Thanks to Marikie Schweibush 

We are fortunate to have photographer Steven Mullins of Manipulating Light fame sharing his beautiful images.
https://www.facebook.com/manipulatinglight/

Most of the sharing of photos in Rooiels is on WhatsApp groups - especially REWild.  But this often means that we do not have photos kept on record.  So sharing here are some photos of the beautiful sights and scenes within Rooiels village on the many beautiful calm May days in 2024.

Thanks to Stephanie Milne for sharing her joy at the change from early morning to noon with the behemoth rock that benignly towers over and protects our village

Unusually late with a baby - this spotted thickknee - dikkop - had already had a baby this season in November which had since fledged.  Photo by Mike Leresche - see other Rooiels photographers and the links to their photos in the Gallery on this website.

With the Rooiels Wild and the Village People WhatsApp groups all sharing photos there has been less need for us to share on the website.  So the Field Notes have taken a back seat.  But as WhatsApp is not so useful to archive we thought we would share a few of the photos from the first half of 2022

In March and April there were five visits to the cave -- see the photos on the Leopard Camera blog.

Ralph Pina shared some beautiful photographs of Rooiels - his website is well worth a visit ralphpina.com

Franka shared the tranquility of Rooiels on a rare windless day

Thanks to Willie and Pierre for sharing their finds --- and to 

Rooiels has been working closely with the Cape Leopard Trust with the cameras that Wolfgang Steinbach and Jill Lockley visit every few months and collect photos.  See the Leopard Blog for some of these photographs and videos.

Here is a link to an interesting article published by the Trust in June 2021

Pierre and Willie share their beautiful Rooiels greeting of photos on Woman's day

In June Madeleine shared photos of the Sentinel Rock Thrush -- which is known to occur -- but seldom seen.  Madeleine also shared an unusual view of the more commonly seen Ground Woodpecker.  They are often on the boulders - and tend to follow the sun.  So early birding in winter is not as rewarding for the rockjumpers, thrushes and woodpeckers that seem to be more active when the sun reaches the road.  But in summer, the early bird catches the worm!