This is the first post from my trip to Giant’s Castle in the uKhahlamba Drakensberg park in mid-July. Apart from the breath-taking beauty, a key attraction at Giant’s Castle was its vulture hide.

“uKhahlamba – the basalt comprising most of the ‘High Berg’, is a brittle rock and its relative softness has resulted in jagged, vertical spines. These spines reminded the Zulu people of an impenetrable barrier often implemented on the battlefield. This is the Drakensberg, a barrier of spears.”

~Erwin and Nicoleen Niemand

The uKhahlamba Drakensberg Park has Africa’s highest mountain range south of Kilimanjaro. It presents a formidable horizon of massive basalt cliffs in its northern reaches stretching to soaring sandstone buttresses in the south.  When standing on one of the high points in the ‘Upper Berg’ looking down onto a boiling brew of clouds you will see jagged mountain spines rising above that boiling brew in what looks like the spines of a dragon’s back, giving them the Afrikaans name Drakensberg – Dragon Mountains. Those spines were seen by the ancient Zulus as spears and they called this mountain range uKhahlamba – the Zulu name for the barrier of spears.

Difficult terrain and unpredictable weather is the habitat for an array of unusual wildlife in this mountain region. This post shows images of one of its rarest South African wildlife members, the Bearded Vulture. According to International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), in southern Africa the population of Bearded Vultures is estimated at circa 100 breeding pairs. Separate research by Ezemvelo puts the population at around 145 pairs. We were privileged to see four juveniles and two adults soaring above the hide for two days.

“You’re off to Great Places!
Today is your day!
Your mountain is waiting,
So… get on your way!”
~ Dr. Seuss

The juvenile Bearded Vulture is much darker than the adult and it has a mostly black face but its black beard grows with age. The next image is of a fully fledged, sub-adult bird. The colouring on the breast feathers is a gorgeous mottled mix of browns and beiges. The juvenile also looks less thick set than the adult.

A juvenile Bearded Vulture soaring against a dry winter, but colourful background. It was mid-winter but there was no snow on the mountains. The weather forecast was for sunny skies and clear nights and a maximum temperature of one degree centigrade and minimum of minus six centigrade. The reality was a cool two degrees as a minimum and 19 degrees maximum – idyllic winter weather with sunny skies.

We have been to the Vulture hide above Giant’s Castle rest camp three times, but this  was the first time in winter. Bearded Vultures in southern Africa breed in winter and are more likely to land in front of the hide to pick up the bones provided by the park.

To encourage these magnificent vultures to land we put out bones the park provides. While this is baiting, it has a conservation bias as these vultures are endangered in South Africa and their habitat loss requires food substitution. The Bearded Vulture, like other vultures is a scavenger but it does not compete on a carcass like other vultures. Its diet consists mainly of bones (80-90 percent). This vulture has stomach acid with a pH of about one so can digest the bone fragments in about 24 hours.

“One can never consent to creep when one feels an impulse to soar.”

~Helen Keller

These Bearded Vultures seem to be very wary birds. The six vultures we saw made numerous fly byes looking at the bones on the rocks in front of the hide but only two individuals landed on separate occasions on the first day. These vultures showed no aggression towards other birds such as ravens. The White-necked Ravens were also not fussed by their large rival – perhaps because of safety in numbers. This adult Bearded Vulture did not manage to fly off with a bone. The dinner table was probably too busy and noisy for this normally solitary wind rider.

Unlike most vultures, the Bearded Vulture does not have a bald head which suggests a very different feeding method to the White-backed or Cape Vulture. This species is relatively small headed, but has a powerful and thick set neck and shoulders. It is a big but stocky raptor with baggy leggings. This raptor’s thick plumage is presumably an adaption for the cold mountain air.  It appears bulkier than other vultures and waddles when on the ground. Its feet are large and powerful but are used for picking up big bones rather than killing.

“This mountain, the arched back of the earth risen before us, it made me feel humble, like a beggar, just lucky to be here at all, even briefly.”

~Bridget Asher

To watch this huge vulture gliding with such freedom in a huge open space with the imposing mountainous backdrop is inspiring. Bearded Vulture are thought to spend 80 percent of their daylight hours soaring on the updrafts along mountain ridges.

The image below is of a sub-adult but it is an older bird as seen by its beard even though it has not yet taken on its adult plumage, which only  comes through after about seven years. 

“To soar, we must leave anything that weighs us down.”

~Saru Singhal

Although dissimilar, the Egyptian and Bearded Vulture each have a lozenge-shaped tail — unusual among birds of prey. The tail varies in length from 43 to 52 centimetres and is presumably shaped to provide additional lateral control in the turbulent mountain air upthrusts.

You will very rarely see these vultures flapping their wings and when they do it is mostly from the “hand wing”. It is the most spellbinding sight to watch this majestic bird glide across a two kilometre valley in a matter of seconds without any apparent movement of its wings other than control adjustments.

This adult Bearded Vulture landed on the rock about 50 metres below the hide. The adult is mostly dark gray, rusty and whitish in colour. Its back is grey-blue to grey-black. The creamy-coloured forehead contrasts against a black band across the eyes and lores and bristles under the chin, which form a black beard that give the species its English name. Adult Bearded Vultures are variably orange or rust of plumage on their head, breast and leg feathers but this is actually cosmetic. Adults rub iron oxide rich soil into their feathers. After dust-bathing they preen their breast feathers with their feet. The richness of the colour of the breast feathers is thought to intensify with age.

The Bearded Vulture has an elliptical wing shape with a low aspect ratio. The aspect ratio is the ratio of wing length to wing depth. This low aspect ratio shape is ideal for soaring and also helps this large bird to take off without the need for a long taxi run to get airborne.

The threats these vultures face are direct and indirect poisoning, shooting, power-line collision and electrocution and habitat loss. Threats that have emerged and may be impacting on the species include food shortage, disturbance at nests by climbers and helicopters, indirect poisoning of carcasses with veterinary drugs and harvesting living birds for use in traditional medicine. 

“No matter how sophisticated you may be, a large granite mountain cannot be denied – it speaks in silence to the very core of your being.”
~ Ansel Adams

Like other vultures, the Bearded is a scavenger, feeding mostly on the remains of dead animals. It does not usually feed on carcass meat but around 70 to 90 percent of its diet is bones, getting its nutrition from bone marrow. The Bearded Vulture has learned to crack bones too large to be swallowed by carrying them in flight to a height of 50–150 metres above the ground and then dropping them onto flat rocks below, called ossuaries. The impact on the ossuary smashes the bone into smaller pieces and exposes the nutritious marrow.

This is a big vulture with a wingspan of around 2.7 metres and is about 1.1 metres tall when standing.

This was one of the younger sub-adults ‘on finals’ and coming in to land. Only one juvenile landed in two days and it was on the ground for about thirty seconds.

As this juvenile was coming in to land it flared its wings and had its alulas out to maintain control at slowing airspeeds. The alula is a bastard wing located between the arm wing and the hand wing. It is assumed to function similarly to a leading-edge slat that increases lift and delays stall.

“If you jump to conclusions, you make terrible landings.”

~Terry McMillan

This juvenile landed to pick up a bones we had put out for these vultures. It picked a point where there were no ravens to harass it.

These Bearded Vultures are very wary and will fly passed their food source many times waiting for hassle free landing.

These vultures have to compete with White-necked Ravens, Cape Vultures and Black-backed Jackals for their food at the hide.

This sub-adult managed to take off without incident. It will take this bone to an ossuary and drop it to fragment it into swallowable pieces. 

These huge raptors do not get it all their own way. As in any situation where man interferes there are distortions. By leaving bones out for the vultures there are many other birds attracted by the marrow and fat on the bones. The White-necked Ravens are protective of their turf and on occasions prevent a Bearded Vulture from landing to pick up a bone. This juvenile successfully landed and picked up its cargo, but even in flight the ravens harassed this cargo carrier for some distance.

“Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out going to the mountains is going home; that wilderness is a necessity…”

~John Muir

The Bearded Vulture is monogamous. In Southern Africa it mates and lays its eggs in winter and raises it young in summer. Normally, siblicide ensures one chick survives.

Modern jetliners have adopted the same wingtip design as seen on the wings of this Bearded Vulture. The winglet is upturned at the end of the wing. This upturned winglet shape reduces the drag across the wing by partial recovery of the tip vortex energy, improve handling and increase the effective aspect ratio of the wing.

“Biomimicry is … the conscious emulation of life’s genius.”
~Janine Benyus

The Bearded Vulture is classified as near-threatened internationally in the IUCN Red List as assessed by Birdlife International. There are an estimated up to  10,000 individuals found in Asia, Africa and Europe. The bearded vulture is only found in the Drakensberg in South Africa/Lesotho and is classified as locally threatened.

