Watched the cormorants and gulls play musical poles from the bird hide on Park Island this morning.

An airborne bird has advantage over a perching bird because of sheer momentum, but if you have the charisma, you can keep your perch in the face of an invader by squawking loudly enough.

Saw more than one incoming cormorant end up in the water after being squawked at.

Then they are all like "bloody hell don't you know I don't have oil on my feathers, they're not waterproof! And now I have to start all over drying them off."

Nobody does grumpy quite like a cold, wet cormorant.

#today #birds #ThingsISaw

(Been writing all day so most of what I saw was words on a screen, but still, saw a few things)

Things I saw today:

A pied kingfisher doing a rapid grooming routine: Right wing, left wing, right side of head, left side of head, beak wipe right, beak wipe left, shake out the butt feathers. (The butt feather shake looked very satisfying)

A pied kingfisher (different one) jumping off a pole straight into the water, emerging with a small fish, dropping the fish very deliberately, immediately diving and catching it again, and dropping it back into the water again. Poor fish! Or lucky fish?

A caterpillar munching on an aloe flower, and a few florets down on the same flower, a bee, packing her pockets full of dark orange pollen.

A single goose keeping watch on the roof of the flats opposite my house. In the rain, all heroic and misty.

#ThingsISaw #today #AmWriting

Things I saw and heard (these are from long ago)

A homeless man slowly chasing a bottle of whisky down an escalator. The bottle rolls, just out of his reach, falls another step, he steps down, reaches for the bottle, which rolls again, step by step, all the way to the bottom where it smashes to shards.

In the corridor outside the typing class, the (mechanical ) typewriters sounded like the rush of an enormous waterfall.

Our teacher putting on a record of marching band music, and everyone typing the same exercise at in time to the music. SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH bumpa SMASH SMASH bumpa PING! KADJUNKA krrrrrrrr SMASH SMASH SMASH.

#ThingsISaw

Things I saw and heard:

Seven Egyptian goslings so newly hatched they're still egg-shaped, being taken out on the water by their very worried-looking parents.

A dog watching a cat catch a moth.

A cashier at a very busy supermarket rolling her eyes and making the "I'm meditating" gesture with both her hands.

A woman in an South African National Defence Force uniform carefully putting a small girl's hair into a ponytail.

An old man telling me about a frightening thing that happened to him last night, while his dog waits patiently for him to take her fishing.

The whispering noise my new bottle-green windcheater makes when I walk.

#ThingsISaw #today

Things I saw:

Two men riding the same bicycle. One was steering and operating the brakes, the other was peddling. They were going to work, I think.

A brown, hairy caterpillar crossing main road in heavy traffic.

A policeman filling in a huge ledger like something out of a children's storybook. He looked tired.

Two people manoeuvring their shopping trolley though the bollards at Thessin's bridge. The trolley was piled high with the glass and cardboard they'd found in our neighbourhood's rubbish bins.

A Cape Robin Thrush hopping out through the security gate on our kitchen door. It sat on the bottom bar for a moment, and looked back at me before flying away.

A piece of paper blowing along just fast enough to stay out of my reach, all the way along the promenade at Fishhoek beach, and out to sea.

#ThingsISaw #today

Things I saw and heard today:

A man, dressed in a suit and tie, sweeping some litter on the road outside his house. He swept it into a small heap just out of sight of his gate, and left it there.

The shadow of my cycling self cast on a hedge. While I moved, my shadow was clear. When I stopped, it disappeared into the leaves.

A tiny yorkie, snarling fiercely at a dog behind a gate. Her companion, an enormous Boerboel, a gentle, sweet-faced creature, gave me such a worried look!

A man, wearing a face mask (unusual these days) and knitted white gloves. He was walking backward along a low wall, hands spread out for balance. I saw him again a bit later, this time he was walking backward along a pathway, shadow boxing gently.

The sound of the patch of sand on my bicycle wheel going "shuff, shuff, shuff" on the road.

#ThingsISaw #today

Can anyone help me understand why this post
https://mefi.social/@Zumbador/110379642722095633
Doesn't show up on my profile, or when I look at the hashtags in it, like #ThingsISaw?

#MastodonHelp #fedihelp

Confession:

Sometimes I get self conscious about my #ThingsISaw post because the things I saw on a particular day are ALL dog things.

Also interesting, I tend to think people will believe I'm distorting my reality in my *written* Things I Saw, and not realise how much I'm distorting my reality in my *photos of* Things I Saw.

I wonder why that is.

It's like I think people have higher textual literacy, than visual literacy.

#ActuallyAutistic

Things I saw today:

A very large gull waiting for a slap chip.

Some pigeons pecking at barnacles and mussels.

A woman striding down the road, very determined, then doing a 90 degree turn and striding with equal determination into the entrance of an ice cream shop.

