I recently visited Amboseli for the first time with Wild-Eye, a photographic safari company. This trip was a revelation in a number of ways. The first was that Amboseli was easily accessible from Nairobi by road. I will regale you with stories about the return trip to Nairobi many posts from now. Prior to the trip, I spent some time trawling the “net” for images and information about the area. Despite my best efforts,  I was unprepared for the diversity, the moodiness of the place in the shadow of Mount Kilimanjaro, and the amount of game and birds we were about to experience.

“We need the tonic of wildness…At the same time that we are earnest to explore and learn all things, we require that all things be mysterious and unexplorable, that land and sea be indefinitely wild, unsurveyed and unfathomed by us because unfathomable. We can never have enough of nature.”
~ Henry David Thoreau

The second surprise was how overcast the weather was in late June. I have long since learnt that clouds can be a photographer’s friend, especially in the high contrast African sunlight. The clouds softened the contrast, added mood and provided some interesting backgrounds.

A noticeable feature of Amboslei was the number of elephants and the number of bulls with decent sized tusks among those elephant groups. This is a tribute to the longevity of the elephant but also the huge conservation effort which goes into protecting these magnificent, intelligent mammals. The bull in the next image was showing us that we were too close. A shake of the head caused those large ears to make a slapping sound against his body which was a clear message.

We stayed at the Serena Lodge in Amboseli, which was secluded in a grove of acacia trees. From the lodge’s veranda you could look through the acacia and fever trees onto a grassland plain. Among the fever trees close to the entrance of the lodge we regularly saw this Grey-headed Kingfisher, as this must have been its territory.

Away from the acacia forest around the lodge, the bush changed into thick grassland where we found his Kori Bustard stalking through the brush but keeping one eye on us as he did so.

West of the lodge  beyond an open area of grassland we drove along a road which took us adjacent to a Wild Date palm grove. This palm has edible fruit and is found throughout Africa and tends to grow in areas where groundwater is present.  The Wild Date palm grove attracts abundant birdlife. The road  circled the grove and along the route we found numerous Little Bee-eaters hawking insects from the palm fronds.

“Tell me, what is it that you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”

~ Mary Oliver

Adjacent to this Wild Date palm grove we watched two bulls approach each other with purpose. It was with great anticipation that we watched these two converge. Almost like the start of a gentleman’s fight they shook each other’s trunk.

 

Then the tussle between these two adult bull elephants started. In a friendly way, the bigger of the two laid his trunk on the other smaller bull’s forehead.

The smaller of the two decided it was time to push back and ten tonnes of fun started. The two adult bull elephants began to push each other around in a play fight.

For the most part the pushing which playful but at times it looked like the game had the potential to turn serious. It was impressive watching two massive animals pushing each other head on!

The two bulls moved to a more open area to continue their play fight. This was perfect as it gave us better perspective and backgrounds.

“All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware.”

~ Martin Buber 

The bigger bull started to restrain his opponent’s right front leg giving him the advantage in the push. I have seen similar behaviour before where an elephant bull hooked the tip of his trunk around a young female’s back leg to restrain her in the one-sided courtship.

The younger of the two bulls was not a “push over” but he did not seem to have the same aggression as the larger bull.

The larger of the two kept hooking his trunk around the smaller bull’s right front leg. This made me wonder just how strong their trunk muscle are? To restrain the movement of a middle-aged bull elephant’s front leg, the trunk muscles must be very powerful!

Once the two tusslers moved closer to us we could see how big they were.

Eventually the larger bull prevailed and pushed the other bull into submission.

The tussle between the bulls was great fun and exciting to watch. The play fight was just that and neither body nor ego appeared two have been hurt, though the larger bull was the clear winner. After this exciting sighting we drove further to the Olokenya Swamp. Looking west we watched a family group of elephants dusting themselves with Mount Kilimanjaro shrouded in cloud in the background.

Amboseli’s emerald-green swamps are fed by the melting snows of Kilimanjaro. These are the only sources of water in this otherwise starkly beautiful but arid park. The resulting swamps attract huge numbers of wallowing elephants, hippos, buffaloes and plains game.

Cattle Egrets were attracted by the elephants disturbing the insects in the grass. The white egrets punctuated the moody late afternoon scene.