Under normal circumstances we would never feed the wildlife and would never be allowed to feed the wildlife in a national park. In the case of the vulture hide at Giant’s Castle, the park provides bones to ensure these endangered giants have supplemented food. The hide is also a photographers paradise. Being up on the side of the mountain in dead quiet but for the wind and the sound of Red-winged Starlings and ravens is perfect.

“I would rather own little and see the world, than own the world and see little of it.”

~Alexander Sattler

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

Have fun,

Mike

By the time you are looking at this post I will be up in the “barrier of spears” , the Drakensberg mountain range in South Africa. Hopefully I will be able to bring back some interesting landscapes and images of Bearded vultures and a variety of other birds from the “vulture’s hide” at Giant’s Castle.

Until then, I have converted some of my images, taken this year, into black and white to get a sense of how colouration or the simplification of it can alter the mood and texture of the photographic message and hopefully that mood, texture and contrast triggers an emotional reaction. Some things in life aren’t quite as black and white as you’d think…

As a wildlife photographer, I am very interested in the essence of things. The artistic essence – form, shape and pattern  – helps you to focus on composition. When you take away colour from an image you are left with contents; strong colours draw your attention to certain elements in the image.

Black and white images create mood, atmosphere and feelings, and so the light illuminates and shadows define.

“One important difference between colour and monochromatic photography is that in black and white is that you suggest, in colour you state. Much can be implied by suggestion, but statement demands certainty….”

~ Paul Outerbridge

I was particularly intrigued by this image. It was taken in the morning with the sun behind me. The moon was sinking towards the horizon and it was partly cloudy. By taking the colour to black and white and darkening the scene, it gave a sense of being out in the bush on a bright moonlit night. Not implausible, the moon is so bright at full moon that it cast shadows on the ground.

A Lesser Spotted Eagle fixed with a laser stare on potential prey. The removal of colour in the feathers shows how well aligned they are –  aerodynamically preened

“Colour is descriptive, black and white is interpretive.”

~Elliot Erwitt

This matriarch was coming out of a croton grove in Mashatu in Botswana. It was early morning so the shadows in the vegetation behind her were dark. I thought darkening the background further gave this female elephant a more imposing approach.

No disguising the bright morning sunlight in a bed of yellow devil thorn flowers in high summer. This lioness had cubs behind her and was watching a family group of giraffe ahead. The background, although beautiful, was of little consequence to her, as her attention was drawn elsewhere.

This cub was watching its mother intently. It was wet from the heavy morning dew and every now and then turned to look and see what we were doing. The sun was in the right direction, it was just about waiting for the cub to turn towards us – timing is all.

“Light and subject are inseparable. But when it is well integrated, they become a fine masterpiece.”

~ Paul Chong

One snoozy cub lying on the cool stoney sandbank of a riverbed at around 9h00  with a dark Croton forest in the background.

Along the Majale river in Mashatu, a few family groups of elephant had come down to drink. It was cloudy but not hot that morning. In black and white, the cloudy sky provides a wonderfully moody backdrop.

“I think it’s because it was an emotional story, and emotions come through much stronger in black and white. Color is distracting in a way, it pleases the eye but it doesn’t necessarily reach the heart.” 

~ Kim Hunter

On another occasion, also in the Majale river, this herd of elephant came rushing out of the Jackalberry and Croton tree line on the river bank. Something must have spooked them. They did not take any notice of us and just rushed past. The dust stirred up by their feet was more apparent in black and white.

“To see colour is a delight for the eye, to see in black and white is a delight for the soul.”

~Andri Caldwell

This Steenbok female (no horns) was lying in an eroded sand gully. She was very well camouflaged. Only by taking the colour out of the scene could you see her more clearly. There is no question that colouration plays a key role in camouflage. This is why the armed forces in the second world war used people who were colour-blind to fly in spotter aircraft to be able to see enemy armaments under the camouflage nets.

A Darter, the snake bird, so called because of its long flexible neck, sunning itself and drying its wings in the late afternoon sun on the Chobe river in northern Botswana. The golden sheen on its wings added to the contrast.

This elephant was having such fun splashing around in the Chobe river. You seldom ever see the mouth of an elephant from below its trunk. Those canines are a remarkable evolutionary adaption.

This giraffe was drinking from the Chobe river in the late afternoon, which is why its was well illuminated. There was thick vegetation behind it which enabled me to darken the background. It is unusual for a giraffe to  drink at the river with such thick ambush potential right behind it.

In April along the Chobe, the weather was variable with storm clouds brewing on a few afternoons. There is something very special about an African thunderstorm. The late afternoon light illumes the river while the sky grows dark and threatening, giving a sense of an impending unleashing of African wildness. The cumulonimbus clouds get heavy with moisture, generating massive upthrusts of air rising well over 5000 foot into the sky. The colours in the sky vary from blues and whites to dark grey, then out of nowhere, Zeus sends down a huge bolt of lightning followed by an almighty clap of thunder. You can measure how far the storm is away from the number of seconds between the lighting bolt and the thunder-clap, which is approximately equal to the distance away – one second equals one kilometre.

The full moon in April is impala rutting time. I was quite surprised how well-defined these two sparring impala rams were against the background. The black and white treatment showed off their form and texture against a very different textured background.

This very young Vervet Monkey was part of a troop which had been trying to find/steal food from the lodge dining room next to the Chobe river. This little imp was empty-handed so had to make do with the fruit from the tree above.

“Black and white photography is truly quite a ‘departure from reality’, and the transition from one aspect of visual magic to another was not as complete as many imagine.”

A family of Kudu standing on top of the Shilthave dam wall in Kruger Park. The elevation of the dam wall gives them a good visual on the surrounding area. The wind was blowing which always makes them nervous. The wind mixes up the smell and sound and makes it difficult for them to get a sense of  any animals in the surrounding area.

This was a very pretty, somewhat coy but engaging  young waterbuck doe.

Almost a silhouette, this male Klipspringer was sitting on top of a granite boulder at the foot of a kopje along the Waterbuck road in south-western section of Kruger Park. I liked the different tones and textures.

The dark side of the bush. Whether in colour or black and white you do not want to come across an “old dagga boy” like this in the bush on foot. A “dagga boy” is an old buffalo bull which has been kicked out of the herd. Sometimes you find them on their own and they can be unpredictable and very dangerous. His textured boss is what does the work. A buffalo bull can easily pick up an adult lion with those grappling hooks and throw it high into the air and cause real damage.

“Light is meaningful only in relation to darkness, and truth presupposes error. It is these mingled opposites which people our life, which make it pungent, intoxicating. We only exist in terms of this conflict, in the zone where black and white clash.”

~ Louis Aragon

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

Have fun,

Mike

This post is about colour. I am inbetween wildlife trips so I thought it would be interesting to play around with the colour in some of my wildlife images. Rather than change the colour of the subject, I wanted to see what effect it would create if I removed the background colour. Presumably, it would be more effective on some forms and colors than others. While playing, a number of fascinating insights emerged. You will not learn about this sort of thing from books or websites, once has to play to get a sense of what works and what does not!

“We must draw our standards from the natural world. … We must honour with the humility of the wise the bounds of that natural world and the mystery which lies beyond them, admitting that there is something in the order of being which evidently exceeds all our competence.”

~ Václav Havel

One of the first things professional photographers will ask you when they are looking at your image is what are you trying to say – what is the message your photograph is supposed to communicate.  If it is just a record of what you saw that is one thing, but if you are trying to show something more, the message needs to be clear. You will quickly realise how important the focus and colour of the background, or negative space, in the image is and whether it emphasises the subject, or disguises it.

I am an amateur wildlife photographer so this is a journey of exploration, physically, intellectually and spiritually. Physically, I do not want to let the grass grow under my feet, and my camera is my passport to travel. Intellectually, I have a deep need to communicate the beauty, inter-connectedness and innate intelligence in nature at a time when humanity is expanding and destroying most natural things in its path. Spiritually, I am becoming increasingly aware of the innate intelligence of nature and that we are the ones that need to learn her ways with considerably more humility than we are showing, currently.

“Have more humility. Remember you don’t know the limits of your own abilities. Successful or not, if you keep pushing beyond yourself, you will enrich your own life–and maybe even please a few strangers.”