A thermos full of tea, but no cup.

#ThingsISaw #today #CyclingLife #CapeTown

Things I saw today:

Faded social distancing markers.

#ThingsISaw #today

Things I saw today:

Some orange-clad prisoners fixing the fence around the prison. They were on the outside of the fence.

A young cat sneaking across a road, quite obviously out and about without permission.

A bus driver seeing me, and deciding whether or not he should notice me.

A small, rather plump dachshund practising civil disobedience by keeping just out of reach of its human at the end of a walk without ever acknowledging this fact.

Two old women staring at each other, deep in conversation. They were both saying the same thing, taking turns: "I *really* like her. I really like her. Isn't she great? So eclectic."

#ThingsISaw #today

Things I saw #today

A white car covered in tiny, *tiny* spiders. Small as ants. They must have just hatched.

A scrap of paper, snatched off my table by the wind, disappearing over the roof of the house next door.

A group of street cleaners, all women, wearing black rubbish bags as impromptu rain coats. Each had her own way of wearing her bag. Some just any old how, others quite stylish, with a head scarf as well as a wrap incorporated into their rain-bag ensemble.

A little girl on a balcony, just visible over a high perimeter wall. She put her hands out and a ball appeared between them, thrown by a person below her.

A dog looking into a fire.

#ThingsISaw #CapeTown

#today on my morning bicycle ride, a big man in a wetsuit shouted "lady with cap!" at me as I went by.

I'm not sure why.

This was on the beachfront so the wetsuit was not surprising.

I do wear a peaked cap under my helmet. So. Well.

I also saw a scooter disguised as a rhino. Honestly, I did. It had a enormous rhino head mounted on the handlebars, and a rhino butt fixed to its back end.

I guess this, too, will remain a mystery.

#TheWorldIsWeird #PeopleAreStrange #WhatCanOneDo

#ThingsISaw

#CyclingLife

Was feeling a bit low this morning, then went for a cycle and met an *absolutely charming* smoll doggo and her proud human, a woman in her late sixties.

Small doggo came trotting up to me the moment she heard my voice, clearly used to being treated with kindness and respect.

Little bit further on I saw a woman driving slowly along, her child running on the grassy verge next to the road. Some kind of training exercise? The little boy was all serious concentration, and his mother vastly amused and proud at the same time.

#Today #ThingsISaw #CyclingLife

Things I saw today:

A man, walking down the road, stops as something on the sidewalk catches his attention. Something very small, and very shiny. He bends, picks it up, looks at it, drops it carefully, looks at it some more, picks it up again, and drops it again.

A starling having a bath in a pool of rainwater. As I saw it, my brain said: "Ah, look! A girl. No. A dog. No. A bird."

A small dead animal that turned out to be a glove.

Some roller bins that nearly spelled out the number of the beast.

A woman realising that I don't recognise her.

A man throwing his cap at a window, then pausing, then picking up his cap, and throwing it again.

#ThingsISaw #today #CyclingLife #CapeTown

#ThingsISaw #ThingsIHeard

Things I saw and heard #today

A dog walking behind its person so it could stay in her shadow.

Loose brick cobbles softly knocking together as my bike's wheels rolled over them.

#ThingsISaw #ThingsIHeard

Things I saw and heard yesterday:

A man I nearly bumped into saying "That's OK, not serious, mon" in a deep voice.

A man who's crouched down to repair brick paving. He's trying not to laugh because I just walked into a pole.

(why yes, despite my idea of myself as a serious and dignified person I have a personal soundtrack, and it is yackity sacks)

#ThingsISaw #ThingsIHeard

A sign directing trucks, battered and torn along one edge by the trucks that have scraped past it.

A moth fluttering across four lanes of moving traffic. It crossed at the pedestrian crossing, but against the lights.

A tree with huge a right angled gap in its branches and foliage, from years of trucks driving under it.

The clean skeleton of a kitten, hidden amongst the weeds of a traffic island.

A scattering of too many porcupine quills on the verge of a busy road.

The mark on my neighbours car where a thrown brick struck it.

A chameleon, thin as a dried leaf on tar, flattened by a car's wheel.

The hollow boom of a truck ramming under a bridge that's too low for it.

The bangs as the wheels of a petrol bombed bus exploded.

Potholes in a road where dune moles undermined it.

#ThingsISaw #today

A rat eagerly picking up an ice cube with both hands, then dropping it and shaking his hands so fast they blurred. Then repeating the process.

The shadow of my bicycle's front basket, cast by my bike's light. The shadow was so big, it was as wide as the road I was cycling along.

A woman in a car smiling because she saw me trying to fix a traffic sign.

A security guard opening a gate without, apparently, waking up at all.

#ThingsISaw

A "no entry" sign that contradicts itself.

#SouthAfrica #CapeTown