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Tuesday, November 12, 2013

It's not all birds...

When Grant and I go out birding, we often see wildlife. Especially at night. But recently it rained a little and we believe the real rains will start again this week, so the bird life during the day is prolific and we've seen various little animals and reptiles.

While cruising slowly through along the bush roads, we always keep our eyes peeled for little buck which seem to thrive around here. Not long and we were rewarded.

Dik-dik stands and watches

And another...

...and another!

After getting my fill of photos of the Dik-diks (we even spotted another pair with a youngster, but they were very wary and bounded out of sight), we drove on. Around the next corner, Grant stopped and pointed to a grassy mound beside the road. He is not known as Hawk-Eye for nothing. (lol!)  There, if you looked carefully as it was camouflaged by its environment, was a Nile Monitor Lizard sunning itself. 
 A monitor lizard sunning itself on a grassy mound beside the road

I use the screen when I take photos, and I wasn't sure which side of the lizard I was focusing on. Grant assured me that the lizard was eying me, so I zoomed in to see for myself.
The beady eye of the lizard looked straight back at me

After this, we drove onto the dam to do a spot of birding. 

On the way back to town, I took photos of the houses on the one side of the haul road and the mining activities on the other side. It always fascinates me that the mine happens almost on top of the town! 
 The town's houses line the one side of the haul road...

...while on the other side, it's [mining] business as usual! 

I'm linking my post to Our World Tuesday which you can access by clicking here

I hope you're all into the first part of your new week.


9 comments:

  1. What a great post for the day, Jo!! I love your captures of the little Dik-diks!! Thanks so much for sharing the fun!! Oh, and the shot of the monitor lizard is terrific! Hope you have a great week!!

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  2. The Dik-diks are so tiny they can't be easy to spot. And I think that monitor lizard was giving you the eye. So much besides birds to see there.

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  3. wow… such interesting creatures… thanks for showing us wildlife in your corner of the world Jo.

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  4. HI Jo I love what you saw today as you motor around. I would not like to eb too close to thatLizard bubt a great shot.

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  5. Jo, cool critters. I love seeing the animals or the birds. Your Dik-diks are cute and I love the Lizard. Great sightings, have a happy day!

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  6. Some great wild life spotting there. Every journey must be an adventure.

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  7. Those dik diks have huge eyes and ears. The ears remind me of the mule deer here in the foothils of norCal. Great capture of the monitor lizard. It appears that he is monitoring you.

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  8. Nice post, Africa has a great wildlife and it is always fascinating to see the high variety of animals.

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  9. That is one big lizard. The dik dik are so cute but look shy.

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Thank you for visiting my blog and taking the time to leave a comment. I appreciate your feedback. Jo