Africa Wild

As you might probably noticed we are back - unfortunately

We had once again a wonderful trip throughout the whole Kruger and it felt so great to be back. It was amazing to see the whole park that lush and green with still lots of remaining puddles in the veld and filled up dams and waterholes. We had a couple of days with nearly 40 degrees, followed by heavy rains (again!) and a couple of extreme stormy days which leaded into some quieter days sightingwise but we could not complain about what we saw…..and on top two of my dream sightings came true.

Presently we are sorting the many pictures we took but I am confident to start soon with a new report.

Another exciting trip

Welcome back, Pumbaa

I wonder what the dream-sighting is Caracal, pangolin, gorilla ................

Hello, Pumbaa!!!!!

Well done, looking forward as always!


(Do you ever come in winter?)

Mmmm sounds interesting

Alf wrote: ↑Sat Mar 02, 2019 1:52 pm Another exciting trip

It was in fact exciting

Lisbeth wrote: ↑Sat Mar 02, 2019 3:54 pm Welcome back, Pumbaa

I wonder what the dream-sighting is Caracal, pangolin, gorilla ................

Flutterby wrote: ↑Sat Mar 02, 2019 4:10 pm

Keep the ready

Richprins wrote: ↑Sat Mar 02, 2019 4:17 pm Hello, Pumbaa!!!!!

Well done, looking forward as always!


(Do you ever come in winter?)

No - because of the birds - Then we do have summer over here and it is quite lovely and then we do have at least a couple of birds we saw in February in Kruger also here

harrys wrote: ↑Sun Mar 03, 2019 12:49 pm Mmmm sounds interesting

It was in fact never boring in many ways

Friday, 07.February 2019 – Malelane

Travelling from the O.R. Tambo to Malelane is for us meanwhile a routine trip and on top we had luck that there was not that much traffic and so we reached again around 16.00 o’clock our Lodge along the Crocodile River after we spent again nearly one hour at the Malelane Superspar.

Timon already struck out after we arrived at our lodge with the cameras from view point to view point there whilst I was still busy with un- and repacking our luggage and food into the Kruger mode but also this is a routine meanwhile so it did not take that much time and I could join Timon in absorbing the smell, the noises and everything else and soon I started to relax and got even happier and happier as now our holiday started.

First thing I noticed was that the Crocodile river was far fuller and also the grass and vegetation was far greener and lusher than last year but for sure there are still a lot of dead bushes around which normally are favoured by our feathered friends and so it was today as well – A dead bush full of birdies -



the advantage of a bleak bush is that you notice also birds which stay normally out of sight in a lush bush but today we had luck in spotting a resting reed cormorant.



The earlier heavy rainfall produced also lovely bushes with beautiful flowers which attracted pigeons



and somehow the bleak bushes attracted all of a sudden an invasion of grey louries.



We spotted as well a pair of Egyptian goose



but for sure there were quite a large number of Egyptian goose around or better to say the river was full of them. More pigeons appeared as well and now landed in the bush full of flowers.



The speckled mousebirds kept in the beginning a bit hidden



but therefore now the grey louries could be found in a bush with yellow flowers.



Already when we entered the parking area of the lodge we noticed behind same a lovely pond covered by water lilies which we somehow must have overlooked last year or same was not existing due to the lack of heavy rain during the time we stayed there but today same had to be visited as well as we heard already whilst unpacking the car twittering of birds. A lot of nests from the masked weavers were hanging on the bushes and also these birds were around



and willing to pose.



A couple of nests were already older than others





but these birdies were not tired in bringing new building material in order to start building a new nest. We are always fascinated by these birds and their unbroken building skills.

Funny was that prior to our trip we saw a documentary on the TV about African birds among others with a trick billed weaver and that was one of those birds I wanted to see again under all circumstances as same is a rarer sighting for us and voilà same awaited us already and presented his nest



and there must have been also a female in approach as same started to promote his nest now





even more insistently.





Sorry about the number of pictures but I had difficulties in choosing my favourites……







Finally our feathered friend had luck as indeed a female arrived and inspected his nest.



After that extreme nice encounter we returned back to the river and were blessed with the next surprise as I spotted a scarlet chested sunbird – A bird we already saw during previous visits quite often but still failed in getting decent shots but today was the day!





Same was even so willing to cooperate and sat quite a long time in the bush with the beautiful red flowers and we finally got our shots. I love the green shining forehead of the sunbird and never realized that before.



to be continued…..

A wonderful start with so many pretty birds