A cold and lonely night.
As temperatures promise to warm, a cloudless night meant extreme cold for us. And we didn’t get to see Khayeni all night as she spent the night lying up in a thicket.
At one stage through the night we heard a leopard calling, probably a male, and Khayeni responded. This calling happened a couple of times and then stopped. Had she found herself a mate? I’m sure if she was mating we would have heard it all.
Leaving her at dawn the girls and I had our breakfast, sandwiches and tea, at Manyuchi pan and were visited by a single hyaena as it passed through the area.
On this cold morning the dassies (Rock Hyrax) were all out basking in the sun. They have little control over their body temperatures and so spend the first few hours of the day warming up. Of course this too is when they are most vulnerable to predation especially by Black Eagles, which in some areas live solely on dassies.
While filming them we heard elephants going wild trumpeting to the west. The tracks were everywhere but we only found 3 bulls feeding on an Umbrella thorn they had just pushed over.
Back on Banyini we saw a Blacksmith Plover lying in the grass. Could she be on eggs in the middle of winter? Walking over there she flew off and I had to keep my eyes focussed on the spot as their nests and eggs are so well camouflaged. And there they were, 3 speckled and well camouflaged eggs. We quickly moved away so the bird could return to keep them warm on this chilly morning.
Recent Comments