Africa Wild

Thanks for following along Flutterby, Lisbeth, RP and Nan.

Without question the experience here and at another Hyena den near Skukuza were some of the best of the whole trip. It was already 7am when we left the hyenas!

Yes RP, the submissive behaviour was very evident when the babysitter joined in. It was not very gentle so the youngster was right to be cautious. We love to observe animal behaviour so spend considerable time at such sightings.

It is enviable to be relatively new there...us local crowd go in and are blase and drink tea and fight and get sidetracked and bored and late and...you get the picture?

Lucky you!

Gorgeous hyaena shots, Ratel,

and you captured the interaction between them very well

Continuing north on the H1-4 then across the S90 there were few mammals, but we kept ourselves occupied with the abundant birdlife.

A Martial Eagle completing its pre-flight checks. Black Crake and Sabota Lark? Then further along the S90 an unexpected highlight: Lappet-faced Vultures at a nest. The one on the nest did an excellent Turkey impression! Turning south onto the S41 we got a distant view of a Saddle-billed Stork, but it was too far for a pic. We also started to see lots of Black-shouldered Kites. To quote BC, this one was definitely giving us the hairy eyeball. The ever-present Space Chickens. Then a couple of absolute corkers graced us with their presence: Black-bellied Bustard and Harlequin Quail! I scored major points with Lyca for spotting the Bustard as it was a newie for both of us and would have been easily overlooked in the long grass. The quail were stunning.

You were very lucky with the birds, especially the harlequin quail and I love the black-shouldered kites

Yes, it's a sabota lark

On the S41 the mammal sightings improved.

I kept a close eye on this lone Buffalo in case he was a cranky old unit. Not sure if his left eye was faulty or if he just had it closed due to the sun? Fortunately he did not care about our presence. Some Waterbuck and Kudu popped up close enough to the road for photos in the beautiful morning light. As this Baboon troop foraged beside the road one individual seemed to be suspicious of the occupants of the car in front of us and kept a close eye on them as he moved on. At Gudzani East a Buffalo was drinking from the waterhole and an Elephant herd turned up to quench their thirst from the tank. The scene was very peaceful so we parked off for a few minutes to grab a nibble and observe the drinking technique of the Elephants.

As we left we stopped to share info with a nice couple who informed us there were Lions a little further south. This got me very excited as I knew this area was the territory of the pride containing the white male! He had been seen quite regularly in the preceding weeks so I thought we were a reasonable chance to find him. Thanking the couple very much for their info we proceeded with purpose to the sighting. Quickly the gathering of cars came into view and we were able to determine that the Lions were on the eastern side of the road (not great for photos) and were lying flat (even worse). I slowly moved along the line of cars surveying the scene and assessing where would be suitable for pics. As it was now 9.30 it seemed probable that the most action we would see was if they decided to move from the sun to shade, so there was no rush to get into position. I pulled a u-turn and parked at the southern end of the queue as the view there seemed almost as good as anywhere else, and the angle meant that we wouldn't be staring straight into the sun. Focusing our binoculars on the pride it was still difficult to determine exactly how many Lions there were. We had been told it was about 15, but we could see no more than perhaps 8. I assume they had already started moving off into the shade. Suddenly Lyca commented that the Lion on the right was quite pale. I located the one she was talking about and my heart raced - surely that is him! Soon after he sat up and we were left in no doubt that this was in fact the famous white male!! The back-lighting meant that his pale colouration was hard to capture in photos but he soon stood up and moved to a shady position, giving us an even better opportunity to observe his colouration. What an amazing way to start our Kruger adventure! And we had only just made it in time. If we had spent much longer meandering to this point the white male would have already moved to the shade and we wouldn't really have been able to see him.

Great black shouldered kite shot, Ratel,

and the black-bellied bustard and the haerlequin quals are very well camouflaged - Very well done to spot them

Love your Kudu and waterbuck shots and for sure it is always amazing to spot lions

Not fair!!! We've been looking for the white lion for ages and you spot him first time round!! Only joking ...what a great sighting!!

And lovely birds too! Never seen a Harlequin Quail in Kruger...very nice!

wow Sabota Lark, Harlequin Quail and Black-shouldered Kite

Haha! Space chickens!

Grand old buff that, and a nice restful technique for spotting, Ratel!

Well done on the lion too, a relatively recent pic.

Nice postcard-quality photos all round.