I have been privileged to see leopards on many occasions in locations ranging from Kruger Park to the Serengeti and Tsavo. In this post I want to share a few images of these beautiful, lithe, self-sufficient predators with you.

“Being solitary is being alone well: being alone luxuriously immersed in doings of your own choice, aware of the fullness of your own presence rather than of the absence of others. Because solitude is an achievement.”

~Alice Koller

A young female leopard in Mashatu, in south-eastern Botswana. It was late afternoon, she was wandering along the river course and had stopped in her wanderings to be quiet and listen.

The next morning, we found her again but this time away from the river. She found a perfect curve in the bough of a tree and made herself comfortable.

Another occasion in Mashatu. We found this young male leopard dozing in the early part of the evening in a dry river bed.

“True silence is the rest of the mind, and is to the spirit what sleep is to the body, nourishment and refreshment.”

~William Penn

A beautiful leopardess with stunning green eyes.  Very confident and relaxing in the early morning after what may have been a busy night. An iconic leopard pose.

A female leopard walking away from the Chobe river, in northern Botswana, having just had a drink. She was walking back to her cub waiting in a thicket close by.

A big male leopard in Mashatu. It was early morning and this male was waiting in the brush on a bank above a pool of water in the mostly dry river bed.

I kept this image dark as it was early in the morning and this male was lying in the deep shadows just after sunrise. This was a perfect ambush position for anything coming down for a drink of water.

“Don’t be satisfied with stories, how things have gone with others. Unfold your own myth.”
― Jalaluddin Rumi

This young male leopard in Mashatu had caught and killed a female impala. He was moving his catch to a more concealed position to eat in private.

He finally found a spot with greater cover. Sometimes nature reveals unexpected tenderness.

It did not take him long to start feasting. He first pulled the hair off the skin in the area of the carcass he wanted to open up.

A female leopard called “Rockfig Junior” in the Timbavati, adjacent to the Kruger Park in South Africa. She was leading her son to the place where she had stashed her kill about a kilometre away. The dry grass in the background showed that it was winter in the Timbavati.

“Nowhere can man find a quieter or more untroubled retreat than in his own soul. “

~Marcus Aurelius

Early evening and the sun had set in Mashatu. This young female leopard was spread-eagled on a large bow of a branch from a fig tree overhanging the Majale river.

The green-eyed leopardess  shown earlier in this post. It was two years later and it was around 8h30 in the morning and she was walking along a dry river bed. Our guide told us that she was walking back to a cub further down river. We never got to see the cub. She stopped to take in various scents. There must have been many scent signposts along that part of the river.

Another young female leopard stopped in her wanderings in the late afternoon along the Majale river to climb up a fallen branch of a Mashatu tree. She probably wanted to get a better view of the surrounding area and us.

Having assessed the lie of the land, she continued her walk along the edge of the Majale river in Mashatu.

“Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice.”

~Steve Jobs

A young male leopard in the short grass alongside a series of small dams in Tsavo West National Park in south-east Kenya. This leopard managed to kill a Dik-Dik behind us and close to a large herd of buffalo without any of us or the buffalo noticing. Another vehicle arrived behind us only to tell us there was a leopard eating its prey less than 25 metres behind us.

In the Masai Mara, on the &Beyond Conservancy below the Kitchwa Tembo camp, we found this leopardess “treed”.

Below was a pride of lionesses and their cubs. They had been wandering along the edge of the tree line down towards the Mara river when they came across this leopardess and her cub on the ground.

The lions immediately attacked. The leopardess bounded for the tree but the cub was too young to follow her and a lioness killed it. After the lions milled around the dead leopard cub, a young male lion took possession of the kill.

This was a heart wrenching scene. This leopardess was completely out numbered and all she could do was snarl at the devastation below her. She watched the whole thing; watched her cub being killed and the juvenile male lion running off with it.

He quickly picked the leopard cub up in his jaws and ran off with it.

“It’s so much darker when a light goes out than it would have been if it had never shone.”

~John Steinbeck

After waiting quite a while for the lions to move off, she descended the tree to look for her cub.

She was desperately searching for her cub without moving into an exposed position, but her cub was lying dead some distance off in the open behind a tall tuft of grass so she could not see it.

On a more peaceful note, we found this young female leopard in a huge Mashatu tree. She had stacked her kill in this tree and peered out through this fork in the tree.

She was very relaxed and was not fussed in the least about us underneath the tree.

“Freedom: To ask nothing. To expect nothing. To depend on nothing.”
~ Ayn Rand

Late in the afternoon in the Serengeti. This large male leopard was out in the open lounging on the bough of a large fever tree looking down on the world on his own terms.

We were about fifty metres away on the dirt road so he paid no attention to us.

“It doesn’t matter where you are, you are nowhere compared to where you can go.”

~Bob Procter

A leopard peered out from the undergrowth alongside the river in Mashatu.

In the Serengeti, we were driving slowly southwards. This part of the Serengeti is patterned with huge grasslands intersected by groves of acacias. How our guide saw these young leopards way off the road in the grass on our right hand side, I will never know. We had to drive much closer before we could see them. There were two youngsters out on their own.

“I think that I cannot preserve my health and spirits, unless I spend four hours a day at least – and it is commonly more than that – sauntering through the woods and over the hills and fields, absolutely free from all worldly engagements. “

~Henry David Thoreau

They were playing in the grass running around and chasing each other. It was a carefree early morning playtime scene.

Out of the sun and in the grove of acacias, the colour of the light took on a blue hue in the shade.

It was at the end of January in Eagle’s Rock estate near Witbank in Mpumalanga, South Africa. We were staying with friends Bill and Judy. It had been raining most of the day but there had been a break in the weather late in the afternoon so we decided to go out for a game drive.  As we were driving through an area of natural sandstone sculptured rock there were many flat-topped rocks. I said to Judy wouldn’t it be wonderful if we saw a leopard lying on top of one of these flat topped sandstone rocks. Incredibly, about five minutes later Judy pointed to something lying on a sandstone rock about 100 metres off the road. This big male leopard watched us slowly make our way, by vehicle, towards him. He was completely unperturbed by us.

He watched us but was much more interested in the herd of zebra and wildebeest behind us on the open grassland. He was especially interested in the numerous calves in the herd.

I will never get tired of seeing these beautiful, camouflaged, confident, independent beings.

“No man should go through life without once experiencing healthy, even bored solitude in the wilderness, finding himself depending solely on himself and thereby learning his true and hidden strength.”

~Jack Kerouac

Explore, seek to understand, marvel at its inter-connectedness and let it be.

Have fun,

Mike

The African Harrier Hawk has always intrigued me because it is such an unusual raptor, though I do prefer its previous more exotic name, Gymnogene,which means bare cheeks. It has the legs of a harrier and flies like a hawk. Although not threatened, you will not often see this species but it is a thrill when you do because it is such an impressive raptor. It has distinctive colouring, is relatively large and has some unique behavioural traits.

