Africa Wild

These parrots blend in very well - great sighting

Never noticed the stripe in the hairs under the kudu's neck before..nice backlighting!

Good selection, Rog, I remember the tail in the hole!

My favourite is the dam view!

Great to see Nsemani dam still that full

Also love the jackal, hyena and ellie shots, Roger

Lisbeth wrote: ↑Sat Dec 26, 2020 2:41 pm Lovely brown-headed parrots, antelopes and ellies crossing

Thanks Lis

Alf wrote: ↑Sat Dec 26, 2020 2:49 pm A hole without the tail this time

Already a busy morning for sightings

you would think there would be something bigger in the hole after 18 months

Klipspringer wrote: ↑Sat Dec 26, 2020 3:28 pm These parrots blend in very well - great sighting

Klippies

Richprins wrote: ↑Sat Dec 26, 2020 4:48 pm Never noticed the stripe in the hairs under the kudu's neck before..nice backlighting!

Good selection, Rog, I remember the tail in the hole!

My favourite is the dam view!

We also always gravitate towards the water on most trips ...

Pumbaa wrote: ↑Tue Dec 29, 2020 5:38 pm Great to see Nsemani dam still that full

Also love the jackal, hyena and ellie shots, Roger

Thanks Pumba it was quite green around Orpen area they seemed to have had more rain than lower south .

A little way down the road we came across an Eagle that was obviously up to no good .I think it was a brown Snake Eagle ? The little Wydha ? birds were having none of having it around .



We sat and watched this for a while a few cars arrived and left while we were watching birds .




It was amazing how much punishment it was prepared to take .Eventually it did move to a different branch



and a kind of truce appeared .The fight was off for the moment .


We drove to the Picnic spot then all the way to Satara without seeing another sighting . So we decided to go back to the dam for a bit of dam watching

At the dam the Hippos had come out for a bit of tanning on the water edge .


Some water buck were drinking .


One of the older hippos gave a big yawn to show how wide its mouth was and rested on the little one in front ...


The little hippo promptly decided it was not too happy with the attention and moved off .


We waited to see what else would come to the dam ...

Yeah most people will just stop and carry on if you tell them you are checking out birds

Sometimes it pays off to sit at a dam or waterhole

Wow, you captured a Wahlberg's Eagle being harassed by Fork-tailed Drongos.

Great sighting.

Birds such as Drongos and Magpie shrikes all practice mobbing. They do it usually to protect their young and to distract the predator. Ironically this is not restricted to species that are directly dangerous to the birds.

Alf wrote: ↑Tue Dec 29, 2020 9:32 pm Yeah most people will just stop and carry on if you tell them you are checking out birds

Sometimes it pays off to sit at a dam or waterhole

We have had quite a few interesting bird sightings and people stop look and drive off .Once stopped at a swarm of hundreds of birds including many raptors that were feasting on flying ants emerging from the nest for about 2 hours and about 10 cars just drove on past .

Klipspringer wrote: ↑Wed Dec 30, 2020 7:18 am Wow, you captured a Wahlberg's Eagle being harassed by Fork-tailed Drongos.

Great sighting.

Birds such as Drongos and Magpie shrikes all practice mobbing. They do it usually to protect their young and to distract the predator. Ironically this is not restricted to species that are directly dangerous to the birds.

Thanks Klippie we enjoy seeing the birds just not too good at the ID yet .

Lisbeth wrote: ↑Wed Dec 30, 2020 10:35 am

After a short while some Zeebras came down to drink .


I joked with SO look I dont know about my ducks but I got my Zeebras in a row


Soon a lone bull Ellie arrived .Wonder if he will go into the water ...


Nope seemed to be in a hurry had some big slurps of water


and left loosing allot of the last mouthful


another breeding herd had arrived over the far side


Look I got my Ellies in a row also


It was getting hot by this time so we decided to head back to camp for lunch ...

on the way we found this lovely roller eating a bug .


We also found this scruffy crew passed out on the side of the road


It was soooo hot they were not bothered to move about .

Arriving at camp we had a visitor in the grass in-front of the unit .


We made lunch and checked on some work emails in-front of the aircon .