Africa Wild

Wonder what the jackals were doing there, Pumbaa...a lot of licking going on!

Excellent bird pics, with a great array of brown eagles!

Have you ever thought of going at a different time of the year? It seems that most days where overcast,
especially with some rare sunny intervals in the last or one of the last episodes

Having said that, you always seem to get a good variety of living things

Korhaans and bustards are always noisy birds who seem to thing they own the place and therefore can shout at your for intruding

Funny, how perspective shifts... the Namaqua is a rather "boring" sighting to me because I always get to see quite a few in the KTP
while I always appreciate the kudu, for example, because it's not that common.

A great series of birds there Pumbaa. My favourites are the calling Bustard, cute little Namaqua Dove, and the Fish Eagle taking flight!

Flutterby wrote:Love the wet jackals , and some really lovely bird pics!

Yes that day and area was filled with birdies

Richprins wrote:Wonder what the jackals were doing there, Pumbaa...a lot of licking going on!

Excellent bird pics, with a great array of brown eagles!

I guess they were avoiding the wet grass and were strolling around the road

Mel wrote:Have you ever thought of going at a different time of the year? It seems that most days where overcast,
especially with some rare sunny intervals in the last or one of the last episodes

Having said that, you always seem to get a good variety of living things

Korhaans and bustards are always noisy birds who seem to thing they own the place and therefore can shout at your for intruding

Funny, how perspective shifts... the Namaqua is a rather "boring" sighting to me because I always get to see quite a few in the KTP
while I always appreciate the kudu, for example, because it's not that common.

February is quite okay to us, Mel, as from May onwards it is getting in Northern Germany also nice with lots of birds to chase with the camera - Another Advantage are the gate opening times - So definitely no problem with the Grey sky

Ratel wrote:A great series of birds there Pumbaa. My favourites are the calling Bustard, cute little Namaqua Dove, and the Fish Eagle taking flight!

More birdies to come - Compared to last year never seen that many birds in that area especially all the Brown raptors there were a delight

Besides the many different brown raptors we discovered that much marabous storks there as well as we have never seen before



and on top nearly each dead tree was full of marabous



and if not occupied by marabous the brown raptors took over the spot.



At least we had a lot to look for and the noise level was again extreme high,



a yellow billed kite had just caught a newborn red billed quelea



and started to feed on same and for sure we were extreme sorry for its parents.



Indeed it was a bit cruel to watch the little quelea to be picked to pieces but for sure this is nature



and for sure it took not that long until the yellow billed kite finished its meal and flew away whilst on the other side of the road we spotted uncountable marabou storks



which looked busy in billing and much



more could be traced on smaller bushes nearly along the rest of this road.



We met a lone jackal who preferred to walk on the road instead of in the high grass



so it could be that another one was hidden by the grass,



one of the many weavers around could be captured,



more giraffes crossed our path as well as



lots of European rollers



and two differently coloured



dragonflies.

After this very productive drive we needed a small break at Satara and as it was still early enough for another round along the S100 and back via the H6 so we decided to continue our morning drive as it would have been far too early to stay for the rest of the day in camp and on top it was again a cloudy day and so it was not that hot the whole day.

Unsurprisingly our drive on the S100 was quiet as already during the previous days but we could admire a resting baby wildebeest



and had been entertained by a group of speckled mouse birds



who landed in a nearby bush and presented their acrobatic skills.



Normally they are already difficult to photograph as they are always in motion and now we found some in a bush but they were still difficult to capture as there were so many of them



at least we tried and got some nice shots as well from a red bishop who obviously got lost as same looked so out of place between al the mouse birds



but for sure we were again happy for this sighting. After quite a while all of them flew away



and we also continued our drive and we met lots of masked weavers and many carmine bee eaters





and some presented us their just caught bees.





At least birding wise the area around Satara was stunning as there were always birds around and for sure a group of ground hornbills is always an amazing sighting



to be continued....

Lifetime scenes around the quelea colony, Pumbaa!

Very cute the little wildebeest!

Looks like the ground hornbill was under a mate with tummy problems!