AW Photo Competition Safari Winner Trip

[Mel]

You tell'em, Dewi!

[Richprins]

I know what it is?

[leachy]

it seemed as though it was half way through the afternoon when we arrived at the sundowner spot........
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here we can almost see what the boss calls the "small rhino" in front of "mariepskop"
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the same view a bit later........

you can see how the horizon begins to tilt as the sun goes down

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this hornbill also enjoyed the view with us..
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i also tried desperately to capture a "square" sun

but to no avail ..............................................
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then richprins tried his luck at

capturing the "square" sun....

all he managed to do was show us what a sunset looks like

after loads and loads of "lite"...........

through the scorched eyes of the beholder.......

the "burning bush"
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[iNdlovu]

Just caught up on 6 pages of mirth since yesterday.

RP, are you sure that was a burn and not frostbite? -O

If you guys joined in on the bird challenges you would know instantly what your raptor is. -O -O

If you're talking about the juv Martial in the bird quizz, it didn't look anything like that.

I'll still go with pale morph Whalberg.

[Lisbeth]

Juvenile Martial

[Sprocky]

Stunning shots Master!!! Was the tilting horizon after the "naughty gin"?

Even RP's accidental burning bush has a certain appeal to it!

As for the bird, I still say juv Fish Eagle.

[iNdlovu]

You see people, there is still total disagreement for the people who actually saw the bird in the flesh, details that can't be captured on a camera with no auto function -O just don't appear in the pics, as good as they are.

Armchair birders can't make a call on this one.

[Dewi]

I'ts a juvvie Martial. You should listen to RP (sometimes ).

Wahlberg's would have a smaller bill, black tipped with yellow cere and gape and a longer, square-ended tail and a straighter (not s-shaped) trailing edge to the wings.

Juvvie Fish Eagle would be much darker overall and have a white tail with a broad, dark terminal band.

Great sunset pics.

[Sprocky]

Thanks for the ID Dewi, and well done RP!

Earlier on at the same spot, before the square sun and the naughty gin, there was another interesting conversation. This time none of us were involved, we heard the rangers chatting to each other on the two way radio in the van. It was all about a lady that was down close to Jackalberry Dam and they needed a stretcher. This was like listening to Squad Cars on the old Springbuck radio. Do you remember this station RP? Of course we starting discussing what could have happened, but we were miles off course with our speculation. You can tell that we are not hunters, as it was a radio call to get a vehicle to the hunting party, to load a Buffalo cow that they had bought down.

[iNdlovu]

These guys had walked their backsides off, which is the one thing I like about this farm. On the few hunts they have each year, there are no vehicles involved, you walk and track on foot. From what we could gather from the guide the next day, they had walked solidly for 2 days before they were given the go ahead to shoot the buff.
Oh well, to each his own, I'm not a lover of hunting myself, but if done responsibly I can accept that it turns some peoples cranks.
We knew that there was a buff hunting group on the farm and made an agreement amongst the four of us that if we saw buffs we would speed off in a cloud of dust. Hence my not wanting to stick around at the one sighting that Sprocs reported earlier in the TT.