~A.L. Kennedy

I have been privileged enough to go to Mashatu in Botswana, on the Chobe river in Botswana and the Kruger Park in South Africa in the first half of 2017. This post shows a selection of images from those trips, in which I have modified the saturation and sharpness of the background using Adobe’s Lightroom. The purpose of the modification is to reduce the distracting background colour in order to emphasize a key feature of the animal or bird. Removing the background colour enables the viewer to focus on the true colours of your subject.

“The picture will have charm when each colour is very unlike the one next to it.”

~Leon Battista Alberti

Water lilies on the Chobe river, painted with sunlight but without the blues of the water in the background .

A scene of a buffalo bull munching on water lily stems with a Cattle Egret on his back. The Cattle Egret normally walks along side (him) but with the buffalo being in the water the Cattle Egret just has to wait it out. Green hippo grass in the buffalo’s mouth, pink tongue and the yellow beak and legs of the Cattle Egret

A water lily standing tall in the water showing off its greens, whites and yellows without the distraction of the blue in the water.

A juvenile Bateleur Eagle standing on the bow of a dead tree. Without the background colour, the browns and blacks stand out as does the distinctive facial skin colour. The colour of the facial skin is an indication that this is an older juvenile. The younger ones have a green tinge to their facial skin.

“Every time you shift to a different color or different hue you are creating interest. It’s a subtle thing but it builds content.”

~ Clyde Aspevig

A Purple pod Terminalia with the sun behind it. The background colour and the greens are removed which emphasizes the colour of the seedpods.

A summer migrant looking for insects. This is a Lesser Spotted Eagle.

“It is a wholesome and necessary thing for us to turn again to the earth and in the contemplation of her beauties to know the sense of wonder and humility.”

~ Rachel Carson

This lion cub must have been bitten by an insect and began to lick the itchy area on its paw. Just the yellows, browns and oranges showing.

A Diederick’s Cuckoo in Mashatu. The de-saturated background emphasises the emerald greens on the wings back and tail, and that red skin around its eye.

A Plum-coloured Starling, now called Violet-backed Starling, playing with a leaf in Mashatu.

Cobalt blue, blood-red and archeological brown – woodland colours.

The Pied Kingfisher is so-called for obvious reasons. This next image needed some colour in the perch to show it was not a black and white photo. Somehow the colour in the perch gives it an improved three dimension effect.

The blue facial shield on the African Jacana got lost in the blue water background. Removing the blue in the background emphasizes the blue shield and the complementary rich ochre colour on the back and body feathers and the golden necklace.

A juvenile African Jacana foraging on the water-lily pad for insects and snails. Taking the colour out of the water gives the lily pad  a greater floating effect.

“Real genius is nothing else but the supernatural virtue of humility in the domain of thought.”

~Simone Weil

This female hippo decided we had got too close.  When this happens it can be extremely dangerous so you need a competent boat driver and guide. In all the excitement you do not see the colour of the water, just those eyes and the brown-pink colour around the eyes and nostrils.

In Mashatu in summer, we found a pride a lion which included a few cubs. It was mid-morning so nearly sleep time for these youngsters. Just allowing the yellows and oranges of the cubs to come through. Desaturating – the background colour improved the image.

“Colour is uncontainable. It effortlessly reveals the limits of language and evades our best attempts to impose a rational order on it… To work with colour is to become acutely aware of the insufficiency of language and theory – which is both disturbing and pleasurable.”

~David Batchelor

One of the lioness in the pride was watching the goings on attentively. The darkened background emphasised the colours on her face.

These cubs were lying on a gravel sandbank. It was cool in the summer morning heat. The background was a dark croton grove.

I took the green out of the bush and blue out of the sky to emphasize the reds and browns of this old male Swainson’s Spurfowl. The red facial skin is a key diagnostic when identifying this species of spurfowl. You could see it was an old male from its worn down and broken spurs on the back of his legs.

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A Pearl-spotted Owlet was sitting in a tree close to where we had been watching the coalition of three male cheetahs lying in a field of yellow devil thorn flowers. Taking out the blue in the background removes the complementary blues and seems to reduce the colours competing for attention and emphasised the colour of the owlet. It also gave a sense of how well camouflaged this owlet was in the tree in direct sunlight.

“When infinite colors exist between the dark and the light, who among us would choose to see only black and white? “

~Gene Bertsche

In summer in Mashatu, you will see many Carmine Bee-eaters. They are incredibly beautiful bee-eaters, which hawk insects from a perch. By taking out the background colour, you can see its bejewelled colours

The Blue Wildebeest is a grey-black colour in the bush. They do have colouration on their bosses and their youngsters are brownish in colour.

One of the many avian summer migrants from the northern climes. A White Stork taking a break from its foraging in the grasslands in Mashatu.

The removal of background colour helped show off this Yellow-billed Hornbill. Interestingly, bird identification would probably be much easier if the key characteristic colours were emphasised and background desaturated.

 desatru

“You put down one colour and it calls for an answer. You have to look at it like a melody.”

~Romare Bearden

A water-lily floating on the Chobe river with a pollinating visitor. Without the blues from the water, the tips of the petals seem more pink.

A juvenile African Jacana chick searching for insects on a bed of old water lilies. The background was naturally dark which showed off the subject well.

“The objects in front of you are flowers, but the subject is colour.”

~Michele Cooper

A water lily in full summer bloom in the Chobe river. I really liked the colours reflected in the water in the foreground .

A Great White Egret with its distinctive yellow bill, yellow eye and black legs and feet.

A Banded Mongoose mother with her youngsters. Without competing colours, the the colour bands on their backs really stood out.

Another Diederick’s Cuckoo with its favourite food, a caterpillar. 

“Colour is a powerful physical, biological, and psychological force. When less color and less intense color is present, trace amounts and subtle differences become highly significant and are strongly felt.”

~John Paul Caponigro

A young shoot embraced in the fork of this syringa tree. The green leaves signify hope, youth and a new start.

You don’t usually notice the browns in a juvenile Martial Eagle, but they stand out in front of a desaturated sky.

Again desaturating the background colour from the water helped bring out the greens, yellows and pinks in this water lily.

“In order to change a colour, it is enough to change the colour of its background.”

~Michel Eugene Chevreul

An adult African Jacana alighting on a water lily flower. Somehow the colours of both the lily and Jacana looked looked more intense with the color of the water desaturated. The contrast gives the image more definition.

An adult Egyptian Goose bathing. The water just running off its back. By taking the blue of the water out of the image gives it a cold feel which was in stark contrast to the very hot morning when this image was taken.

Regal, powerful and striking avian predator, this fish eagle was surveying its territory along the Chobe river.

The use of colour in a wildlife image is intriguing. The negative space around the subject is a powerful compositional component. There are occasions when complementary colours work well together and other times when removing the cooler colours really emphasise the warmer ones. This is a journey of discovery for me. I readily embrace colour in my wildlife photography but at times it can be distracting. This is another example of learning to see. 

“Nature is more depth than surface. Hence the need to introduce into our light vibrations represented by the reds and yellows, a sufficient amount of blue to give the impression of air.”

~Paul Cezanne

I remain ever grateful to be able to visit and photograph wildlife in some of the most beautiful wild settings in Africa.

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

Have fun,

Mike

Our last day in Kruger Park. We went through the Kruger gate. It was easy, pleasant and efficient and we were in the park before the sun had properly risen – the way it should be!!

“It is not so much for its beauty
that the forest makes a claim upon men’s hearts,
as for that subtle something,
that quality of air that emanation from old trees,
that so wonderfully changes and renews a weary spirit.”
~ Robert Louis Stevenson 

After a successful route along the Sabie river the day before we decided to try it again. For those of you who have not been in the park this might sound repetitive but I can assure you that nothing is ever the same in the bush. You will never see and experience the same thing in the same place again. That is part of the allure.

On the right hand side of the tar road along the Sabie river was a small pan. It had virtually dried up, but for  a few small pools and a muddy surround. Two Woolly-necked Storks were foraging in the pan.  They looked to be hunting in the mud and pools for insects.

You don’t often get to see these Woolly-necks up close. I have been into the bush many times and this is the closest I have got to this species.

“Wanderer, your footsteps are the road, and nothing more; wanderer, there is no road, the road is made by walking. By walking one makes the road, and upon glancing behind one sees the path. . .”

~Antonio Machado

Once on the Salitje road, which runs parallel to the Sabie river for about seven kilometers, we knew we were bound to see something interesting. As we wandered along the road we came upon this pair of Swainson’s Spurfowl. They were foraging along the side of the gravel road, peeking at grass seed as they wandered. You can see this was a male by his long spurs on his legs. He was also a young male as the spurs has not yet worn down through fighting.

