The Flutterlings of Africa

[Flutterby]

Lis, I have never seen flocks like this before, and not just queleas, wattled starlings as well. I'm sure it's because of all the long grass with lots of yummy seeds for them. ;)

[Lisbeth]

I found a kind of answer here

https://youtu.be/Bw_RYF381R0

[Flutterby]

Thanks Lis, interesting. They do look like swarms of locusts!

[Lisbeth]

[nan]

I can't understand nothing.... only than they destroyed all all the nests

sorry Flutts

nice to see all these birds flying at great speed without "accident"
like the cat
and the local Honey Badger

[Bushcraft]

Brat driving Hawkeyes is next

A quiet day cats wise, but those can easily happen in the Satara area with the long grass

Mike Goss What a coincidence

I see the HB's are still in camp I was told they had been removed I prefer them in the camp as it adds to the appeal

[Flutterby]

I can't understand nothing.... only than they destroyed all all the nests

sorry Flutts

nice to see all these birds flying at great speed without "accident"
like the cat
and the local Honey Badger

The birds were certainly a spectacle. The cat and the badger always make Satara exciting.

Brat driving Hawkeyes is next

A quiet day cats wise, but those can easily happen in the Satara area with the long grass

Mike Goss What a coincidence

I see the HB's are still in camp I was told they had been removed I prefer them in the camp as it adds to the appeal

Satara hasn't been good for us the last few years...just bad luck I guess. Our neighbours (not Mike - the other side) had left bones out for the badger and didn't even try and hide the fact, so as long as people do that (and I'm sure lots do) the badgers and AWC will hang around.

[Flutterby]

Day 3, 23 April 2017, Satara

Some of you may remember that last year we met Darryl Wolhuter in the park, who was a friend of my parents many years ago in Pietermaritzburg. Darryl and my dad have kept in contact since then and it turned out that he would be in the park at the same time as us. As his daughter and son-in-law are the N'wanetsi section rangers we made plans to meet him at N'wanetsi picnic site later on that morning. Some friends of ours were also driving up to Olifants from Croc Bridge, so they also agreed to meet us there. We planned a bit of a roundabout route to get us to N'wanetsi at around 11am - down the H7, onto the S36, then the S126, onto the S100 again and onto N'wanetsi on the S41.

While we were packing the car, the honey badger cruised past, but it was too quick for a pic. The H7 had a fair amount of game and then we had a nice sighting of 4 jackal together (but could only get a pic of 2 of them).



At the end of the S36 we quickly popped in at Muzandzeni to use the loos, and a guide told us they had seen leopard and lion on the S126....unfortunately we found neither! So we were back on the S100. The mega pride and the white lion had been seen a few times on the S100 and S41 so we were keen to find them.

Saddle-billed Stork on the S100.





This boy was happy to pose for us.



We reached the end of the S100 feeling a bit deflated but still held out hope for the S41.

Black-shouldered Kite



Three-banded Plover



A Wahlbergs, I think. It was quite overcast so not great for pics.



Tawny Eagle



Again, the queleas had been our constant companions all morning!



Some ellies were a nice change from all the birds.





Once again the mega pride had eluded us.

[PJL]

Shame the cats weren't playing along for you, but some very nice bird sightings . Nice close saddle-billed stork (we didn't see any this time ) and the raptors are great

[nan]

super serie of birds... nice close up