The elephant family groups were scattered across the Olokenya swamp leaving clear foot paths marking their entrance.

“… there’s a silent voice in the wilderness that we hear only when no one else is around. When you go far, far beyond, out across the netherlands of the Known, the din of human static slowly fades away…..”
~ Rob Schultheis

The elephant groups were remarkably peaceful with only the odd youngster making a noise. The peace and serenity of the scene was soul soothing.

These white Cattle Egrets worked with the elephants. The elephants disturbed insects in the grass they were foraging on, which the egrets eagerly snapped up. The egrets were also happy to just park or catch a run on an elephant’s back.

On the opposite side of the road to the swamp, the area was dry with acacia trees in the middle ground. The heavy cloud cover created by Mount “Kili” added to the moodiness of the scene.

This looked to me to be a juvenile Two-banded Courser. On our first day, I began to get a sense of the prolific bird life in Amboseli.

On our journey around the fringe of the swamp we saw many zebra, Thompson’s Gazelle and wildebeest. It was quite dry and dusty, perfect for a roll and dust bath.

All the activity on the edge of the swamp did not go unnoticed. This hyaena scout was watching and waiting for an opportunity. I have seen them do this in the Serengeti, they hide in tufts of red oat grass. When an opportunity for food comes their way they start whooping and calling for reinforcements.

“In my perception, the world wasn’t a graph or formula or an equation. It was a story.”
~ Cheryl Strayed

It was early evening by the time we reached the swampy waters on the west side of the fever  and acacia tree forest around the Amboseli and Oltukai Lodges. This bull was big, alone, and looked to be really enjoying the peace and abundant food.

It was getting dark but I just liked the early evening reflection of this “big boy”.

“The darkest thing about Africa has always been our ignorance of it.”

~ George Kimble 

   

In the late afternoon, the cloud cover was thick and it was getting quite dark when suddenly the sun peered through as if a part of the curtain had been pulled aside. It is times like these when I am so grateful to be in the bush and be able to witness such dramatic beauty.

  

“Every creature was designed to serve a purpose. Learn from animals for they are there to teach you the way of life. There is a wealth of knowledge that is openly accessible in nature. Our ancestors knew this and embraced the natural cures found in the bosoms of the earth. Their classroom was nature. They studied the lessons to be learned from animals. Much of human behavior can be explained by watching the wild beasts around us. They are constantly teaching us things about ourselves and the way of the universe, but most people are too blind to watch and listen.”
~ Suzy Kassem

To Andrew and Jimmy thank you for a wondrous journey!

Explore, seek to understand, marvel at its interconnectedness and let it be!

Have fun,

Mike

I want to thank Brian Bartmann for telling me about the sunbirds at Aloe Farm. A group of us,  were sitting chatting after breakfast at Kitchwa Tembo in the Masai Mara in January 2015 . We could not go anywhere as it was very overcast and the light was unusually low so we sat around chatting – as photographers do. We were discussing where we could go to keep “photographically fit” in between our big trips. Brian told me that the aloes were spectacular in May and that Aloe Farm was a sought after spot for photographers. Last May, Helen and I decided to take a drive out to Aloe Farm just past Hartebeestpoort dam on the way to Sun City in the North West Province of South Africa. Aloe Farm is an extensive nursery specialising on, you guessed it, aloes. They were very welcoming to photographers and their extravagant selection of aloes were in full bloom in May. Birds or not, we were assured of a spectacular display of vibrant colours.

There are 21 species of sunbirds found in southern Africa and they all belong to the Nectariniidae family because of their preference for nectar. Referencing Newman’s and Robert’s bird books there are five main types of sunbirds found on the Highveld in South Africa, the Greater double-collared, White-bellied, Black or Amethyst, Scarlet-chested and Marico Sunbirds. The remaining 17 types are location specific and found mainly in the coastal regions.

“When sunlight, which contains red, yellow, green, and blue light, shines on a mud puddle with oil on it, the areas that strongly reflect each of those colours overlap and produce all kinds of combinations which our eyes see as different colours…This phenomenon of colours produced by the partial reflection of white light by two surfaces is called iridescence, and can be found in many places…the more you see how strangely Nature behaves, the harder it is to make a model that explains how even the simplest phenomena actually work.”
~ Richard Feynman

I was not sure which types of sunbirds were were likely to see, but once at Aloe farm there were two predominant species that day, the White-bellied and Amethyst or Black Sunbird. They were accompanied by numerous types of bumble bees, honey bees and butterflies.

