I had the most wonderful day! Even though temperatures were raging over 100F, and that’s in the shade.
It started off with seeing the wild dogs again! Although the encounter was brief. The Alpha male and all 9 pups were milling around at Nhoro pan. This must have been the first time the pups had seen a vehicle up close and were of course really curious.
They’re all in great shape and well fed. They must now be just over 3 months old and not den bound any more. So who knows how far they’re travelling.
They didn’t stick around for long. When mom arrived they left heading south into impenetrable thickets from which they never reappeared.
I checked the area again in the afternoon but no sign of them.
This is the area the adults have been seen a couple of times over the last few weeks, so hopefully they’ll still hang around here for some time.
Ideally I need them to rest up Khayeni pan, not far away. It’s really open around there and with these hot temperatures it’s quite likely they will rest up at the water. This will give us a chance to dart one of the adults and get a collar on.
Having lost the dogs early in the morning, I thought they might be headed to Sosigi dam. They never arrived but there was lots of other activity at the dam.
The pair of Egyptian Geese had their little 3 day old goslings in the dam with them while a Hammerkop hovered over the water, in a very atypical fishing method for these birds. But they were successful in catching platanas (frogs).
All the while herds of zebra, impala and giraffe came in to drink.
Then a herd of about 150buffalo. They took over the dam while they drank and wallowed. And then stayed on the open area around the dam, grazing.
I only got to leave there around midday when I went to check on the management burns. I got to Hwata at the same time as the fire and a couple of elephant bulls were bathing, but moved off at the sound of the roaring fire.
Before heading back to look for the wild dogs I spent some time on Banyini with a group of 3 Ground Hornbills. I just love these birds and more especially as they will be my next film. So I spent time with them today getting them used to the vehicle. But they’re going to need a lot more of that, although they weren’t too bad. They were taking strain in the heat with their feathers all ruffled getting the breeze to blow through them.
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