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