When photographing sunbirds on aloes the backgrounds will inevitably be busy. It is difficult to isolate the sunbird so I tried to include the vibrant colours of the aloes. The first image is of a adult male White-bellied Sunbird sucking nectar from the lowest flowers on this aloe inflorescence. They are the flowers which seem to ripen first.

All sunbirds are very talkative and size counts.  The males all have bright iridescent coloured feathers which radiate in the sunlight, and the colour changes all the time as the angle of the light changes when the birds move around.

From a photography point of view, the sunbirds are stunningly beautiful with colour combinations which you would never have thought of and the aloes add dazzlingly colourful backgrounds.

These little sunbirds were very quick so you need fast reactions to get reasonable images. The direction of the light was crucial to display the true colours of these little gems of the natural avian world.

This adult male White-bellied Sunbird was perfectly adapted to probing the long deep flower of the Aloes. Sunbirds are mostly small birds with long thin down-curved bills which are very well adapted for extracting nectar from flowers. They have long tongues, which can protrude past the tip of their beaks. The tongue can fold into a tube to produce a sucking action to collect the nectar.

“Nature has many scenes to exhibit, and constantly draws a curtain over this part or that. She is constantly repainting the landscape and all surfaces, dressing up some scene for our entertainment. Lately we had a leafy wilderness; now bare twigs begin to prevail, and soon she will surprise us with a mantle of snow. Some green she thinks so good for our eyes that, like blue, she never banishes it entirely from our eyes, but has created evergreens. “

~Henry David Thoreau

This was a sub-adult male Amethyst Sunbird feeding in amongst “ice cream” Aloes.

Although we only got to see two species of Sunbird the whole day, the backgrounds provided endless variety.

A male Amethyst Sunbird looking very serious about its position on an aloe leaf. The Amethyst was much larger than the White-bellied Sunbird and often bullied it away from the florescence.

This male Amethyst Sunbird had its tongue out, savouring the nectar it had just suck out of an aloe’s corolla.

A variety of hummingbirds have straight or even slightly upturned bills, while sunbirds, honeycreepers and honeyeaters’ bills are decurved to differing degrees. The sunbird’s tongue collects nectar in the flowers by capillarity, and is capable of high speed licking rates. Although this licking behaviour has not been extensively studied, the speed of licking is thought to respond to changes in sugar concentration and the flower’s corolla length.

Where maximum floral lengths exceed bill lengths, hummingbirds, sunbirds and honeyeaters protrude their tongues beyond the tips of their bills to access the nectar. Rates of nectar extraction, however, decline rapidly once the floral length exceeds bill length. Decurved bills are thought to have evolved in sunbirds to enable perching birds to reach flowers at the ends of branches more easily. Consistent differences in bill length between the sexes suggest that males and females may exploit different flowers and different parts of the flower. Sunbird males have longer bills than females, but the opposite is true for many hummingbirds.

Many sunbirds are known to defend feeding and breeding territories; males will sing from a prominent perch and chase intruders, including those of other species.

“When bright flowers bloom
Parchment crumbles, my words fade
The pen has dropped …”
– Morpheus

Pollination is an important process in nature. Plants have made many adaptions to promote pollination using wind, animals, bats, birds, water and insects. Plants and birds appear to have adapted to reinforce this symbiotic relationship to mutually benefit each other for food and reproduction. The birds that are specially evolved for ornithophily (process of pollination of a flower by birds) are the hummingbirds (Trochilidae) seen in the American continents, honey-eaters (Meliphagidae) seen in Australia and sunbirds (Nectariniidae) in the areas falling between.

Sunbirds are a group of small birds and their size ranges between 10-22 cm. They are diurnal and many have bright iridescent colours but their most important characteristic is their down curved beak, which in some species exceeds the length of the head.

Male sunbirds appear to change colour as they move around because of their iridescent feathers, which reflect according to the direction of the light. Although Hummingbirds fulfill a similar role to sunbirds they have quite different flight and feeding techniques. Sunbirds are much slower in flight and usually perch when they sip. They can hover but are more like any other bird in flight.

