Category: THANDA

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Point of View

If you ever thought how it looks from the Lion’s point of view when we photographer’s shoot in the bush. Here is the answer 🙂

We were watching the Thanda North Pride feasting on a Wilderbeest kill. The young male was observing us closely …

… while his sister played with the Wilderbeest tail!

 

And for the photographers among my blog readers here are the technical info about the images:

Picture 1 – Camera Canon 1D Mark IV – Canon Lens L 28-300mm – at 130mm – 1/1600sec – f/5.6 – ISO 3200 – +1eV – freehand

Picture 2 – Camera Canon 1D Mark IV – Canon Lens L 28-300mm – at 300mm – 1/500sec – f/5.6 – ISO 400 – +/-0eV – freehand

Picture 3 – Camera Canon 1D Mark IV – Canon Lens L 28-300mm – at 220mm – 1/1000sec – f/5.6 – ISO 1600 – -0.33eV – freehand

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Battle at Thanda – YouTube Video

A lot of people have asked me if they were more images of the Battle at Thanda.

(Blog message from 9 July 2012 https://christiansperka.wordpress.com/2012/07/09/battle-at-thanda/).

Here is link to a YouTube Video with video footage and with more images of the interaction:

CAUTION: PLEASE DO NOT PLAY THE VIDEO IF YOU ARE DISTURBED BY WILD ANIMAL INTERACTION VIDEOS AND PICTURES!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOEe5QeiKuU

Thanks to Mariana Venter for letting me use the video footage and some of the images she took at the encounter.

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Relaxed!

No “Big Five” on this afternoon’s game drive, but we had a photo session with the most relaxed Black-backed Jackal I have ever seen. He lay in front of the car, yawned, walked in front of us, dug up some goodies to eat and finally went after another Jackal (probably of the opposite sex :-)).

We also had a fantastic sunrise this morning!

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Return from Town!

When I returned from a day in Richards Bay two male Cheetahs were greeting me at the gate guard house (These Cheetah are very used to the gate traffic and ignore the guard in the building – he is perfectly safe :-)).

And once I had returned to Thanda house two Zebra had a good fight in front of the fence (the “whitish” distortions in the picture).

Before the sun set a female Scarlet-breasted Sunbird was looking for food in one of the trees in front for my room.

There is never a dull moment on Thanda, even after a day in town!

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A Game Drive in Pictures!

This is the picture story of today’s evening game drive.

After leaving the camp we first encountered Giraffes with Oxpeckers on them.

We moved on to view a large group of Zebra.

Then we spotted an Elephant bull while we were looking for …

… the herd of Buffalo. The volunteers on my vehicle were most impressed when we were surrounded by one of the “Big Five”.

And while we were viewing the Buffalo we heard about a Cheetah sighting at a waterhole nearby.

After the Cheetah left we stayed until the sun was gone to take a few beautiful pictures of the sunset over the dam.

Another hard day in Africa 🙂

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I am big!

This small Elephant tried to impress us on today’s game drive. He behaved exactly like an adult bull, but in his case the gestures were rather comical than intimidating.

Enjoy the pictures!

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Forest Work – Elephant Style

At the end of a very quiet morning game drive we watched this Elephant bull doing a bit of forest work. He knocked over the Acacia tree to get to its roots, which in the winter time hold most of the tree nutrients.

Have a good weekend!

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Butterfly Meal

This Chinspot Batis enjoyed the butterfly.

I took the shots while taking a siesta in front of Thanda house , with my 500mm lens in a comfortable chair 🙂

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Never say never …

This morning I explained to the volunteers on my vehicle that Hamerkops (a medium-sized wading bird) do usually only occur around larger water bodies and are therefore normally not seen on places like Thanda (with very limited water sources).

An hour later I drove by on of our waterholes and what was wading through the water: A Hamerkop.

That teaches me never to make definite statements – I will use the word usually a lot in the future 🙂

We also got photo opportunities with a Grey Heron (in flight) and a Namaqua Dove (I love the purple color on the wings).

 

Even without seeing any of the big five everyone enjoyed themselves very much.

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“Bush Chicken”

They behave a bit like Chicken and they are related to them! So I nickname them “Bush Chicken”

A group of Helmeted Guinea Fowl greeted me this evening when I returned from town. As my vehicle was down again I had the time to go into town.

I started working on my South African drivers license – this will be a “length-ish” process :-).

Enjoy the picture!

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