The Big Cat Diary and a Couple of Lifers

[Lisbeth]

Lovely water life at the weir

[Richprins]

Lovely pics...I like the plover!

Great to see water there at the weir!

[nan]

wow...superb

my prefered... the cheeky

[Mel]

Browsed through the first pages here (Ja, I'll admit, I didn't read properly - I'm still too lazy to do that after the hols ) and found that you already have a nice variety of critters sighting-wise Lots of not-to-be-mentioned ones too in such a short time Chick birds are also always something special And otherwise I'm with nan - the cheeky one is fantastic.

[Alf]

Elephants can keep one entertained for a long time at such a water hole.

[Pumbaa]

Hi Pumbaa,

I think your Wood Sandpiper is actually a Common.

Kind regards,

Adam

Thanks for the correction, Puff Addy

Always something nice to see at Biyamiti. Lovely ellie pics.

The weir is an amazing place to take a long break

Lovely water life at the weir

We were thankful that there was still that much water left

Lovely pics...I like the plover!

Great to see water there at the weir!

In fact and also in the Biyamiti river itself there was still more water left than expected

[Pumbaa]

wow...superb

my prefered... the cheeky

That cheeky is a cutie

Browsed through the first pages here (Ja, I'll admit, I didn't read properly - I'm still too lazy to do that after the hols ) and found that you already have a nice variety of critters sighting-wise Lots of not-to-be-mentioned ones too in such a short time Chick birds are also always something special And otherwise I'm with nan - the cheeky one is fantastic.

In fact we had a more than amazing first full day although the others even got better

Elephants can keep one entertained for a long time at such a water hole.

In fact and more ellies to come

[Pumbaa]

Shortly before the causeway across the Mlambane we spotted a water hole which we never noticed ever before there either because of the thick vegetation normally during that time of the year or because same had been just build as same in fact looked still brand new – Same was operational and full of water and so attracted a large herd of elephants who just arrived and started to drink



or to splash a bit around.



Once again lots of smaller ones from teenager and even far smaller ones occurred between the legs of their mums and aunts and also had a great time with the water.



Once they all disappeared we carried on and were greeted by an extreme green and lush looking Mlambane riverbed and in fact this road turned finally out to be one of the greenest we travelled along this year although once again it looked far greener as same actually was and also compared to far wetter years where this causeway even was closed due to flood it was far drier than normally



but we even noticed some water left also in this river and also along the stretch of the road we travelled. Unfortunately we missed this giraffe drinking but at least same popped out of the bushes to say a short “Hi!”



and so did also the small amount of terrapins also still residing in the puddle and started the race to be first at our car – Gladly when they noticed that no food will be thrown out of the car they returned again into the water but stayed alert just in case. I hate this bad habit of feeding animals as normally you should have to pay extreme attention in not overruning by mistake a terrapin which stayed under the car.

Along the Mlambane loop is was extreme quiet animalwise but the views into the riverbed were as always lovely and the arrow-marked babblers occurred plentiful and were noisy.



On the bridge over the Matjulu we also discovered a smaller puddle left which was already occupied by a hippo



and at least by one water / mud loving animal in this case a buffalo



and by different species of water birds – Here we saw a grey heron, a wood sandpiper and the obligatory Egyptian goose.

[Pumbaa]

Needless to say that those remaining puddles were hard fought and much sought after especially during that drought so such a composition of animals we nearly could expect also in the other areas of the park this year at least when still water in the puddle was left.




On the last stretch back to camp we could observe a group of zebras which is always a pleasure to watch.





First thing what I did when we returned back to camp was to switch our refrigerator on and surprise same worked again perfectly although I already awaited the strange sound to return but same kept away. Also when we came back from our afternoon drive same still worked and so did same when we left the camp the next morning.

We enjoyed our break from driving on our verandah and as still was a bit time left we even walked a bit on the rhino trail along the fence to the shop to pay a short visit there and to discover what we might see in the dam. In a fig tree along the way the obligatory purple crested turaco peeped through the leaves.



Unfortunately this was the only decent shot we got. The water level of the dam was as low never before but a couple of water birds were around. For sure Egyptian goose appeared, the pied kingfishers were busy in fishing and so were the white fronted bee eater but all of them were too far away. A group of marabous were resting



whereas the bushbucks enjoyed the green grass in the shade close to the water.



On the other side of the dam a black winged stilt was foraging, the chinspot batis occurred in masses in the trees near the dam



and we saw also a lot of terrapins, grey louries and our first wood hoopoes during that trip. It is always heaven to walk around in the camps as normally lots of birds and for sure other animals as well are to be seen so it took once again a while until we left the dam and packed the car for our afternoon drive.

to be continued....

[Lisbeth]

You were lucky to catch the purple crested turaco

The baby ellies look strangely wrinkled

Always life at the waterholes