Africa Wild

All those birds are absolutely stupendous

The mousebirds look so funny the way they stay attached to the branches and the colours of the kingfishers beautiful as always

Nice waterbuck

Sooooo many birds!!! I love the malachites best! Nothing is more annoying than the sound of begging juvvies

Pumbaa, WOW!!!!

Those Kingfisher shots are amazing!!!

Wow, the birds really put on a show for you!

[[/quote]

Richprins wrote: ↑Sun Mar 24, 2019 5:26 pm Pumbaa!


So difficult to get those kingfisher shots, and never seen a juvenile!


Glad you finally got in so as to relax!

What was the food at the lodge?

I fear many of those plants in the river are invaders, unfortunately...

We so far also failed to see a juvenile The food was great not a great menu card but the do offer everything from fish, steaks to burgers etc. We were provided with breakfast packs because we wanted to leave early but in the breakfast they do offer buffet and you are sitting on a deck close to the river

Alf wrote: ↑Sun Mar 24, 2019 5:32 pm Wonderful bird sightings again

We definitely could not complain in the beginning

quote=Lisbeth post_id=446203 time=1553442362 user_id=57]
All those birds are absolutely stupendous

The mousebirds look so funny the way they stay attached to the branches and the colours of the kingfishers beautiful as always

Nice waterbuck [/quote]

We were happy that we could capture finally the mousbirds that way

Mel wrote: ↑Sun Mar 24, 2019 9:03 pm Sooooo many birds!!! I love the malachites best! Nothing is more annoying than the sound of begging juvvies

We were happy to already find that early malachites

Sprocky wrote: ↑Mon Mar 25, 2019 7:39 am Pumbaa, WOW!!!!

Those Kingfisher shots are amazing!!!

They were so cute on top and posed nice for us

Flutterby wrote: ↑Mon Mar 25, 2019 9:11 am Wow, the birds really put on a show for you!

Yes definitely and we were already over the moon

A martial eagle on a power pole



was checking out its feet and this behaviour we already noticed quite often especially when it comes to raptors.



Green pigeons drank from a smaller puddle we noticed on our way to Matjulu and I am always fascinated by their yellow feathered trouser legs (at least it looked so).



Zebras could be spotted still in the distance



and we noticed as well our first group of impalas



and now we were definitely back.



We reached Matjulu waterhole with lots of water in and around same as I still had in mind the pictures from last year where everything was totally dry. This year it was the complete contrary and I cannot remember having seen that area that green and lush. At the waterhole we noticed a family of Egyptian goose



and a couple of wattled plovers.



Then it got a bit quiet along the tar road but we stopped for a nicely posing European roller



who allowed a couple of close ups.



We came across white backed vultures, grey herons and a pintailed whydah also a bird we did not see that often -



love the way how the tail feathers were drifting the in the wind.

More white backed vultures were wheeling above us



and we finally could turn into the road leading to Renosterpan – The veld was full of remaining puddles and there was water nearly everywhere and normally it would be waste of time spending time at a waterhole when the park is that wet but you never know and so we paid a visit here. At least on the way to the waterhole we spotted two elephants who just had a drink from a larger puddle



and were now about to trot off.



At Renosterpan itself we spotted more weavers busy in building nests



and on top also a dabchick was swimming right in the pond in front of the actual waterhole, another bird which we so far only noticed far in the distance or very rare.



Also here a family of Egyptian goose had quite a lot of goslings



and to our surprise there were indeed two dabchicks around



and more weavers even in flight with all these sightings it was more than worth that we drove that little detour. Further along our route we then spotted two rhinos,



a mother plus her cute youngster who was a little boy



and in fact was not in the mood in grazing and same had more delight in sitting down and looking around.



Mom was hungry but the little boy was tired and took a rest.





to be continued.....

More wonderful sightings.

It's amazing when you drive slowly how many other things one can find. It's not always about the big five

Love the Malachites...Jane's favorite bird ..2 together..amazing