“Strangeness is a necessary ingredient in beauty.”
~ Charles Baudelaire

Generally, hawks kill their prey with their claws, unlike the falcons, which catch prey with the claws but kill with a blow of their beak. Hawks are unusual among birds in that the female is generally larger than her mate. In some species, this difference, called sexual dimorphism, can be as great with the female being much larger than the males, as in the accipiters. This is particularly evident in Fish Eagles. Hawks generally mate for life, and are agressively territorial. Harriers are plain-looking, long-legged, and long-tailed birds with a slender build which enables them to cruise low over grasslands and marshes looking for prey. Harriers usually have small beaks, and their face feathers are arranged in facial discs. The African Harrier Hawk has a clear a mix of both harrier and hawk characteristics, hence its name.

This is a medium to large raptor. It can grow to around 63cm in length with a wing span of 160cm and can weigh up to 950 grams. There is little colour dimorphism between male and female but as with hawks, the female is larger.

African Harrier Hawks are recognised by other birds as nest raiders. When seen in the area, other birds become very vocal warning each other of an impending invasion.  

“Wildness reminds us what it means to be human, what we are connected to rather than what we are separate from.”
~ Terry Tempest Williams

The African Harrier-Hawk is omnivorous, eating anything its can find from fruit to small birds and mammals, reptiles and insects. Its ability to climb, using wings as well as feet, and its long double-jointed legs, enable this bird to raid the nests of cavity-nesters such as barbets, oxpeckers, squirrels and woodhoopoes for eggs and fledglings. This raptor is notable for its habit of actively searching for prey in trees, nests, rock faces, and from underneath objects on the ground. It can often be seen clambering about and hanging from tree limbs, running up tree trunks with wings flapping, or hanging from birds nests as it searches for food. Its featherless legs facilitate this behaviour.

‘There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion.”

~Francis Bacon

The plumage is mainly grey, with neat light black and white barring on the abdomen and thighs, but is sometimes absent in individuals. The African Harrier Hawk has a bare facial patch, which is varies in colour, but is usually seen as bright yellow. This facial patch becomes pink during display, and various shades of orange between yellow and red according to its emotional state. 

This particular character was wandering along the bank of the Chobe river looking for a spot to drink. No doubt these raptors are also very wary of the danger lurking below the surface of the water.

The relatively low aspect ratio of the wing allows this raptor to fly surprisingly slowly and deliberately, for such as large raptor, when hunting. A low aspect ratio wing has relatively low ratio of wing length to wing width. Generally, high aspect ratio wings give more lift and enable sustained, endurance flight, while low aspect ratio wings are best for swift maneuverability.

The male and female African Harrier-hawks are similar in appearance, while juveniles have brown plumage, blackish facial skin, a brown tail with four darker brown bars, and variable amounts of whitish, reddish-brown or dark bars or streaks on the abdomen. Adult plumage is not attained until about the third year.

“We are sun and moon, dear friend; we are sea and land. It is not our purpose to become each other; it is to recognize each other, to learn to see the other and honour him for what he is: each the other’s opposite and complement.”
~ Hermann Hesse

This particular character was raiding birds nests in a dead tree trunk. What makes it so unusual is its adaptive flexible knee-joints, being double jointed, enables it to put its feet into hard to get at places. It can probes crevices and hollows for lizards and larvae. It will hang upside down on hanging bird nests to rob their eggs and chicks. You will often see this raptor  walking along branches and up tree trunks, with wings widespread to stabilize it. 

The previous image was of a relative young bird just before its adult moult. We came across this bird one afternoon on the Chobe River. It was busy pillaging a bird’s nest and pulling out the oxpecker chicks one by one and eating them. 

““Wildness reminds us what it means to be human, what we are connected to rather than what we are separate from.”
~ Terry Tempest Williams

These raptors although relatively large, with lethal armaments, do not get things all their own way. The birds which usually nest in the surrounding trees can get quite aggressive and persistent. The next image is of a Fork-tailed Drongo giving this harrier Hawk a “rev”.  At times these small attackers land on the flying host and peck at it.

The African Harrier Hawk is an agile flier, capable of soaring in thermals but also mixing it up in woodland savanna and being able, like a Sparrowhawk, to negotiate its way through trees and branches. It is also an excellent tree climber.

Fork-tailed Drongos, rollers, lapwings all give these raptors a good going over whenever possible and obviously always on the wing.

The next image shows a African Harrier Hawk gliding along the river bank with its primary feather testing the wind like fingers. Its pinkish facial skin is signalling its relative state of excitement. This is also seen in Bateleur Eagles which also have yellowish facial skin that changes from yellow to red depending on its level of excitement. When flying, the underside of the African Harrier-hawk’s wings are grey with a wide black trailing edge. It has a white band across its tail feathers and the trailing edge of those feathers also have a wide black tip.

“Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its life believing it is stupid”

~Albert Einstein

When you see an African Harrier Hawk patrolling the banks of the Chobe river, it is often getting mobbed by smaller birds. This raptor is a major threat to birds which nest in trees and cavities in trees and rocks. When defending their nest and chicks, size seems to be less important. Small birds like Fork-tailed Drongos will fly up and dive bomb the raptor often hitting it on the back or wing. They will undertake remarkably daring attacks to drive this threat away from their nesting sites. The defensive attacks are usually from the back as the front end is considerably more dangerous.

The defensive antics of these smaller nesters can be dramatic to watch employing fearless manoeuvres in their quest to drive the potential raider out of the area.

If the threat is severe enough both members of the protection squad will join in the harassing process.

Although the African Harrier-hawk is lethally armed, in nature it is seldom a one way street.

“Insist on yourself; never imitate. Your own gift you can offer with the cumulative force of a whole life’s cultivation, but of the adopted talent of another, you have only an extemporaneous, half possession.”
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Explore, seek to understand, marvel at its inter-connectedness and let it be.

Have fun,

Mike

I have not previously done a post on rhino, but have been privileged to have a number of sightings.  My most intimate sighting and interaction with a black Rhino was in 1962. It was over a few months in a suburb of  the then Salisbury, Rhodesia, now Harare, Zimbabwe. The black rhino was a young calf called Rupert, named after Rupert Fothergill. Rupert the rhino calf was being looked after by the Condy family.

“Behind us are memories, beside us are friends, before us are dreams.”

~Unknown

Rupert Fothergill led Operation Noah, which was a wildlife rescue operation on the Zambezi river. John Condy was a wildlife vet and part of a team involved in the extraordinary translocation project to save wildlife from the rising waters of the newly formed Kariba dam. This rescue operation lasted from 1958 to 1964. Black Rhino were among the vast array of wildlife saved. On one particular occasion, a female Black Rhino was darted with a tranquilizer. In those days the doses were experimental and very much an estimation.  After being darted, the female dashed for the water and collapsed in the shallows. The rescuers could not raise her out of the water and she drowned. Only afterwards did the rescuers realise that she had a newborn calf. Needless to say John Condy took the rhino calf back to Salisbury to look after it. In the six months or so that Rupert lived in the Condy home he became part of the family.

