under the weeping boer bean tree *

[Flutterby]

Nice pics of the storks and the queleas!! An ellie tummie?

[Bushcraft]

You didn’t elaborate much about our meet

Is that an ellie stomach or

[leachy]

I think those storks move once one has said "Enough of this sh&t!"...

They have to wait there for the migration "final call", isn't it?

Good Saffie for not hammering the poor Auslanders!

yes there is quite a lot of it...

... but it is all along the shoreline.....

i believe that not all yellow billed storks migrate.......

this group is a resident group that breed somewhere in the region......

they only relocate depending on the water and fish availability........

[leachy]

so...

that last pic was not an ellie tummy.........

'twas a rhino neck...........
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this is what remains of a grove of trees at the start of the mlondozi loop........

must be the flood damage... should not blame the elephants..
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on the subject of elephants......

seems as though this family was busy with some sort of confidence building exercise.....

they all stopped in a group at the top of the embankment

and told junior to go on ahead and see if "the coast was clear" for the rest of them to proceed safely down to the water..
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he went ahead tentatively at first and then when he got to the edge he must have passed the test

'cause the rest of the family then proceeded with gusto behind

him all the way towards the water

and he had led the way..........


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for the first time in four days there was no traffic jam at the leopard rock

and i could head down to the s28 and nthandanyati bird hide.....

there was only one other car there so i gladly ventured in.......





now, unless i am mistaken......

the hide is under a weeping boer been tree....



one that was in bloom a bit later than most of the others north of the hide

and the blossoms were still closed ..



which made them a juicy feast for this brown headed parrot....
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then.......

a convoy of double cab canopied "botha's bakgat bakkies" came careering into the parking lot in a cloud of dust ...


and three generations of up-country visitors stormed down the walkway into the hide...



i began to wonder where they used to go on holiday before they chose to invade kruger...



"no sir...that is not a kudu.......see that white semi circle on its buttocks...."



"no ma'am......that is not a duck...... it is a goose, an egyptian goose" ....

then a chorus replied........"jis..... but it's come far !!"
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the last straw was when one of them saw the parrot......



"haaai daas n pappegaai........ helllooo polly ..... pretty polly ..

hellooooo polly .... pretty polly..."

this had me weeping amongst the boer bean brains..........

my exit cue..........



when i got up to leave i could have sworn i heard one of the third generation members

asking "why is the pirate leaving without his parrot ?"

[leachy]

Help, what is a Botha bakie?

a botha's bakgat batterproof bakkie

is what the bearded bullbar bangled bush buggers use........

[leachy]

i wanted to have something to quietly munch on while at the bird hide

but i lost my appetite

so... i stopped just before the junction to duke water hole to have some breakfast of muesli and yoghurt

next to this old man having his own snack......
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was so peaceful....

now...

here is something i have never encountered before...
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it seemed as though i was approaching a village in papua new guinea

with all the nipa huts on their stilts...
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my only guess is that they are red billed buffalo weavers nests...

i have never seen such a colony of them...........
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i reckon that the kudu is one of the most majestic of the kruger residents....
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even with its dirty ears.....
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this one was so close i could taste the biltong.....
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and this handsome chap ????
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[Flutterby]

That's a lot of nests! I also love kudu...the animal, not the biltong!

Last pics...a hippo?

[nan]

the last Kudu seems to have a lot of horns
lot of nests, like you said could be Red-billed Buffalo-Weawers

what did the Oxpeckers... nothing with these ears

and the last one... Ellie

[Sprocky]

That last pic could be the "dimples" on the side of a Rhino's mouth??

[pooky]

Beautiful kudu
Good angle on the last pic.

Rhino tale