it is about penguins, but I haven't met a single person that doesn't love them! 

It has been a few years since I visited Cape Town and the penguins at Boulder's Bay so was very excited to be going back there and going with Chris for the very first time. However, we didn't go to Boulder's Bay this time as some very good friends suggested a different location somewhere much less touristy and very much quieter, in fact it is the same place that I photographed the Rock Hyrax.

African penguins (Sphensicus demersus) are adorable birds also know as black-footed penguins and jackass penguin due to its call, they are only penguin species that breeds on the African continent with the majority of breeding sites located on offshore islands. There are only a handful of mainland breeding sites two of which are located in the Western Cape. Interestingly there is no fixed breeding season for the penguins with breeding peaking in Namibia between November and December and in South Africa between March and May, they build their nests in sheltered locations in depressions under boulders or vegetation. These wonderful penguins pair for life and return to the same nest site year after year with records showing some penguins being together for ten years! 

We visited in April so there was quite a bit of activity and a few baby penguins around being looked after by one of their parents while the other was out at sea feeding. 

Seeing the chicks was a first for me as all the other times I've been it has been just at the beginning of the breeding season or just at the end so it was a real joy to see these little bundles. 

But I also wanted to captured some different images of their lives on this rocky coastline from getting to the sea and getting in it to dealing with the slippery rocks. 

Unfortunately these beautiful penguins are struggling and are currently listed as endangered on the IUCN Redlist with only 18,000 breeding pairs left in South Africa with the population plummeting by 70% between 2001 and 2013. These penguins face numerous threats including oil spills and increased predation, but by far the biggest threat is over fishing. The parents must travel out to sea to forage but are having to travel further and further to find enough fish to feed their chicks due to depleted fish stocks, but many are not able to travel these distances before their annual moult begins. This means chicks are abandoned and often starve to death, but there are people out there rescuing these chicks and hand raising them ready to be released back into the wide. If you would like to learn more about their plight and what is being done please visit SANCCOB.

They are such wonderfully charismatic birds and I could spends hours, days, months watching them come and go and all their antics but we only had a short time in Cape Town and there was much more we wanted to see, but I will definitely be going back for a much longer period soon!

For now it's bye from me and the penguins. Have a lovely weekend, next up will be a little chameleon we found on a visit to the bush. xx

Orchids

Hello again, I hope you enjoyed my post on adders I will be continuing to work with these over the coming years, there is still the grasshoppers to come (including some pink and oranges ones!) but this post is all about orchids. Unfortunately I have been a bit strapped for time to get out to photograph orchids this year due to other work commitments and their short flower period but I have managed a couple of trips that have been wonderfully successful to both old favourite spots and brand new ones.

I have found orchids in woodlands, fields and grassland and really looked at things differently this year as part of my Somerset Project. Instead of just taking beautiful pictures, I have both taken a step back and shown them in their habitat and got up close and personal to show their textures, so here are some of my favourite images.

Bee orchid - Ophrys apifera

Green-winged orchid - Anacamptis morio, both the normal purple variation and the much paler pink variation, both were in abundance at this new site.

Early Purple Orchid - Orchis mascula

Greater Butterfly Orchid - Plantanthera chlorantha

Common Spotted Orchid - Dactylorhiza fuchsii

Unknown orchid - I found this close to greater butterfly orchids but it doesn't look anything like them and can't find anything that looks similar so if anyone can help with an identification that would be lovely.

Well, that's it for orchids for now at least! These for part of my on-going project capturing the smaller things in Somerset and I'm hoping to produce a wonderful book to accompany the project which will be full of photos and the stories behind them but I have a way to go before that stage!

Next up will be grasshoppers and my work with them and then a new project based just down the road in Wiltshire which I have just started but very excited about. I'm heading away for 10 days but there will be plenty more when I get back and lots of new images from a different part of the UK.

For now, thank you for reading, please share with friends and family and take care.

Victoria x