This is my third consecutive post from my trip with Lou Coetzer and Neal Cooper  and the CNP team in early May. There are two common denominators in this post, the first is the Chobe river and the second is that every image was taken from CNP’s fantastic photographic boat.  As you will see, virtually all of the shots are at or close to the water. Mammals or birds are either drinking, playing or bathing in the water and some hunting in the water.

The next shot is of my favourite antelope, the Sable. This is a lone young female. You can tell by the degree of curvature of the horns. She was very wary of what was around the water and what was in the water. These are rare, beautiful, and elegant antelope. A Sable is as agile and accurate with its set of horns as any first class cricketer.

It always intrigues me how many antelope, this Sable included, manage to keep their coats in such glossy condition. The Sable has a relatively small angular face with big brown eyes. From front on, you can see the positioning of their eyes gives them good stereoscopic and lateral vision.

The next shot is of one of two old “dagga boys”, old Buffalo bulls, who were wandering along the river’s edge and stopping every now and then to drink, unperturbed by photographic boats floating by.

One of the big advantages of photographing from the boat is that the animals are less afraid of you. That does not mean you have to be any less careful and respectful. The next image is of a couple of old Elephant bulls were walking along the edge of one of the islands in the middle of the river. I was using a 24mm lens to get the bulls in the frame, they were very close. The bull in the front could easily have touched me with his trunk with just one stride closer. The older bulls seem to be more confident and less concerned about us.

Deep shadow in the background helped profile this pair of Pied Kingfishers. The colouring and the dark background lent itself to a black and white adjustment.

There were a handful of Openbill Storks wandering in the shallows of the shoreline looking for snails and similar edibles. There were not many Openbills around in May but in the summer months you can see flocks of thousands flying overhead.

The Water Lilies are so colourful, I can’t help myself. On occasions the water surface was so smooth that it made a perfect background for these gorgeous flowers. The flowers attract insects, which in turn attract all kinds of birds from Lily-trotters to Weavers and Swallows.

We don’t see Red-billed Francolin in South Africa, so it is always interesting to see new species along the river.

Elephant Valley is a congregating point along the Chobe River upstream of the Chobe Game Lodge. This is a wonderful spot to see and photograph Elephant, Kudu, Impala, Baboons, a variety of birds and of course the always humorous warthog. The next shot is of a youngster who looked especially cute with his well groomed overgrown whiskers as he trotted brisky down to the water’s edge with his tail straight up in the air.

There are so many opportunities to take shots of scenes with different subjects and differing lighting. The next shot was taken late in the afternoon on the way back from Puku Flats where the light caught these few branches overhanging the river, against a darkish background.

This adult African Harrier Hawk strolled down to the water’s edge for a drink. These  birds have striking colouring but unusually their eyes are black. I have only ever seen them hunting alone, never in pairs.

All the Elephant dung along the river bank attracts dung beetles which in turn attract birds like this Sacred Ibis. Small crocodiles are also attracted by the dung beetles.

This young crocodile turned back into the water after missing a dung beetle it was targeting on the bank.

The Puku Flats upstream from Kasane attracts all sorts of game. Late one afternoon, a breeding herd of Elephant came walking through the flooded grass plain creating an evocative scene.

Early one morning, a reasonable size herd of Impala came down to drink. It was a very peaceful scene.

That mischievous face! This young Baboon was munching on a water lily stem and obviously enjoying it.

Baboons are very wary of crocodiles and are easily spooked when drinking at the water’s edge.

We had an unusual sighting of a Shikra (similar to a Little Goshawk) but with brilliant red eyes. This little chap was bathing.  Before flying down to bath, he too spent a long time watching the water looking for signs of crocodiles.

There are big ones and there are small ones too. This shot is of a female Stonechat – beautiful little seed-eater on a simple perch with a clean background.

A full blooming Water Lilly – beautiful. In this state, many insects are attracted to the open flowers.

A Green-backed Heron posing in front of a deep shadow backdrop. These small Herons don’t usually hang around for you to take the shot, so a little luck is needed.

Around half an hour after the sun sets the colours in the evening sky become very saturated. I love the shift in light and colour from the horizon into the evening sky.

