christian sperka – Page 147 – Christian Sperka Photography

2015-01-16

Simply beautiful!

No words needed – simply beautiful!

2015-01-15

I usually do not like to anthropomorphize animals but this Southern Vine Snake gave the appearance of being “unhappy”. Close to shedding its skin it was moving slowly through a tree as we spotted the snake. When I got a bit closer to take some pictures it obviously felt a bit threatened (for a short while). It inflated its neck to display the bright skin between the scales to impress its opponent. It work for me :-). This slender snake has a very bright orange tongue with a black tip.

Vine Snakes are rather shy and usually very relaxed. As with the Boomslang the chance of getting bitten is quite low. Its venom is highly haemotoxic and if a bite is not treated quickly it can be fatal. There is no anti-venom available.

It was the first time I was able to get images of this shy neighbor. What a great day!

PS: The eyes of this Vine Snake look “clouded” as it was close to skin shedding time.

2015-01-102015-01-10

Looking good!

Well, you can attribute the title of this blog either to me, Badger (the horse I am riding), the Giraffe lady (with her admirer) or the fast growing Ostriches on Pakamisa :-). Have a look at all the images!

I am spending again a few of my off-days relaxing at Pakamisa (in very hot weather!)

Badger and me (with my special safari hat :-). Picture by Isabella Stepski

A lady (left) and her admirer.

Small no longer. Pakamisa’s Ostrich chicks with their mum in the middle.

This young Ostrich was observed by one of Pakamisa’s mares as it moved towards the stables for its evening dinner!

2015-01-03

Two boys on the move!

These two male Cheetah were having a good look at the approaching Lions and then moved away very swiftly 🙂

2015-01-01

Into the new year!

This Leopard Tortoise was moving fast down the road – into the new year 🙂

2015-01-012014-12-31

Happy New Year

2014-12-30

The last captures in 2014!

In the last two days I captured and released two more snakes on the reserve. First a Mozambique Spitting Cobra was spotted around Thanda house. I capture the young snake and released it near one of Thanda’s waterholes, far away from Thanda house. The goggles I wear in the picture are just a precaution, in case the Cobra should choose to spit in its defense. This youngster only spat at my snake stick during the capture. The collage shows the release of the snake.

This image shows my snake handling gear and my snake barrel. In this picture the Cobra was inside the barrel, ready for the drive to its new home.

The second release and capture was of a young Puff Adder. It had hidden under a staff vehicle in the parking lot of Thanda’s base camp. For its own safety and the safety of the many people walking around that area we decided to catch the snake and release her in a safe distance away from the camp. This first collage shows the capture operation…

… the second collages shows the release of this shy reptile.

The images were taken by Magdel Geldenhuys, Letishia Kleinschmidt (thanks!) and my GoPro.

2014-12-27

2014 Collage

My 2014 Instagram Image Collage. What a year!

PS: I only started Instagram in September and I used a few older images to get it going 🙂 But I like the collage!

2014-12-262014-12-26

A relaxing day!

For some people a relaxing day means sitting comfortably at home and reading a book or watching a movie. For some it means to go window-shopping at a large mall. Others would like nothing better than to go to a pub or working out at a gym.

Well, my idea of a relaxing day is to pack a cooler box with drinks and food, fetch all my camera equipment, my binoculars and my bird book (=iPad) and install myself at a hide on a waterhole at a game reserve.

That is what I did on Christmas day.

While listening to a good audio book I took images of many different animals coming to the water. For most of the day 11! Rhinos kept me company. While other nature enthusiasts where coming and going I stayed for the whole day at the hide.

And these are sixteen of the pictures I took during this most relaxing day!