Lions On The Loose

[Flutterby]

I like the headless eagle! Nice to see the hornbills with the impala!

Great night shots...I tried it once and it was a dismal failure! Will have to give it another try.

[PJL]

I like the headless eagle! Nice to see the hornbills with the impala!

Great night shots...I tried it once and it was a dismal failure! Will have to give it another try.

Thanks Flutts
I'm sure the night photography thing gets easier the more you try

[Richprins]

Put the eagle on the ID thread?

[PJL]

Sun 23rd June

We had decided that this was going to be another big day out in the park, but going in at the Malelane gate and aiming for a skottel lunch at Afsaal. No-one was in the mood for getting up in the middle of the night to hit gate opening, so we missed the bulk of the queues and arrived at 7am which worked well as we got in very smoothly

We didn't have the full route for the day planned out, but the start was simple - we would head along the S114 up towards Biyamiti Wier. Wild dog had been seen in that area fairly regularly so I was hoping we might get some luck with them as they didn't seem to be around much on the Croc Bridge side.

Our first sighting of the day was a steenbok mom with the youngster (who didn't look that young) suckling



Ground hornbills seemed to pop out everywhere this trip, and today was no different with one wandering along and being quite inquisitive around our car





Although we all know their eyelashes are impressive, I hadn't noticed before that they go all the way round the front of the eye



Heading up past the Gardenia loop junction we were reminiscing on a couple of nice leopard sightings in the trees there from a previous trip. Just a couple of minutes further along we couldn't believe our luck as some spots came into view





We were thrilled to find this handsome chap enjoying his breakfast. It's a shame leopard have a habit of choosing trees with loads of branches and twigs to slightly obscure the photos



He was still eating and shifting the carcass around from time to time, but it looked like he must have been feeding for a long time already



We managed to shift ourselves into what we thought was probably the best viewing position and marvelled at the fact there were only a couple of other cars around! Some movement caught our attention on the other side of the road - a hyena must have been aware of the kill and was coming to investigate









He came really close

[PJL]

Sun 23rd June contd

The leopard continued his breakfast with a few glances around. We wondered what else he could see from his vantage point







The hyena was still loitering near our car, but I'm sure the leopard was aware of it being in the area... perhaps there were more around as well











The leopard then made a move and we initially thought he was hopping out the tree entirely, but he was just swapping positions to shift the carcass around to his liking





Once everything was in order he started to find a comfortable position on the branch by the kill - still keeping a very close eye on the surroundings





There were some clean-up exercises and then he settled down towards a good snooze









It was another excellent start to the day. The hyena moved off and with the leopard snoozing we decided it was time to continue as well

[Flutterby]

Wow, what an amazing way to start the day!!

[Richprins]

How extremely fortunate, Peej!

It always astounds me how they can sleep with their face in their food!

Maybe it was a beggar hornbill?

[Bushcraft]

The later start seems to have worked again for you guys

I have had GHB's scoop dead insects on the front of my car before, so maybe it was plotting a scavenger move

Brilliant leopard sighting again I see that lately there have been plenty leopard sightings in that area

[Pumbaa]

WoW PJL,

what incredibleleopard shots and what a brilliant sight same was

Fantastic shots of the ground hornbills and from the hyenas as well

[Alf]

Great leopard shots