It is always a challenge when you have two subjects in focus, which are not standing side by side. Immediately you have to stop down your f-stop to get greater depth of field. The top end cameras are so sophisticated these days, for the life of me I cannot understand why they do not put in the depth of field in the view finder. Lidars are all the rage these days which with well known geometry could give us the depth of field at a specific distance. Anyway, the guess seemed to have worked as I got them both in focus.

Have you ever wondered how tricky it must be to have eyes either side of your head rather than binocular vision.

“But, instead of what our imagination makes us suppose and which we worthless try to discover,life gives us something that we could hardly imagine.”
~ Marcel Proust

This was a classic example of one of nature’s surprises. We had turned off the Salitje road on to the S128, both gravel roads, and were almost at the tar road from Tshokwane to Lower Sabie when on the right hand side there was this Tawny Eagle  ripping the remaining flesh off what remained of a pelvis.

The Tawny stopped regularly during its feeding to look up and make sure that there were no threats anywhere near.

This Tawny looked to be feeding on the pelvis of a small antelope, either a young impala or a duiker.

We must have watched this blonde raptor for about ten minutes before it decided it had too much company.

Further on we turned onto the tar road which took us across the high level bridge, about a kilometre below the Lower Sabie camp. Down river from the bridge the Sabie river had been dammed with a weir. The wide sand bank gives you an idea of just how full this river flows at times.

We were now traveling down the H4-2 between Lower Sabie Camp and Crocodile Bridge when we saw this lone Purple Roller. They have the distinctive GISS of a roller but their colouring is not that distinctive. The stripped throat breast and belly are the main diagnostic feature of this bird. Only when they fly do you get their purple colouring.

“Sometimes the most scenic roads in life are the detours you didn’t mean to take.”
~ Angela N. Blount

We turned off the main Crocodile Bridge road onto the H5 to start making our way back towards Skukuza. This is an image which will stir most African hearts. The gravel road, tree landed, with blue skies and wildness all around. Don’t drive fast as you never know when a kudu will step out from the bush!

Mpondo dam. Good to see it so full of water with a herd of elephants drinking on the far right hand side.

We took a drive up to the Stevenson-Hamilton memorial on the way back from Mpondo dam. This was a step back in time to remember the incredible vision that some of the park’s founders had in those days. Stephanus Johannes Paulus Kruger, known as Paul Kruger, was the President of the South African Republic ( 1883 to 1902) who first pleaded “for setting aside certain areas where game could be protected and where nature could remain unspoilt, as the Creator made it”. In 1891, Kruger managed to amend existing game laws, and the state started providing protection for some animal species. After managing to declare other smaller areas as game reserves, on 26 March 1898, he proclaimed the ‘Goewerments Wildtuin’ (Government’s Reserve) between the Sabi and Crocodile rivers, as the Sabi Nature Reserve. After the end of the Anglo-Boer War (1902) and the death of Paul Kruger (1904), the reserve had almost been forgotten until Lord Milner re-issued the proclamation for the reserve. In 1902, Sir Godfrey Lagden, appointed James Stevenson-Hamilton as the first warden of the Sabi Nature Reserve. Stevenson-Hamilton served the game reserve for 44 years from 1902 to 1946. After his retirement, he settled in White River. At the age of 63, he married Hilda Chomondeley, 34 years his junior. They had three children. He died on 10 December 1957 at the age of 90.

“An invincible determination can accomplish almost anything and in this lies the great distinction between great men and little men.”

~Thomas Fuller
Stevenson-Hamilton was a good friend and fellow of the Tsonga people who lived on the reserve. They nicknamed him “Skukuza”, meaning”the man who has turned everything upside down” or “the man who swept clean”. It was Stevenson-Hamilton’s work and reputation which eventually resulted in land grants all the way from Crocodile River to Limpopo River, 10 times the size of the Sabi Game Reserve. The new area was renamed Kruger National Park.

There have been many generations of dedicated people who have committed their lives to protecting the wildlife sanctuary which is now the Kruger National Park. Sadly, 110 years later, the threat of poaching is as virulent as ever, but the rationale has changed. It is no longer about hunting for food for survival but much is now about poaching syndicates selling animal products to Asia. Certain types of wildlife are under considerably more threat than others. Kruger’s reputation for conservation has been badly undermined by the sustained slaughter of rhino in the park. Rhino poaching is a major problem and unfortunately, the syndicate poaching goes beyond rhinos to elephants.

Every eight hours, a rhino is slaughtered – three a day in South Africa. The task of the Kruger Park rangers is immense. Making the task even harder was the lifting of the ban on trade of rhino horn. The ruling by South Africa’s highest court in April 2016, legalised domestic trade in horn, and in the process raised emotions across the globe. It has been seen, by many, as a  decision that could hasten the extinction of rhinos in the wild.

“We have forgotten how to be good guests, how to walk lightly on the earth as its other creatures do”.

~Henry David Thoreau

Whenever there is condemnation, the authorities’ response is to clampdown on information. First, there was a clampdown on rhino poaching statistics. Surely, if there is a threat you try to get as many people involved in stopping that threat as possible. Now the same is happening with information on elephant ivory poaching. SANParks has refused to provide statistics on how many elephants have been poached in the Kruger National Park. This year, Park officials instead refer queries to the National Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA). The DEA has also declined to release the latest figures saying interested parties must wait until the next quarterly statistics are released by the Minister.

Mixing armed poaching gangs and tourists cannot be not good for business!!!!!!!

“We have lost the ancient wisdom that considers each decision on how it will affect future generations. We have to get back to thinking in a different way, beyond the easy political wins.”

~Dr Jane Goodall

The refusal to release these statistics follows a sharp increase in elephant poaching in the northern section of the Kruger National Park. It is estimated that at least 80 elephants have been killed since early 2015 – the highest levels in more than three decades. There appears to be no letting up in the “relentless rhino poaching onslaught” across Africa with South Africa on track to lose more than a thousand rhino for the fifth straight year. According to News24, 483 rhino have been killed in the first five and a half months of 2017. There are no official figures on rhino kill statistics currently available from the Department of Environmental Affairs, the national custodian of the country’s natural heritage.

“Life in any form is our perpetual responsibility”.

~S. Parkes Cadman

An observer naturally gets suspicious of the authorities’ intentions when they clam up on poaching information. The obvious question is what are the authorities hiding? They are supposed to be the guardian’s of our natural heritage for future generations to enjoy – inter-generational fairness.

“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

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

Have fun,

Mike

Despite all the traffic and the substantial increase of people in Kruger Park, it is a big and still, wild park.  Away from the high traffic areas, there is peace, wildness and beauty.

“May the sun bring you new energy by day.

May the moon softly restore you by night.

May the rain wash away your worries.

May the breeze blow new strength into your being.

May you walk gently through the world and know the its beauty all the days of you life.”

~Apache blessing

On this particular day we did not go through the Phabeni gate but chose to travel the 40 kilometers outside Kruger Park to the Kruger Gate. The staff at the Kruger gate were pleasant and efficient. It could not have been a more different experience. We will not be going through the Phabeni gate in future. Once in the Park,  we chose to drive the Sabie circuit which is the route from Skukuza down the H4-1 , turn left  and travel 12 kilometers down that road along the banks of the Sabie river, then cross the high level road bridge  across the Sabie river. Turn immediately right after the bridge onto the Salitje road and we made our way down to the Lower Sabie camp.  This turned out to be one of our more productive photographic routes.

The Sabie River, an image taken from the  bridge looking west up river. It is a beautiful lowveld scene, graced by plenty of water.

This is a wider view of the same scene as the previous image. You can plenty of water and lush vegetation showing space and magnificence of the area.

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

~ Linda Hogan

Down the Salitje road there are a number of spots to view the river. You can stop under the big Jackal Berry trees which offer plenty of deep shade. One of our favorite things is to stop in one of these spots, take a break from the driving and have coffee and a rusk or hot cross bun while sitting quietly listening to the river gurgle below and all the wildlife around us. It is not quiet, but is so peaceful and soothing.

After our coffee break, we got back on the river road traveling south east. On the road was this Crested Barbet which had caught a large grasshopper.

It was fascinating to watch this barbet slowly dismembering this large grasshopper into bite size pieces until it had its meal down to a “swallowable” size.  A great management technique and hugely satisfying, by the look of it.

A typical scene along a Kruger gravel road. You can see the Crested Barbet in the bottom right hand side in the road.

This was a female elephant and her calf in a dry river bed. The female had dug down in the sand until she got to the water. The female was almost kneeling to get at the water in the hole, so the calf had to get down really low to suckle. The calf looked almost too old to suckle. It was strange that this female did not go down to the main Sabie river to drink. It must have been only a couple of hundred meters away.

