Expect the unexpected

As far as the larger mammals on the reserve, we generally have a good idea of what we see or what we are going to see or are looking for. We quite often hear or smell them before we see them or there are other signs that they are there. The smaller animals however are often unexpected sightings, and sometimes very unusual!

On Saturday we were having a relaxing day after saying goodbye to our guests. As I could hear a lot of birds outside the bathroom window I decided to take the camera and see what I could find. Unfortunately most of them decided to stay in the leaves of the trees but I managed to get this rather nice shot of a Scarlet-Chested Sunbird.

And then, as I rounded the corner of the Lodge I saw a Leopard…….

…………………Tortoise that is. Actually it was two of them, and they were finally catching up to the fact that it had been Valentine’s Day a week ago. He looked absolutely thrilled, she was more interested in the grass blade she was eating!

And then after all that excitement I had another nice find, one of my flip-flops that the monkeys had stolen was lying there waiting for me. None the worse for wear apart from some extra bite marks :)

I’m still missing one of my other pair, but that one is bright pink with a flower on it, and it has gone walkabout before, so I don’t think that will come back any time soon. Maybe we will see a monkey wearing a pink flower on its head one day…