Dawn

It was almost as cold as Cape Town gets this morning. 6 degrees. We arrived amidst riverine mist. But, contrary to the weather report, the sun streamed onto the mountain which was flanked by a dawn moon.

Dawn breakfast walk in my little urban village.

Dawn impala. I’m trying some new camera settings and they take a bit of getting used to. Quite a bit of noise on this one. Correctible with care. But I didn’t need a very high shutter-speed for this kind of thing.

Dawn in the African bushveld style.

Hail Eos, goddess of dawn (that feeling when you realise you’re the cultist 😂). I got to see a pair of lovely Boubou shrikes right by the path and said, “Hey Boo.

This scene again. It was a three kingfisher day today - Pied (which we see most days), Malachite (we see these little jewels maybe every three counts or so), and Giant (seen more rarely - although this lady has a fave spot in the willow so maybe we’ll see her again next week). This in a place that shills for the developers love to pretend is a ruined, lifeless dump.

Terna as I found him soaking in the dawn by our river confluence bird count. In summer I really miss the late dawn that invites you to enjoy it without too much bother. This project is partly what inspired my newfound love for daybreak.

The date palm at the confluence stands on a tiny island. About the only thing on that bank spared destruction by the diggers and dozers. A good thing too as the willow beneath the palm seems to be a nesting site for Night Herons. Hopefully the cranes will be hauled away as they begin to rust.

Dawn light on the confluence of the Liesbeek and Black Rivers where we do our bird count. Egyptian Geese fly by. The cranes behind the little undamaged island stand silent, hopefully haemorrhaging money into bankruptcy for a company that sought to wreck the place with the collusion of the city that ignored its own environmental impact assessment which declared that it was wholly inappropriate to build on this environmentally sensitive floodplain. ...

Nataraja dances in the dawn light coming in our bedroom window.