LITTLE LIONS …

… are as cute as large Lions are impressive. Have a good day!

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What an amazing catch!

or …. Never ignore your own rules!

Over the years I have developed my own set of rules when flying a drone. I have avoided major accidents and damage by sticking to those rules. One of them is never to fly sideways or backwards when flying on low altitude with no direct visual of the drone.

Yesterday evening I took some aerial pictures of Thanda House (to create

a tree map of the garden). And I ‘landed’ my drone in the high branches of a fever tree over 15 meters above the ground – when ignoring my own rules!

It lodged itself in the branches with two of the rotors unable to restarts.

This morning Mariana from Thanda Safari’s wildlife team helped me with a long pole to dislodge the drone from the tree.

And with an amazing catch she saved my DJI Mavic Mini 2 from hitting the vehicle she was standing on while holding a 12 meter pole in her other hand.

Thanks to her, Kent and Cait for coming to the drone rescue.

The little flying machine was perfectly fine after its adventure in the fever tree branches.

One of my lucky days 😊

147 birds …

3rd Thanda Safari Birding Weekend

Everything went very well, even if some of our Lions turned today’s net setup into a bit of a challenge .

The guests had a great time experiencing many different bird species close up and personal.

The weekend’s final capture, ringing and release statistics: 32 species / 147 birds!

We are already looking forward to our next ‘bird ringing weekend’.

📷 Pictures by Christian Sperka

#Christiansperkaphotography @christiansperkaphotography #thandasafari @thandasafari

3rd Thanda Safari Birding Weekend

We had a very successful first bird ringing day of the 3rd Thanda Safari Birding Weekend. 53 birds (15 species) were ringed and our guests enjoyed releasing them back into the wild. And we even got a new species for our bird list: The Green Twinspot. For tomorrow the nets are set up in the Thanda savanna area. More pictures to follow soon…

📷 Picture by Christian Sperka

#Christiansperkaphotography @christiansperkaphotography #thandasafari @thandasafari

Birds, birds, birds, …

My tracker Bheki is watching James finishing the net setup for tomorrow’s ‘bird ringing’ at Thanda Safari. All of our guests will enjoy seeing the birds close up and release them back into the wild after the birds been ringed (with information for research projects at Captetown University). More pictures to come …

#Christiansperkaphotography @christiansperkaphotography #thandasafari @thandasafari

DIFFICULT START

From time to time a game drive can have a difficult start if one of Thanda’s Elephant villa decides to have a snack in the driveway to the Lodge. But our guests enjoyed observing this gentle giant for a quite a while.

📷 Picture by Christian Sperka

#Christiansperkaphotography @christiansperkaphotography #thandasafari @thandasafari

MONDAY GREETINGS …

… from a young male Elephant using a branch broken off a tree 😊

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#Christiansperkaphotography @christiansperkaphotography

📷 Christian Sperka Photography

Little Lions

LITTLE LIONS are one of my favorite photography subjects. These two did a synchronized walk for my photo shoot 😊

#Thandasafari @thandasafari

#Christiansperkaphotography @christiansperkaphotography

📷 Christian Sperka Photography