Sunbird Feast: Video
Published by Wildcaster 1 year, 8 months ago Tags: adventure, africa, african birds, animal kingdom, birding, birding african birds, blogumentary, conservation, documentary, eagles, ecotraining, education, elephants, flickr, giraffe, GLTP, gonarezhou, Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park, kill, lions, malilangwe, mashable, narrowcasting, Open Content Alliance, ornithology, pamushana, peace parks, photos, podcasting, polls, predators, rain, teach, video, wildcasting, wildlife, wildlife documentary, youtube, zimbabwe.It’s that time of year.
February and March are always tough times to be working in the bush. Our main rains fall over this period and the bush is just so thick we battle to find the game and then to stay with it.
I usually try and take some time off in this period because of it just not being very productive. And the last couple of days have proven just that, with it not looking like getting any better in a hurry.
The elephants were still in the south in those clays that have me running scared. Did I say I was scared? No ways, tough guys don’t say that. Must have been the American.
But I was able to catch up with the lions and that wasn’t fun. They had placed themselves in some really horrible bush. Thick thick stuff! But after much crashing and twisting and turning I was able to locate them. No they weren’t on a kill, just sleeping and hardly visible. I waited a while with them in case I might have missed a kill in that thick bush, but nothing materialised and I bashed my way out of there.
Up in the hills the Sunbirds were having a feast on the Aloe Erythrina. This is a lovely big specimen of these rare trees. But they get heavily persecuted by elephants and only survive when hidden in the hills in inaccessible places.
On Banyini at sunset the quelea are back! They’re nesting in huge numbers in several places on the reserve but only have eggs at the moment. As soon as the chicks hatch the predators (eagles, storks snakes, etc.) will descend on them. But in such huge numbers the predators have little impact on the overall population.
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Thank you so much for this video! I collect aloes and am a bird lover so this video was eye candy for me!
Paula
The common name is Aloe Erythrina, but it’s not really an aloe. Scientific name is Erythrina livingstoniana
Wonderful, wonderful video. Really appreciate the birds and information about the gorgeous plant.
Kim — wish you’d do more pieces like this. A real treat. kp
Good grief! You consider this a lost day of filming? More like absolutely fabulous, if you asked me! I learn so much everyday, and the day begins a bit brighter because of it. Watch out! You have fans, and some of us will be tempted to get on planes, and tromp out to your little paradise just to see it! I assume your little jab at the “American” was to get a rise from your youthful challenger. We aren’t all swaggering, clueless youth
Cynthia
Such wonderful shots of these sunbirds! Keep up the wonderful work with the birds!
you will be seeing more of this stuff over the next month or so. With conditions in the field at their worst I’ll be looking for these other little cherries that get lost when I’m running after the bigger things. And don’t get me wrong, I LOVE these little guys. So many small things get overlooked. Wildcast is the perfect place for them. Standby for more!!