“How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.”

~ Annie Dillard

A view of the river from another of the side road view points. It is always worth stopping to take a look, you just never know what you might see. Many of the view points offer shade which is welcome as the day starts to warm up.

“If the sight of the blue skies fills you with joy,
if a blade of grass springing up in the fields has power to move you,
if the simple things of nature have a message that you understand,
rejoice, for your soul is alive.”
~ Eleonora Duse

Sitting in the shade at one of the  view points of the river, we watched a Hammerkop gathering sticks for its huge nest. I took the shot without adjusting my shutter speed but liked the effect the image created.

A little further on along the Salitje road from were we had seen the female elephant and her calf drinking, we found a part of the river  which had been naturally dammed. It was a very peaceful scene.

“Land really is the best art.”

~ Andy Warhol

On the right hand side were sandstone rocks exposed right down to the water’s edge providing some interesting texture and colour to an otherwise flora dominated scene.

On the far side of the river lay this large Nile Crocodile. Those exposed teeth say it all.

Also in the pool of water were a few hippo. This character was getting a lot of attention from a group of Red-billed Oxpeckers.

“The beauty of the natural world lies in the details.”

~ Natalie Angier

Further down stream along the Sabie river we stopped to watch this Goliath Heron hunting from the rocks. We never saw it catch anything but we were just not patient enough.

There were many wildlife pedestrians along the gravel road. On this occasion, we stopped for a family of Dwarf Mongoose.

They are quite wary being so far down the food chain.

They also have Meerkat tendencies and are able to stand on their back legs for quite a while  using their tails as a support.

These little characters are insect eaters and move in groups of up to 20 individuals. They all move together, much like the Banded Mongoose, to give the appearance of a much bigger being.

A Red-billed Hornbill is territorial. It defends permanent territory against its own species, but not other species. This Red-billed Hornbill was going through its courtship display, which  includes “shoulder-shrugging” and ‘body-swaying”.  During displays, they utter clucking calls with bowed head and slightly opened wings.

The adult African Long-tailed or Magpie Shrike has black and white plumage with a very long, graduated tail. Its head and mantle are glossy black. Their scapulars are white and they have greyish-white V-shaped colouring on the rump, which is more conspicuous in flight.

By midday we had got close to Lower Sabie camp. We crossed the Sabie River again. Looking down from the high level bridge, we could see a number of crocodiles out of the water warming themselves in the rising morning temperatures.

From Lower Sabie we traveled north beyond the Mlondozi Dam to the S129 and then back along the Salitje road because it is such an attractive drive. As we turned left off the S129 onto the Old Tshokwane road, this this large elephant bull was walking up the road towards us.

“We cannot command Nature except by obeying her.”
~ Francis Bacon 

We always show these giants of the bush the respect they deserve and never have any problems with them as a result. They can see you but when you show some deference and back off and give them some space they are usually quite relaxed. He had given himself a good red dust bath after being in the river.

This is one sight you do not want to see when walking through the bush, a lone old “dagger boy”, a buffalo bull.

When alone they seem to be less willing to give you any slack. Just look at the size of his boss. He has survived this long in the bush for a reason.

Back along the bridge over the Sabie River below Sukuza. This time looking south-east. The huge fig, Jackalberry and Natal Mahogany trees give the river a sense of grandeur.

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

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

Have fun,

Mike

Winter in the lowveld in Kruger Park is not cold. It gets cool in the evening and early morning but not icy. By midday the temperature will rise to around 30 degrees centigrade. So winter is a good time to visit the lowveld if you are one of those people who melt in the heat.

“The raw materials of photography are light and time and memory.”

~  Keith Carter

We tried the Phabeni gate in south west Kruger Park again, being eternal optimists, but we got another lengthy queue and some “agro” from a park official handing out the entrance forms. We eventually got close to Skukuza by mid-morning. So we decided to stop in at Lake Panic which is about ten minute drive from Skukuza. We tried the hide the previous day but it was full. We always visit the hide at Lake Panic with great expectation. This time it turned out to be exceptionally quiet. We saw a few hippos wallowing in the section of the dam that stretched out to the east. There was a family of Water Dikkops roosting by the water’s edge. The Water Dikkops do not have spots and have  greyish-fawn colouring on their secondary wing feathers with a black and white stripe on their greater wing coverts. The Water Dikkops also have a quite a different call to the Spotted Dikkops and tend to be found close to water. These are also nocturnal birds so were quite sleepy by mid-morning.

“In the right light, at the right time, everything is extraordinary.”

~Aaron Rose

I can not resist photographing water lilies. Their symmetry and shape fascinates me and is an example of the nature’s perfection. There were no jacanas to trot on them and flatten some of that symmetry. In the mornings the area around the hide is covered in shadows. The Lake Panic is essentially an afternoon hide.

“Photography takes an instant out of time, altering life by holding it still.”

~ Dorothea Lange

We have seldom seen crocodiles around the hide but this time there were two crocs and they were intently watching the dikkops and a grey heron which were resting close to the water’s edge.

There are a number of tantalizingly good perches on the south side of the hide. Perfect for kingfishers, weavers and even goshawks but alas these perches remained statues for potential use.

A family of White-faced whistling ducks came to visit and bath next to the hide. The two youngsters caught a mid-morning nap in the warming sun after bathing while their parents kept watch.

Lake Panic was frustratingly quiet but nature has her own rhythms. We travelled past Skukuza on our way to Leeupan which is approximately half way between Skukuza and Satara, traveling north. In the past, we have had some productive mornings at Leeupan. It is a morning pan, as the sun is behind you as one predominately faces west when  looking across the pan. As photographers we start to categorize the various dams and pans into morning and afternoon locations according to the direction of the sun. From Skukuza you have to cross the Sabie river on the way to Leeupan. We took the H1-2 which crosses the Sabie river just downstream of Skukuza. It was a wonderful sight to see plenty of water still flowing in the Sabie, especially after the severe drought six months before.

During the morning we had noticed numerous flocks of queleas flying around. Sometimes small flocks combine to form one large flock and the sweeping movements of the flock  become a murmuration.

It is quite a spectacle to see hundreds of thousands of these little queleas all stopping to drink at the same time and then flying off together in what looks to be one big organism.

We were not very successful at Leeupan as it had mostly dried up with only odd shallow pool of water remaining. There was one lone elephant bull quietly drinking from a pool on the far side of the pan.  Despite the lack of wildlife action, it was very pleasant just sitting listening to the peace and quiet. It is a million times better than the drone of the traffic, barking dogs and house alarms in town.

“Paint your picture by means of the lights. Lights define texture and color – shadows define form.”

From Leeupan, we decided to travel back to Skukuza and then on to Transport dam via Waterhole road which was on our way back to the Phabeni gate. On the Waterhole road there is a concrete causeway across the wide N’waswitshaka river. There we saw this two year old kudu bull, one of two, which were browsing on the vegetation along the side of the river.

Just further along  Waterhole road is a water reservoir supplying water to a drinking trough which is always a magnet for game. We found about seven giraffe hanging around the reservoir. I am assuming they can can drink directly from the full reservoir which is why they were there.  Close to the reservoir is a small pond. I took this photograph of a flotilla of terrapins sunbathing on what looked to be a boulder in the middle of this pond.

“Minds need the unusual, because the unusual has the power to shake the mind!”
~ Mehmet Murat ildan

The boulder turned out to have a snout and ears. This lone hippo was providing much needed support for the community.

The hippo did not seem to mind the congregation on its back.

This White-crowned Shrike just sat there begging for its photograph to be taken….and I obliged.

“There are two ways of spreading light; to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it.”       

~Edith Wharton

Further along the Waterhole road toward Transport dam there are two granite kopjies, one either side of the road. On the west side, we found this male Klipspinger warming itself on a boulder.

As you can see from the colouring, these Klipspringers blend in well with their surroundings.

Only male Klipspringers have horns and they have very coarse hair which acts as good insulation on cold nights up on the kopjies. Klipspringers’ dense, coarse coats consist of hollow hairs which rustle when shaken or touched. This coat of unique hair is tough enough to cushion their bodies from any abrasion from sharp rocks.

Eventually something or some noise disturbed him and he jumped up and dashed off on the higher boulders.

“As we work to create light for others, we naturally light our own way.”      

~Mary Anne Radmacher

This is a typical view as you are driving south along the Waterhole road.

We went on down to Transport dam but it was also very quiet so drove back along Waterhole road and down to the Phabeni gate. Around nine kilometers from Phabeni gate is the Nyamundwa dam where we found a pair of fish eagles perched next to their nest. It looked as if they were in the process of re-establishing their nest as they usually breed in the winter.