“Memories of childhood were the dreams that stayed with you after you woke.”
~ Julian Barnes

Rupert arrived in the Condy household as a very young 150lb calf and was relocated to Matopos Nature Reserve about six months later weighing around 500lbs. The idea was never to keep Rupert but rather to nuture him  until he was big enough to be reintroduced into the wild  and habituate him with another black rhino called Sal.

“I can still feel the tingle of excitement knowing Rupert was racing this way from the other side of the house. A game of chicken with that almost breathless excitement waiting to catch the first glimpse of him and jump into a bush or race up a tree to get out of his reach. What ever the cost you did not want him to give you a ‘lamey’ with that little horn.”

~Mike Haworth

As a result, my interest in black Rhino started when I was very young. It is remarkable to think that these mammals have survived for 50 million years and gangs of human beings have been making a concerted effort to eliminate them within the last 40 years. According to Rhino Org, at the turn of the 20th century there were an estimated 500,000 rhino on earth, and by 1970 the worldwide population had fallen to 70,000. Save The Rhino published a graphic which shows the current estimated population of the five remaining species of rhino.

Source: Save The Rhino

https://www.savetherhino.org/rhino_info/rhino_population_figures

What is even more astounding is that the rhino population has been decimated not for for its food value, but for its horn. The rhino is usually shot and the horn hacked off leaving the carcass and in many cases leaving a mortally wounded animal alive.

The name “Rhinoceros” is derived from the Ancient Greek “ῥῑνόκερως”, meaning “horn nose”.

The Black Rhino is physically distinctly different to the White Rhino. It is smaller, weighing between 900kg and 1350kg. It is a browser, using its prehensile upper lip to shred leaves off branches and shrubs. The White Rhino is much larger, has a square lip and is primarily a grazer.

Much of what we believe about rhino eyesight is based on anecdotal reports. The assumption is that black rhinos are nearsighted, making them unable to discern man and a tree even 20 meters away. There doesn’t appear to be any empirical evidence to support this assertion. Rather it is a convenient and plausable explanation for the species’ sometimes aggressive behavior towards humans.  A recent anatomical study of the black rhino’s retina at an Australian university suggests that the human form should be detectable at nearly 200 meters – 10 times the distance assumed. All four Rhino species have eyes that are much smaller than would be predicted based solely upon body size, as reported in a post on 13 October 2013 on The International Rhino Foundation blog, which seems to add to the suggestion around their poor sight. Rhinos are known for their keen sense of smell and hearing.

This particular Black Rhino was drinking at a waterhole and must have heard something behind it and spun around to sense to get a better sense of where and what its was.

That ancient face and the characteristic prehensile top lip are distinctive features of the Black Rhino.

The next image show a mother and calf – which must have been over a year old. Black Rhino are usually solitary but a Black Rhino mother will nurture and protect her calf for between two and four years before pushing it out on its own. Very young calves are often positioned in front of their mother for protection as their most vulnerable part is their backside.

This female Black Rhino approached our vehicle after having sated her thirst at a waterhole. For a few moments, we thought this  female was going to give us a charge but satisfied she knew what we were, she quietly strolled past us without incident.

One particular afternoon, after initially chasing the male away, this female allowed her calf to interact with the male Black Rhino – probably its father. The tenderness was something special, and not expected at all.

The two adults began to rub their horns together after a tentative approach.

The family bond is clear. I never realised that Black Rhino behaved in this way. I knew they gathered at night around waterholes but never like this. The mother of a calf is not likely to mate with a male until her calf has become independent. This sometimes results in aggression on the part of the male, who wants to rid her of her calf so that he can mate with her. Many calves have been killed by aggressive males for this very reason.

Young Black Rhino – hard to believe that someone would want to kill this animal for its horn.

Black rhinos are browsers that get most of their sustenance from eating the leaves of trees and bushes. They use their lips to pluck leaves and fruit from the branches. In the more arid areas, Black Rhino are known to eat Euphorbia, which are poisonous to most other animals.

Both species of Rhino have ears with a relatively wide rotational range to detect the direction of sounds. An excellent sense of smell alerts rhinos to the presence of predators.

“As dreams are the healing songs from the wilderness of our unconscious- so wild animals, wild plants, wild landscapes are the healing dreams from the deep singing wild of the earth.”

~Dale Pendell

This solitary character came down to the waterhole just to drink. We were hoping for a roll in some mud but there was a little too much activity around the waterhole.

As you can see from the water marks on her legs that she walked right into the water. We thought she might lie down in the water to cool down but having had a drink she just wandered off.

As you can see this Black Rhino was not fussed about a lone hyaena behind it. These rhino can spin around remarkably quickly and the hyaena probably knew it.

A male Black Rhino in prime condition.

This male must have been able to see us across the waterhole because the prevailing wind was into our faces. and we were not making a noise.

The game park vets usually notch the ears of rhinos to identify them.

“Cherish sunsets, wild creatures and wild places. Have a love affair with the wonder and beauty of the earth.”

~ Stewart Udall
Late afternoon gathering at the pool!!

The folds in a black rhino’s neck and legs are very evident. According to the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust  website (https://www.sheldrickwildlifetrust.org/html/companions.html), most rhinos have lesions behind the shoulders and under the chin and stomach. These obviously itch and irritate, because they are rubbed against rocks and trees until they become open weeping wounds that stubbornly resist healing. The culprit for these lesions is apparently a filarial worm that is specific to rhinos in Africa, but is known amongst horses in the far East.

All rhino species have three toes, and each toe has a large stout toenail, giving it a distinctive footprint. The front feet are bigger than the back feet. Black rhino can move surprisingly fast, up to speeds of around 50km/h- faster than you can run. They can change direction surprisingly quickly, and are known to run right through scrub and bushes. They attack with very swift upward swipes of their horn which can easily penetrate a vehicle door. It also means you need to get high enough up that thorn tree to get out of the way of that horn swipe.

I cannot publish a post on Black Rhino without giving some information about their decimation through poaching. The poaching stats do not separate out the black and white rhino poached. Over the past several years, South Africa’s rhino poaching problem has turned into a full-blown crisis. Save the Rhino organisation reports that South Africa has by far the largest population of rhinos in the world and is a vital country for rhino conservation. However rhino poaching levels have dramatically escalated over recent years as shown in the next graphic.

