Skukuza April 2014 - BIRDER . PLEASE PASS...*

[Amoli]

Great to have mites input here - thanks a lot

Let's go with Trip 4

We had a slow drive going up the H1-2, heading for Satara. It was a fairly quiet drive until we came parallel with the maroela loop.
You could just hear birds every where.

This Brown hooded kingfisher caught my attention – so pretty in the morning light.



A crested falcolin hurriedly ran across the road.



A big car then stopped next to us….

What you looking at?
Birds.
Oh!
And takes off with a speed.

And away flies the birdies…

Little did I know that this pattern was to repeat itself time and time again on this stretch of road.

Anyways.

These baboons made us laugh. We were surrounded and through closed windows I took a few pics.




We found more birdies.

European roller



I think this is a martial eagle… help please.



Dark capped bulbul – just married..



Is this a Chinspot Batis female – I didn’t include it in my Kruger bird sightings. It would be a lifer for me.



Southern white crowned shrike



And I think these were arrow marked Bablers

[Amoli]

All this while I was formulating a sign for my backwindow.

It had to be big,
it had to be bold,
maybe something like these R699 signs you find in some cars.
I had a pelican (thanks BC for the expression) with these guys that was too lazy to find their own leopards and lions.

We pulled over at the Memorial Tablets to let the convoy pass.

Efjay asked if he could get out and I replied that he could, yet leopard has been spotted here.
He started scanning the area and then lifted his camera!!

This is what he photographing – a bateleur drinking water. Btw – this is his pic, the only one he allowed me to have..



I was merrily taken pics of this guys eye (that’s about all I could see) when a juvenile flew in. What a sight.











By this time I had forgotton about my leopard story and quickly stood outside the car…







We stopped at Tshowane and cooked ourselves a great breakfast – without our bread.

As I was unpacking the foodies, a baboon came out of nowhere, and as fast as lightning, grabbed the loaf as on a stroll, and we could only sit and watch him share with his tribe.

Does this happen only once in a lifetime.

No, not with me.

On this trip it happened twice.

The second time he actually went through my basket, with such ease and speed, and left with the bag of tomatoes.

On the way to Kumane dam, we saw a female Waterbuck.
While taking the picture I was talking to her, asking her why she was looking so sad. I would find the answer just up the road.



Kumane Dam – Lots of water.

[Amoli]

Up the road we saw the cars parked and knew it was a good sighting.
We stopped and saw 5 lionesses on a kill – a male Waterbuck.





I took this picture and had to search my heart before posting.
Was I really annoyed that she endangered herself by being out of the car, so near to where a leopard was resident – or, was I jealous of the great lens she had and she was getting better pics than me…



The lions were just feasting so we decided to go to the baobab and stop here again on our return.

The road crossing the river to the baobab was covered with thick sand.
A 4x4 would make it, but not me – so we returned to the lions.

We sat watching the feast when I realized we had company.

Behind us was the Flutts mobile. We waved and shared a few thoughts.

We spent another half hour or so and decided to leave these ladies to their siesta.





These vultures would also have to wait…





Can you spot the animal?



Efjay was checking his lion pictures, when I suddenly stopped dead.
Right in front of me a leopard crossed the road. No time for pics.

A car stopped and asked what we were looking at. I told him a leopard crossed here.
The guy reversed to the bridge and after a while he signaled me to come.

This was my bestest sighting of this trip.

[Amoli]

We travelled in silence and stopped for the odd sighting.









This happens when kids play with your equipment…





There were vultures in the river bed sunning themselves Another great sighting



I then noticed the Marabou on the far right. Watch him sprinting to get into the picture. We just cracked ourselves with laughter.



















A last few feathered friends taken from the Sabie and Sand bridges.

Blacksmith Lapwing



Pied Wagtail



Hammerkop



Three banded Plover



Wood sandpiper



Yellow breasted canary



We had to return to camp and wait for Heksie to arrive for our Test & Trial-run braai with the Wildies.


Just one more pic…. To end a wonderful day.

[nan]

wow this Leopard.... what a beauty
the Batis could be a Chinspot
superb serie of Bateleur, Vulture and Marabou
poor Mme Waterbuck
right she has a big lens... but maybe not best pictures
and now Flutts amongst Lioness
super nice episode

[Amoli]

So it took me a long time to sober up after our Friday night braai.


Time to wrap up this trip now.

With all our planned day trips done, we only had the Maroela loop to do, so off we went.

The tar roads around Skukuza was very busy with the school holidays starting.

On the whole maroela trip we found a small troup of baboons. Other than that – nothing.

I will show you some of our tar road sightings. You couldn't go forward, you couldn't reverse... Bushcrafts expression entered my mind a few times this day.







Back at Skukuka camp we took a pic of the Wartie in the front garden. It was the only Warthog for our entire holiday.



Even the impalas were shy on this trip, so we tok this pic as a remembrance of what they look like.



I took this pic just to make sure it was not the camera that was faulty.






Do you remember my big moan when I returned from the Park :

All this while I was formulating a sign for my backwindow. It had to be big, it had to be bold, maybe something like these R699 signs you find in some cars.

I wanted it to cover the window side to side – top to bottom. Luckily my daughter knows how to handle my unlawful requests…..



That’s all folks – when you see my sticker and my car…. PLEASE PASS – I’M A BIRDER

[Lisbeth]

A very entertaining TT, Amoli

You sure saw a lot of birds and had a great leopard sighting

[Amoli]

BJ, Nan and Lisbeth.

BJ, I don't mind sharing a sighting, but you find those people pushing in front of you, and you end up 'cluttered' - without space to breath.

We had a good trip,

The leopard made our trip,
The lions feeding on the Waterbuck made our trip,
The gymnogene made our trip,
The rhino made our trip,
Biyamiti made my trip,
The tusker at Duke's hole made my trip,
Croc Bridge made my trip,
The bateleur made our trip,

and seeing alllllll our friends again, was the cherry on the cake..

[Amoli]

Paging through my Kruger pics, I found these that I had overlooked.

We came across these zebras.. but wait let them tell the story....

Zeb-Zeb : oh how boring....

sigh......

hey guys, come look....

here's one of those awkward moving things....

with only one black eye.....

going click-click....

come quickly......

stupid.

[Richprins]

Nice, Amoli! Love feeling a writer's enthusiasm!