Still no joy with impala babies. Well not the impala on the Banyini. In the east they seem to have dropped earlier.

Then Darryl called to say he’d found the Nduna pride. They were lying up near Chivi looking a little lean but very lazy as the day warmed up.

We left them and back to camp to get Wildcast posted before heading out for the night lion hunting!

It was back to staring through binoculars at impala’s bums again. I could swear several of them were about to drop any minute, but no such luck. On several females I could see the foetus pushing up against their tails. Was this not a sure sign that they should drop? Anyway things look like they’re heating up on the impala front.

Near Chekwa pan these Red Velvet Mites were all over the place but not for long as they were already burrowing into the soft wet soil before it hardened. They will then again appear with the next good rains to run around feeding on other mites and their eggs, and also insect and snail eggs. The larvae are far more ruthless attaching themselves to arthropods and feeding on them parasitically.

With them underground I knew at least I would find the elephant in the Albizia woodlands, and luckily there they all were. Chipfongwe suddenly seems to look so much bigger at a year old now. And amazingly Mandlovu is still allowing her other youngster to suckle as well as Chipfongwe. This little female must now be about 5 years old. Will she ever stop suckling? No doubt, in the dry winter months Mandlovu with wean her.

With the cool weather and piles of fresh new food there were youngsters sparring all over the place. The adults weren’t letting their guard down although they did seem keen to join in.
This lone Grysbok was resting when the elephant came barging through and she didn’t know whether to take fright from them or me, so bolted anyway.

With all the rain the dung beetles are now out in force attacking elephant dung piles in earnest, flattening them, only to move on to the next. Great keepers of the garden helping spread the manure.

On the way home after sunset, the Lilly’s which had been closed all day now opened for the night.

I was out as usual in the late afternoon looking for them lions, but was caught short when this huge storm came rolling in from the south.

I gave up on the lions and went in search of the storm not that I had to search far. The storm was coming in from the south. Lightening was striking everywhere.
The rains moved northwards and then east moving all around me dropping loads of rain on the low lying areas making sure we wouldn’t be working with the lions again tonight.
I rushed to the Malilangwe dam to see the storm passing to the east and around to the north.

But the most amazing thing of all, once the storm had passed, was the most awesome awesome sunset I think I’ve ever seen. The stormy clouds turning reds, pinks, golds, greys, blues and whites. WOW!

Early this morning I was out with the impala again spending my morning with binoculars staring at the backside of each and every female impala I could find. Sounds rather perverted what! But still no luck with a birth.