Source: Save The Rhino website, Department of Environmental Affairs, South African Government

This Black Rhino bull was found wandering Zimbabwe’s Save Valley Conservancy after poachers shot it several times and hacked off both horns. Veterinarians euthanized the animal because its shattered shoulder could no longer support its weight. Photograph by Brent Stirton/National Geographic

According to International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Species Survival Commission’s African Rhino Specialist Group (AfRSG). By the end of 2015, the number of African rhinos killed by poachers had increased for the sixth year in a row with at least 1,338 rhinos killed by poachers across Africa in 2015. In 2015 in South Africa, 1175 rhinos were poached, slightly below the 1,250 illegally killed in 2014. Around 65% of rhino are poached in the Kruger National Park (KNP) and the rest across all of SA’s provinces.

Significant efforts are being made to protect these mammals and the efforts are starting to pay off with 1054 rhino poached in 2016 according to the Department of Environmental Affairs. This represents the second year of declining rhino deaths from poaching. A total of 1 054 rhino were poached in 2016, compared to 1 175 in the same period for 2015, representing a decline of 10.3%. Specifically for the KNP, a total of 662 rhino carcasses were found in 2016 compared to 826 in 2015. This represents a reduction of 19.85% in 2016. This is despite a continued increase in the number of illegal incursions into the Kruger National Park. The Minister said for 2016 there were a staggering 2883 instances of unrelenting poaching-related activities (such as poaching camps, contacts, crossings, sightings, tracks and shots fired) in the Kruger National Park, compared to 2 466 recorded in the same period in 2015, an increase of 16.9%. According to the Minister’s Feb-2017 report,  although there has been a decrease in the number of rhino killed for their horns in the Kruger National Park and Mpumalanga, the number of rhino poached unfortunately increased in some other provinces and Elephant are being increasingly targeted by Poachers.

“The unending slaughter of Africa’s endangered wildlife is amputating a balancing branch of humanity. Unless the world’s political elite establishes universal, thought provoking legislation and enforcement thereof, species on the brink of extinction will be lost for future generations. In particular, China and Africa stand at the cusp of the most historic leadership embarrassment of civilization.”

~ Dex Kotze, Strategist for Global March for Elephants and Rhinos

The Ministry of Environmental Affairs also reported that during September 2016, a rhino survey using the scientifically accepted block count method recorded that a total of 6 649 – 7 830 white rhino lived in KNP. This is lower than the 8 365 – 9 337 that lived in the KNP during 2015. It must be noted that the natural deaths of white rhino increased due to the unprecedented drought conditions. A total of 349 – 465 black rhino lived in KNP in 2016 compared to 313 – 453 in 2015. The drought effect was not as noticeable on the black rhinos.

“I am so impressed by the courage and dedications of the rangers who, every day, risk their lives to protect elephants and rhinos. It is so important that we make the rangers feel that they area valued”.

~ Dr Jane Goodall.

According to the Project Rhino KZN’s website,  KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) rhino poaching losses reach 73 this year (17 more than this time last year) – with provincial parks currently experiencing the heaviest losses – it’s a big boost to know that KZN’s Provincial Government have committed themselves to intensifying the fight against rhino poaching in KwaZulu-Natal.

I salute the tireless efforts of the rangers out in the bush fighting a deadly war against organised heavily armed poaching gangs.

http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/6557/0

IUCN Red List Assessment Information

We need to protect our wildlife so that our children are able to experience the wonders of mother nature’s diversity and inter-connectedness.

“We have to stop the blood flow. We have to be relentless in our pursuit for justice; in our pursuit for humanity. Nature is the mother of us all, and within all of us is the spirit of an eco warrior. The war on poaching is a war on greed, but what stands to be lost is priceless”.

~ Jamie Joseph- Saving the Wild founder

Explore, seek to understand, marvel at its inter-connectedness and let it be.

Have fun,

Mike

I have not got a photographic trip planned for the next six weeks so I have decided to do a series of posts on a few species which have caught my imagination.

“Life is just so interesting and complicated and beautiful. Every day, every interaction is different. There’s so much floating around that I would find it really hard to get bored. I’m interested in creating in some way or another, whether it’s photography or writing or just walking through the world.”
~ Alejandro Escovedo

This week I have focused on the African Hawk-Eagle. We find two species of hawk-eagle in southern Africa, the African Hawk-Eagle and the Ayres Hawk-Eagle. The African Hawk-Eagle is resident  and territorial and is found from sub-Sahara to South Africa, while the Ayres Hawk Eagle is an intra-African migrant. The only time I have ever seen an Ayres Hawk Eagle was with my long- standing friend, Adrian Lombard, when we were driving up to his parents farm in Inyanga in the eastern Highlands of Zimbabwe back in the 1960s.

You will usually find this hawk-eagle in woodland and savanna areas, not at high altitudes and dense forest areas.

This raptor first caught my imagination when I was around 10 years of age. Multi-generational family friends, the Condys, always had a wild life menagerie in and around their home in then Salisbury, now renamed Harare, in Zimbabwe. John Condy was a double doctorate veterinary researcher in Rhodesia in the days before it became Zimbabwe. John Condy invariably had all sorts of weird and wonderful wild animals in and around their house. He was one of the first people I came across who practised falconry. He had a profound influence on many now successful falconers in Zimbabwe and South Africa, notably Adrian Lombard.  Besides Lanner Falcons, he had an African Hawk-Eagle which he called Nimbus. The name had serious connotations. Nimbus is a luminous cloud or a halo surrounding a supernatural being or a saint. Nimbus was an adult African Hawk-Eagle. It was large aggressive and had piercing yellow eyes.

“Childhood is measured out by sounds and smells and sights, before the dark hour of reason grows”.

~John Betjeman

One afternoon, John Condy told Mike, his eldest son, and I to get a glove and take some minced meat and go and feed Nimbus. No problem. We naively thought this could be fun so off we went with glove and the minced meat, having never done this before. Once we got into  the “chicken run” enclosure  where Nimbus was being kept, this raptor lunged at us repeatedly. Nimbus was restrained by jesses secured around his legs and the jesses were attached to a rope which was tied to his perch, so provided we did not get too close he could not get hold of us. Nimbus was big, in a 10 year old’s eyes, especially with fully extended wings. I was shaken at the degree of aggression Nimbus displayed. I think it must have been one of the first occasions I realised that there are some wild things that cannot be tamed. Needless to say we threw the minced meat down below Nimbus’s perch and backed out the enclosure intact. The idea of getting Nimbus onto the glove and feeding him was not going to happen.

I never really thought about Nimbus again until I first visited Mashatu Nature Reserve in south-eastern Botswana, a couple of years ago. We had just crossed the Majale river on our way back to Eagle’s Nest camp. As we drove up and out of the river, in a tree overlooking the river next to the dirt track, sat a adult African Hawk-Eagle.

“The very essence of instinct is that it’s followed independently of reason”.

While we were looking at this African Hawk-Eagle, a Fish Eagle flew past along the river course. Instantly, the African Hawk-Eagle saw the Fish Eagle it launched itself out of the tree and flew low and fast along the riverbed after the Fish Eagle.

