The red-billed queleas had been unleashed

[Lisbeth]

The Koris always look so arrogant

Great pics of the poised korhaan

[Mel]

The dancing korhaan -

A very good lion sighting! And also beautiful photos of the beautiful zebbies

[All-Nature]

Great Lion sightings and pixs
Lovely photos all round
Gorgeous of the Red Crested Koraan

[Richprins]

That road can be busy or very quiet!

Like the korhaan!

[nan]

like everybody I appreciate Korhaan ... without noise

superb portrait of Zebra and it's cool to have Lions on the road, instead of in the grass

[Flutterby]

Your timing was perfect with the lions! Wonder if they are the same ones we saw?

Nice korhaan too.

[PJL]

Really fantastic sighting of the side-striped jackals

The lions and korhaan came out nicely for you

[Pumbaa]

The Koris always look so arrogant

Great pics of the poised korhaan

But they are cool birds

The dancing korhaan -

A very good lion sighting! And also beautiful photos of the beautiful zebbies

We were happy to see the lions also on the move

Great Lion sightings and pixs
Lovely photos all round
Gorgeous of the Red Crested Koraan

I cannot remember having seen that much red crested korhaans as we saw this year ever before - Although the grass was so high

That road can be busy or very quiet!

Like the korhaan!

But still one of my favourite - The S28

like everybody I appreciate Korhaan ... without noise

superb portrait of Zebra and it's cool to have Lions on the road, instead of in the grass

More korhaan shots to follow

Your timing was perfect with the lions! Wonder if they are the same ones we saw?

Nice korhaan too.

I already guessed it could have been the same you saw - Maybe they are hanging around in that area

Really fantastic sighting of the side-striped jackals

The lions and korhaan came out nicely for you

Although the road was quiet what we then found finally was great

[Pumbaa]

At first stage same was only on the look out but not long and the obligatory shouting started



and continued again and again after the area had been scanned extensively for a reply call.



We were once again happy about such wonderful bird sightings we meanwhile had although the day started that quiet.



We paid Duke waterhole a visit but besides high grass and a full waterhole nothing came across and whilst driving further along the S137 we had to be careful not to overrun a couple of dung beetles busy with their daily task.



The rest of our drive also along the tar road leading to Lower Sabie was then quiet again besides a yellow billed stork on a tree top and a far away fish eagle in flight.



The best sighting, however, was to see the Sabie river that full again especially compared to the small runlet we were allowed to see last year. Shortly before the Lower Sabie causeway a couple of large elephant herds caused a traffic jam on the street as



it was once again quite amazing to see all the members either taking a drink, splashing the water all over their bodies



or even to take a bath especially the smaller members of the herd enjoyed the bath in the river a lot.



It was such a come and go with elephants at exactly that spot that we had to drag ourselves away.



A short visit at the causeway itself then revealed a goliath heron



on the hunt for some fish.

[Pumbaa]

Due to the high and strong flowing Sabie not much else could be seen and after another short visit at sunset dam where we could discover lots of large and far away sunbathing crocodiles and masked weavers busy in building their nest on the dead tree in the middle of the dam it was more than time for a body break at Lower Sabie for sure the obligatory ice cream was a must after that exiting day so far.

As it was still quite early and we still had not enough for driving we decided to drive the S29 and maybe the Muntshe loop as we omitted that loop last year but before we had to stop on the causeway again as quite a lot red dots could be seen in the reeds and some of them even came close enough for a shot – a bird who we also were not allowed to see last year but occurred gladly plentiful around this year – the red bishop



and also the goliath heron meanwhile moved into the deeper grass so we definitely did not stay that long but turned into the S29 instead and although also here the grass was extreme high the bird activity was quite good. We spotted lots of masked weavers busy in building nests





who quite entertained us a lot as we also saw from these birds never that much as this year.



A group of giraffes was also around



and even a juvenile martial eagle was enjoying the shade in one of the many trees along that road. Same stayed and allowed quite a few shots until a noisy group of people in a safari vehicle arrived and chased same unfortunately away.



More red bishops could be easily identified by their red plumage but stayed to very well hidden in the long grass drifting in the wind but we spotted more birds such as European swallows and more wattled starlings



and finally even a red bishop landed close enough for a shot



and also a white winged widowbird was in the mood to pose.



It was such a fun to notice all these birds again flying around and landing from time to time on the blades of grass as I still had the desolate landscape from last year in my mind with only the bare sand and with such a lovely drive we even included the Muntshe loop into our long drive today.

Relatively at the beginning there is always a small causeway which you had to cross and same was overflowing by water and here we noticed some beautiful red dragonflies.



I always love to drive along that loop and although here the grass was high is was a more than lovely drive as the landscape is beautiful especially with the Muntshe mountain on the left side of the road and we even spotted a couple of animals such as kudus already hiding under a large tree in the shade as it heated up already



to be continued....