Pilansberg - Wild flowers - Part 7

I was there just after the rain and this means the ticks are out in full force, especially this little red ones. Needless to say, I did not do much walking that day.

He was clinging for dear life onto this grass stalk.

It seems it was the time when all the dragonflies were eager to have their photograhs taken too.

Pilansberg - Wild flowers - Part 6

This one is very pretty when in full bloom as the centre unfolds as the orange flower opens.

I could not resist taking pictures of this lovely dragonfly as it posed for me.

What a face!!

I have never seen a spider like this with each half of him a different color. He was tiny about the size of the head of a cigarette.

Pilansberg - Wild flowers - Part 5

This one is smaller than a 1c piece.

A bagworm wanting her picture taken...

Some beautiful grass and weeds.....

Then I found a golf ball...no wait...its a mushroom disguised as one. :)

Pilansberg - WIld flowers - Part 4

I have never seen a wild Morning Glory before.

This mushroom was hiding away in the grass too.

Pilansberg - Wild flowers - Part 3

Okay so these are not flowers either but as we are heading for winter, all the grasses are starting to seed and some of them are so pretty.

This very young little bird sat dead still for me for a change. It is probably on of the Cisticola family but they all look the same and are very difficult to tell apart.

Pilansberg - Wild Flowers - Part 2

Most of the wild flowers are very small, some only a few mm in diameter and most around 1/2 an inch.

A flower? No I don't think so although this Guinea Flow might think she is one!! :) She was laying in the road just begging for her photo to be taken.

Pilansberg - Wild Flowers - Part 1

I went to Pilansberg over the past weekend to do some bug hunting and everything is very lush and green.
They have had a lot of rain there with dams, stream and river overflowing. Because of the rain, there are ticks everywhere and so walking looking for bugs was out. I then decided to do the wild flowers, something I have been wanting to do for a long time but never seem to get around to.

Although I am calling this series "Flowers" I did run across a bug and animal or two and will insert them here too.
When the gates opened at 05:30 it was still fairly dark and at the first watering hole I saw these hippo out of the water, heading back down from where they had been grazing. It was too dark to see properly so I took a few pictures and this one came out good enough to post, the others are really AWFUL!! LOL!!

There was a mushroom with a pretty edge along the road and I could not resist a shot of it.

A baby Elegant Grasshopper. They get to be really beautiful and colorful when older, in about 6 weeks from this stage.

The young giraffe had an itch and was scratching his head against the tree. It must be awful trying to find the right size tree to rub it against. :)

In the distance was one of the dams I was heading for and the water was running over the sluice gates. It is the first time I have been there that I have seen this as it is actually quite a dry area.