A few days ago while sitting with the wild dogs I discovered a Red-billed Hornbill nest with chicks.
So today at dawn I camped out at the nest to film the adults feeding the chicks and also hoping that the chicks might break out their nest today to fledge.
Well none of that was to be. After waiting for 4 hours the adults only fed the chicks once and that was very brief in itself.
I went back later in the afternoon for a couple of hours and still no joy.
So when do these guys feed those little fellows? I might just have to spend more time there to find this out.
The big elephant herd were at Chekwa pan around midday and spent quite some time milling around in the area socialising, drinking, wallowing and just generally chilling out.
I had to film this calf just going his own way with no worries in the world as he patrolled the edge of the pan moving back and forth. What a wonderful carefree life.
The one tusk female was there again today and walked within a couple of meters of my vehicle but decided not to push me around today.
So they’re out there to baffle us yet again.
This is not like an African animal I know. That very rounded body just doesn’t fit.
Possibly, yet again, the artist was on a high when painting this. One of those magical trances they go into.
14th March 2000
Accepted by Tjololo!!!? Great thought anyway. Searching for him until after midnight, all we had was his tracks heading into the Sand river and nothing coming out. So we headed off for a nap on high, dry ground away from mosquitoes. We were awakened to a leopard grunting only meters from the car. Yes, it was Tjololo. Was he saying hello, wake up you dummy’s I’m here? We like to think he was missing us.
Our high spirits were short lived when we got stuck following him across swampy ground and then later followed his tracks as they headed east into Kruger. Government’s domain.
Heading back the way we’d come, about 20 minutes later we found the White Cloth female and another female hot on his trail. These two walking some 50 meters apart. We weren’t sure of the ID of the other female but she was possibly the Kapen female. She has a cub and would not be in oestrus.
I surmise that the Kapen Female is protecting her territory, with the White Cloth female trespassing, and so following after her as she continues to trail Tjololo through her territory.
Yes the rains are back, or rather still here. As they eased up and we moved on through a herd of some 300 buffalo, a cow dropped her calf in front of us as others moved away. This little guy wobbingly got to his legs in the next 10 minutes before gaining strength and staggering off into the herd.
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