I was taking photos of the olive tree orchard when something beautiful flew past my ear and I decided to follow it.
One day my ashes will be strewn to the winds from the top of a mountain, but until then I will continue to take photos in nature.
We have so much beauty here in the Western Cape province of South Africa, that it will take a few lifetimes to get it all on camera. Apart from that, there are nine provinces in the country, and most of the areas are filled with an abundance of beauty and also mountains. We also have some stunning mountain passes, such as for instance the Sani mountain pass and many others. This is just a brief description as there are too many lovely places to mention here.
Lately, I seem to have a luck of getting animals and insects in pairs, such as the mantids in one of my previous posts. Here we go again with a butterfly and a bee as neighbors.
And there he was. This is the guy that flew past my ear.
It is an African Monarch butterfly (Danaus chrysippus orientis).
These butterflies eat toxic bitter-tasting alkaloids that plants exude to discourage predators. These alkaloids are used by the butterfly to produce the distasteful chemicals that make them unpalatable to predators. Its flight is slow and sailing, with quite slow wingbeats. It's orange, black, and white coloring serves to warn predators that it is distasteful.
Look, here was a Skimmer (Orthetrum) dragonfly that also came flying in. I caught him in the landing action.
Skimmers are well represented in South Africa and so far, 14 species have been recorded. In many places, 5 or 6 skimmer species may occur at the same site. Correctly identifying skimmers, especially mature males, is fraught with difficulty. This is mainly because the male acquires a pruinos coating when it matures, which masks all coloration it had as an immature.
And that's why I have only identified this one as a skimmmer, and not of a particular species.
Finally, one of the Jackal Buzzards came swooping over, maybe to say goodbye to me, as he was looking at me :)
Take a camera and go wherever you like to go in this country, as there are always many surprises waiting for you. I say this as I have now lived in this country for 69 years, and almost every day something new popped up. Some say, you are never too old to learn, and I agree totally with them as time and again even the know-alls get put into their places. I don't think that the discovery of new species will ever stop, and every now and then we read about a new discovery. Recently, some very rare mushrooms were discovered in the Knysna forests, and everybody was agape about it.
Such is life here.
I hope that you have enjoyed the story and the photos.
And That's All Friends.
Photos by Zac Smith-All Rights Reserved.
Camera: Canon Powershot SX70HS Bridge camera.
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