The Big Cat Diary and a Couple of Lifers

[harrys]

Beautiful bird and insect photos

[Flutterby]

Very pretty dragonflies and great birdies.

[Bushcraft]

Fantastic collection of pics from Lake Panic

[Pumbaa]

Beautiful dragonflies and you sure were lucky with the squaccos on this trip

The last pic of the black crake is great Also the firefinches are very pretty.

All in all very nice sightings at Lake Panic Hide I just love the place, especially when there are few people around

It was a very rewarding stop at Lake Panic

Like Lis, I also like your dragonflies - great photos!

The squacco is my favourite though, I just love the "hair-do"

We were happy to finally see our first Lake Panic squacco

Great shots of the squacco heron Pumbaa.

But the dragonflies are sublime.

I was lucky enough to be able to visit this hide out of hours with a member of staff, so it was very quiet until normal opening hours. I loved it there.

We had in fact luck with these dragonflies

Joh, that ellie is HUGE! Normally they have to lift their heads a lot higher to drink from a reservoir!

Nice dragonflies!

In fact he was one of the even bigger guys - Gladly around all the ladies he behaved very well

[Pumbaa]

wow super Squacco Heron
and Dragonflies

loce too the Elies

We were so happy with all the birds around

Beautiful bird and insect photos

Harrys - Timon did his best

Very pretty dragonflies and great birdies.

It was one of those magical places in Kruger

Fantastic collection of pics from Lake Panic

A bit more still to come

[Pumbaa]

A fish eagle landed in a far away tree and whilst Timon speculated that same might even came closer we still concentrated ourselves onto the squacco





and we never got tired in taking shots of this stunning bird and even a juvenile was around. Do not know why we were so blessed with all these sightings but we enjoyed same tremendously



and on top our beloved malachite kingfisher appeared as well on the scene





and same posed so nicely that Timon could not stop in pressing the button.



What a colourful beauty same was and whilst Timon meanwhile was taking shot after shot also the others got aware of this beauty and the position change inside the hide took place so that everybody got the best view.







Out of the corner of my eye I noticed a movement and realized a lovely bushbuck coming steadily closer so whilst we waited that same might got closer we observed once again a black crake





and after seeing already that much shots of a bushbuck at Lake Panic we now got ours as well.



We in fact had a fantastic time in the hide and just ran hot in photographing the squacco,



a grey heron,

[Pumbaa]

the white faced ducks plus a couple of extreme noisy Egyptian goose complaining heavily about a crocodile which came out of the water






and also a knob-billed duck on a dead tree took a look why the Egyptian goose made such noise



and here is the sunbathing culprit.



Meanwhile a large group of people entered the hide and although they behaved quiet they caused a great crush as all of them wanted to see the crocodile and that was exactly where we sat at that point a pity was that they were not interested in the birds such as the squacco, the juvenile one



or in the fish eagle who meanwhile gladly allowed Timon a couple of shots as well as same landed in a tree top a bit closer to the hide.





We meanwhile sat 2 hours at Lake Panic and as still more people from the large group arrived we decided that we had a splendid time there and left the hide. At the parking ground we noticed that the large group belonged to a safari company from outside the park.

As it was already late afternoon the check in did not take long and finally I held again the key of our beloved Lion Cottage in my hands and as we also had enough from driving we skipped our afternoon drive and instead enjoyed our view from the verandah as long as the light allowed same.

This evening we also had dinner at the Cattle Baron and I must say that we had a great time there as the food was delicious and the atmosphere simply lovely.

Friday, 19 February, 2016 – Skukuza

Roads we travelled along that day: H11 – S3 – S1 – H4-1 – H12 – S30 – H1-2 – S83 – H11 – S65 – H1-1

First thing I noticed whilst I was filling up the water cooker was that my feet got wet and then I noticed that it had rained over night and was still drizzling which was in fact a fantastic gift with the drought all around.

Today we wanted to try a road which we only travelled so far once and that was the S1 in full length and despite the cloudy morning just in time we could capture another breathtaking sunrise in the bush which is for us always the best.



From one minute to the other grey clouds reappeared and it got dark again so the Wahlberg we came across next was not easy to photograph.



We met a couple of giraffes busy with breakfast



and a fish eagle on top of a green bush



and soon we already had discovered the advantage and disadvantage of that road – The advantage for sure is that the road is leading along the Sabie river and consequently the area was extreme green compared to the rest of the area and the less traffic. The disadvantage was that you could hear the traffic of the close by highway.



Due to the green vegetation and the water close by this turned to be out to a birding drive and we spotted and could also capture a pair of chinspot batis



and unfortunately the southern black tit and the purple crested turaco could only be seen but not photographed as same moved too fast and then kept hidden for the rest of the time.

to be continued.....

[Lisbeth]

The malachite kingfisher is a small bird, but one of the prettiest

Lovely bushbuck

The purple crested turaco is one of the most difficult birds to photograph. It is always fluttering about behind the leaves

A squacco day

[Mel]

Mainly a bird episode And wonderful photos of them. I like the malachite, the fish eagle, the squacco, the... and so on Really, really nice shots!

And then that croc Awesome too.

[nan]

love Lake panic and all these birds

and like usual, the dirty road