Oh yes, I got a shock when I zoomed a piece of innocent looking algae.
But first, let me show you one of my favorite water ponds.
We now have 2 cheap camping chairs to sit on, as due to my medical condition, I cannot stand for hours anymore. But the chairs are a blessing and let me tell you why. At first when I sat on it, I felt very uncomfortable, as I don't like to be cloistered. My way of doing things with my camera, is to roam around in search of surprises, and now I cannot do that anymore.
But after a few times of sitting on a chair, I found that instead of me walking around, my zoom can do all of the walking, and I took all of the photos below on the zoom from the chair that I was sitting on. Another surprise is that my hands are steadier when I rest the camera on my crossed leg's knee. So, it will be a chair from now on, and hopefully I will enjoy it.
Lots of water all of the way round, and plenty to see.
This Dotted Border butterfly (Mylothris rupellii haemusi) landed on a flower.
This is a real beauty, and it is very dainty. By the colors we could tell that it's a male.
A Red-veined Dropwing Dragonfly (Trithemis arteriosa) sat at the top of a leaf, and I tried my best to get some spider strands in the photo. It looked like the dragonfly was going to slide down on the top strand.
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Now for a shocking sight!
So, a piece of algae was floating on the water, and I saw a fish eating from it.
I looked closer on the zoom and I saw that there were water striders (Gerris swakopensis) sitting on the algae.
What? A Cherry-eye Sprite damselfly (Pseudagrion sublacteun) arrived and something weird was going on near the damselfly's tail.
The fish kept on eating, and the water striders kept on sitting, but my focus was to see what was going on with the damselfly's tail. Look at the right hand side of the picture.
Oh no! The damselfly's mate was dead, and a skate was carrying the body part of it away to go and eat. You can see her tail laying below the water strider.
Just imagine how that male damselfly felt when that water strider was carrying his wife's body away. I know that the water striders catch insects that fall on the water's surface, even big insects, but I was not prepared to see this in real life. Very distressing, and even if I continue to see the ways of nature it always affects me emotionally. My wife is the same, and after seeing this we immediately packed up and left the place.
But yes, water striders also have to eat, and it is always the survival of the fittest.
Such is life.
Put the Lourensford Wine Estate in the Western Cape on your bucket list if you travel to South Africa.
I hope you enjoyed the pictures and the story.
Photos by Zac Smith. All-Rights-Reserved.
Camera: Canon PowershotSX70HS Bridge camera.
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