Hidden dam, Fynbos retreat, Grootbos. Lots of calls after heavy rains.
Growing alongside small flowered yellow flava.
Leopard toads have for years known to come onto the property known as Belletuin Sectional Title Scheme from the field that borders the property to the east. The field has ponds which flood during seasonal rains. During winter months the toads are known on occasion to come on the surrounding properties. The field is known to the residents as the Ottery Wetlands. On perfect quiet evenings, croaking can be heard in the distance.
20km NE range extension. Males calling from clumps of sedges, palmiet and waterblommetjies. Network of vleis on the floodplain of the Nuwejaars river. Individuals calling from areas of quickly moving water as well. Acidic soils, with a sandy and peaty component. Around 10-15 males heard in the vicinity.
Capensibufo selenophos -Moonlight Mountain Toadlet. From Maanschynkop, Western Cape.
With @olvr_a & @kurtvanwyk
Klein Dassenberg Conservation Area
Male Blue-banded bees roosting
rooivlerkspreeu/red-winged starling/onychognathus morio on Klipspringer [Oreotragus oreotragus]
Spotted after heavy rainfall last night and most of this morning!
Almost stepped on this little guy. It was crawling on the driveway next to the garden.
Masked bee feeding on Climbing Aloe flower(Aloiampelos ciliaris). In between drinking nectar it was "bubbling".The bee concentrates the nectar on the tongue by repeated regurgitation,evaporation and re-ingestion. After blowing a few liquid bubbles and sucking them in again it resumed visiting the flowers.
A green chiton attached to a half crab. We observed this alien looking commensal beast while undertaking an intertidal survey on the reefs off Hawera. It made us jump when we first turned over the rock.
Saw the Bee “blowing bubbles” in between flying from flower to flower.
Defensive Behaviour-Drawing attention to the tail.
A scrappy expanse of silky refuges and capture webs littered with body parts of previous victims. When preferred prey is entangled, the female spiders emerge from their 'nests' and overpower it by grabbing its extremities. In this case, a wasp https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/9319446.
Presumably they inject venom because after a minute or so the prey stops struggling. Then they snip it out of the web and carry it into one of several 'nests' or refuges.
Unwanted prey, often beetles (see https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/9319435 ) are also killed but sometimes left in the web, uneaten. Ants, in this case, Maranoplus ( https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/9319390 )scavenge around the periphery of the webs, feasting on unwanted beetles or other left-overs.
Very active fluttering butterfly flying low above the grass.
Peropteryx macrotis
El Ostional, Rivas
Nicaragua
This obs. is for the larger pugnacious ants which were harassing the smaller Tetramorium. The red fierce ants can be viewed at: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/37296694
Is this a carpenter bee?
Estado de Amazonas
Brasil
Southern Double-collared Sunbird (Cinnyris chalybeus) Feeding on "Pincushion" Protea (Leucospermum) Kirstenbosch Gardens, Cape Town, South Africa
I believe both are Barn Swallows