The flowers of aloes are grouped in candle-like or cone-shaped inflorescences, which can be branched or simple. The most common shape of flowers found in aloes is tubular, although some species have curved or even bell-shaped flowers. Flowers are typically brightly coloured and most often in various hues of red, orange and yellow, but there are also some species with green, pink or white flowers. The vast majority of aloes flower in winter,

Aloe Adrienne is a vigorous, medium sized Aloe with bi-coloured flowers in mid-winter.

“There is no glory in star or blossom till looked upon by a loving eye; There is no fragrance in April breezes till breathed with joy as they wander by.”

~William C. Bryant

Sunbirds are sexually dimorphic. The males are very colourful while the females and young are dull coloured

When the sunbird probes the corolla of the flower and extends its tongue, the grooves along the tongue facilitate the capillary action necessary  to automatically extract nectar without expending too much energy. When the bird is drinking nectar, it looks to be lapping up nectar. High-speed photography shows that tubes develop along the sides of the tongue as it penetrates the nectar, and then closes around the nectar, trapping it so it can be sucked back into the beak. Sunbirds have long thin down-curved bills and brush-tipped tubular tongues, both adaptations to their nectar feeding

Sunbirds have two kinds of plumage – breeding and eclipse. In their breeding plumage, males become very colourful and iridescent. Some species even have a yellow and orange tufts of feathers (pectoral tuft) on either side of each wing. During courtship displays, the male raises its head, fans its tail and flutters with partly open wings that expose the pectoral tufts and sings before the female. It is also observed that in some species, the pectoral tufts are intentionally exposed even while sleeping. Eclipse plumage is evident during the non-breeding season. The males revert to looking dull like females, but with remnants of breeding plumage in patches or with a dark line running down from the throat and  middle of the chest. Source: jlrexplore.com/explore/focus/sunbirds-and-spider-hunters

“Night was falling. Birds were singing. Birds were, it occurred to me to say, enacting a frantic celebration of day’s end. They were manifesting as the earth’s bright-colored nerve endings, the sun’s descent urging them into activity, filling them individually with life nectar, the life nectar then being passed into the world, out of each beak, in the form of that bird’s distinctive song, which was, in turn, an accident of beak shape, throat shape, breast configuration, brain chemistry: some birds blessed in voice, others cursed; some squeaking, others rapturous.”
~ George Saunders

This adult male White-bellied Sunbird was feeding from a Aloe  called “Little Joker”, which is a hybrid made up from eight different Aloe parents.

While sunbirds feed largely on nectar, they will also take insects, especially when feeding young. Fruit is also part of the diet of some species. 

A Pansy butterfly also found the  “Bafana” Aloes attractive.  The sexes of Pansies differ slightly in that the females are slightly bigger, have more rounded wings and are more colourful and have bigger eyespots – sounds quite human! This aloe is by far the best aloe to attract sunbirds.

“Think and wonder,

Wonder and think.”

~Dr Seuss

A juvenile Amethyst Sunbird

While sunbirds usually forage for nectar when available they will also hawk insects. They will hawk flying insects from a lookout spot in the trees or bushes, but will also pluck them from leaves and branches. This adult male White-bellied Sunbird seems to be combining his sweet taste with savory insects.

Sunbirds do no harm at all to anyone, they do not damage anything, and they are essential to plants as pollinating agents, for which some plants have specially adapted their flowers.

“Gratitude is the fairest blossom which springs from the soul.”

~ Henry Ward Beecher

Explore, seek to understand, marvel at its interconnectedness and let it be.

Have fun,

Mike

This is a post about water lilies. They are ubiquitous along the Chobe river. I was captivated by their “lotus” type beautiful blooms, and the interesting shapes, colours and the textures of their leaves.

“Humans who spend time in the wilderness, alone, without man-made mechanical noise around them, often discover that their brain begins to recover its ability to discern things.”

~Robert Anderson

When you think of water lilies you think of Monet. Over 250 of his paintings depict his flower garden at Giverny and was the main focus of his artistic work during the last thirty years of his life. The beauty of the French village, Giverny, struck Monet when he passed through on a train. The artist was so inspired that in 1883 he rented a house there. It became his home in 1890. He was so taken by water lilies that he imported them for his Giverny garden from Egypt and South America. The local authorities were not impressed and demanded he uproot the plants before they poisoned the area’s water, but Monet ignored them.

