Looking back *

[flying cheetah]

Thank you Toko and Flutterby for your continuous support here

When i came to Klopperfontain I found the waterhole very dry but always with lots of animals around. Some animals who took advantage from the situation were the Hamerkops who had no problems to pick up some unfortunate frogs from the mud...

[flying cheetah]

It's definetely not a good time for the frogs when everything gets dry and I also felt very sorry for them. On the other side it's always a pleasure to see birds in action

So today I want to report about a sighting that was very delightful.
all the Grysboks i have seen so far (maybe 10-15) have been very shy and skittish but this fellow was much more interested in some fruits than in any thing else. He stood in the open under a big tree and even walked a bit towards my car which was maximum 20 meters away from him. And it seems he had all the time in the world and he stayed with me for at least 5 minutes.
Marvellous
I saw this friendly and handsome antelope on the Mahonie loop(S99)!!

[dup]

For all the froggie peoples ,the frog seems to me like a Platanna ,(Xenopus - xeno=strange +pus=foot)African clawed frog.

[flying cheetah]

Thanks again for all your replies and dup for the frog info

Usually I don't get extremely excited when I get to a lion sighting and if it's the usual sighting with sleeping lions and many cars my only wish is to get through the traffic as soon as possible.
But sometimes you have one of these special encounters and then this memory stays with you for a long time. I had this luck while driving the Timbavati road (S39) some km south of Roodewal.
I saw 2 lionesses with 4 cubs and the curious cubs even walked towards my car. They were playing near me for a good while before the adults decided it's enough and were leading them down to the dry riverbed. One of the lionesses had a blind eye but she seemed to be in a very good condition and she clearly controlled the situation. What a wonderful and impressive sighting

[flying cheetah]

Thank you harrys, Lisbeth and Flutterby for your great support
I know that the one-eyed lioness has been seen regularly in this area and she always seemed to be in good shape. She is really an amazing animal

One of the reason why I love to go to Kruger in November is because I always see lots of new born Impala babys. Here are the first two babys I saw last year from the H3
on the 10th of November. They were probably only 1-2 days old

[flying cheetah]

Thank you for all your great comments, I also count the day until it's November

Time for another bird and today it is a raptor. I saw this elastic Snake-eagle on the tar road to Berg n Dal

[flying cheetah]

Thanks for your nice and funny comments here -O
Today I show you some more pics that were taken at Klopperfontain. I watched several animals taking a drink at the muddy water when suddenly an Elephant bull with one tusk appeared,
chased all the other animals away from the mud and then started with his morning bath. I felt a bit sorry for the other thirsty animals but also enjoyed to watch the powerful Elephant









As I should have more time during the weekend I will show you a whole series of pics of an incredible predator sighting

[flying cheetah]

Thank you Flutterby, Lisbeth and lowveldboy for all your kind feedback
@lowveldboy: I arrive in Punda on the 13th of November and stay for 4 nights, so we probably run into each other

Some people hope to see a kill one day in Kruger others prefer to watch more peaceful scenes. When I left Skukuzas one morning and drove the H11 I had the luck to watch a pack of wild dogs in action. Two dogs brought down an Impala ram and before I realized what was happening more dogs came from all directions. During the sighting I tried to count them and there were 20 or 21. I was very surprised that it took the dog 80 minutes before the Impala was totally eaten, I thought it would happen mich quicker. I also was very surprised that the other people who arrived 20 minutes after the kill only stayed for a few pics and then drove on. It took half an hour before the first OSV's arrived and then I was stuck beside the kill and couldn't move on. I didn't really mind
But that's only the first part of the story, the rest follows tomorrow And here is the first series of pics, I think you can understand how thrilled I was by the action

[flying cheetah]

Thank you Toko, Lisbeth and Flutterby for always following this thread
@Flutterby: some people didn't even stay for one minute and the dogs with their very fresh kill were only a few meters away. I guess they were all searching for lions

When the traffic jam got chaotic the dogs were still very relaxed and started to play around the kill. After a while I heard the driver of an OSV talking about leopard and I thought I got a message about a leopard sighting nearby. Then I realized that the leopard was just behind my car He wanted to cross the road towards the kill but then returned into the bush. 5 minutes later he crossed 20-30 meters up the road but the dogs immedeately chased him up a tree. Unfortunetely I seemed to be the only one who didn't see him now and I couldn't move one bit forward or backwards.
At the end the traffic control car arrived to clear the traffic jam as by now nobody had a change to drive on Altogether I stayed 1 1/2 hours with the dogs and it was one of my most thrilling sightings ever

[flying cheetah]

What happened to the leopard on the tree?

When the dogs finally left the kill he came down and stole the carcass with was only bones and head now. He vanished in the bush and for a while I checked all the trees around if he brought the carcass up. But I think he realized that there was nothing left to eat and dropped it. The stealing of the carcass happened so fast that I couldn't eve nlift my camera before the leopard was gone