sabi sands – Christian Sperka Photography

2013-03-23

Heavy Mating and Fishing!

While I was in the Lowveld for my training course I spent a few hours at Lake Panic in the Kruger National Park.

Besides many good bird shots I took a series of pictures of mating Hippos. Because of their size/weight they mate in the water. For most of the mating time one sees only the male but in the quite lengthy process the female occasionally surfaces to get some air.

My favorite lake panic bird picture is of a Malachite Kingfisher returning from fishing. I also got images of a Brown-hooded Kingfisher, a Woodland Kingfisher and a Pied Kingfisher. A good Kingfisher day!

On the way to Lake Panic I passed the Sabi River. This Elephant bull almost disappeared in the high grass along the river bank.

I enjoyed the Sabi Sands, Kruger and Lake Panic!

… and I am back home at Thanda 🙂 …

2013-03-16

Lion’s View

If you ever wondered what a Lion sees from a shady spot under a tree. Here is one possible answer: A group of Humans walking by :-)…….. I am sure that we walk quite often through the high grass and do not even know who spots us.

On our walks over the last two days we saw a few Cape Buffalo and an Elephant bull.

When I arrived at the camp two days ago this Bull was greeting me with a good head shake.

2012-09-21

The Last Walk!

Goodbye Mpumalanga!

The last few days were very busy and I had no time to blog, but now I am back on Thanda. And it is hard to believe it is the same place. The recent rains have turned the place green, as you will be able to see in up-coming pictures.

But today I post the last pictures from my recent trip. The first is a picture of a African Goshawk who was – sitting in a tree – giving us the farewell from Nkombe camp.

The second is a collage of my last walk on Sabi Sands. For part of the walk I was in the lead guide and we encountered two Elephant bulls and a male White Rhino.

I enjoyed all my courses very much, but I am glad to be home 🙂

PS: The pictures in the collage were taken by Craig Fitt and Ross Hawkins – As I was walking Lead or Backup with a rifle I was not able to take pictures – Thanks for letting me use them.

2012-09-15

Almost mating!

It was a rainy day today and the morning started with a walk in cold and wet conditions. We heard a pair of Leopards mating. So we fetched a game viewing vehicle to have a look at the mating pair (as it is not a good idea to view mating Leopards on foot :-)).

We watched them for quite a while. The female was quite eager, but the male was not interested at the time. He was just grooming himself intensively. The short video shows a mating attempt initiated by the female. It was the first time that I saw a male and female Leopard together in the wild.

PS: I only had my “Point and Shoot” camera with me on the walk, so the picture and video are not SLR quality, but I thought some of you might enjoy the experience.