Africa Wild

Very awesome, aat!

No shortage of elephant in the park!

Stay safe you too!

Always fantastic to watch ellies taking a bath and we always can spend hours there

During one of our first trips we spent there quite hours in watching ellies taking a bath and we are always a bit disappointed when during other trips no ellies were around at Nsemani

Yes, I like it.

*** Travel Tales ***
Trip to Kruger NP 2020 New series of Stories

03 – BIRDS

Hi all,

It’s been a while again but here story 3. We hope it makes you smile a bit in these crazy times.

Most of you know I am not a birder but….. I will stop for birds on the road and for birds shouting at me and for birds I cannot deny.

So taking you through KNP in the northern regions and showing some of the birds we met.

I hope I am right with the names and otherwise let me know about the mistakes I made.

This is part 1 , so a part 2 will follow


First remarkable encounter with a bird was close to Mopani when I found this Martial Eagle.
He (or she) was in a tree with a kill and I just made a few pictures when this Eagle took off. I just could capture the Eagle

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Another day but also near Mopani , along the S50 I saw this “roadblock” from a distance. A beautiful Giant Eagle Owl in the middle of the road. I never thought this owl would stay and waiting for me. Luck was with me ( this happens not that often) and from just about 10 meters I could make a series of pictures.

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And another one

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One day I was waiting for Cheetah’s. The Cheetah’s were sleeping. Suddenly I heard a lot of noise close to me. I looked and found this beautiful small bird shouting at me all the time.

I don’t know the name of this one, (please help) but really worth to show.

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The bird did not stop shouting so another with … if you look well, you can hear the noise

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Kruger was very very green so we decided to take the long version of the Red Rock Loop.
It was really beautiful and crossing one of the “bridges” we saw this Hamerkop

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10 minutes later , close to another small bridge we found this couple , really beautiful.
2 Malachite Kingfisher. We haven’t seen them often, but as said before, we are no birders.
We stayed with them for some time, fantastic to see them.

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Not easy to capture , they move quickly but with patience we succeeded I think.
This time with a “kill”

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And in another position

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Not far from Babalala this Bee-eater was waiting for us and wonder by wonder the bird did not fly away so I could get closer and closer.
Trying to ID the bird I found one of the reasons I will never become a birder. The name I found is Whitefronted Bee-eater. I really do not see any logic since the front is not white , the red part is making the bird attractive to look at. So why did “they” not name the bird something like Red_Bearded Bee-eater ?

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And from another angle

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Ending this bird story with a bigger one.
This Yellowbilled Stork was posing in a great position

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This was it for this moment

Thanks for joining and hope you liked it

Aat & Elly

great bird sightings!

The blue one is an European Roller, a summer visitor.

aat wrote: ↑Wed Jul 15, 2020 11:12 pm The name I found is Whitefronted Bee-eater. I really do not see any logic since the front is not white , the red part is making the bird attractive to look at. So why did “they” not name the bird something like Red_Bearded Bee-eater ?

White-fronted refers to the white frons, which is the white forehead. The scientific name Merops bullockoides is quite interesting; bullokoides means resembling Merops bulocki, which is the Red-throated Bee-eater from tropical Africa (named after William Bullock, 1775–1849, English naturalist, collector, archaeologist and entrepreneur).
Rooikeelbyvreter in Afrikaans follows your logic!

I love the owl on the ground.

Once again I cannot see the photos

Brilliant, aat!

For a non-birder you have some stunning shots...the eagle especially!

In fact quite a great variety of birds and excellent shots

You are doing well as birder, Aat

Thanks a lot !!

Klipspringer wrote: ↑Thu Jul 16, 2020 7:40 am great bird sightings!

The blue one is an European Roller, a summer visitor.

aat wrote: ↑Wed Jul 15, 2020 11:12 pm The name I found is Whitefronted Bee-eater. I really do not see any logic since the front is not white , the red part is making the bird attractive to look at. So why did “they” not name the bird something like Red_Bearded Bee-eater ?

White-fronted refers to the white frons, which is the white forehead. The scientific name Merops bullockoides is quite interesting; bullokoides means resembling Merops bulocki, which is the Red-throated Bee-eater from tropical Africa (named after William Bullock, 1775–1849, English naturalist, collector, archaeologist and entrepreneur).
Rooikeelbyvreter in Afrikaans follows your logic!