At the last second of the attack, the African Hawk-Eagle pulled up into a steep climb and rose like a rocket towards the slower Fish Eagle. The Fish Eagle must have heard rather than seen the Hawk-Eagle coming but managed to avoid getting hit. The smaller African Hawk-Eagle quickly banished the much larger Fish Eagle from that part of the river. The speed and aggression of the attack was a spectacle, and reminded me of Nimbus.

On most occasions when we visit Mashatu we see a solitary African Hawk-Eagle. This eagle is known to be a cooperative hunter with one bird initiating the chase and the other finishing the attack. I can only imagine what a show that must be. The African Hawk-Eagle has especially acute eyesight which allows it to be a highly adaptive hunter. At times it is a perch hunter stooping down onto its prey from a high tree. Other times, it displays its Aquila character soaring like an Eagle and hunting cooperatively. It is also capable of hunting more like a Sparrowhawk, manoeuvering through trees using its long tail, which can be fanned out, for steering in tight turns. The next image shows a African Hawk-Eagle perched near  the top of a high tree in Amboseli National Park. The variety of images in this post show that the African Hawk-Eagle is found from Kenya down to around the tropic of Capricorn.

“The world is endlessly fascinating to those who take the time to look.”
 ~Marty Rubin

The African Hawk-Eagle’s scientific name is Aquila spilogaster. Aquila  means “eagle” in latin and “spilo” means “spotted” in Greek and gaster means “stomach” in Greek.  Aquila eagles have the characteristic feathers on their legs and a large hind talon which is used for piercing its prey’s vertebra or skull in the kill. Like most eagles, the African Hawk-Eagle has yellow feet. This Hawk-Eagle preys on small mammals, such as hares, hyrax, squirrels, mongooses and monkeys, and reptiles such as lizards. monitors and snakes, and birds which range from Go-away birds to gamebirds, hornbills, doves, plovers and even herons.

The African Hawk-Eagle is a medium-sized eagle at about 55–65 cm in length. It is much smaller than a Martial Eagle which is around 80 centimetres in length. The upper parts are blackish. Its underparts are white, heavily streaked with black. The trailing edge of the wings and tail have a broad black bar. The sexes are similar in colour but as with most raptors the female is larger than the male. There is active siblicide (younger sibling dies after repeated attacks by the older sibling) among African Hawk-Eagle chicks but the surviving young bird develops a rufous colouration prior to its black adult plumage.

The common wisdom seems to be that eagles are generally  larger birds than hawks. This is a generalisation as the some of the larger hawks are larger than the smaller eagles. The next image shows the distinctive broad black trailing edge on the underside of its wings and tail. It is not always easy to see the blotching on its belly from a distance. From below the African Hawk-Eagle is easily differentiated from a Martial Eagle because its neck is not black to dark-brown and the tailing edges of the wings and tail feathers do not have the broad black band of the African Hawk-Eagle.

“Is it possible, I wonder, to study a bird so closely, to observe and catalogue its peculiarities in such minute detail, that it becomes invisible? Is it possible that while fastidiously calibrating the span of its wings or the length of its tarsus, we somehow lose sight of its poetry? That in our pedestrian descriptions of a marbled or vermiculated plumage we forfeit a glimpse of living canvases, cascades of carefully toned browns and golds that would shame Kandinsky, misty explosions of color to rival Monet? I believe that we do. I believe that in approaching our subject with the sensibilities of statisticians and dissectionists, we distance ourselves increasingly from the marvelous and spell binding planet of imagination whose gravity drew us to our studies in the first place.

That is not to say that we should cease to establish facts and verify our information, but merely to suggest that unless those facts can be imbued with the flash of poetic insight then they remain dull gems; semi-precious stones scarcely worth the collecting.”
~ Alan Moore

Explore, seek to understand, marvel at its inter-connectedness and let it be.

Have fun,

Mike

Wishing you a Happy New Year filled with exploration, wonder, amazement, inspiration, mystery and enchantment.

May you experience the abundance from, and greater appreciation for, this fascinating world around you.

May your friendships grow and may you receive just reward for your labours.

In this post I have created a gallery of some of my favourite images from what was a terrific 2016. My photographic intention is to continuously improve the technical quality of my photography and to be better able to show the beauty of this amazing world around us.

“The beauty of the trees,
the softness of the air,
the fragrance of the grass,
speaks to me.
The summit of the mountain,
the thunder of the sky,
speaks to me.
The faintness of the stars,
the trail of the sun,
the strength of fire,
and the life that never goes away,
they speak to me.
And my heart soars.”
~ Chief Dan George 

The dominant male lion in Mashatu

Young independent leopard sprawled on the bough of a fig tree at last light in Mashatu.

Male lion mating in the long Serengeti grass.

“We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are.”
~ Anais Nin

A one-eyed lioness drinking with her two cubs at mid-morning in the Serengeti. Her eye was damaged by a kick from a zebra.

Adult lions up a balanite to get away from biting flies and get some peace from the cubs in the Serengeti.

Pale morph Tawny Eagle trying to land in between two “hoods” in the Serengeti.

“We eat light, drink it in through our skins. With a little more exposure to light, you feel part of things physically. I like feeling the power of light and space physically because then you can order it materially. Seeing is a very sensuous act–there’s a sweet deliciousness to feeling yourself see something.”
~ James Turrell

Dawn on the Serengeti.

A tower of giraffes just before sunrise on the Serengeti.

A flying impala ram in front of an impressed group of giraffe on the Serengeti.

Striped morph Tawny coming in to land and feast on the left overs of a zebra kill on the Serengeti.

A Lilac-breasted Roller dive bombing a Black Chested Snake-Eagle in the Serengeti.

“Look at everything as though you were seeing it either for the first or last time. Then your time on earth will be filled with glory.”
~ Betty Smith

An afternoon rain storm in the distance while we were watching lions in the Serengeti.

One of two young leopards in a grove of acacias in the middle of a large open plain in the Serengeti.

A Yellow-necked Spurfowl preening itself while perched on the bough of a tree in the Serengeti.

You don’t often see leopards running. Two young leopards were cavorting and chasing each other in the long grass just next to a grove of acacias in the Serengeti.

A male White bellied Sunbird in Aloe Farm just outside Johannesburg in late autumn.

Two zebra stallions fighting in the Grumeti area of the Serengeti. The fight turned quite savage but neither male was injured.

“One cannot but be in awe when one contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery each day. Never lose a holy curiosity.”
~ Albert Einstein

African Jacana flying between water lily pads on the Chobe river.

Two young elephants mocking fighting in the Chobe river.

A bull elephant with intentions on an island in the Chobe river.

Lilac-breasted roller in its full glory in the morning light on the Chobe river.

A pair of Pygmy geese about to fly away on the Chobe river.

“Life just seems so full of connections. Most of the time we don’t even pay attention to the depth of life. We only see flat surfaces.”

~ Colin Neenan

Sunset on the Chobe river.