Another view of the hills in the distance as you are driving down towards the Phabeni gate in the mid-afternoon.

“Travel light, live light, spread light and be the light.”

~Yogi Bhajan

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

Have fun,

Mike

We spent four days in the Kruger National Park in mid-June. I was very interested to see how the Kruger Park (or the Park or Kruger as it is known by South Africans) had recovered from the recent devastating drought after good summer rains.  The restorative power of nature has to be seen to be believed.

“Nature is bent on new beginning and death has not a chance of winning…”
~ Rosy Cole

After a much delayed entrance to the Park  via the Phabeni gate we entered the Reserve. I have not been into the Kruger Park for three or four years and I was struck by two aspects. The queues, on two separate mornings, to get into the park first thing took not less than 45 minutes to get through a single manned gate despite two gates being available  and many park officials milling around. The second aspect was the quantum of traffic in the Park. In the last few years, the traffic in the Park has doubled, if not trebled. It was not school holidays or any public holiday. For wildlife photography this is not ideal.  Kruger has always been a relatively difficult place for wildlife photography because the backgrounds are generally “busy” but with the extra traffic it is now difficult to sit quietly waiting for a situation to develop because in no time there are cars all around wondering what you are looking at. After our long wait at the gate we had missed some of the golden light and the sun had begun to climb in the sky. Thankfully at this time of the year the temperatures are moderate. It is a cool 12 degrees centigrade first thing at sunrise but by midday the temperature had climbed to 30 degrees centigrade. In summer it is much warmer.

“Nature’s peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves.”

~John Muir

The Kruger National Park is approximately 2 million hectares  in area, which makes it a similar size to Israel and about a third of the size of Ireland. The Park is roughly 360 kilometers long (north to south) and averages 65 kilometers in width, and 90 kilometers at its widest point. Being so big you have to plan  your day trip as the Park opens at 6h00 and closes at 17h30. With a maximum allowed vehicle speed of 50 kms per hour (mainly for the safety of the animals and birds) it is easy to misjudge your exit time, especially if you get caught up in a traffic jam around some lions or a herd of elephants hold you up.. 

Kruger Park is on the right hand side of South Africa so as a day visitor you drive into the sun in the morning and again into the sun when you are leaving (the Park) in the afternoon. On our first day, we decided to enter at the Phabeni gate travel down to Pretoriuskop camp in the south west part of the Park, and drive along Napi road toward the centre of the south end of the Park. We stopped at Shitlhave dam and Transport dam. We then took the Waterhole road to get back to Skukuza, the main camp in the centre of the south part of the Park. From there we travelled up to Leeupan which, traveling north, is about half way along the H1-2 to Satara camp. Leeupan was the limit of our day trip so from there we retraced our journey to Skukuza and went out through the Phabeni gate. That trip took us 11 hours of driving and stopping at the dams to watch and photograph the game.

In the past, Pretoriuskop camp has yielded some wonderful bird photography, but not this time. Between Pretoriuskop and Skukuza camps you will pass the Shitlhave and Transport dams, which usually attract a variety of wildlife. We stopped at Shitlhave dam and found a herd of waterbuck browsing along the water’s edge.  

Part of the herd of waterbuck were grazing along the side of the dam.With the wind blowing lightly they were very wary as their senses (smell and hearing) get distorted in the wind.

The females kept a wary eye on this crocodile warming itself in the winter sun. The croc would was never likely to catch a waterbuck on land especially when they could see it.

The innocence of youth.

This young waterbuck was very inquisitive.

The dominant waterbuck bull might have ruled all the perimeter of the dam and intimidated the kudu and impala but had a tough time getting rid of an itch on his back.

This young waterbuck female’s face was quizzical and angelic.

As the morning progressed more and more wildlife came to the dam for a drink. A small family herd of kudu wandered down for a drink but they were very skittish.

This young kudu bull must have been about a year old judging from his small horns. It usually takes about four years for a bull to grow the full two and a half twists to his horns.

It was still the tail end of the impala rutting season so this male was snorting at the prospect of other males coming down to drink at the dam.

“In a cool solitude of trees
Where leaves and birds a music spin,
Mind that was weary is at ease,
New rhythms in the soul begin.”
~ William Kean Seymour

There is usually no causeway across a small sand river bed. Despite this I like to stop in the river bed to have a look up and down the river. Sometimes you find elephants or kudu browsing on the bushes along the river bank or, if you are lucky, a few lions lying in the shade on the cool sand. Either way I am always expecting to see something interesting.

You will find the Impala lily in the drier parts of the bush. In winter, it’s striking colours are a stark contrast to the fading greens, fawns and yellows.

Across wide sand rivers there is usually a concrete causeway. This next image was taken from the middle of such a causeway. There were still pools of water at the edge of the river. Surprisingly it looked like it was going to rain, but it never did.

Hornbills are ubiquitous in Kruger. This is an African Grey Hornbill. It has a very different call to the red and yellow-billed hornbills. Its call  is described as thin, piping and plaintive. 

You can tell this was a male Grey Hornbill as his bill was dark with a creamy section on his upper mandible and a prominent casque. The female has a smaller casque and her top mandible is mostly creamy white  and the lower mandible has a red tip to it.

We wandered through Skukuza hoping to find sunbirds on the aloes. Most of the aloes were gone and we did not find any sunbirds but we saw this Crowned Hornbill. It has a casque along most of its upper mandible and its bill and casque are red.

Although described as fairly common, I have rarely seen Crowned Hornbills in the park. You are more likely to hear its melancholic call coming from the thick woodland vegetation.

Up at Leeupan, the water had mostly evaporated. We saw some elephants and a pair of Saddle-billed Storks resting next to the pan. This male Saddle-billed Stork was resting, kneeling down with his legs bend in front of him. The impala ram was escorting a few red-billed oxpeckers.

The peace and quiet did not last long for this male Saddle-billed Stork. The matriarch moved him out of the way of her family and did not try to walk around him.

There were a lot of insects, especially grasshoppers. This made easy pickings for the birds and baboons alike. This male  baboon was just finishing off a succulent grasshopper.

An evocative image of the road down the hill towards the Phabeni gate in the late winter afternoon.

Kruger Park is an iconic game reserve with a rich history. For game viewers, it is a wonderful way to see the African bush and a variety of wildlife. For wildlife photographers it is all together more challenging. Being a day visitor makes it even more difficult to get good photographs. It makes a lot of sense to stay inside the park at one of the camps or lodges. The day visitor entrance process to the park is tedious but necessary given the high level of poaching in the park, not the least of which is rhinos.

“Miracles are not contrary to nature, but only to what we know about nature.”

~St Augustine

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

Have fun,

Mike

Our recent trip to Chobe was a five day stay. April is in-between season, still warm with rain, but the evenings were starting to cool down. The clouds provided some wonderful drama to our landscapes and sunsets during the first few days. By Saturday, our second last day, it  had become very overcast and dark, curtailing  our photography on the boat. There was also a lot of wind which the animals do not like. The wind disrupts their senses making them much more cautious and birds seek shelter from the gusting wind and rain. By afternoon it was raining so we did not go out on the boat and it was still raining on the Sunday morning.

“The sound of the rain needs no translation.”

~Alan Watts

Usually when the weather is like this we retire to a convenient place to edit our images and chat amongst each other, which is great fun. The rain was intermittent, stopping allowing the light to brighten at times. It was amazing to see the amount of wildlife living in and around the lodge which came out to play as soon as the rain stopped. There was little active bird life, but the animals were busy. A large family of banded mongooses lived in burrows under some of the lodge’s rooms. They came out to play and forage once the rain stopped. A warthog family also came out to forage on the lush lawn in front of the rooms, and Vervet monkeys were always around the lodge trying to steal food from the dining area and from visitors’ rooms, if unsuspecting visitors left their doors open. The baboons also trooped across the lawns, ever the opportuntists, and we were graced by a beautiful, dainty bushbuck doe which surprisingly emerged from behind a wooden fence.

“He spread out his hood more than ever, and Rikki-tikki saw the spectacle-mark on the back of it that looks exactly like the eye part of a hook-and-eye fastening. He was afraid for the minute, but it is impossible for a mongoose to stay frightened for any length of time, and though Rikki-tikki had never met a live cobra before, his mother had fed him on dead ones, and he knew that all a grown mongoose’s business in life was to fight and eat snakes. Nag knew that too and, at the bottom of his cold heart, he was afraid.”
― Rudyard Kipling, Rikki-Tikki-Tavi

One thing I have learnt from wildlife photography is that the weather and lighting might change but new unforeseen photographic opportunities present themselves for those who are willing to wait and watch. I cannot tell you how many times I have been in the bush and seen Banded Mongooses but never been able to photograph them up close. Despite the “grotty” weather this opportunity opened up. In wildlife photography when there is such changeable weather, “it is never over until it is over” and expect the unexpected.

