The Thanda guests on today’s evening game drive were a bit intimidated and very impressed, but really loved the encounter with one of our two 40-45 year old Elephant bulls.
He gave me a few head shakes as a greeting after my absence on a trails guiding course. What a welcome!
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 🙂 …
The last few days were very hot and our walks in the morning and in the evening were very exhausting. We had a few animal encounters, but not as many as we hoped for. Even the animals thought is was to hot to be out and about.
During these hot days they spend their time in drainage lines and in thick bush. It is too dangerous to walk these areas so most of our encounters were around waterholes. Rhinos, Buffalo bulls and Elephant bulls.
Yesterday we got a special treat when we went on a short game drive in the middle of the day to observe two Leopards. The female was keen to mate and she tried to “engage” the young male, but he was not interested. So we had a lot of growling in long grass but no action 🙂
Here are two pictures of the Leopards and an image of a young Elephant bull feeding next to my tent.
Young males Leopard
Female Leopard
A young bull behind my tent
Today’s pictures are of a Nile Crocodile and of a Hippo on Lake St.Lucia. They were both giving me a “sharp look”. I was glad that I was not in the water. These pictures were taken from a boat.
Well, this will be the last post for a little while. I will be in Pretoria for two days and then I am off to the Sabi Sands for another week of trails guiding contact sessions (with Lions, Leopards, Elephants, Buffalo and Rhinos :-)).
If I have internet connection I will keep you updated during this time. If not, you will hear from me again on 23 March!
I have added 169 new images to my “New Wildlife Images” Gallery. (The new images are at the beginning of the gallery),
Here is the link: http://www.sperka.biz/new
Have a good week!
PS: The picture above is a b&w art image of a Zebra with the sun lighting it from behind.
Mfazana hide is one of the best hides I have ever seen. Built on two levels it allows great views of one of the waterholes at iSimangaliso Wetland Park (former St.Lucia Wetlands).
I stayed for about three hours and I got images of Grey Heron, Malachite Kingfisher, Cormorant, Water Lily, Saddle-billed Stork, Egret, Reedbuck, Waterbuck, Little Grebe, African Jacana, African Fish-Eagle and White Rhino.
My favorite shot is the one of this African Jacana male and his young chick.
This Lion cub was concentrating hard on the “toy-stick”. He got so upset with the branch that he even used his claws!
Have a good weekend and relax 🙂
On the last day of our work cycle we had some unusual sightings. The Thanda guests on today’s morning game drive enjoyed a Spotted Hyena crossing the savanna in full daylight (a very rare occurrence).
We caught a glimpse of a young Leopard before it retreated into very thick bush and …
… we ended the game drive with an unusual view of the Elephant herd on the side of a hill, on which we cannot drive with our vehicles.
We also saw Cheetahs, a White Rhino, Giraffes and a Yellow-billed Kite on the same drive. A great morning!
After a very long work cycle (26 instead of 21 days) I will now be off for eight days before I leave for another “Trails Guiding Contact Session Course” with African Nature Training – ANT (www.africanaturetraining.co.za) in the Sabi Sands. I will return to Thanda on 24 March.
There will be fewer blogs during this time, but look out for the unusual ones 🙂
Imagine you are a Lion!
You are feeding on a Zebra kill and you had already a lot to eat. So it is a bit hard to move with your full belly. And just as you feel ready for a snooze a herd of Buffalo is crashing the dinner site of your family. They chase all of you around a bit.
You climb a tree and find out that the tree you chose was not high enough.
You growl at the Buffalo and they get even more agitated than they already were.
At the right moment you jump out of the tree and you flee to the next tree.
There you wait until the annoying bulls and cows are gone.
Only then can you re-join your other eight family members (coming down from other trees) to continue the meal and the now well deserved snooze.
Not your best day!
A very special sighting at Thanda Private Game Reserve 🙂
We had a great game drive this morning. After tracking for less than half an hour we found the breeding herd of Elephants feeding in thick bush. We watched them crossing the road in front of us and thought they might go to drink at a nearby waterhole.
And we were right. The whole herd was having a drink. The first picture shows the Thanda matriarch (she has no tusks) with another adult cow, one older calf and the two youngest members of the herd.
The next picture shows one of our oldest bulls drinking (he is currently in musth as indicated by the back legs wet from dribbling urine and the running glands on his head).
The third picture shows him on the opposite side of the waterhole (I prefer this distance for a musth bull 🙂
The herd is very protective of their young. In the last picture you can see on of the little ones “disappearing” between the females.
We finished off this Thanda morning game drive with coffee and cookies in the bush!
Christian Sperka Photography | Custom Luxury Tours 