This was the view from my hotel room each evening on returning from our afternoon shooting session. A quick shower and off to have drinks and dinner with everyone to share stories from the day. After dinner some hardened souls went to edit their day’s images but for most of us, all the fresh air and sun and the satisfaction of having nailed some decent images during the day was a perfect reason to put your head on the pillow. Sleep comes quickly usually with the sound of hippo talking to each other in the river.

For those of you who prefer a more leisurely game viewing experience there are always the houseboats, but if you are a keen photographer this is not the best option – CNP’s photographic boat is!!!.

I hope you have got a sense of why I keep returning to the Chobe River with my cameras.  Lou Coetzer and his team make these trips comfortable, productive and memorable.

The river level will probably continue to drop from May onwards. Once it starts warming up in August-September then everything changes again. The game is different and the variety of birds expands as the migrants return.

The wonderful aspect of this river is that everything is so dynamic, you will never see the same thing in the same place, the next time you go out on the boat. I will keep going back!

The river of life is always flowing  – go with the current!

Have fun

Mike

This is the second of three weekly posts from my trip with CNP to the Chobe River in early May. This week’s theme is flying birds. The Chobe River is the backdrop. If you find birds fascinating, as I do, then the Chobe river will provide you with a wonderful playground. The variety of birds found along the Chobe River is astounding. The one key difference between mammals and birds, from a photographic point of view, is that birds are always doing something. Their interactions and even basic movement can be challenging to photograph. One of the most fun challenges on the boat is to get decent shots of flying birds, preferably as full in the frame as possible. This is not always that easy with the long lenses because it is quite a skill to just pick up the moving bird in the lens given its narrow field of vision.

With flying birds and changing direction, quality and intensity of the light there is a constant balancing act adjusting ISO, shutter speed and F-stop trying to get the whole bird pin sharp, wing tips included. Birds like Storks and Egrets generally fly in a straight line, which makes getting the shot easier. Other birds, such as Gulls, Harriers, Yellow-billed Kites, Swallows and Swifts, Drongos and Bee-eaters, fly in a very erratic fashion which ups the difficulty many fold.

This next shot is of a Little Egret flying almost directly toward me. Importantly, the background was far behind the bird so was easy to blur and emphasise the flying Egret.

The next shot is of a Yellow-billed Egret banking in front of me giving a great photographic opportunity. Again the background was far enough behind enabling the blurring to highlight the bird in flight.

Egrets can be impressive photographic subjects when they are coming in to land. This Yellow-billed Egret is about to land on a sandbank. Under the wings, the airflow appears to be linear  with all the feathers smooth. When landing the wing angle changes allowing air to bled off the top of the wing causing some feathers to lift as the air speed slows. The Alula is clearly visible on the wing elbow. This group of feathers is thought to provide extra wing area at low speeds.

The variety of bird life along the Chobe river is vast. A Fish Eagle’s wings are wide allowing it to fly at lower speeds. The next shot shows the power of this bird. There are plenty of fish in the river but they are not always that easy to catch. Fish Eagles are known to also prey on Herons and Ducks and will take a Mongoose or baby Crocodile if they can catch one – they are great opportunists.

The next shot was taken when the wind was blowing strongly. This female Fish Eagle stopped to rest with some nesting material in one talon. She had to balance on one foot and lifted a wing just to keep her balance. After a short rest she flew up to her nest which was close by in one of the three Jackalberry trees alongside the River. Often when it is nest-building season, around this time of the year, Fish Eagles can be seen flying and trailing large strands of grass and reeds for lining on route to their nests.

Every trip to the Chobe River and almost every day, we see a Marsh Harrier scouring the reeds beds for something to eat. They can be tricky to photograph as their flight path can be very erratic. They are not fussy feeders going for small reptiles, birds and even eggs.

It is amazing how quickly these Marsh Harriers fly  and are able to cover vast distances in a morning. Invariably the photographic opportunity is a fly by.

There are many Egyptian Geese on the Chobe River. They make great subjects for photographers to practice their flying bird photography, as they tend to fly is a straight line.