The banded mongoose has bands of fawn hair on its back. This was the alpha male in the pack – there is usually only one. A pack of banded mongooses can swell to 40 individuals.

Rudyard Kipling never described what type of mongoose Rikki Tikki Tavi was  – but he was a valiant young Indian Mongoose. Mongooses eat everything from beetles and grubs to snakes. They seem to be fearless when tackling a venomous snake.

“The motto of all the mongoose family is, “Run and find out,” and Rikki-tikki was a true mongoose.”
~ Rudyard Kipling, Rikki-Tikki-Tavi

Banded Mongooses live in permanent and cohesive large packs. They are very sociable and talkative creatures.

They live in woodland savanna areas where they can find beetles, insects and smaller reptiles.  The lodge seems to provide them with a wide variety of these edibles.

Like many bands of animals they form nurseries where a few adults look after the nursery of youngsters while the other adults go off to forage. Usually the births are synchronized and all pack members help to look after the young.

Breeding is normally restricted to the rainy season, and during her life time a female averages three litters every two years.

Banded Mongooses are a tasty snack for predators  such as cheetah, jackal, leopards and young lions.

The young were very small and still “tottery” on their little legs. They always stayed very close to their attendant adult.

“It is the hardest thing in the world to frighten a mongoose, because he is eaten up from nose to tail with curiosity. The motto of all the mongoose family is “Run and find out,” and Rikki-tikki was a true mongoose.”
~ Rudyard Kipling, Rikki-Tikki-Tavi

Banded Mongooses work together in groups to fend off predators, mainly to make the group look like one large mobile creature. The key objective being to protect their young and elderly. Sounds like humans could learn an thing or two from our little band of friends.

“Without rain nothing grows, learn to embrace the storms of your life.”

As cute as many of these animals look they are wild. The warthog’s tusks are there for a reason and are known to rip open the belly of a lion, they are not for show. This boar had particularly small tusks, I am not sure why as he looked fully grown.

A warthog sow with her brood, kneeling and grateful for the easy, protected, abundant food.

These youngsters had major whiskers. In fact, this warthog family were the hairiest I have ever seen. 

“Hakuna Matata it means no worries for the rest of your days”

~The Lion King

“Its the circle of life, and it moves us all through despair and hope, through faith and love. Till we find out place on this path unwinding.”

~The Lion King

From behind the wooden fence emerged this beautiful young bushbuck doe. Bushbuck are normally elusive and they are browsers so it was quite a surprise to see this delicate bushbuck emerge.

“Wherever you go no matter what the weather, bring your own sunshine.”

~Anthony J D’Angelo

She seemed quite habituated to all the people milling around. Bushbuck are active around 24 hours a day, but tend to be nocturnal near human habitations.

Vervet Monkeys are certainly habituated to people, in fact they thrive on human’s casualness, the more distractions, the better.  Nevertheless, there is always a scout up in the tree watching for predators or lodge guards with catapults. Vervet’s main predators are Martial Eagles, pythons and leopards. They have different alarm calls for each. I am not sure what the alarm call is for a guard with a catapult.

There were many Vervet’s running back and forth. Invariably they found something to munch on, in some cases stolen from the buffet at the dining area.

This very small youngster caught my eye, as curiosity overtook naiveté. 

“You never judge a day by its weather.”

~Zig Ziglar

I could not get over how human-like many of its expressions were, especially those hands!!!

The body of this little imp must have been the size of my hand, but it was fully self sufficient

I hope these few images show that if you keep your eyes open and your camera ready there are always opportunities regardless of the weather. The wildlife was prolific around the lodge as is usually the case because there is plenty of food. We were at the Chobe Safari lodge for a photographic boat safari but mother nature often has other plans. The trick is to go with the flow and keep your eyes open and camera ready for opportunities and they will come, whether you expect them of not. 

A special thanks to Johan Brits who was our CNP guide – it was a wonderful trip. Thanks also to Kwana for driving the boat and getting us into and out of the most amazing places.

“Photography is an art of observation. It has little to do with the things you see and everything to do with the way you see them.”

~Elliot Erwitt

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

Have fun,

Mike

In this post I have chosen to let the images talk for themselves rather than tell stories. This post is a gallery and hope fully the images are enough. This gallery shows you the wonderful variety of birdlife you can see along the Chobe river. As I have mentioned in earlier posts on this trip, we did not see big flocks of birds but we saw a wide variety of Chobe’s avian  residents. This is a small selection of what you can see in April along the Chobe river. At any time of the year this is a paradise for birders and wildlife photographers alike. In this post I have shown birds not already presented in previous posts from this trip, so it excludes raptors and Jacanas.

“The beautiful vagabonds, endowed with every grace, masters of all climes, and knowing no bounds – how many human aspirations are realized in their free, holiday-lives, and how many suggestions to the poet in their flight and song!”

~John Burroughs

A pair of  Pygmy Geese, male on the left and female on the right. The female usually flies first, so be ready!

A male Pygmy Goose, he is quite vocal when agitated.

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

~Henri Bartier-Bresson

A male Pygmy Goose takes off like a “pocket rocket”.

A Squacco Heron in hunting mode.

“Taking pictures is like savouring life intensely, every hundredth of a second.”

~Marc Riboud

A Squacco Heron standing dead still waiting for prey to come within striking distance.

A Darter, also called the snake bird, because of its long supple neck.

“A photograph is usually looked at – seldom looked into.”

~ Ansel Adams

This snake bird was drying its wings in the warm, late afternoon sun.

All over preening flexibility, with style.

A Great Egret hunting.

“It is not only fine feathers that make fine birds.”

~Aesop

Small success for the Great Egret.

A Black-headed Heron shaking it up.

A Black Egret with frogs legs for breakfast.

Frog tossing for smooth swallowing.

“At first glance a photograph can inform us. At second glance it can reach us.”

~ Minor White

Black Egret emerging from its hunting “umbrella”. 

A pair of Red-billed Oxpeckers on the back of a buffalo bull.

A pair of Pied Kingfishers.

“Reaching a ‘creative’ state of mind thru positive action is considered preferable to waiting for ‘inspiration’.”

~ Minor White

A Pied Kingfisher hovering in hunt.

A Pied Kingfisher rearranging its catch.

A Pied Kingfisher subduing its breakfast.

A Woodland Kingfisher caught a Mantis while it was praying.

“One should not only photograph things for what they are but for what else they are.”

~ Minor White

Billed for a Praying Mantis dance on a woodland stage.

A sleepy nocturnal Water Dikkop in mid-morning.

“I only went out for a walk and finally concluded to stay out till sundown, for going out, I found, was really going in.”

~John Muir

Those big eyes are all the better for seeing you at night.

You will never find the Water Dikkops far from the water’s edge.

A Sacred Ibis beach combing.

Egyptian Goose bathing.

Making quite a splash.

Like water off a goose’s back!

A Blacksmith Lapwing on a sortie to attack Jacana chicks on the adjacent water lily pads.

A Cattle Egret enjoying the late afternoon sun.

“We talk of communing with Nature, but ’tis with ourselves we commune… Nature furnishes the conditions – the solitude – and the soul furnishes the entertainment.”

~John Burroughs

Great Egret, well fed and watching the world go by.

A Cattle Egret taking in Chobe’s view across the water from an overhanging branch.

“The sun shines not on us but in us.”
~ John Muir

Lilac-breasted Roller bewildered by so many dragonflies congregating above.

A pair of White-fronted Bee-eaters about to start excavating their nest in a limestone bank.

A Green-backed Heron, dead still, trying to camouflage itself in the late afternoon light.

A Hammerkop foraging along the river’s edge.

Nesting time for this Hammerkop.

This Hammerkop was gathering bark for its “super nest”.

A sleek Squacco Heron flying towards us.

“If you want to fly you have to give up everything that weighs you down”.

Perfect glide lines.

A juvenile Allen’s Gallenule.

A characteristic tail flick from this young Allen’s Gallenule.

A Burchell’s Coucal skulking in the long grass next to the river’s edge.

Skulking success for this Burchell’s Coucal.

“Our ability to perceive quality in nature begins, as in art, with the pretty. It expands through successive stages of the beautiful to values as yet uncaptured by language.”

~Aldo Leopold

Two cold Little Bee-eaters huddling together in the early morning light.

