The Little Mamba (my Suzuki Jimny 😊) and I are back for another birding weekend on Pakamisa Private Game Reserve. These weekends are a most relaxing combination of enjoyable birding, superb cuisine , invigorating walks and time spent with good friends. I took this picture yesterday evening in front of the Pakamisa horse stables.
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If anyone tells you Elephants drink through their trunk, tell them they should try to drink through their nose 😊.
Elephants use their trunks like a large syringes. The fill them with water and then empty them into their mouth!
Depending on their size they can drink between 70 and 200 liters (18-50 Gal.) of water per day. The trunk will hold up to 10 liters (2.6 Gal.) to be deposited into the mouth at one go!
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… are as impressive as small Lions are cute. Have a good day!
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… are as cute as large Lions are impressive. Have a good day!
#Christiansperkaphotography @christiansperkaphotography #thandasafari @thandasafari
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 😊
This is why I live in Africa 🌍
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For the German speakers among you: My book ‘Thanda Cats’ has been reviewed very positively on the Swiss photo news site www.fotointern.ch by Urs Tillmann. Have a look!
The book is available at the Thanda Safari curio shops or can be ordered online https://sperka.info/thandacats/.
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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
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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
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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 …
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Christian Sperka Photography | Custom Luxury Tours 