October - the hot, dry month

It was Sol's 10th birthday in October.  How he has grown!  Still passionate as always with all things insect and other smallies.
We went to Kuimba Shiri which means ('Singing Bird') for the day.  This is a beautiful indigenous bird sanctuary just outside Harare on the shores of Lake Chivero.  They take in injured birds and release them once they are in good health again and if they are not able to live well in the wild again they have a home forever at the sanctuary.  There are some incredible birds at Kuimba Shiri as well as several beautiful fish eagles.  The fish eagle is the national bird of Zimbabwe.  They are indeed majestic.

African fish eagle (I didn't take this beautiful picture.  For some reason I had no pictures of fish eagles so found one on the internet to show you)

Grey loerie or go away bird

Noah with a tortoise friend

Guinea fowl

Brown hornbill

Sol having a chat with a male ostrich

Leo and Jediah and me admiring the lake

October is the hottest, driest month in Zimbabwe.  You'll see in the pictures how dry and brown all the vegetation is in our surroundings.  It is also dusty.  The boys enjoyed lots of outdoor fun in the sun - mudhouse building, making waterways with dinosaur islands, driving play cars in the dust, tree climbing, wheelbarrow rides...

Sol found lots of these huge compost rhino beetles and the larva in the leaf compost pile.  They remind me of conkers!