Many years after his death, in exchange for some of Monet’s grandest works, the nation honoured him by displaying a number of them at the Musée de l’Orangerie in Paris. Claude Monet, Les Nymphéas (The Water Lilies), is a suite of paintings on permanent exhibition at the Musée de l’Orangerie. Two specially made oval exhibition rooms were built to house his massive Water Lilies, creating a complete panorama of the painter’s favorite views.

“There is a pleasure in the pathless woods,

 There is a rapture on the lonely shore,

 There is society, where none intrudes,

 By the deep Sea, and music in its roar:

I love not Man the less, but Nature more.”

~Lord Byron

Two species of water lily occur in southern Africa. One is Nymphaea Lotus, the white water lily, or white lotus which has white or cream flowers and is widespread in tropical to southern Africa, and usually thrives in sheltered water 0.5-2.5m deep and in swamps. The other southern African species is Nymphaea Nouchali, the blue lotus.

The water lily family has five genera and about 70 species. They are  rhizomes which root themselves in  soil underneath bodies of water. Their leaves and flowers float on the surface. The leaves are round, with a radial notch in Nymphaea and Nuphar, and are fully circular in the Victoria and Euryale species.

Although African Jacanas are found foraging along all parts of the sub-equatorials river they do seem to prefer lily pad groves.

This Jacana walked past an upturned water lily pad. At times, the wind gets underneath the pad and lifts it up showing its very textured underside.

There is a reason for everything in nature,  as you would expect as your are seeing the latest evolutionary version. The leaves show many interesting adaptations to their watery environment. The margins are slightly rolled inwards toward the uppermost side which helps keep the blades afloat. The underside of the leaf, which is continually wet, has an expanded surface area due to its heavily veined structure which extends the lily pad’s capillary suction to the water and this holds the leaf flat against the water. The veins also act like a structural support for the leaves. The upper leaf surface is coated with a smooth waxy cuticle, which gives it the appearance of being leathery and shiny. This water-repellent waxy layer is of vital importance to the plant, not only to help prevent the leaf from sinking, but also to prevent the tiny stomatal pores, through which it breathes, from becoming clogged with dust. When water splashes onto the leaf surface, it forms rounded droplets that roll across the surface cleaning up the dust as they go. Clean dust free leaves are also better able to photosynthesise effectively

The underside of water lily pads present themselves in a vast array of colours from yellow  to deep purple and maroon.

A grove of water lilies. Their flowers close at night and open to greet the sun.

Waterways are apparent through the lilies where hippos, elephants and boats have passed.

The African Jacana relies on the water lilies for food and a degree of support when it is walking across the water, but some of them show little respect for the support systems.

Water lilies are spring and summer bloomers that create a single elaborate and beautiful flower.

The beautiful Pygmy Goose’s main diet is the seeds of water lilies and it is one of it key dispersants. It eats the seed pods and fruit of water-dwelling plants, especially water lilies, using a variety of foraging techniques such as surface feeding and diving.

 As the water lily flower becomes waterlogged, the closed lotus flower sinks into the mud to germinate.

“Nature’s own masterpieces will never go away. If I am able to cast just a few of them in favourable light, and convince you, the viewer, to look at them again with greater appreciation and perhaps a fresh perspective, then I have succeeded as an artist.”

~Scott L. Christensen

Some water lily leaves are purple underneath, the pigments help to concentrate the sunlight to maximise photosynthesis. The leaf stem is hollow and transports air from the surface to the underwater rhizomes which can grow to a massive size. Water Lilies grow best in calm freshwater.

The open water lily blooms attract a variety of insects which the Jacanas find appealing.

Its the variety of natural shapes, textures and colours which are so beguiling to photographers.

“Art takes nature as its model.”

~Aristotle

The lily pads can be as dramatic as the flowers, in both shape and colour.

Water lilies provide shade and hiding places for fish and other water animals. Often when threatened, Jacana chicks will dive under the water lily pad and have just their beaks above the water so that they can breath.

There are numerous flies, beetles and snails which are found on the water lily pads all of which both Jacanas, Crakes and Squacco Herons seem to find edible.

Water lilies prefer calm water and it is in this calm water that photographers find art in nature.

“There is unspeakable beauty and potential to be found in nature. It entices me and is an invitation I just have to accept.”

~Jil Ashton-Leigh

The large, elegant blue flowers are held well above the water at the tip of a sturdy green stalk and appear almost constantly from spring until the end of summer. They are bisexual, star-like, with 4 sepals, green on the outside and white to blue on the inside, with many blue petals. In the centre of the flower are numerous blue-tipped bright golden yellow stamens. There are colour forms other than blue that occasionally occur, e.g. white, mauve and pink.

Water lilies are herbaceous and obviously baboons find them tasty salad ingredients.

Water lilies have many uses. African Jacanas gather the stems of water lily plants together to form a tangled raft on which they lay their well camouflaged eggs. The chicks are precocial when born and are able to fend for themselves almost immediately so the nest does not have to be long lasting.

Once pollinated the Nymphaea lotus flower stem tightens in a spiralling spring to bring the flower head underwater. The fruit develops underwater into a spongy berry with many seeds that are enclosed in arils. When ripe, up to 2,000 seeds are released from each fruit. Young seeds float as they contain air pockets. They are then dispersed by water currents or by water birds that eat them.

I hope this post has given you, in some small sense, the wonderfully integrated web of life around humble water lilies.

“To find the universal elements enough; to find the air and the water exhilarating; to be refreshed by a morning walk or an evening saunter; to be thrilled by the stars at night: to be elated over a bird’s nest or a wildflower in spring… these are some of the rewards of the simple life.”

~John Burroughs

Explore, seek to understand, marvel at its interconnectedness and let it be.

Have fun,

Mike

I wanted to show you a few of the cameo sightings from our trip in April this year, with CNP Safaris, wandering along the Chobe river between Kasane and Serondela.

“Looking is not seeing. Engaging with the world as a photographer means we need to keep not only our eyes open, but also our mind and soul. Reality does not exist. Each of us makes our own reality. Perception, which might start with visual stimuli, is filtered by our mental templates, preconceptions, memories and experiences.”

~ Raphael Rojas

Dawn – sublime, quiet and infused with soft pastel coloured light.

Colours change as the sun rises.

Unique fishing technique of the Black Heron.

 

Those distinctive yellow feet of the Black Heron.

Male baboon pauses to listen while drinking from the river.

“Taking an image, freezing a moment, reveals how rich reality truly is.”
~ Anonymous

Young baboon playing with his new toy alongside the river.

Cute, naughty and smug.

There is so much behaviour we recognise!

 Steep banks lined with Jackalberry trees just down river from  Elephant Valley.

A female Giant Kingfisher, with her chestnut belly, bathed in afternoon light staring intently at the water for her next meal.

Emerald flying gems  – there one day and gone the next.

White-fronted Bee-eaters  fighting over nesting spots.

“Taking pictures is savouring life intensely, every hundredth of a second.”
~ Marc Riboud

Aerial combat Bee-eater style.

 

Undisputed avian ruler along the Chobe. 

White-crowned Lapwing stretching in preparation for flight.

Striding along this log declaring its territorial imperative.

  

Pied Kingfisher offering.

Too close – this White-breasted Cormorant needed more space.

Flooded grasslands along the Chobe in April.

“Photograph: a picture painted by the sun without instruction in art.”
~ Ambrose Bierce

Woodland Kingfisher’s perch hunting insects above the water.

Water lilies seem to make a tasty baboon salad.

Hang on where you can.

Interested but impossible

“You can look at a picture for a week and never think of it again. You can look at a picture for a second and think of it all your life.”

~Joan Miro

Reed Cormorant drying itself in the warm morning sun after a fishing expedition.

Hanging out to dry.

Old “dagga boy’s” grooming team at work.

Red-billed Oxpeckers undertake their daily grooming chores on this old warrior.

This sleek, elegant female Sable Antelope came down to the river on her own for an afternoon drink.

Youthful female with tinges of ochre still showing in her coat.

Successful Sable stable.

“My life is shaped by the urgent need to wander and observe, and my camera is my passport.”
~ Steve McCurry

Late afternoon look out.

Fish Eagle at full stretch as it takes off.

Massive powerful wings.

River dragon surfaces.

Lilac-breasted Roller in full diversionary attack.

Banking hard in full colourful display.

 

Beach monitor sunbathing.

Delicate and posed Malachite Kingfisher.

“We photographers do not photograph subjects, but rather the light reflected from them. This is why if we want to reach those subtle and magical moments which are happening all the time around us, we need to develop this sensitivity to be able to see them.” 

~ Raphael Rojas

Late afternoon sky ablaze with colour.

The sun setting beyond the horizon saturates the evening sky with glorious colours.

Explore, seek to understand, marvel at its interconnectedness and let it be.

“Photographing the world means making statements about it, and if we want our statements to be meaningful we need to fully absorb what is around us, understand the way it affects us and then explore ways to communicate that effectively through photography.”

~ Raphael Rojas

Have fun,

Mike

One of the special sightings on the Chobe river at specific times of the year are Pygmy Geese. On one of our photographic safaris with CNP Safaris, Lou Coetzer nicknamed these birds ” pocket rockets” because of the speed with which they take flight away from you.

“It’s an illusion that photos are made with the camera….they are made with the eye, heart and head.”
~Henri Cartier-Bresson

You will find three types of geese on the Chobe river, the large Spur-winged and Egyptian geese and the diminutive African Pygmy Goose. The Pygmy is the smallest of the three and is very different  not only in size, but flight and its nesting habits. Geese are different to ducks in that they have hind toes and claws on their webbed toes.  This gives them the ability to perch and in some instances climb in trees.

You are only likely to find Pygmy Geese on the Chobe between the months of November and April. There is sexual dimorphism where the male is altogether more colourful. When calling, the male is usually the more vocal of the two  giving a twittering whistle and bobbing his head.

The male has a white face with black eye ring. He has an iridescent black crown which extends down the back of its neck. A particularly striking feature is the powder green patch extending from the ear down to the centre of its neck. The upper half of the fore neck is white and forms an open collar around the neck. Below its white collar extending down its neck, breast and belly is light chestnut coloured. The flanks are more intensely chestnut coloured and the back is metallic green.

Females have a white face with some grey spots, and obvious black areas beneath the eyes. The face of the male is more obviously white, and has green areas. The bodies of both have a tinge of red on the under carriage, with green markings on the rest of the body.

All birds of the family Anatidae (ducks, geese, and swans) have a nail, which is a plate of hard horny tissue at the tip of the beak. This nail is shield-shaped structure, and in some species spans the entire width of the beak, and is often bent at the tip to form a hook. The nail serves different purposes depending on the bird’s primary food source. In the case of the Pygmy Goose, its nail is probably used for digging seeds out of water lilies.

“When words become unclear, I shall focus with photographs.
When images become inadequate, I shall be content with silence.” 
~ Ansel Adams

The Pygmy Goose has small wide wings for rapid low level flight unlike their larger cousins which have longer wings for higher altitude, more sedate flight. The secondary feathers on its wings help identify them in flight, but there low level high flight pattern is a dead give away.

African Pygmy Geese feed on waterlily seeds and are one of the main distributors of their seed. When photographing Pygmy Geese you will often find them in small groups comprising three or four pairs. I am not sure why but invariably the female takes off first. This becomes the marker for our photographic anticipation. She normally gives you no warning so you need lightning quick reactions.

The African Pygmy Goose is somewhat nomadic and partially migratory, making local dry-season movements dictated by habitat and water availability or dispersing to favoured moulting areas.

If this little goose feels threatened it will either fly or dive depending on the nature of the threat. It is an adept diver and can escape an  overhead threat by diving and swimming away some distance before surfacing.

“It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.”
~ Henry David Thoreau

It is devilishly difficult to get your timing right when these little “pocket rockets” decide to take off. When you get a reasonable image of them it is hugely rewarding.

Pygmy geese are at home in trees as in the water.

The African Pygmy goose nests in natural hollows or the disused holes in trees, preferably those standing in or close to water. It also occasionally nests in other cavities such as holes in cliffs or termites mounds or a chamber in a Hammerkop’s nest. The female lays up to nine eggs usually between November and February each year.

Thankfully this waterfowl gem has a has an extremely large range, and hence is not considered vulnerable though it numbers  are decreasing.

“Never forget: We are alive within mysteries”.
~Wendell Berry

Explore, seek to understand, marvel at its interconnectedness and let it be.

Have fun,

Mike