Unusual fishing technique of the Black Egret on the bank of the Chobe river.

Dawn on the Chobe river looking at the iconic three Jackalberry trees.

Two elephant bulls tussling in Amboslei in Kenya.

A baby Olive baboon in Amboseli in Kenya.

“If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is, infinite.”
~ William Blake

The beautiful female Painted Snipe in a marsh in Amboslei.

A wildebeest disturbs a huge flock of lesser Flamingoes in Amboseli.

The sun peering through thick morning cloud in Amboseli.

One of the big bulls in Amboseli.

A Serval cat hunting in one of the marshes in Amboslei at last light.

This lioness locks onto a few zebra in the distance in Amboseli.

A running Golden Starling in Tsavo West National Park in south east Kenya.

“Your vision will become clear only when you look into your heart. Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside, awakens.”
~ Carl Jung

A young leopard having just eaten a Dik Dik it had caught in the long grass in Tsavo West.

A lesser Kudu in Tsavo West – a first for me.

Another young leopard strolls along the road in front of us in Tsavo West.

Two bundles of fun with claws in Mashatu.

“Humanity has passed through a long history of one-sidedness and of a social condition that has always contained the potential of destruction, despite its creative achievements in technology. The great project of our time must be to open the other eye: to see all-sidedly and wholly, to heal and transcend the cleavage between humanity and nature that came with early wisdom.”
~ Murray Bookchin

The dominant male lion in Mashatu walking headlong into a cool morning wind.

Dappled beauty, camouflaged to perfection in Mashatu.

The same leopard up a tree moulded into the shape of the bough of a tree in Mashatu.

Two young male giraffe sparring in Mashatu.

“That’s the whole problem with science. You’ve got a bunch of empiricists trying to describe things of unimaginable wonder.”
~ Bill Watterson

A pack of wild dogs in Mana Pools had come down to the Zambezi river to drink in the afternoon.

Dawn in the Trichilia area of Mana Pools.

Two elephants quietly browsing in one of Mana’s forests.

Three up and three down. We caught the attention of three of the zebra in Mana Pools.

Hippos tussling in Long Pool in Mana Pools in last light.

A Mana Pools sunset.

I hope you enjoyed this small gallery of images from my photographic trips in Africa in 2016. I cannot wait to get out into the bush in 2017 to take better images and experience the beauty and abundance of the African bush.

“The secret of beginning a life of deep awareness and sensitivity lies in our willingness to pay attention. Our growth as conscious, awake human beings is marked not so much by grand gestures and visible renunciations as by extending loving attention to the minutest particulars of our lives. Every relationship, every thought, every gesture is blessed with meaning through the wholehearted attention we bring to it. In the complexities of our minds and lives we easily forget the power of attention, yet without attention we live only on the surface of existence. It is just simple attention that allows us truly to listen to the song of a bird, to see deeply the glory of an autumn leaf, to touch the heart of another and be touched. We need to be fully present in order to love a single thing wholeheartedly. We need to be fully awake in this moment if we are to receive and respond to the learning inherent in it.”
~Christina Feldman

Explore, seek to understand, marvel at its inter-connectedness and let it be.

Have fun,

Mike

This is my second last post for 2016.

Wishing you a Merry Christmas and time treasured with family and friends, fine fare and peace and goodwill.

It has been a varied and colourful photographic year. In this post I wanted to focus on some of the bird images I have not included in my posts during 2016. I have chosen a selection of our avian friends I was fortunate enough to photograph. There are two aspects about birds which immediately add another dimension to your safari experience. The first is that birds are far more active than mammals so you are likely to see more behavioural action and secondly the colours and variety are far greater adding much more diversity.

“The world is my canvas and I create my reality.”

~Unknown

Temminck’s Courser in Mashatu in summer.

African Hoopoe in Mashatu in summer.

“In nature, light creates the colour. In the picture, colour creates the light.”

~Hans Hofmann

Wood Sandpiper below the drift on the Matabole river in Mashatu.

Kori Bustard making great strides in Mashatu.

Levaillant’s Cuckoo quenching its summer afternoon thirst in Mashatu.

Southern Ground Hornbill with a mouth full in Mashatu’

Striped morph of a Tawny Eagle in the Serengeti.

Pale morph Tawny Eagle in the Grumeti area of the Serengeti.

Pale morph Tawny Eagle looking for a landing site  among some “hoods” in the Grumeti area of the Serengeti.

Nubian Woodpecker searching for  morsels in the dead tree trunk in the Grumeti area of the Serengeti.

“I once had a sparrow alight upon my shoulder for a moment, while I was hoeing in a village garden, and I felt that I was more distinguished by that circumstance that I should have been by any epaulet I could have worn.”

~Henry David Thoreau

A Silverbird, in full breeding plumage, stretching in the early morning light in the Serengeti .

Yellow Wagtail with breakfast next to a dam in the Grumeti area of the Serengeti.

Female Egyptian Goose with her goslings close to the Yellow Wagtail at the same dam in the Serengeti.

This male Yellow-throated Sandgrouse had just flown in, as part of a flock, for his morning drink.

“The very idea of a bird is a symbol and a suggestion to the poet. A bird seems to be at the top of the scale, so vehement and intense his life. . . . The beautiful vagabonds, endowed with every grace, masters of all climes, and knowing no bounds — how many human aspirations are realised in their free, holiday-lives — and how many suggestions to the poet in their flight and song!”

~ John Burroughs

White Stork, a long distance traveller which had flown down from Europe to the Serengeti for the summer.

Double-banded Courser in the grasslands of the Serengeti walking in amongst the herds of zebra and wildebeest.

One unhappy Lilac-breasted Roller giving a Black-chested Snake-Eagle a “rev”.

Male Pygmy Goose, this painted gentleman in all his unusual finery is also a speed merchant and is nicknamed ” the pocket rocket”.

The Black Egret with his wings extended to form an umbrella which it uses to trick fish as part of his fishing strategy.

“I found I could say things with colour and shapes that I couldn’t say any other way – things I had no words for.”

~Georgia O’Keeffe

White-fronted Bee-eater in semi shade along the banks of the Chobe river.

White-breasted Cormorant about to take off to find quieter waters along the Chobe river.

Woodland Kingfisher perched on a fallen tree trunk in the Chobe river with an edible insect tantalisingly close.

A Darter, also called the Snake bird, in full flight along the Chobe river.

A Fish Eagle crossing the Chobe river in the late afternoon light.

An African Jacana flying between rafts of water-lily pads on the Chobe river.

An African Jacana scouring the water-lily pads on the Chobe river for insects and snails, with some success.

A Squacco heron striding with purpose to a more promising feeding spot along the Chobe river.

“Without black, no color has any depth. But if you mix black with everything, suddenly there’s shadow – no, not just shadow, but fullness. You’ve got to be willing to mix black into your palette if you want to create something that’s real.”

