Taking Tembe Kids on Safari with Thulani

[Toko]

A Red-faced Mousebird all alone in a thorntree




Kopiekat






and Mr MacDonalds




Two Impala also thirsty




The African Harrier-Hawk does not come down

[Toko]

Mr MacDonalds does the daily skin care programme and heads back to the bush

[ExFmem]

Wow, that's a lot of game in one spot! I could just bring lunch and sit there all day.

Kopiekat Good name.

[Richprins]

Thanks for all these, Dear!

That MacDonalds is HUGE!

[Toko]

The elephants left the spot, so it was time to move, too.

This is the crown of a Silver cluster-leaf(Terminalia sericea) and it's in late winter when the new hairy, silvery leaves appear. Only then some browers will feed on the leaves, but its foliage has generally low nutritional value.



This tree is however special. Elephants love it to bits.
When the bulls leave the pan, they usually take a mud bath and sand shower for their sensitive skins. And then they go for their favourite scratching tree and the sand and acts as a useful substance to help dislodge the bothersome ticks when the bull rubs itself on the rough bark



Lots of smashed ticks here on the tree




The other pan is not busy in the late afternoon, only some blurred nyala there






Tembe is one of the very few places where you can find the endangered Warburgia salutaris





The genus Warburgia, was named after Dr. Otto Warburg (1859 to 1938) a lecturer in botany at the University of Berlin and author of several botanical papers. The species name salutaris means ‘health giving’, presumably referring to its medicinal properties. Most traditional remedies of Warburgia salutaris are made from the inner bark of the tree, which smells of cinnamon and the sharply pepper tasting bark and leaves contain a variety of compounds that have useful antibacterial, anti-fungicidal, anti-ulcer and diuretic properties.
The Pepper-bark Tree of southeastern Africa, is now endangered in the wild because of heavy harvesting of its much sought-after bark for traditional medicine. Apart from some remote populations, the tree is extremely hard to find in the wild and is on the border of becoming extinct through much of its natural range.

[Toko]

A lone bull feeding in the swamp on green grass - he is Stone




The lions have been here and must be somewhere in the thicket











Almost sunset time



The lions are in the palm veld and you can't find them

[Toko]

A sundowner spot on the eastern fence

Yellow-throated Longclaw




These guys have some grass snacks








and back to the camp for some food and red wine

[Richprins]

Fascinating those ticks!

[Flutterby]

Very interesting.

[Mel]

It was a quite misty end of the day. But that just adds to the atmosphere of your sundowner photos.

What an amazing bull parade Must be awesome to watch. Glad I'm going for ellies soon again. I think,
I might have missed them.

Lions in the palmveld ---