After the chilly weather of the past few days, this morning is bright and mild. I spent a timed fifteen minutes sitting in one sunny place with my camera. This is what I saw:
A Black-eyed Bulbul (Dark-capped Bulbul) eyed me from the Cape Honeysuckle; it moved to another branch and gave me a good look-over before perching on the nectar feeder for a long drink; then it came down to peck at an apple not very far from me.
A fly that had been buzzing around inspected a brick.
A Cape White-eye flitted through the leaves to first drink from the nectar feeder, then it too came to taste the apple.
This Cape Dwarf Gecko, one of several around, came out to enjoy the sun with me.
A light plane flew overhead – our sky has been very quiet since the lock-down began in March.
Lastly, just fitting into my allotted fifteen minutes, a spider-hunting wasp alighted on a stone. I watched it move this way and that until it flew into the shrubbery.
A good fifteen minutes worth
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It certainly was!
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That gecko looks like an interesting little fella 🦎
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They are great fun to watch: I counted eight of them this morning, some chasing each other, while others were more interested in catching something to eat.
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Your garden is serving as a great lockdown nature reserve. Awesome sightings 😁
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Being confined in this way has meant observing even the smallest things. I am glad you enjoyed these sightings – challenging myself to sit still for fifteen minutes was an interesting thing to do.
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Lovely wildlife! We’ve never been able to interest our birds in apple (and one of our blackbirds took fright at a banana with an added dried mealworm in it, years ago!) They are completely and absolutely addicted to suet. 🙂
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Apples form the standard fare I provide for the fructivorous birds, although they occasionally get something else. Bananas are not that popular and grapes go down a treat – but they only get the ‘off’ ones.
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Our birds get our left over grapes and blueberries… but only the blackbirds like them. 🙂
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You got good value from your time spent.
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I think so – and will try this again some time in a different part of the garden.
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It’s amazing what you can discover in 15 mins, and you found some beauties there!
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Thank you, it was a fun exercise.
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15 minutes well spent.
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Yes, it was interesting to see what was around during that time.
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What a good idea – and well rewarded too.
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I will try it again some time in a different part of the garden – the things we do during lock down!
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Some of the apparently strange practices we might adopt during lock down may turn out to be surprising rewarding and enduring.
I think 15 minutes outdoors with the camera and focusing on nature is a wonderfully meditative practice!
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I enjoy your limited approach to the small confined patch. It especially makes sense in the lockdown. I’ll give it a go.
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Choose your spot carefully and you may be surprised at what you find!
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A lot of things happen in fifteen minutes.
Greeting.
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It is surprising how much generally passes by unnoticed either because we are too busy or we focus on larger things.
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