~Amy Grant

A Reed Cormorant about to take off out of the water of the Chobe river. My daughter reckons it looks like a water dragon.

A protective Lilac-breasted Roller noisily defending its nest from a nearby Fish Eagle  along the Chobe river.

A Green-backed Heron having just taken off from its hunting perch along the Chobe river,  near Serondela.

Also in the Serondela area, this Fish Eagle looked huge and majestic in take off.

Days old and precocial, this minute African Jacana chick is already fending for itself along the dangerous waters of the Chobe river..

A pair of Red-throated Wrynecks foraging for insects in the heavily textured bark of a fallen tree in Marievale Bird Sanctuary.

Hitchhiker, this Cattle Egret in breeding colours is catching a ride on the back of an elephant in Amboseli in Kenya.

Skies streaked with pink as a large flock of Lesser Flamingoes take to the sky scared by a marauding Fish Eagle in Amboseli.

“You can’t colour your world with someone’s paint.”
― Israelmore Ayivor

Female Painted Snipe, the girls are the beautiful ones in this bird family, seen foraging in a pan in Amboseli.

A Grey Heron tidying up in the early morning in preparation for the day along the Majale river in Mashatu.

One of a pair of Crimson-breasted Shrikes hopping around in the thorn veld area of Mashatu.

“Let me, O let me bathe my soul in colours; let me swallow the sunset and drink the rainbow.”
~ Kahlil Gibran

A male White-bellied Sunbird radiating his beauty in the morning light at Aloe Farm near the Hartebeestpoort dam outside Johannesburg.

A male Ameythst Sunbird feeding on nectar from an aloe flower in Aloe Farm.

I hope you liked this small selection of the wonderful colours and variety which nature provides for us in abundance each day, including Christmas day.

Merry Christmas 
“Christmas waves a magic wand over the world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful.”

~Norman Vincent Peale

“There is nothing in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good humour.”

~Charles Dickens

Explore, seek to understand marvel at its inter-connectedness 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

After taking our constitutional sunrise images on the Serengeti, the sun begun climbing into the clear blue sky heralding the start of a new and fascinating day on the plains. We decided to drive south towards the Grumeti ranger’s camp. It was sublimely quiet and fresh at that time of the morning. Suddenly Waziri, our ranger, speaking softly told is that there were two young Leopards in the middle distance off to our right. Waziri has the most incredible eyesight. Not one of us picked up the Leopards until we were told where to look. We turned off the main dirt road to drive into a grove of trees and low bushes to have a closer look.

“If intelligence is our only edge, we must learn to use it better, to shape it, to understand its limitations and deficiencies – to use it as cats use stealth, as katydids use camouflage – to make it the tool of our survival.”

~ Carl Sagan

We went to watch “rosettes in the dappled light”.

Two young Leopards were patrolling the tree line and its immediate grass surrounds. One Leopard optimistically decided to stalk a Topi. It was such fun to watch. It did not have a “rosetted” hope of pulling the Topi down and its game was in full view for us. The Topi was not fussed!!!

The optimistic youngster broke off its stalk as the Topi led it further out into the open away from the tree line.

“The only sure camouflage is unpredictability.”
~ Margaret Atwood

The “Topi stalking” Leopard turned its attention onto its companion and began stalking its friend. The two played this game for a few minutes before one made a dash for the tree line.

This was fun photography and something different as you very seldom see Leopards running

The two had such fun cavorting. The early morning light was soft and colours saturated, but our subjects were against the light .

There seemed to be sheer joy in their play!

Once out of the grass and in among the trees, the youngsters settled down. I managed to catch this young Leopard in an open patch of grass among the trees. What gorgeous, lithe, alert creatures. This leopard’s spots on its front graduated into rosettes on its torso and hind legs.

The young Leopards continued to stalk each other into thicker bush where the shade was deeper.

“In art and dream may you proceed with abandon. In life may your proceed with stealth and balance.”

~ Patti Smith

These predators were wide awake, with all their senses “bristling”. This young Leopard stopped to listen with its ears constantly moving back and forth locating the direction of the different sounds.

I loved the rosettes in dappled light but it was that eye that caught my attention!

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

~ Henry David Thoreau

Walking quietly in deep shade in the grass wet with morning dew.

We spent a special hour watching these two young Leopards. They must have recently been pushed out on their own by the mother. The Lions and Hyaenas seem so well oriented to the open plains, but these stealth specialists looked to be thriving, while operating in the narrow tree lines between the plains.

“Life just seems so full of connections. Most of the time we don’t even pay attention to the depth of life. We only see flat surfaces.“
~ Colin Neenan

Leopard cubs are born without a clear coat of spots. The spots begin to develop after a few days. This also sounds like a metaphor for their unique skills of climbing, stealth, camouflage and hunting. Leopard cubs will stay with their mothers for over two years, this is how they learn to hunt and survive on their own. These two young Leopards must have been between two and three years old and presumably have not been away from their mother long, so still stay together but that will change with time.

Leopards have lost 75 percent of their historic range across Africa, Asia and the Middle East, with three Asian subspecies in danger of eradication, a new study says. A three-year review of data published in the scientific journal PeerJ challenges the conventional assumption that the iconic and famously elusive spotted cats are thriving in the wild. It finds Leopards have almost disappeared from vast ranges in China, Southeast Asia and the Arabian peninsula while African Leopards confront mounting challenges in the north and west.

These big cats are threatened by spreading farmlands, declining abundance of prey, conflict with livestock owners, trophy hunting and illegal trade in their skins and teeth. Even today, Leopard skins are sometimes worn as a symbol of power by African chiefs and Presidents!!!!!!! Source: PeerJ

“Woven into our lives is the very fire from the stars and genes from the sea creatures, and everyone, utterly everyone, is kin in the radiant tapestry of being.”
~ Elizabeth A. Johnson

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

Have fun,

Mike

After an early morning start to take some images of the sunrise we wandered east towards the Grumeti ranger’s camp  in the Sabora plains.

“Living wild species are like a library of books still unread. Our heedless destruction of them is akin to burning the library without ever having read its books.”

~ John Dingell, Balancing on the Brink of Extinction: The Endangered Species Act and Lessons for the Future

We were watching a group of Topis cavorting around. A Topi is a subspecies of the Tsessebe. They are incredibly quick sprinters which are able to pronk and can do a high knee prance just like a Lipizzaner stallion. At the same time we were keeping an eye on two large female Hyaenas who were guarding their den out in the open at the top of a rise. All of sudden one of the female Spotted Hyaenas got up and started to run down the hill. Our ranger, Waziri, told us something was up and the next moment he shouted “Wild Dogs”.

Down in the shallow valley were a few Wild Dogs, not the whole pack. They had caught a Thompson’s Gazelle and were busy shredding it. When we got down there we found three Wild Dogs, two pups and an adult. The pups were sub-adults but looked strange as their skin was black and they had no hair. No one knew what caused the dogs to lose their hair but it must have been some form of mange.

