A Malachite sunbird showing his hovering skills.

The flower stem was too thin for him to sit on it.

But he wanted to drink the flower's nectar and so he had to hover in the air. This is a Malachite Sunbird (Nectarinia famosa).

I am the kind of guy that takes photos of anything that my eyes can see, and quite often the photos turn out to be very nice. But none of us don't make any mistakes, and I have my fair share of them. Thankfully, Mother Nature seems to help me lately by showing me many of her treasures at unexpected times and in strange situations. For instance, I was standing close to the plant, but my attention was on the Pincushion bushes, as I am searching for the Cape Sugarbird's nest, and the next moment this Malachite male hovered on this plant close to me, so it was just a case of "mik-and-druk" (aim-and-shoot). I love to see how his colors blended in with the leaves of the plant.

The female Malachite was much smaller, and she could easily sit on the flower stems.

Now let me show you a Black headed Heron (Ardea melanocephala) in action.

The traffic didn't worry this one very much, as he sat on an empty stand in our suburb.

He seemed to have spotted something to catch.

Herons can stand very still for long periods, and when something appears, then they strike down at lightning speed.

I was so hoping to get his strike on camera, but not on this day.

Oh yes, he seemed to blame me for the loss of his prey.

I think that I have posted a heron that caught a snake once before, but I cannot remember if I did. Some days I am not in a healthy state of mind, and I cannot concentrate, but my dear wife would then help me with the typing. The past 10 years have not been good for me health wise, due to a handful of pills that I take every day. Some of the pills have bad side effects, and I am convinced that it culminated in the TIA (light stroke) that I had few years ago. Even more upsetting was the news that I had several TIA's before, according to the MRI scans. It made sense as at times I felt very confused, and the doctors didn't know why. So, by grace, a very good doctor figured it all out. And now I live on borrowed time as other complications are starting to set in. So be it, and I am not complaining.

I hope you enjoyed the pictures and the story.

Photos by Zac Smith-All-Rights-Reserved.

Camera: Canon PowershotSX70HS Bridge camera.

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