Throwback Thursday #28

A great Challenge from Wetanddustyroads

Club Mykonos , Langebaan. May /June 2011

Our first visit to Langebaan.

Now We are living here!

Club Mykonos
Club Mykonos’ flat roofs in Langebaan
Reflections on the water – Club Mykonos Marina, Langebaan
Marina at Mykonos
Windmill with a thatched roof at Mykonos

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #252 What’s Bugging You?

Donna is this week’s host for the Lens-Artist challenge

Insects are also called bugs

What are the 4 types of bugs?

The largest numbers of described species in the U.S. fall into four insect Orders: Coleoptera (beetles) at 23,700, Diptera (flies) at 19,600, Hymenoptera (ants, bees, wasps) at 17,500, and Lepidoptera (moths and butterflies) at 11,500. Google

Bugs
Flowers
Unidentified  Bug hiding in a white rose
Blow/Bottle Fly
Flowers
Butterfly
An unidentified moth in my garden
Cabbage tree emperor moth caterpillar
Flowers
A tiny White Moth
Common Milkweed Locust
Praying Mantis

Flowers

 

Can a spider be called a bug?
 
 
Often though, ‘bug’ means a creepy-crawly in everyday conversation. 
It refers to land arthropods with at least six legs, such as insects, spiders, and centipedes.
Flowers
Yellow spider cathing a fly
Dew drops on a spider web
Rain Spider

 

Bird of the week #14

Bird of the week

The bokmakierie (Telophorus zeylonus) is a bushshrike. This family of passerine birds is closely related to the true shrikes in the family Laniidae, and was once included in that group. This species is endemic to southern Africa, mainly in South Africa and Namibia, with an isolated population in the mountains of eastern Zimbabwe and western Mozambique.

The adult bokmakierie is a 22–23 cm long bird with olive-green upperparts and a conspicuous bright yellow tip to the black tail. The head is grey with a yellow supercilium, and the strong bill has a hooked upper mandible. The underparts are bright yellow with a broad black collar between the throat and breast, which continues up the neck sides through the eye to the bill. The legs and feet are blue-grey. The sexes are similar, but juveniles are a dull grey-green below, and lack the black gorget.

There are four subspecies, differing mainly in colour shade and size.

The bokmakierie has a range of loud whistles and calls, often given by a pair in antiphonal duet, but the most typical is the one that gives this species its name, bok-bok-mak-kik. Levaillant called it bacbakiri based on the local name derived from its call. The Dutch settlers called it bokmakierie.

Unlike the true shrikes, which perch conspicuously in the open, the bokmakierie is shy and skulking. This bird has a typical shrike diet of insects, small lizards, snakes, small birds and frogs. It is preyed upon itself by snakes, mongooses, and large shrikes like the northern fiscal and southern boubou