It is always a thrill to see Bee-eaters. They are all incredibly colourful and superb fliers. In May, the last of the Carmine Bee-eaters are still around. Most have already migrated north to warmer climes. Small groups of remaining Carmines were feeding on insects disturbed by Herons and Egrets as they fly in and out of the reeds.

Every time an Egret flew into the reed bed in front of us, a group of Carmine Bee-eaters would dart over to that spot to catch the insects which were disturbed. Trying to get a decent pin sharp shot of flying Carmines catching insects is really challenging – much practice is needed as is an understanding of the Carmine’s interactions.

One of the most impressive raptors, in my opinion, in the African Hawk Eagle. This is one aggressive hunter. It is a big bird but is capable of tight flying through the trees almost like a Goshawk and can also soar in thermals like an Eagle.

The Black-winged Stilt is the long-legged model of the shoreline birds. It has a petite build and very long, pinkish red legs which are ultra thin.

At this time of the year, there are massive flocks of Collared Pratincoles along the Chobe River. These are beautiful birds and elegant flyers. In the mornings, they appear to fly in what looks like swarms swinging this way and that. As an observer they seem to be flying for the pure joy of it.

Another ubiquitous bird along the Chobe River shoreline is the Cape Turtle Dove. They fly down to drink to from the river’s edge from adjacent trees. They put their whole beak into the water to drink.  Smaller crocodiles try to catch these very quick birds, and are often lucky. This is a great way to practice your flying bird skills. Don’t be fooled, once these birds have slated their thirst, they take off like rockets, similar to Sandgrouse .

We don’t often see African Harrier Hawks along the Chobe River. This trip we were lucky enough to see them on most days. These must be the most hated birds along the river as they feed on other birds chicks. They have long double-jointed legs that reach into normally inaccessible places. These birds are beautifully coloured  with a yellow face surrounding black eyes. Their wide wings allow them to fly slowly along the river bank looking for edibles.

I hope you get a sense of how interesting flying birds are for photographers. The shape of the bird’s wing and its size gives many clues as to how it flies and consequently how it feeds. This in turn will give the photographer some insight as to how best to get that flying shot. Getting good flying bird shots comes with practice and techniques you pick up from other sharing photographers.

Next week, I will share a variety of bird and mammal shots taken along the Chobe River, some of which are of my favourite antelope, the Sable.

Try to get into the bush!

“In all things nature there is something of the marvellous” – Aristotle

Have fun

Mike

Along the Chobe, photography from the river rather than the land side offers many benefits. Firstly, the perspective is much better. You get to look up at the Elephants walking along the river bank. This perspective produces more dramatic shots. As you can see, we are able to get really close to the Elephant without alarming them. They are not alarmed unless someone on the boat moved quickly or made a sudden loud noise. The wildlife seems to accept you more from the water side.

One morning, we watched five big Elephant bulls walking along the river bank. These bulls seemed to be a close coalition as later that afternoon we found them crossing the river together to get to the reed beds, which offered much better feeding. This is another advantage of being in a boat on the river, you get close to the Elephant swimming, cooling off and just playing in the water.

The Elephant of all sizes and ages seem to really enjoy playing in the water and they are good swimmers.

These three bulls were on route to some tasty water lilly and reed beds on one of the submerged islands in the middle of the river. They were determined to get to the salad bowl and seemed unfazed by the depth of the water. These bulls obviously knew this part of the river and the best crossing routes, as they did not go straight across the river.

You will find many herds of Elephant along the Chobe river mostly in the afternoon. There are herds of all different sizes and composition, breeding herds and small herds of bulls. In May, there were many calves, some like the one below were very small. By photographing from the water and using a long lens we can get a sense of just how big everything is around these little guys. Obviously at this age they stick close to Mum.

At this time of the year, as the flood waters are beginning to subside, there was an abundance of water lillies. Not only do the Elephant love this lilly salad but there were a plethora of blooming flowers which provided an interesting background. The waterways through the lilly beds were made by boats, Elephant and Hippos.

The flood waters spread over a wide area, especially where the ground was relatively flat. This photograph was taken of a breeding herd of Elephant making its way through the flooded grassland. The blue skies, yellow grass and sprinkles of colour from the water lillies made a beautiful setting for the Elephant to walk through.

