Ok, continuing on…

Still not much going on around here except everyday life…it’s hot and humid…but Florida, summer, ya know. 

Neil’s doing some camera resorting after his trip to Africa…he is selling his Z9 and buying a second Z8. Image wise they both have the same sensor and performance…but the Z9 has a built in grip and a larger battery at the cost of being a pound heavier. Since he rarely shoots in portrait orientation (tall rather than wide) he’s got no need for the grip…and the smaller battery in the Z8 has never been an issue for him, even on the longest day in Africa he still had a bit of battery capacity left when they got back to camp…and he’s always got spare batteries in the bag anyway. And while he was gone to Africa his new 180-600 zoom lens came in…it will supplant the 100-400 for most outings as it’s got more range and better image quality albeit it’s heavier than the shorter zoom. The shorter one will still get used when he needs to do closeups or macro images as it has a smaller minimum focusing distance…or when he needs the lighter weight option. And finally he’s thinking about selling his 400mm prime lens as it simply doesn’t get used any more now that he’s got the 600mm prime and the long zoom.

Yesterday was Mother’s Day so we went down to the Elks for the Mother’s Day Ceremony…it’s one of the things that all Elks Lodges do…and on Saturday it was the monthly birthday bash so that meant that Neil’s dinner was free. Dinner was sliders…and while the hot Italian sandwiches on slider buns don’t really meet his definition of what a slider is…they were darned good as were the birthday cupcakes.

On to more shots from Africa…we’re almost halfway through the trip and I know ya might be getting tired of wildlife shots from there…but what can I do…he brought back 32,000 frames.

Baboons.

Cheetahs. This is a mother and her two cubs…they’re teenagers now and are learning to hunt. They’re not there yet as they took off chasing way too soon rather than stalk close enough to actually be able to catch prey…they’re fast but are sprinters and not marathoners so if the chase goes on very long they run out of gas and have to abandon the chase.

They were already on a kill and having lunch…so being full maybe that contributed to the lack of effort in the subsequent almost stalk.

They laid down in the shade of the vehicle…

As you can see…their bellies are pretty full so no wonder they didn’t try that hard on the later hunt.

And then went over and ate some more.

Wildebeest…based on the lack of proficiency later on mom probably was in charge of this hunt.

Rainstorm out on the horizon…this was a common occurrence.

Silverbird…I wonder how it got the name?

Tawny Eagle…they saw a lot of these and the plumage and coloration varies quite a lot.

Lions actually can climb trees…I guess they are actually looking for prey to wander close by since there was plenty of shade around…or maybe the bugs are fewer off the ground. This was about 15 feet away from the vehicle maximum.

Banded Mongoose.

White Browed Coucal.

See what I mean about the variation in coloration…another Tawny Eagle.

Hyrax…this is a small rodent like mammal up to about 2 feet long. Its closest living relatives are…strange as it might seem (but then no stranger than the closest relative to the Pronghorn in the US being a giraffe I guess)…elephants and manatees.

White Headed Buffalo Weaver…again, there are lots of weavers in Africa and they’re wildly different looking.

Helmeted Guineafowl…another one with an obvious name.

Toward sunset they found a couple of giraffe and were hoping they would wander over in front of the acacia and sunset but alas, they never did.

This is the sunset off to the right in the above shot where they hoped it would wander.

The giraffe did attract some Red Billed Oxpeckers though.

And the sunset turned out pretty darned good as well…even giraffe-less. It kept changing as they headed for the camp so they kept shooting it until it got too dark to do anymore.

It was pitch black by the time they got back to camp.

Interesting things found on the net.

These are the three smallest bones in the human body: malleus, incus, and stapesare…located in the middle ear. The 3 x 5 mm in size bones are essential for hearing.

Paper or plastic?

Cyas.