Friday 25 October 2013

Morocco 1 at last!

Sorry it's taken so long to post these, it's been really busy. To avoid the breathless wait for the inevitable creepy crawlies, I thought I'd put them first!


Toads aren't the most likely creature to meet in a dry river bed at temperatures in the mid 30s, tough little (about 1 inch in this case) things, and a bit of a recurring theme.


Shield bugs seem able to live anywhere, a huge variety of colours and patterns.


More beetles than any other non-microscopic life-form, so I'm not even trying to identify them!


I stopped to photograph the oleander, and found this little friend, barely 1 cm across.


A giant by comparison, lurking in the loo tent in minimal moonlight.


M's trainer was an odd place for a night's kip!


Where would we be without dung beetles?


Many lizards, you have to catch them early in the day before their metabolism warms properly, then they;re slow enough to photograph properly.


Possibly a small blue, but I'm happy to be corrected.


Another flock of lizards, the last one was a bit slow, his tail's made a good meal for someone.





We stumbled on a tiny stream with twenty or so assorted frogs.


Photograph one (Colchicum) get one (two flies) free!



No idea but looks vicious.


This one's really vicious, a few inches from D's tent.





Lucky I had my camera on the hazardous bed-time loo-trip!



Wonderfully patterned, camouflage? Decoration? "I'm-scarier-than-you"?




They all said I was mad to take photos of something so nasty!


But the fly probably came to a sticky-tongued end.


Not really a creepy-crawly, beetle burrows.




Many grasshoppers, but oddly almost no grass. I wonder if they eat dung, plenty of goats. As an aside, a carpet of goat-dung is wonderfully soft on the (still booted) feet after several hours on rocks!


A little gem of iridescence, emerald through sapphire and ruby to jet.

2 comments:

  1. I love the frogs and toads :) the frogs in the water are surprisingly green considering the surroundings.
    The markings on the first one you saw at night are nice.

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    Replies
    1. It's hot in the summer, so anywhere there's water is violently green, but the winters in the mountains are vicious, so life has to be robust.

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