Chicks and a new SO on the catwalk (Oct 2013)*

[Mel]

The cheetah family was out and about again, well, rather not out and about but lying in a shade somewhere too far off for decent pix, so we moved on without further ado.

Twee Rivieren waterhole produced a black-headed heron chick:

[Mel]

And after that it went quiet… However, we spoke to someone (Yay, finally somebody WAS talking to us…) who told us that there were five lions underneath a tree just a couple of hundred metres into the dune road. So, we went to collect our daily dose of cats. But with them being that far off the road:



… we didn’t really stay with them for long and headed back to the camp.

[Mel]

Seeing that we would enjoy a long midday break, I went to investigate the local wildlife and found a familiar chat chick:



A grumpy black-chested prinia chick:

[Mel]

A highly alert skink chick:



And the red-eyed bulbul chick found me:

[Mel]

The resident black-headed heron chick was more than annoyed that he was supposed to share his waterhole with a pale chanting goshawk chick and watching their antics was quite entertaining.



TBC with the afternoon drive

[Mel]

We headed back out again around 4.30 pm and the first chick we met, was a juvenile black-chested snake-eagle circling the sky:



Next up was another kat – again only a single one…



And another odd one out:



Followed by a pair of Namaqua sandgrouse chicks:

[Mel]

Shortly after that we bumped into another single kat that was busy digging up dinner very close to the road. So we stayed with him for some time while most other just drove past without even looking at him. Their minds were clearly set on getting back to the cheetahs…

[Mel]

A mean looking starling chick arrived to see if he could freeload, but soon left again when he realized he didn’t stand a chance:



And the little kat kept digging and eating and digging and eating and …, oh well, you get my drift:





We only left him when he had wandered so far up the dune that good photos got impossible because of all the little shrubs between him and us.

[Mel]

Driving further south we found Elena and family were on the catwalk again:

[Mel]

It didn’t last for long though before they all flopped down again: