This the fourth post from a trip to Mashatu in July. As the title suggests, it is about birds seen in the area.  The bird life in Mashatu is diverse and prolific. This post takes the form of a gallery. 

” A great photograph is one which fully expresses what one feels, in the deepest sense, about what is being photographed”.

~ Ansel Adams

Female Namaqua Sandgrouse drinking from water in the rocks below the weir on the Matabole river.

Male Namaqua Sandgrouse in the same area.

Pied Kingfisher with its catch from one of the remaining pools of water in the Majale river.

” For me, the camera is a sketch book, and instrument of intuition and spontaneity.”

~ Henri Cartier Bresson

In the same pool of water was this Grey Heron. It was early morning with deep shadows and the light was catching the back of the heron.

Also in the same pool of water was this Hammerkop which was busy fishing, successfully.

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

~ Anonymous

Away from water, among the thorn trees, we first heard, then saw this pair of Crimson-breasted Shrikes. These shrikes are often heard first, then seen later, despite their vivid crimson breast colouring.

This pair was busy foraging for insects in a rocky section of the thornveld belt. The gorgeous crimson breast provides a vivid contrast to the browns and yellows in this winter dried area. If this bird only has its back toward you it is difficult to see, being pure black.

Pied Babblers are found in Mashatu. Like most babblers they move is small flocks and also provide a vivid contrast to the winter browns.

Further along the Majale we were watching a small family of elephants drinking water from one the remaining pools of water when we realised that there was a Saddle-billed stork fishing in the same pool.  

“To me, photography is an art of observation. It’s about finding something interesting in an ordinary place… I’ve found it has little to do with the things you see and everything to do with the way you see them.”
~ Elliott Erwitt

This was a male Saddle-billed Stork, identified by its black eye though I could not see its yellow wattle hanging from its throat.. Together with the Saddle-bill was this seldom seen Black Stork.

Driving through one of the many croton forests you will find many Long-tailed Starlings, African Hoopoes and many Laughing and Turtle doves.

We saw big flocks of Helmeted Guineafowl in Mashatu all foraging in the dust for seeds and insects. Along a  well-known bend in the Majale river where the White-fronted Bee-eaters usually build their nest in the river bank, we sat and watched many guineafowl fly from the river bank down to the edge of one of the many pools of water in  the river to drink.

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

The blues of the water in the river below provided an unusual winter background for these flying guineafowl.

There were numerous Lilac-breasted Rollers in Mashatu. They hunt from a perch, flying down onto the ground to catch their insect prey.

These rollers can sit on their perches for longer than your patience lasts but every now and then one flies off to give you a chance to capture  the vivid  blues under its wings and lilac on its breast feathers.

I was amazed the at the massive flocks of Quelea in Mashatu during last winter. They move and feed in very large flocks of many thousands of birds. They feed on seed still on the dry grass stems and also seed lying on the sand on the ground. They tend to move as a dynamic whole which looks more like a perpetual relay.

“I wish that all of nature’s magnificence, the emotion of the land, the living energy of place could be photographed.”
~ Annie Leibovitz

In the evenings,  we were spellbound but the thousands and thousands of quelea flying back to their roosting area in groves of acacias close to the Limpopo river.  We watched wave after wave of these quelea flocks flying past us for about 45 minutes – one of nature’s spectacles.

I hope this small gallery gave you an impression of the abundance and variety of bird life in the Mashatu Nature Reserve. We also saw but did not photograph White-helmeted Shrikes, Martial Eagle, Tawny Eagle, White-fronted and Little Bee-eaters, Black Headed Orioles, Puff-backed Shrikes,  and Little Egrets to name just a few. There are a number of wonderful underground hides operated by C4 Photo Safaris which provide excellent opportunities for up-close animal and bird photography.

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

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

Have fun,

Mike

This the third post from our mid-winter trip to Mashatu. The focus of this post is on a young leopardess.

“The four cornerstones of character on which the structure of this nation was built are: Initiative, Imagination, Individuality and Independence.”

~Eddie Rickenbacker

I am not sure how old she was but perhaps between two and three years of age. When we found her in the late afternoon she was lying in the shade in a croton forest. Her coat blended well with the grass and dead branches on the ground in the dappled light. In the late afternoon, we would often find a leopard had come down from its arboreal resting place, and was quietly gathering itself for its nightly excursion. This particular leopard would put her head down and rest and as soon as there was a distinctive sound she would come up and you could see her ears trying to locate the direction of the sound.

A closer look at this beautiful young female revealed some serious battle scars. Our guide Maifala told us that the tear on the right side of her face was sustained in a fight with her sister. The tear on her right side of her mouth rose from her lip half way up to her nose.  The cut had gone right through her lip exposing her teeth. She also appeared to  have had a tear on her nose, which had since healed. There are no doctors in nature you just have to sort yourself out and adapt.

After watching her for about half an hour she got up and started to wander along the river course, stopping on numerous occasions to pick up information from interesting scents.

Leopards are amazingly well camouflaged and they are dead quiet when walking. A leopard has black spots on its face, neck and legs but those spots transform into rosettes along the torso.  The inside of a leopard’s legs and its belly are white with black spots.

“Responsibility to yourself means refusing to let others do your thinking, talking, and naming for you; it means learning to respect and use your own brains and instincts; hence, grappling with hard work.”
~ Adrienne Rich

Solitary and independent, she made her way through the trees and was highly tuned into everything around her. She stopped in her tracks trying to assess whether there was food or foe in front of her.

As the afternoon progressed the light softened which was an ideal time to shoot images of leopards. Leopards are predominantly solitary animals and have large hunting territories. Male territories are larger than females’ but they do overlap. Individuals usually only tolerate intrusion into ranges for mating. Both sexes mark their ranges with urine and leave claw marks with scent on trees to warn others to stay away.

Other than her torn lip she looked to be in fine condition and her coat looked clean and well cared for.

“The quieter you become the more you hear.”

~ Rumi

She was not walking with intention and after stopping, sitting and listening, she just lay down in the soft light. I am always surprised how thin a leopard’s torso appears when it lies down.

I am not sure whether it was our presence that was irritating her – it probably was.  As she snarled, you could see her right upper canine through the tear in her lip.

Having got up again she wandered closer to the river. I just loved the next scene with the late afternoon light filtering through the trees as she walked to the gap.

Eventually she got down to the edge of the Majale river and was watching a few Impala drinking from one of the remaining pools of water. Interesting, but too far away for good photos!

The next day we found her again. This time well away from the river in a thickly treed area. You do not often hear a leopard but when you do it is a grasping guttural coughing. It is distinctive and you will often hear it at last light or before the first glow has started to rise in the eastern morning sky. When you hear it you will be spellbound, it is unique and primal and you know you are in the presence of one of nature’s stealthiest hunters.

“Independence can neither be created nor destroyed just like energy! It can only be transferred from a fearless, resilient, intelligent & visionary “form” to another, regardless of what gender you are born with. It’s the energy that seeks to free your mind.”
~ Vishwanath S J

She stopped, at the base of what looked to be an Apple Leaf, in the only patch of sun in an otherwise shady area.

A few moments later she easily climbed the Apple Leaf and found a section of the bough that had a perfect resting curve. Leopards spend a lot of their time in trees. Their spotted pelage is perfect camouflage, helping them blend in with the leaves and branches of the tree. They are extremely powerful for their size and will usually hoist their prey high into a tree out of the way of lions and hyaenas. Leopards can hoist twice their body weight up a tree.

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She seemed quite content to wait out the remaining daylight hours in her arboreal resting place, well away from attentions of wandering lions and hyenas. There did not seem to be any baboons in this area, so she was not disturbed.

“There is a way that nature speaks and the land speaks. Most of the time we are simply not patient enough or quiet enough, to pay attention to the story.”

Lying like only a leopard can up in a tree. The bough for a pillow, front legs either side of the bough for balance and hind legs tucked underneath her body and tail hanging down – looking very relaxed.

Every now and then she would look up but it was clear she did not have a care in the world. She must have  been busy the previous night and now it was time to rest. Leopards are most active at night, but they are also eternal opportunists.

“Night, the beloved. Night, when words fade and things come alive. When the destructive analysis of day is done, and all that is truly important becomes whole and sound again. When man reassembles his fragmentary self and grows with the calm of a tree.”

~Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

A front paw also makes a soft pillow.

An iconic pose of a leopard – in harmony with her environment.

Leopards are classified as near threatened by the IUCN’s Red List of Threatened Species. This listing is due to their declining population, which is caused by habitat loss and hunting.

“True freedom is the capacity for acting according to one’s true character, to be altogether one’s self, to be self-determined and not subject to outside coercion.”

~Corliss Lamont

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

Have fun,

Mike

In this post I have focused on the dominant pride of lions in Mashatu. In July, it is mid-winter in the southern hemisphere and the mornings are crisp and the sky clear with wisps of small cloud. The Mopani trees sparkle, displaying their gold, orange and green leaves, and the morning sky glows. We made our way down to the Mashatu river upstream from the Matabole river along which  Eagle’s Nest camp is located.

“We went down into the silent garden. Dawn is the time when nothing breathes, the hour of silence. Everything is transfixed, only the light moves.”
~ Leonora Carrington

“Just before dawn I have the world all to myself.”

~Terri Guillemets

It takes about half an hour to get down to the rivers from our camp. On the Reserve’s frequency radio, our guide, Maifala picked up the location of the lion cubs. We took a short cut along the river bed through the croton grove. It is indescribably beautiful along this route with not a sound to be heard, save the odd call from a Long-tailed Starling or Hoopoe. The thick grove of trees mute much of the sound creating a serene peaceful environment and driving through the cool dappled light is magical.

“The mountains are my bones, the rivers my veins,

The forests are my thoughts and the the stars my dreams,

The ocean is my heart, its pounding is my pulse,

The songs of the heart write the music of my soul.”

~Unknown

With a coded message and following the tracks of previous vehicles from the night before, we found the lion cubs. As can be expected with normal youngsters they do not stay put and want to explore. Fortunately they started to wander out of the shadows into the sun.

There were two groups of cubs in this playgroup, one litter was very new. There were no adults and they had obviously had their sleep and now the cubs wanted to play in the sun.

The cubs were curious about this “big beige thing” with a few large “eyes” peering at them (our vehicle with large camera lenses). It (and we) did not make a sound and it/we were not aggressive.

The cubs considered their options. The larger cubs took the lead. The smaller cub on the right hand side was so small that its belly almost scraped along the ground because its legs were so short.

Curiosity got the better of the cat!

Curiosity satisfied, the cubs started to wander off to look for their mothers. This is just the time when real problems can begin…..

The older and larger cubs ventured off first. Presumably they could smell which way their mothers had gone because they walked off in a specific direction.

A bold advance at first, but every now and then stopped for a “help me” meow.

It does not matter what size you are, you are still a lion!!!

“Have the will of a tiger, the speed of a cheetah, and the heart of a lion.”

~Kevin McCarty

The time had come for one of the lionesses to check up on the  nursery of cubs.

There must have been a smell or some tell-tale sign which this lioness was not happy with, which prompted her to start moving the cubs.

“I did not give you the gift of life. Life gave me the gift of you.”

~The Gottman Institute

I am always intrigued that the lioness’s jaw, which is powerful enough to suffocate a buffalo, can pick up and carry a very small cub for an extended distance without hurting it. I am not referring to a comfort carrier here. That cub intuitively knows to keep dead still and to be quiet.

We must have watched this lioness walk at least two hundred metres with this cub in her jaws.

She did not stop once to give herself or her cub a break. She would have done this for all her cubs which were too small to walk behind her for a reasonable distance.

We wondered where dad was and the next day we found him. This is one of the most handsome looking males I have ever seen and he has been around (in Mashatu) for over a year.

He was out patrolling his territory. The wind was blowing from his front and flattening his mane creating an even more powerful impression.

“A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way and shows the way .”

He did not walk in a straight line but seemed to wander along a scent trail through the trees and bushes.

This was one very big and powerful male lion in the prime of his young life and he walked with little to fear from anything.

“Greatness is not measured by money and stature but by courage and heart.”

Once he walked into a croton grove he slowed down to take in what must have been many interesting scents. Nothing threatening but the equivalent of social media without a tablet or phone.

I have used this image to show the lithe, brute strength of this male lion.

“Truth does not sit in a cave and hide like a lie. It wanders around proudly and roars loudly like a lion.”
~ Suzy Kassem

We were not allowed to get off the vehicle because the male was close by but that paw print was bigger than my outstretched hand.

In true lion fashion this male was marking his territory with his urine. His urine is laced with chemicals and would give any “scent seeker” a clear sense of his size, age and vigour and a clear sign that this is his territory.

It is moments like these that I am very happy to be on a vehicle and not alone on foot.

“Strength arises from silence. Strength arises from being heard.

Know when to speak. Know when to say nothing.”

~Pamela Leigh Richards

“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about the things that matter.”

~Dr Martin Luther King Jnr

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

Have fun,

Mike

We spent a family week in Mashatu in mid-July. This and the next two posts will show some of the images from the few glorious days we spent in Mashatu Nature Reserve in the south east of Botswana in the Tuli Block area.

“For the 99 percent of the time we’ve been on Earth, we were hunter and gatherers, our lives dependent on knowing the fine, small details of our world. Deep inside, we still have a longing to be reconnected with the nature that shaped our imagination, our language, our song and dance, our sense of the divine”.

~Janine M. Benyus

There are three main rivers flowing through Mashatu Nature Reserve, the Majale, Matabole and Pitsani. We often find animals in these river beds. In winter it is normally bone dry but the rains came late this year with good rains in April. This resulted in large pools of water remaining in along the river in July, which is when it is completely dry. Normally in winter the elephants will dig into the river bed to find water which in turn helps all the other animals and birds. The animals often congregate in the river  bed looking for water. During the day it was warm but not hot and it was chilly at night.

Anyone who has been to Mashatu will recognize this iconic Baobab above the banks of the Majale river. It is a youngster and has many centuries still to grow.

In the early morning light we found a large troop of Chacma baboons. They are very talkative and you can hear the troop “chemering” or chatting away to each other as come down from their tree top bedroom way up in the Mashatu trees. They climb to the upper parts of these massive tree to get away from predators at night. It was early morning so the angle of the light was low which enabled us to take some backlighting shots. This female had a youngster hanging underneath her.

One of the spritely teenagers dancing in the dust in the early morning light.

This female baboon was warming herself in the early morning sun and felt the need for a good scratch!

The troop we came across had many females with youngsters. The mothers are very attentive and the small babies do not leave their side.

“In those vernal seasons of the year, when the air is calm and pleasant, it were an injury and sullenness against Nature not to go out and see her riches, and partake in her rejoicing with heaven and earth”.

~John Milton

Further down the river, our guide Maifala, who has been  guiding in Mashatu for the last fifteen years, knows the area like the back of his hand. He weaved the vehicle through the croton forest until eventually we came out at the edge of the river. There were two female lions resting in the early morning sun lying in luxuriant grass on the bank above the river.

The two females obviously needed a break from the “kids”. One female was quietly grooming herself while the other was “out for the count”. That is a relative term when you talk about lions. Often they look fast asleep but the sound of a twig or branch cracking close by will wake them in an instant.

On the far side of the river bank (to the females)  was another troop of baboons who were making sure that everyone in the neighbourhood knew that there were lions in the area. The baboon  parading on the far side of the river bank, at the top of a steep bank, safe from harms way looked very funny. He would stomp around barking and jumping up and down on his front legs – though not very intimidating.

The troop leader would bark then throw mud clogs down the bank. The baboons made a real racket ensuring that the whole world knew that they had seen the predators.

Both lionesses had cubs. They were very active, no wonder the females need a break. Cuteness can be hard work!!

“The indescribable innocence of and beneficence of Nature,–of sun and wind and rain, of summer and winter,–such health, such cheer, they afford forever!”

~Henry David Thoreau

The females had tucked these youngsters out of sight in a croton thicket. We managed to get into the thicket and they came out to play on a dead log in a small patch of open ground.

They were very playful and there is always one cub who is more inquisitive than the rest.

Not far from the lion cubs was this Steenbok foraging in a open piece of ground. They normally move around in pairs so the female must have been somewhere close by, but we just did not see her. Steenbok eat vegetation close to ground level and will also eat roots and tubers which they dig out with their sharp hooves.

At night most of the elephants seem to walk to higher ground and in the early mornings the family groups walk back down along well worn game trails to the rivers to feed on the lush vegetation and sate their thirst. These herds tend to walk in single file along the paths which is always exciting because we position the vehicle well ahead of them and they  walk up to, and past us. They kept an eye on us but seem very relaxed.  The procession was quiet and peaceful. It is quite humbling to have  herd of such large animals all within a few metres of you, walk past in peace.

It is always a privilege to get close to these wonderfully intelligence creatures. One cannot but sense the the “knowingness” behind those auburn eyes.

This family of Kudu were wandering along the Majale river bed. We did not see the family bull, just some of the females and a few youngsters. Those big ears are like radar scanners picking up every sound.

Further upstream the Majale we found three Kudu bulls which were browsing on the bushes as they wandered along.

You could see all three bulls were in prime condition. Adult bulls have two and a half twists in their spiral horns. I wonder what would happen when the came across females.

For such large antelope these Kudu bulls were very fast and could easily jump what I thought were quite wide gullies. These browsers still had plenty of vegetation to eat even in winter.

We stopped to watch a herd of impala crossing the river bed. Although there are plenty of Impala around you never know what you might see. This young male stopped to have a look at us. His age is given away by his short straight horns which will grow to be substantial and have one major twist in them when he is an adult.

Baboons and Impala are often found together as the Impala eat the fallen fruit and flowers which the baboons drop when feeding the in the Mashatu and other trees. Despite the very stoney river bed this baboon had no trouble running fast across the riverbed.

This was a big but young male warthog. He was wandering around foraging on his own. Much like pigs they use their snout and tusks to help them dig out roots and tubers during the dry season. He looked very confident but stuck to the open areas so he did not get surprised by a predator.

“Away from the tumult of motor and mill
I want to be care-free; I want to be
still!
I’m weary of doing things; weary of
words
I want to be one with the blossoms
and birds”.

~Edgar A. Guest

I just liked this image of a Fork-tailed Drongo perched on a jutting branch with an elephant in the background. This little character was hawking insects disturbed by the elephants.

A pair of tree squirrels sunning themselves in the winter morning sun. They also groom each other which helps disperse their common scent. Tree squirrels are highly territorial.

It was quite remarkable to see these little tree squirrels spreadeagled on a steeply sloping tree trunk. These squirrels were very alert and would often chirp when they sensed danger from either the ground or the air.

The ubiquitous and inevitable Lilac-breasted Roller. I can never resist taking a shot of these beautifully colored birds.This one was hawking insects from its perch.

The Lilac-breasted Roller is even more striking in flight.

At the end of our first day we found the cheetah mum and her four (almost adult) cubs. It was getting quite dark and thankfully my trusty Nikon had excellent low light capability.

“To look at any thing,
If you would know that thing,
You must look at it long…”

~John Moffitt

This group of four Cheetahs were hunting along Mashatu’s M1. They were hunting Impala.

The Cheetah mum was the lead hunter with her four youngsters as backup.

By the time they found a herd of Impala and started their chase it was too dark, and my shutter speeds were too low. It was the most incredible sound to hear this herd of Impala snorting and dashing across the stoney ground to escape the Cheetahs. The Impala all got away – this time.

At last light along the M1 as it is called in Mashatu. This is the road that leads from the border post to Mashatu Main Camp. This is the time we normally stop and have sundowners to enjoy the setting sun and the spectacularly colorful show signaling the end of another day in Africa.

“If there is any wisdom running through my life now, in my walking on this earth, it came from listening in the Great Silence to the stones, trees, space, the wild animals, to the pulse of all life as my heartbeat”.

~Vijali Hamilton

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

Have fun,

Mike