Addo and the Frontier Parks - Two-timing the KTP (March 2012) *

[Mel]

And even the baboons kept running away from my lens.





At least the birds were a bit more forthcoming:


Ant-eating chat

[Mel]

We were headed towards Rooiplats Loop and the Ubejane Loop. Down on Ubejane a goshawk was posing nicely in the dull morning:



And a kudu ewe showed off briefly before legging it once again:



We also go an ostrich lady

[Mel]

Also another kudu lady

[Mel]

And we still stopped for BSKs (Take note, Ronnie! )



We had also seen jackal, mongoose, hartebeest, buff spoor all over the place but no buff anywhere , more oryx, more eland, more kudu, more zebras, more wildebeests, more blesboks, more springboks, … But all of those sightings were far off and I didn’t bother to attempt photos, especially since the light was so low. We had also seen red-knobbed coot (tick!), reed cormorant (tick!), Verreaux’s eagle (tick!), white-breasted cormorant (tick!), lesser kestrel (tick!), rock kestrel aptly sitting on a rock (tick!), but my photos are just too scary to post them.

[Ronnie]

Hi Mel and Spots oY:

Quote "And we still stopped for BSKs (Take note, Ronnie! )"

Thanks Spots for stopping for Mel

Lovely pic of the juvenile BSK Mel

So many "tick" birds you spotted

Great TR again, I notice that all the animals and birds are wet, I hope that you and Spots managed to keep dry on the outside

[Dewi]

Hi Mel,

Tawny-flanked Prinia.

But, before you change things, I'm not quite sure that it is a TFP from this pic alone, it may be one of the Cisticolas. The hint of the undertail pattern in the pic makes me think more Cisticola than TFP.

(African Pipit would show some markings on the upper breast, apart from the pale form of this species, but the bill shape etc seems wrong for a Pipit).

[Mel]

I didn't claim African Pipit...
Is it the Rosé that impairs the reading skills?

Alas, this is the only photo I got.
Didn't bother with more as it was so far off,
that I knew it wouldn't come out right, no matter how many
shots I would have tried...

Will do a bit of research as well. Thanks for pointing it out!

Oh, and Ronnie, if you are reading here: I'd appreciate your opinion on that LBJ!

[Mel]

Towards the end of the morning there was a promise in the sky that the sun might return for our afternoon drive:

[Mel]

During lunch I chased the birds around our unit, but although the red-winged starling was around, I never got a photo of it. All the others were well acquainted friends like the southern-masked weaver, laughing dove, familiar chat, fiscal flycatcher, southern boubou, red-eyed bulbul and the likes.

[Mel]

Our afternoon trip took us once again towards Kranskop. However, so far we had only done the bit that links up with Rooiplats. This time we wanted to do the whole thing. It was very quiet game-wise with the usual suspects well hidden in the shrubs and behind the trees. All of a sudden there was a movement right in front of us. A critter was running from left to right. This time I was prepared and just tried my luck and shot through the windscreen. The photo came out so blurred that it took me ages to positively ID the animal as an aardwolf… It was gone again in a sec and although we could watch it moving in the grass I never managed a clear shot of it.