In and around Urikaruus - part 4

As I mentioned in my previous post this day started well and steadily improved! Firstly I had spotted the this spider

and her web in the early morning light, then as I moved around I saw this one in a bush nearby. Do you see the curious ant possibly heading into the danger zone?

This spider, I think is a member of the sociable web spider family, or community nest spider family. This one was starting a relatively new nest I think. I had seen these nests alnode the road and in the camp and had wondered if they were still inhabited as had been unable to see any spiders in them. On top of this most of the nests I saw appeared so encrusted with dust I wondered if anything could live in there!

Then I spotted these spiders peeking out of this nest. They appeared to have a number of eggsacs too. Here is a closer crop of the photo above.

Enough of spiders .... for now! The day moves on, and we are visited by some large herds of springbok, and some wildebeest. The image below captures part of the herd only!

We counted well over 200 animals in this herd. Then I spotted a crimson-breasted shrike an image of which I posted earlier, and still I was not able to get a really nice shot of this stunning bird.

But here it is again, just because I think the colours are so amazing, even though the shot is lousy! One of the friendly familiar chats popped in too,

as did the glossy starling and of course the sparrow-weaver and family.

Then a fork-tailed drongo came by.

A group of Namaqua Sandgrouse (Pterocles namaqua)  were also making regular visits to the waterhole.

Flying high and calling with their characteristic whistle. We also saw a juvenile marshall eagle and a black-breasted snake eagle. Neither of which came close enough to allow me a decent shot, but I did get pictures of both at other occasions.

Of course the ground squirrels were also doing their usual foraging around, with their portable shade umbrellas working overtime in the harsh light of the mid-morning sun

And then ...... the camp attendant came to tell us that some of the other guests had just returned from a drive and had seen some lion with a kill not far from our camp. So we got a few things together and jumped into the car. But I'll save that story for my next post!

all the best

Ivan

http://www.andersen.co.za/

In and around Urikaruus - part 3

Well day two (April 2nd 2010) dawned in Urikaruus, this was after an interesting evening sitting on the veranda cooking our evening meal on an open fire. As night was starting to set in my daughter Claire Marie spotted (no pun intended :-) ) a leopard strolling down out of the bush, almost directly opposite from us, towards the watering hole. She, that is the leopard, was quite nonchalant and disinterested in the hum of exitement stemming from these wide-eyed invaders of what was clearly her home territory. Unfortunately it was too dark, and she was too far away to get any kind of photo of her, so we just sat and watched in the gathering gloom, for as long as we could see her and then returned to our evening meal, as she set off to find hers.

Well, having spent so much time in the car over the first few days of our trip we decided to relax on this morning and see what may make an appearance in and around our camp. I tried to get a few landscape shots from our bedroom veranda just after the sun rose, but I won't bore you with those attempts having already posted some views in my earlier post. Having looked out front and not seen much other than the great view, I then turned my attention to behind the chalet and saw this in the rays of the rising sun!

It must have been there the day before, but it needed the early morning light to reveal it to my human eyes. What an amazing web! The top anchor line stretched probably nearly two metres, you can see it running almost horizontally accross the top of the image. The overall web was about 40-50cm high and about double that in horizontal diameter. One of the amazing things about this web was that it was virtually invisible once the sun got up into the sky.  If you look really closely you can see the spider in the top left part of the middle circle of the web. It just give you a perspective on the size of construction this little lady made!

Still struggling to see her? Well, here's an even closer view.

What amazing colours and shapes she has. She blends in with the natural surrounds incredibly well too.

I'll leave this post here, but this day started well and got better and better. So stay around and I'll tell you more :-)

all the best,
Ivan
http://www.andersen.co.za/

In and around Urikaruus ... part 2

Relaxing on the veranda of our unit looking over the waterhole in front, wondering what might come along next, I was surprised by this tiny little fuit fly (Rhacochlaena pulchella Bezzi 1920 (Tephritidae: Adramini)) and some of its friends!

I'm not sure if it was after the sweat / salt or dry skin on my leg .... yes, that's my leg it is sitting on! But it did not seem to bite or sting, and when I zoomed in I was amazed at its colours and detail. This prompted me to start looking around for some other smaller occupants of the camp.

The next resident I discovered was this kite spider, she had built her web on the side of the kitchen unit, between it and our bedroom unit.

And what an amazing web. I tried to get a shot that would illustrate the density and complexity of this web. Theses are the best I could do.

The spider you see on the image on the top of the three above, is the black blob on the end of the sausage looking object, more or less in the middle of the image on the left (vertically) and on the left side (horizontally). The image to the right of the two lower images is a landscape crop of the left side image. If you look closely and use your imagination you can see the spider. But what I'm really trying to illustrate here is the density and complexity of her web. Other than webs of sociable spiders, which I'll post later this web has to be the most complex I've seen developed by a single spider.

Another regular visitor at this unit was the Kalahari Tree Skink. There were various members of this family around. This old chap looked rather as if he/she had survived a few wars! But none-the-less was relatively relaxed around us, and would check in every now and again to see if something interesting had been dropped for it to eat.

Then just to round off this post and the day, I spotted this little web glistening in the setting sun. I never discovered the occupant as it was quite high in a tree, and out of reach from the chalet veranda. I liked the way the sunlight picked up the strands, and I think it was possibly another kite spider.

And then to finish this post, one of the other regulars where ever we went. The yellow mongoose, put in and appearance, always alert always interested.

all the best,

Ivan

http://www.andersen.co.za/