Today’s blog message is about three different sightings.
First I got a very good image of a White-baked Vulture in flight.
Below are two pictures of the Thanda North Pride (Mum, her two daughters and her son) and the young male in a tree.
And last but not least a herd of Blue Wildebeest in the evening sun.
Enjoy today’s pictures!
Today started with a bit of bad luck. Just driving at Base Camp I heard a hissing sound and realized that my back left tire was loosing air (fast!). So I had to do my first tire change – no problem :-).
A short while after I left the camp I realized that my right back tire was also slowly loosing air. No more spare tire, so I had to live the situation and I have to get the tires fixed tomorrow at the reserve’s workshop.
With my tire situation as it was I could not drive around a lot, and risking getting stuck somewhere on the reserve, so I spent most of my remaining game drive time next to the largest waterhole.
And here I got lucky. First a Buffalo mum and her calf came to drink (Picture below). It is very unusual to see a cow separated from the herd. The little one was quite young.
And shortly after they left a large Elephant bull made his appearance (Picture above). He chased all the drinking Giraffes away from the waterhole and had a good drink himself before he walked quietly away across the savanna.
So, after initial troubles, not a bad morning!
At the end of a busy day at a “Mini Olympics Event” in one of the Zulu communities (I will post a few pictures of this event later) and an afternoon-“road-learning”-drive I got this shot of a male Cheetah in hunting mode in the evening sun.
Enjoy the picture!
When I was driving on the reserve today I saw my first lion since I started working at Thanda. The young lioness was sleeping on top of an old cattle loading station. I thought she was dreaming of cattle 🙂
I also got a beautiful shot of a Brown-hooded Kingfisher. (see below)
Enjoy the pictures!
Quite a few of you have asked me if all the pictures I am publishing on my blog are available for purchase. The answer is yes. I have created a new gallery on my website: Thanda 2012 – Direct link: http://www.sperka.biz/thanda
It may sometimes take a few day (after the blog has been published), before the images will appear on the gallery.
If you live in the USA or in Europe you can order prints and other products directly online. They will be produced locally and sent directly to you (So you do not have to pay shipping cost from South Africa :-))
Next to the new Thanda 2012 gallery there are thousands of other animal images available on my site – http://www.sperka.biz
Feel free to contact me if you cannot find your favorite image or a specific species and I will make it available to you.
PS: Today I was again in Richards Bay and I did not take any animal pictures, so I have uploaded a picture I took last year in July on Thanda (Two young male Lions). Enjoy the image!
Today to got my Land Rover Defender assigned to me, my real “open air office”. Thanda 3 is not a new Landi, but he has a lot of character 🙂
I took him for the first drive this afternoon (to start learning the roads) and I ran into a large group of Giraffe. Looking at the picture above it is no wonder that a group of Giraffe is called a Journey of Giraffe.
The two pictures below are of one of Giraffe in the evening sun and Thanda3 in front of Thanda House.
Enjoy the pictures!
When I returned this afternoon from Richards Bay, a city about 1.5 hours away from Thanda, a troop of Vervet Monkeys greeted me at Thanda House. One of them kept alarm-calling. He obviously did not trust me 🙂
A short while later a herd of Buffalo moved from East to West along the fence. When I got a bit closer to get some pictures they all focused on me for while and then lost interest and kept grasing and moving.
Tommorrow I will get my game viewing vehicle and I will start driving on the reserve learning the roads (and probably getting lost a few times in the process :-).
Good night!
In my blog message on Friday I mentioned various birds around my Thanda Lodge room.
Here are four pictures I took that evening sitting by the small pool on my porch.
They are Pied Crows (top left), a White-brown Scrub Robin (top right), a Green-winged Pytilia (bottom left) and a Yellow-bellied Greenbul (bottom right). I hope I identified them correctly (I am still a bit shaky when it comes to birds 🙂
Good night from South Africa!
I have not posted a bird picture for quite a while. So here are a few images of one of my favorite birds in South Africa.
Lilac-breaster Rollers have many colors of the spectrum in their plumage.
These pictures were taken in Phinda Private Game Reserve, the Timbavati Private Game Reserve and in Kruger National Park.
Christian Sperka Photography | Custom Luxury Tours 