Avian gem sparkling in the early morning light.

Hungry White-throated Swallow chick begging for food. 

A tricky landing in the gusting early morning winds for this White-throated Swallow.

I hope this gallery of bird images gave you a small idea of the bird variety which you are likely to see along the Chobe, even after the migrants have left.

“Everybody needs beauty…places to play in and pray in where nature may heal and cheer and give strength to the body and soul alike.”
~ John Muir

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

Have fun,

Mike

As a wildlife photographer one of the most important things I can do is to immerse myself in the environment I want to photograph. This immersion gives me a sense of its uniqueness, its inter-connections and the story it has to offer. Photography is about the creative management of light but also about conscious selection of  subject and composition to illumenate the story. Given enough time, when immersed in a scene it will reveal its story.

“A great photograph is a full expression of what one feels about what is being photographed in the deepest sense and is, thereby, a true expression of what one feels about life in its entirety.”
~Ansel Adams

One the stories revealed in the next three images of an impala ram is of Geophagy. This is the consumption of soil-like substrates such as clay and chalk. Geophagy is commonly observed  in the bushveld, with many wildlife species. Researchers have found it is more widespread in the animal kingdom than previously thought and have observed geophagia in more than 200 species of animals, from parrots to bats, many types of antelope, baboons to elephants, and gorillas to chimpanzees.

This impala ram was eating the soil from the white bank on one side of elephant valley. This is a wide gully formed by storm water and years of wildlife coming down to drink from the river. The whiteness of the soil suggests it is limestone-based. We often see impala, baboon, kudu and elephants eating the soil from this steep white bank at Elephant Valley. This is a favourite game viewing site by boat and is about two kilometres north of Chobe Game Lodge, between Kasane and Serondela. We also regularly see Sable Antelope down in Elephant Valley but they are skittish and I have never seen them eating the white soil.

A common explanation for why animals eat dirt is that the soil contains minerals, such as calcium, sodium and iron, which support energy production and other vital biological processes. An animal’s need for these minerals changes with the seasons, with age and with overall health which may explain why geophagia is especially common when an animal’s diet does not provide enough minerals or when the challenges of the environment demand extra energy.

“A provocative composition must lead you to look beyond, illuminating unanswered questions.”

~Mike Haworth

Also the idea that, in most cases, eating dirt is probably a way to get rid of toxins could explain why people and animals so often prefer clay-like soils to other kinds of earth. Negatively charged clay molecules easily bind to positively charged toxins in the stomach and gut—preventing those toxins from entering the bloodstream by ferrying them through the intestines and out of the body. Detoxification might also explain why some indigenous peoples prepare meals of potatoes and acorns with clay—these foods are bitter because they contain small amounts of toxins. ( Source: Would You Like a Side of Dirt with That? by Philip T. B. Starks, Brittany L. Slabach in Scientific American 1 June 2012)

The next three images are of kudu. This is one of Africa’s most gracious and handsome antelopes. The males carry magnificent spiraled horns, big ears with bluish- grey coats with light vertical white stripes. The bulls also have large manes running along their throat to their chest. It is part of the Tragelaphinae family, which defines spiral horned antelope. There are two types of kudu in Africa, the Greater and Lesser Kudu.  Adult males of the Greater Kudu are generally 35% taller and double the body weight of a Lesser Kudu (Lesser Kudu are not found in southern Africa). Bulls keep growing with age reaching a maximum body size at around 12 years of age. 

“Consulting the rules of composition before taking a photograph is like consulting the laws of gravity before going for a walk.”

~ Edward Weston

This lone mature kudu bull was wandering downstream along the bank of the Chobe river. It was late afternoon and it was surprising that he used such a narrow walkway between the river and the adjacent thick bush, which provided good ambush cover for large predators. He had a magnificent set of horns making 2 1/2 graceful twists. The spiral horn of kudu males have been known to grow as long as 72 inches. Unlike the sable, the kudu seldom uses its horns in defense against predators. Dominance is usually quickly and peacefully determined by a size and posture, where using a lateral display where one male stands sideways in front of the other and makes himself look as large as possible. These large horns are also not a problem in thick wooded bush because the kudu just lifts up his chin up and lays the horns against his back, moving easily through dense bush.

“If you are out there shooting, things will happen for you. If you’re not out there, you’ll only hear about it.”

~ Jay Maisel

The angle of light was not ideal given the sun was directly behind this kudu bull, so this image was not taken for its photographic quality but rather to show you that antelope would rather drink from a small pool next to the river than directly from the river. Presumably this is because of the threat of attack from crocodiles. I have often seen sable do the same thing down at Elephant Valley.

Kudu bulls reach adult maturity at around 4 years of age.  A young kudu bull’s horns will have their first twist by around 2 years of age. The females usually do not have horns and are much smaller than the males. Kudu are browsers so feed mainly on the leaves of trees and bushes.  This small family group of two females were just downstream of elephant valley and were also eating the white soil from the same limestone ridge, although it was a much more dangerous place to feed as there was no easy escape route.

We were also fortunate enough to also see Puku. This is a medium-sized antelope, which resembles the lechwe, but the puku lacks the lechwe’s brown foreleg markings, and is smaller than a lechwe. The Puku is found mainly in wet grasslands in southern Democratic Republic of Congo, Namibia, Tanzania, and Zambia. A limited number can be seen in northern Botswana in the Chobe area.

Puku breed year round but are more sexually active after the first heavy rains of the wet season. This is a gregarious antelope and territorial males are polygynous and herd females into their territories. The social system is centralised on adult males maintaining and defending territories which accord them breading opportunities amongst wondering female herds. Territorial males maintain their territories throughout the year. ( source: Animal Diversity Web)

Puku males make a set of unique shrill whistles to communicate, either to warn other males to stay away or to protect their territory. Solitary males emit 3 to 4 whistles to warn other males to keep away. This whistle is also used as a way to advertise to females. Territorial and bachelor males can be identified by glandular secretions on the neck. Territorial males excrete more hormones from their neck than bachelor males. Territorial males use their glandular secretions to spread their scent over their territory. Neck patches only appear between the months of May and November.

“Photography, as a powerful medium of expression and communications, offers an infinite variety of perception, interpretation and execution.”
~Ansel Adams

Puku are crepuscular, so are active in the early morning and late afternoon. They seem to prefer open grass area near a river or swamp but not wide wet flood plains like the lechwe. 

“Your photography is a record of your living, for anyone who really sees.”
~Paul Strand

The beginning of winter signals the start of the impala rut. During the rut, the impala rams’ testosterone levels start skyrocketing and they begin to fight for territory and dominance over female herds. The dominant males will fight off any competition, forcing the losers into bachelor herds. The noise of the rutting males can be heard for long distances as the winners proclaim their territories with snorts and growls. The victorious males then take charge of their herds of females and attempt to mate with as many as possible. They never mate with the same female more than once.

“Photography gives us the ability to freeze light, time, uniqueness, mood, emotion and wonder with a frame.”

~Mike Haworth

We were on the river in late April which was the build up to the full moon at the end of April. Impala begin rutting with the moon waxing around its First Quarter stage in late April. This is a time when you will hear the males “roaring” and see many fights with territorial males chasing rivals out of their territories.

“I think life is too short not to be doing something which you really believe in.”
~Steve McCurry

The natural intelligence in nature determines that impala tend to rut mainly by moonlight, making them less vulnerable to predation. Consequently, the most intense part of the rut phase is when the moon is full. The intensity diminishes as the moon wanes into its Third Quarter phase, when the night stalkers again have the advantage. 

The three week rut takes place at this time of the year so that the ewes synchronise their lambing shortly after the onset of the summer rains, approximately six to seven months later. Synchronised birthing determines that enough lambs survive, despite heavy predation, for the population to be sustained.

What always surprises me when on the Chobe river is that there is always something happening even when all looks quiet. The change in temperature, length of day and river levels have a profound influence on the “who, what and where” of the wildlife activity. A superficial look might give the impression that little is happening. A closer, quieter, more attentive look reveals nature’s more fascinating rhythms. You need to see for yourself how the landscape changes when this river comes down in flood, Rivers become lakes and grasslands become swamps. It is also the time of the year when it is still warm and the boat trip back to the lodge after an afternoon’s shooting usually provides dazzling, dramatic sunsets.

“The great photographers of life – like Diane Arbus and Walker Evans and Robert Frank – all must have had some special quality: a personality of nurturing and non-judgment that frees the subjects to reveal their most intimate reality. It really is what makes a great photographer, every bit as much as understanding composition and lighting.”

~Caleb Deschanel

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

Have fun,

Mike