Blog – Page 139 – Christian Sperka Photography

2017-03-18

Dugga Boy

Dugga means mud!

Dugga Boy is a nickname given to older Buffalo males who have passed their prime breeding age and spend their days wallowing in mud pools. Dugga boys occur in small bachelor herds or as individuals. They are quite vulnerable and therefore more aggressive than animals in a large herd. This Thanda Dugga Boy had a good stretch before he left the Ubomvu waterhole. Ubomvu means red in the local Zulu language – a very good name considering the red soil in this area!

Picture details: Cape Buffalo | Location: Thanda Safari, South Africa
Canon 1D Mark IV | Canon EF28-300 f3.5-5.6L at 200mm | AV | ISO 2500 | 1/500s | f/5.6 | 1.0eV | WB 6500K | free-hand

2017-03-12

Bird’s views!

I am currently learning how to fly a new DJI Phantom 4 Pro drone. These are two of my first aerial images I took with the ‘new toy’. With the new 4K camera it is actually anything else but a toy. The image quality for video and stills is amazing. More to come soon …

A morning view of the western part of Thanda Safari …

And an afternoon view of my home on Thanda. Can anyone spot the Elephant in the picture 🙂

2017-03-092017-03-09

More birds …

I recently did a bit of bird photography … this was one of my favorites … more to come soon …

Picture details: Reed Cormorant | Location: Drakensberg, South Africa
Canon 1D Mark IV | Canon EF500mm f/4L | AV | ISO 1600 | 1/1000s | f/8 | 0.5eV | WB 6500K | free-hand

2017-03-08

Elephants and Clouds

This week we had some amazing sunsets. I really enjoyed this particular evening as I was watching a few Elephant bulls in front of Thanda House. They grazed around the house for over an hour. As I was watching them the most amazing cloud formations passed by. I captured them with my iPhone 7 Plus. Enjoy these African skies!

2017-03-04

What a month!

Many of you have realized that I did not blog a lot in February. I had two good reasons. First I had to have an eye operation to remove a small foreign object from my right eye (the surgery went very well :-). Then I took a while off to recover and to spend some time with my brother who visited South Africa.

We enjoyed our stays at the Oysterbox Hotel in Umhlanga – one of the best hotels anywhere – at the Cleopatra Mountain Farmhouse in the Drakensberg – rightly known for its gourmet cuisine – and at Pakamisa Private Game Reserve – next to Thanda Safari my favorite place in KwaZulu Natal. We also did a day-excursion to St.Lucia for a walk on the Indian ocean and an excellent lunch (at a restaurant named ‘Reef and Dunes’). These are certainly some of the best places KwaZulu Natal has to offer. What a special program!

Here are a few pictures which I took on our travels to Durban, Pakamisa, Thanda, St.Lucia and to the Drakensberg.

And now it is back to Wildlife on Thanda Safari 🙂

The Oysterbox Hotel in Umhlanga, what a place, what a setting ... — The Oysterbox Hotel in Umhlanga, what a place, what a setting …

What an arrangement ... — A special flower arrangement in Oysterbox lobby …

Rain over the Pakamisa mountains ... — Rain over Pakamisa mountains …

Pakamisa, a special place to relax ... — Pakamisa, a special place to relax …

The Thanda Safari Lions impressed my brother by getting quite close ... — The Thanda Safari Lions impressed my brother by getting quite close …

And I slipped off the road on a game drive after heavy rains, but Bheki - my tracker - and I got the vehicle back onto the road ... — And I slipped off the road on a game drive after heavy rains, but Bheki – my tracker – and I got the vehicle back onto the road – what fun 🙂 …

... and Bheki's special smile as the rains approached ... — … and Bheki’s special smile as the rains approached on Thanda …

Near the beach in St.Lucia ... — Near the beach in St.Lucia …

A Splendid Locust on the St.Lucia beach ... — A Splendid Locust on the St.Lucia beach …

A beautiful setting and gourmet cuisine, Cleopatra Mountain Farmhouse ... — A beautiful setting and gourmet cuisine, Cleopatra Mountain Farmhouse …

The Drakensberg Mountains in the early morning ... — The Drakensberg Mountains in the early morning …

Not-so-wild-life ... this old cat kept me company as I relaxed at Cleopatra Mountain Farmhouse ... — Not-so-wild-life … this old cat kept me company as I relaxed at Cleopatra Mountain Farmhouse …

... and finally a dramatic sky over Thanda as I returned after travelling for almost 2,000 kilomteres ... — … and finally a dramatic sky over Thanda as I returned after travelling for almost 2,000 kilomteres …

2017-03-042017-03-04

Lion+

I have just uploaded a few more Lion images taken between 2006 and 2017. Have a look at http://www.sperka.biz/sg1 (total 76 images).

This is one of many species gallery available online at http://www.sperka.biz/sg

Please contact me at info@sperka.com in case you are interested in publishing any of these images or if you would like to license any image for printing (for personal or commercial use).

These are some of the newly uploaded images!

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Look after this world and its wildlife – for future generations sake!

World Wildlife Day 2017 – http://www.wildlifeday.org

wwd2017

‘In the end, we will conserve only what we love; we will love only what we understand and we will understand only what we are taught’ Baba Dioum

Pictures by Christian Sperka

#DoOneThingToday, #youth4wildlife, #YoungVoices, #EndWildlifeTrafficking #WWD2017 #listentotheyoungvoices

2017-02-13

Lions …

I am currently working on an update of my online Lion picture gallery (http://www.sperka.biz/sg1).

This is one of the images which will soon appear with many others on my gallery site.

Have a good week! Stay tuned for more updates …

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2017-02-062017-02-06

No Power – Three Hours !

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During our last power failure – which lasted about 6 hours – I decided to leave my hot office and spend a few hours at the kuMasinga Hide and at Nsumo Pan on Mkhuze Game Reserve.

In the three hours I sat at the two hides I took mainly bird pictures. I thought I create a little bird quiz from these images.

Can you identify all 11 species?

Have fun and a good week!

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2017-02-05

Water, finally …

For the last few weeks we had proper rainfalls (over 125 mm) and most of the waterholes at Thanda Safari are now filling up nicely!

The small picture shows a herd of Buffalo in a completely dry dam only a few weeks ago. The big picture of the same waterhole was taken this week. Let us hope the rains will continue to the end of the wet season…

In the small picture below the Elephant bulls were bathing in an almost empty dam. The large image shows the same dam almost full. The Elephants would now be under water 🙂

Pictures by Christian Sperka – Resident Wildlife Photographer – Thanda Safari

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