Africa Wild

Richprins wrote:What the hell are "nipa huts"?

You should post some visual aids or links?!

I also think buffalo weavers!

The last pic is hopefully a hippo butt...otherwise leachy has fallen off the wagon big time!

nipa huts are those huts built on stilts.......

i have never been "on the wagon" richprins....

so......

i had reclaimed my garden furniture and heksie and maheksie and i had managed to return to my spot

under the boer bean tree for a braai despite being "surrounded" by truck tourists

'twas their last night in the park so we swapped sighting stories

and finished the evening off with some sclerocarya fruit juice

the next day when i arrived at sunset dam there was this pod of hippo all out of the water

and being reprimanded by one of the elders.....

apparently there was a lot of dissatisfaction because someone had pooped in the water...........
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this girl used the opportunity to parade around
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in front of this handsome fellow with the ridge forester jaw-line.....
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on the shoreline

a red-billed firefinch
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red-billed buffalo-weavers
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red-billed oxpecker...
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"red goats"
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black winged stilt ....

called a stilt because it has the longest (red) legs relative to its size
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at first i thought that this girl was bulimic

and exhibiting signs of self-induced vomiting.....
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but then i figured that she might just be sucking on the algae
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it was pleasing to see that this chap was concerned about his weight

and had taken to jogging around the dam..........
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this elephant caused a bit of a stir when he came barging down passed the hippo to have a drink
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some of the many reptilian occupants of lower sabie......
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took an afternoon drive and found that tusker from a few days ago....
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this cattle egret seemed to be a bit frustrated

'cause the buffalo that they were accompanying were not on the move
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it did, however, manage to find something to munch on...
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these reedbuck chilling in the afternoon shade.
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i was surprised to read that the lifespan of an ostrich

can be as much as 40 to 50 years.........

and that unlike other birds

the ostrich can secrete urine separately from its faeces........
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also that the scales on the lowest front part of the leg

are red on the male

and black on the female......
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alan davies from the television program "QI" reckons

that if you film an ostrich running

and then play it backwards..... it looks just like a person running......



i took some time to sit and enjoy the approaching evening with the boons ........

looks like the kingfisher is planning to attack one of the watchmen....
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family time on the beach.....
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Lisbeth wrote:Beautiful evening light on the baboons. The last one seems to be in deep thoughts

Indeed, Lis!

Very imformative, leachy!

Is that last pic the tail of something?

You got reedbuck

Interesting stuff on the ostrich

Great boon pics

The last pic looks like something on an ostrich

so...

one lunch time on arriving at my lodgings i observed a "piece of wood" stuck to the sidewall of my car's rear tyre

so i pulled on it.......... and was alarmed to see that it was a humongous thorn

and that the air in the tyre was rapidly escaping ....

so.. instinctively... i put it back where it came out and the air stopped..

or rather...... i could not hear it any more.

anyway..... i replaced the thorny tyre with the spare and the following morning i was up early and headed off to komatipoort

to have the faulty tyre repaired as i knew that murphy wanted to join me sometime soon

this is the culprit......
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an idea of the comparative size of this thorn...
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just after the second mativulungu loop road

there seemed to be a branch lying in the road...

but,, on closer inspection i saw it was in fact a

"panthera brownus" aka bushcraft kitty......

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and a while later....
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an early morning lookout ........
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when i exited at croc bridge at about 7:15

i was astounded to see the amount of cars that were in the queue to enter as day invaders.........

no wonder every sighting becomes a traffic jam......



when returned i found these herons chasing each other around at the s28 junction.
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i took the s28

and saw this unfortunate impie with a bit of her flesh protruding from a nasty tear in her hide
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she was obviously not a member of this impressive harem

surrounding the proud ram in the centre..
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one cannot see the blossoms in this photo,

but this is a typical example of the shape of the tree wysteria.....
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on the road to the nthandanyati bird hide....

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back on the "great north road"

these two elephants seemed to be re-affirming a previous bond

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one night under the boer been tree

heksie and her mummy were telling me about a hippo that they had seen from the lower sabie weir

and that they were concerned about it's well being ........

i spotted the hippo and it was pleasing to see that it was sleeping peacefully in amongst the rocks
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it was also awesome to see how the different species can co-exist in harmony ...
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later that afternoon i spotted the collard lady from the lubyelubye pride resting on the beach.
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and these two fellas having an animated conversation

and grooming session on the top of an arboreal arch next to sunset dam
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think this guy might have been the victim of a falling kigelia ....

he had a nasty wound on his head......
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so........

there was quite a bit of evening activity........

this was taken a couple of clicks away from lubyelubye

i think this is the lubyelubye leopard 'cause with the increase in lion activity on those rocks

the leopard has to find somewhere else to go for sundowners....
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got two rollers on the h10.



this lilac-breasted roller....

who was making quite a noise while sticking his head into a tree

and then flying away
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and this yellow-roller...

just sitting quietly next to the road...
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a thick-knee doing a display
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the resident swallows at the weir.
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and then the dreaded indian myna ...

or as it is now officially called......... the common myna..

i remember how devastated we were when we first saw them in the park a few years ago.....

it was a traumatic event

akin to hearing the recent news about the arrival of the "famous brands" outlets in the camps...



and this too shall pass.......
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this family from the "currie cup free territory"

had brought their own cape point boons along with them......
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Leopard on the beach not really common
nice to see the LBR... nesting
about the Myna, I saw some in India, beautifull bird

why (it's just a question) they are not welcome in SA ?
Here we are happy if a new birds come... like Brown Snake Eagle, first time nesting, and Bohemian Waxwing last year
and Green Bee-Eater for the first time this spring... maybe will stay... maybe


again a nice episode

this is the reason nan...

The Indian Myna is an introduced species, brought in to help reduce the number of locusts eating farmer’s crops. In its short time here, it has rapidly become the dominant species in the avian world. Like the name suggests, the Indian Myna is originally from India where natural predators keep its numbers in check. South Africa does not have these same predators so it has rapidly reached plague proportions.

http://www.birdbusters.co.za/the-problem/

so................................

it was about seven o clock in the evening......

heksie and maheksie had left

and i was sitting under the boer bean tree tanning some meat and contemplating my navel

when it struck me how quiet and empty the low cost housing complex was




a short while later a mini-bus taxi-type vehicle with a heavy duty trailer pulled into the parking lot

and i earnestly hoped that it was not an overflow from sanparks week




to my relief it turned out to be another group of european visitors and their two guides

who started unpacking and moving into the surrounding units

the one guide, a girl with a southern hemisphere sheep farmers accent,

impressed me the way she could carry the crates in the dark

while holding her torch in her mouth ...................




turns out that this group was with the same company as my previous neighbours,

but "hats off" to them for assembling their dining area on the outer perimeter of the units.



early the next day





i headed off to see how hippo at the weir was doing........

it seems that i had arrived during the hippos annual proctology inspection....



it must have been quite an horrific ordeal

as the poor hippo's eyes had completely popped out of its sockets....





so......... from the evidence on the doctor-croc's snout

there was still a bit of moisture in the anal cavity





however on closer inspection of the hippo

there seemed to be an excess leakage of fluid from his ears and nostrils..............



i think this hippo had shuffled off this mortal coil

and gone to meet its maker....




from the weir one can see why many people just drove past the hippo

without spotting it at all ........





there was another battle scarred hippo lying in the rapids

that had been there since the previous day




a while later......... i was quite surprised to see the behaviour of this terrapin

it was either a carnivore

or it had been hanging out with the other leeches too long

and was practicing hemotophagia









during the course of the day a few more jurassic residents started arriving......