Back to the Archives!

I can’t make it to Estabrook Park today, but the forecast is for “cloudy”, and I think we’ve all seen enough grainy pictures with grey backgrounds lately. Instead, I’ve found a few recent pictures that I haven’t shown you yet, so here we go.

First up is another song sparrow posing sweetly by the river at the north end of the park from yesterday.

And here’s another look at the little red squirrel from yesterday, after it decided I was no threat and felt an itch that needed taking care of.

Here’s yet a another butterfly from the Dzalanyama Forest Reserve, and this little one basking in the early morning sun on some damp sand beside a little stream is an axehead skipper or axehead orange butterfly (Acada biseriata).

Here’s an African striped skink (Trachylepis striata) that I spotted in Lilongwe, hence the concrete curb it is slinking along. I read that “skinks are characterized by their smaller legs in comparison to typical lizards, and most species of skinks have long, tapering tails they can shed if predators grab onto them. Such species generally can regenerate the lost part of a tail, though imperfectly. A lost tail can grow back within around three to four months.”

Back in the Dzalanyama Forest Reserve, here’s a Natal pansy or brown pansy butterfly (Junonia natalica)

And here’s a scarlet dragonfly (Crocothemis erythraea). I read that their range extends north all the way into southern Europe, and even once in a while they stray into Britain.

Here’s another gaudy commodore butterfly (Precis octavia). I wonder who felt the need to disparage such a gorgeous creature with “gaudy“, right?

Here’s one more look at a female vervet monkey with her baby.

Finally, here’s one last look at a tiny Lang’s short-tailed blue or common zebra blue (Leptotes pirithous)

Okay, that’s enough of that. The forecast for tomorrow morning is “cool” but sunny. I might need gloves, but that’s a small price to pay for decent light and pretty blue backgrounds, if you ask me.