As you can imagine, the lilly trotting birds such as Jacana’s, Gallinules and Crakes just love the abundance of  water lillies at this time of the year. The lillies attract alot of insects which the lilly trotters feed on as do the Bee-eaters and Weavers.

The Elephants are not the only ones who love the abundant salad bowl. As the next shot shows, so to do the Hippo.

One morning, we came upon a pod of Hippos basking in shallow water in the river. This pod comprised mostly females, but there were a few calves too. These Hippo seemed to be blissfully sleeping in the shallow water after a busy night feeding on land. One or two pod members  were always on guard just to make sure enthusiastic photographers did not get too close.

The basking Hippos provided a perfect feeding spot for all sorts of birds from Oxpeckers to Blacksmith Lapwings and Cattle Egrets. Around the Hippos were Black-winged Stilts, Egyptian Geese and Little Egrets all feeding. Numerous small fish seemed to be attracted by the Hippo dung.

As with most youngsters, once they have had a sleep they are up and rearing to play. This young Hippo was no exception, but he was surrounded by grumpy unco-operative adults trying to sleep.

With the water levels so high there were plenty of fish. The Reed Cormorants were having a grand time. This particular character caught a big mud-sucker, which it was not going to let go. He struggled for some time to kill and  swallow it. It seemed too big, but he did.

There were reminders that even in paradise you still have to be wide awake. There are many Crocodiles in the Chobe River. This next shot was of an especially big character.  Although there is no reference point to judge how big he really was, one measure is the shape of the face. This particular crocodile’s head was probably one-third the size of a wildebeest’s body.

Cattle Egrets fed well on all the insects attracted and disturbed by the pod of basking Hippo.

Blacksmith Lapwings were similarly attracted by all the insects around the Hippo.  The Hippos did not seem to mind in the least, the birds walking all over them, even on their faces.

As you can see there are unique perspectives and close-ups of Elephant, Hippos and Crocodiles which can be achieved  from a  boat. The boat must be almost flat-bottomed for stability otherwise the ripples caused by passing boats  and wind can make for some very frustrating photography. The boats used by CNP are custom designed to be able to get into shallow water  for close-ups and provide a stable platform from which to photograph. The boat drivers have been well-trained to turn the boats so that all photographers get an opportunity to photograph the subject they are approaching. The many advantages of photographing from the water side of the riverbank can be negated if the photographic platform is unstable.

I hope you have enjoyed some more of my shots taken while in a CNP Safari on the Chobe river in early May. I had a successful photographic trip so have more shots to show you next week.

Until then have fun

Mike

I have just returned from a five-day photographic workshop with Coetzer Nature Photography. I have been  to the Chobe with Coetzer Nature Photography numerous times before and absolutely love it. Lou Coetzer is the owner/manager of the photographic safari company. The company operates two boats on the Chobe River, each specifically rigged for eight photographers. These boats provide an ideal platform for enthusiasts like myself who are looking to improve the quality of their wildlife images. A big thank you to Lou Coetzer and Neal Cooper for all your advice and knowledge of the river. It was a wonderful, productive week.

I intend posting a different set of shots each week in May from the recent Chobe River trip. For a photographer, the opportunities and challenges on the river are endless. The Chobe River floods in April to June each year. The current flooding started to subside in early May.  The flood waters cover almost all of the islands in the river and spreads out over a vast area. The subsiding flood waters provide ample feeding grounds for Elephants, Hippo and water birds. With the falling water level, the islands in the river have just started to emerge, leaving numerous channels to navigate through. The photographic boat is relatively flat-bottomed allowing us to get into places most other conventional boats can not access. This meant that we could venture into areas to get unique shots.

The floods change much along the river. We have greater access to areas which are seasonally dry in summer. This improves the  photographic opportunities  for mammals such as Elephants, Sable, Giraffe, Buffalo, Baboons, Impala and the cats (which we did not see this last trip).

Herons and Egrets have a great time as the river starts to subside because there is so much food for them. The next shot is of a Little Egret having just caught a small fish is busy re-aligning it to gulp down.

There were mornings on the Chobe River when the air and water was serenely still. This creates a glass-like surface on the river. This reflective water surface creates opportunities for some colourful and interesting shots of water lilies.

