From Floods and Surprises in River beds

[Richprins]

Interesting the young lion with hardly any mane...don't even know if he is young if he is with a mate?

[Lisbeth]

The male does not even look young

Both of the lions look a bit "worn". Maybe because they are full of ticks, poor things

You were not short of lion sightings

[Flutterby]

The lions really posed for you!

[ExFmem]

Seems you're a lion magnet - seems they are fly/tick magnets . As always, love your birds

[Pumbaa]

So you stumble from one lion sighting into the next, basically.
Well, at least if one disregards the night of sleep in between

Very cool

This year would could not complain how early we saw already lions and during other years it took quite more than a week to even see one

Lovely lion sightings

Thanks Alf

[Pumbaa]

Interesting the young lion with hardly any mane...don't even know if he is young if he is with a mate?

Maybe it is his mother? and they belong to a pride which we did not see whilst we stayed there

The male does not even look young

Both of the lions look a bit "worn". Maybe because they are full of ticks, poor things

You were not short of lion sightings

Yes and they were also in need of a decent meal

[Pumbaa]

The lions really posed for you!

And also for all the other people in the other cars

Seems you're a lion magnet - seems they are fly/tick magnets . As always, love your birds

And now more birds to follow

[Pumbaa]

As already said with the gate opening time not only from the camp but also from the park entrance it did not take long until a lot of cars had piled up here





inclusive all the OSV mostly from outside the park.



At least with all the car activity around the lions one of them and sometimes also both were observing also the people in the cars around them curiously.



Unfortunately we only noticed the two of them and no more lions and to our delight



meanwhile the sun was about to rise and illuminated everything in the best golden light and so we were forced to stay a bit longer.



All in all we spent by now over an hour with them and as also the car activity around the lions grew more and more we decided to leave.



A bit down the road we came across lapped faced vultures



as well as white backed vultures



and whilst we carried on more and more we met a huge elephant bull

[Pumbaa]

who was on the move together with a friend.



To our delight we spotted another African cuckoo, a bird we so far saw only rarely but during this trip it was already the second sighting of that cuckoo



and now even in the open but same took far too soon off.



We definitely could not overlook the masses of European rollers in the park and so one or more per days simply had to serve as model



and then another lifer for us, a Dusky Indigobird.



We reached Duke’s waterhole but not that much bird activity there as we had yesterday at least Mrs. Zorro was willing to pose



and in the vicinity of the waterhole as usual lots of wildebeests as well as zebras were hanging around.



A small pond at one of the causeways is normally carrying water and so it was this year and I do not know but somehow Timon spotted obviously after a movement a very well hidden monitor who was indeed not easy to see



and also the kori bustard we noticed then was always a bit hidden and always on the move.



Then we turned already into the tar road leading to Lower Sabie and came across quite a number of giraffes,



a hungry hippo out of the water



to be continued.....

[Lisbeth]

You were lucky to see an African cuckoo out in the open

There were loads of European rollers in the park in February. I am sure that I saw dozens every day

Dusky Idigo Bird I have only seen it in the bird book