Took this while on vacation - can you guess what it is that you see?
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Rising warm air that mixes with cooler air, creating vortexes.
What you’re seeing is the moving heat-shadows, for lack of a better word, on the ground that’s created by these vortexes.
Then again, maybe I’m completely wrong…
EDIT: grammer
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A hyena using a pissoir was my first association. That might be wrong. (And/or silly.)
The previous, now deleted reply about the guess being ‘almost’ spot on was intended for you. 
I deleted it because I was unable to turn it into a reply-to and thought it’d be easier to recreate it - which it wasn’t, because simply copying and pasting resulted in a post too similar to the previous one. I hope this one gets through.
Correct, the shadow was that of my moka pot on the stove:
(Should have wiped it, but wasn’t planning to take a photo.)
I was on the right track, of air movements throwing shadows on the ground, but my scale was wrong - I was thinking something more like a factory chimney!
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I find this phenomena rather mesmerizing, especially when you encounter them in the wild/naturally. Can look at them for a long time.
I do have to admit that I thought your example was from outside, somewhere on a side-walk of a warm country, probably because you mentioned while on vacation. But you do see this phenomena in kitchens or when burning a candle when the incoming light is just right.
EDIT: spelling
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