Jacanas are polyandrous meaning that the females have many mates and the males raise the young. We were fortunate enough to see a Jacana male with four young chicks. The chicks climb under the male’s wing for protection and he often picks them up this way and runs to safety. In the shot below, one chick is trying desperately to climb under Dad’s wing, but it is fully occupied. Soon after this shot, the exposed chick moved under its father’s left-wing.

These Jacana chicks are no more than two to three inches tall. They were already feeding themselves but still needed Dad for protection.

The chicks are born ready to fend for themselves. I don’t know how old this chick is but it is very young and is already looking for food on its own. Nature is remarkable in so many ways.

Black Crakes are skittish birds and will not usually allow you to get close, so a long lens is required to get a decent shot. These Crakes have striking colours with red eyes and legs, a vivid yellow beak and black feathers. They seem to feed on much the same type of insects as the Jacanas but are not nearly as brave. They stick close to the reeds and hide in them at the slightest sign of danger.

Jacana Alley is the favourite place for photographing Jacana’s, Crakes and sometimes Gallinules. Lou keeps drumming into us that the background is as important as the subject. Usually when the Jacanas are walking on top of the lily pads the backgrounds are messy. It takes patience and timing to get a clean background.

Allen’s Gallinules are not common. We came across a two pairs in Jacana Alley. The front shield above the bird’s bill was not a distinct green or blue, indicating its non-breeding status.

There were times on the river,  particularly early in the morning when the water surface looked like a mirror. It is hard to describe the beauty and tranquility when cruising down the river in what seems to be heaven on earth.

We came upon a spot where a group of Fork-tailed Drongos were bathing themselves. They would dive down from a high tree next to the river, fully immersing themselves before flying back up to the tree to groom. We had a great time trying to photograph these small birds diving into the water – it was not easy!

This Cattle Egret managed to find a lizard which it beat to death then spent some time manoeuvring it to be able to shallow it whole.

We often saw a troop of Baboons down at Elephant Valley. The youngsters were playing and the older ones grooming. The also seem to love picking through the drying Elephant dung looking for undigested seeds. Interestingly, the dung beetles which are attracted by the Elephant dung provide an attractive food source for Sacred Ibis and small crocodiles.

Late one afternoon at Puku Flats beyond Chobe Game Lodge and Elephant Valley, we saw three Giraffe walking with purpose through the shallow flood waters kicking up a spray of water as they walked.  The shot of a Giraffe below made a great silhouette.

Squacco Herons are ubiquitous along the Chobe River, usually being flushed out as we pass by in the boat. This gives us many opportunities to get shots of them flying.

Probably because of the seasonal flood, there were many water lilies and they make irresistible photographic subjects because they are so beautiful and colourful.

We only saw one Malachite Kingfisher the whole trip. This was probably because the water is still so high  leaving no place for them to nest. There were many Pied Kingfishers, a few Giant Kingfishers and we saw a Half Collared Kingfisher on one occasion, but we could not get a shot of it.

A few Carmine Bee-eaters are still around frequenting the reed beds where all the Egret and Squacco Herons are feeding. These birds flush out insects which the Carmine Bee-eaters catch and swallow in flight. As an Egret lands in the reeds a few Carmines speed over to that spot to catch the insects which were disturbed.

One hot afternoon, we came across five bull Elephant crossing from the mainland onto one of the reed islands to feed. Yes, it is still hot there in the middle of the day and in the afternoons and coolish in the evenings, but not cold. It is quite clear that the Elephant of all ages love the water and frolic and play, diving under the water, mock fighting and climbing all over each other – even the old boys!

Another afternoon four bull Elephant were walking along the edge of one of the islands in the middle of the Chobe disturbing large flocks of Collared Pratincoles.

We had a great bunch of photographers on the boats. We are up and ready for a cup of coffee and rusk at 6h30 each morning waiting for the sun to rise sufficiently to light up the reed beds. Each afternoon we would go out around 14h30 for three and a half hours of photography. The intriguing aspect about the river is that you never see the same thing, doing the same thing in the same place. There were different photographic opportunities each time we went out.

More to come next week from a wonderful week on the Chobe River.

Have fun

Mike