The pups must have heard the Hyaenas coming. presumably the female racing down the hill had been “whooping” and calling for reinforcements. The first Hyaena arrived at the Wild Dogs just as we did.

The Hyaena came running in but the three Wild Dogs stood their ground, for a few seconds.

The Wild Dogs quickly realised that the Hyaena mob was descending on them.

“Competition has been shown to be useful
up to a certain point and no further,
but cooperation, which is the thing
we must strive for today,
begins where competition leaves off.”
~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

Within a few seconds, more Hyaenas arrived and the Wild Dogs gave way, being badly ‘outsized’ and outnumbered.

It was amazing to see all these Hyaenas appear out of nowhere. Presumably, the Hyaenas lay hidden in the tufts of red oat grass scattered all over the plain, waiting for the call to intercept.

There was no fighting between the Hyaenas over the carcass.

Two large females were the first to the carcass and the larger one quickly showed her dominance.

The largest female Hyaena, presumably the matriarch, grabbed the remains of the “Tommy” and ran back toward her den at the top of the hill. She  must have had pups at the den.

Having scattered all directions when the Hyaenas had descended on them, the three Wild Dogs quickly reassembled and looked around assessing the lie of the land now that all the Hyaenas in the area had been “called to arms”.

It was surprising to see the three Wild Dogs on their own but they quickly regrouped with the main pack.

“The one process now going on that will take millions of years to correct is the loss of genetic and species diversity by the destruction of natural habitats. This is the folly our descendants are least likely to forgive us.”

~ E. O. Wilson

Two Wild Dog packs had been reintroduced into this part of the Serengeti according to Waziri. One of the two alpha dogs had a tracking collar around its neck as presumably research was being done on the new immigrants.

The dogs were quite some distance from us and did not stand still for long. The loss of the meal was quickly forgotten and the pack was on the hunt again. Wild Dogs are nomadic and only den when they have pups which are too young to keep up with the pack.

There were 12 dogs in this pack, two of which were sub-adults. It looked like one or two of the adults were getting mange too. The Wild Dogs ears pricked up when they heard the Hyaenas again.

“Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success.”

~Henry Ford

This time the Wild Dogs turned the tables and gave the Hyaenas a “rev” and chased them away. 

The Wild Dogs never stopped moving and it did not take long for them to move beyond the range of our lenses.

According to the UCIN Red List the African Wild Dog is classified as Endangered with its population declining.  (http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/12436/0).  There are around 6,600 African Wild Dogs left in the wild. They have been endangered for more than  20 years. The loss of living space is one of the main reasons why this species’ population is in decline, as a pack range can be 900 square kilometres, according to The Endangered Wildlife Society.

The African wild dog has a very different pack life compared to other pack or group predators, they have a very caring and social nature towards each other.Within the pack there is a breeding pair. This means that only one female and male will have pups, but every dog in the pack takes part in raising the young. Unlike other group predators wild dogs let their young feed first, they also rarely show aggression towards each other when feeding or hunting. The hunting dogs will also return to the den and regurgitate food for the pups and those who stayed behind to guard them. (regurgitate means to spit food back up after its been swallowed) Wild dogs are almost never aggressive towards each other, even the hierarchy (this is the order of importance and power within the pack) is decided in a completely non-violent way. Wild dogs are some of Africa’s most successful hunters, with a kill rate as high as 80%. This means they are even more successful than lions. They use different sounds and calls to communicate amongst each other before and during the hunt. Source: http://www.londolozi.com/cubsden/why-is-the-african-wild-dog-an-endangered-species/

“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

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

Have fun,

Mike

I do not usually publish a post about where we stay on our photographic trips but this one was exceptional. We spent 10 wonderful days at the Grumeti Tented Camp in early March as part of a CNP Safari’s photographic trip.

“We travel not to escape life, but for life not to escape us.”

– Anonymous

We flew to the Grumeti by charter plane from Mount Kilimanjaro airport, a two-hour flight as you stop at all the landing strips along the way to pick up and drop visitors. The alternative is to drive for six hours on rough roads which gives you what is affectionately called an “African massage”.

The Grumeti Tented Camp is owned and operated by &Beyond. The camp is sited along the Grumeti river in the Western Corridor section of the Serengeti Nature Reserve in Tanzania. The Grumeti river flows into the southern part of Lake Victoria. The next map shows the Serengeti and the clockwise circular path that the “Great Migration” follows and the its approximate timing.

Courtesy of Mahlatini Safari (https://www.mahlatini.com)

A view up river of the camp. The river had been naturally dammed at this section and provided ideal pools for a number of large pods of Hippos.

An understated entrance to a beautiful tented camp. On occasions you could find a Hippo browsing on the grass next to the path.

The entrance to the main lounge and dining areas.

A view from inside the lounge looking out over the deck onto the Grumeti river – heaven!!

“People don’t take trips, trips take people.”

~ John Steinbeck

The main lounge area. It is warm all year-long so no need for walls.

On the deck in front of the main lounge area.

My kind of swimming pool providing cool respite from the midday heat. It was private and sited right next to the river with the sound of birds all around and Hippos grunting to each other all day long.

The swimming pool was about ten to 15 metres above the Grumeti river with a spectacular view up the Grumeti river.  The bush here is not quiet but somehow it is peaceful far away from barking dogs, high-pitched motor bike exhausts, traffic drone and house alarms.

Hippo antics in front of the camp in the Grumeti river.

Territorial tussle between bulls.

Breakfast in the park – far away from the maddening crowds. In the foreground is the new specially fitted photographic vehicle provided by CNP and &Beyond.

Our team of photographers,clockwise from front left, Elana Erasmus, Aubrey Siebert, CNP guide Wenzel Kotze, ranger Waziri, Duncan Blackburn and Dave Champion. Behind them were chef Jona, and waiters Elia and Raphael.

“Stuff your eyes with wonder, live as if you’d drop dead in ten seconds. See the world. It’s more fantastic than any dream made or paid for in factories.”

~ Ray Bradbury

My tent under a palm roof.

The view from my tent at sunset as I was getting ready for dinner. The Grumeti river was about thirty metres away.

At night after a wonderful cuisine from chef Mbesi and his team, I would sink in to bed and drift off into a dream-filled sleep serenaded by Hippos. During the night I could hear Lions roaring in the distance, Hyaena whooping to each and in the early hours a lone Leopard coughing on the far side of the river.

“The use of traveling is to regulate imagination with reality, and instead of thinking of how things may be, see them as they are.”

~ Samuel Johnson

To camp manager Joseph and his team, your camp is top draw. A wonderful setting, thankfully not glitzy but very comfortable and with exceptional service from your staff . A big thank you to you and your staff for making our stay so memorable.

“Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all of one’s lifetime.”

~ Mark Twain

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

Have fun,

Mike