I have just returned from a pleasant 2 week holiday in England and the first thing I noticed flying in was the red morning sky - back on African soil! For me, this is a reason to celebrate.
Kim and I are both attending the Wild Talk Film Festival in Durban, South Africa. I’m pretty excited about it, I have just come from the registration where I caught up with a few friends from the Wild Life Film Academy. There are a few interesting items on the program, like a workshop on taking aerial shots, I can’t wait for that one.
I will be posting a few clips I put together in advance before I left for England, hope you enjoy them.
Tonight we are being treated to a cocktail party so I am in a hurry to get back to the ICC. I will have a chance to fill you in on the details in the morrow, no doubt… Oh, we just heard that the Wild Dogs have crossed the Chiredzi River and are back on the reserve - they have a mind of their own those dogs, its good news anyway.
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We seemed to have brought the rain with us on our return from South Africa to pick up supplies. Yesterday we only had one shower, but it was enough to have Kim return early from the dogs, soaking wet. After attending to a few things on my vehicle, I set out later in the afternoon to catch up with the dogs, but Kim was tracking them and left them running west into sum slippery terrain. The sun set to the sound of one of our lionesses’ calls echoing through the hills – feels good to be back!
Early this morning the rain set in and now I’m back to “sticking” to the roads. Unable to track the dogs through muddy terrain, I always enjoy seeing flowing water, so I was keen to check out how the dams were filling up. At Nduna dam the river was flowing into the dam and the water level was rising. What an awesome morning listening to running water, bird-life in abundance and the hippo snorting in the background! Just as I got comfortable, an ominous looking cloud crept over the horizon, which was when I felt it a good idea to expedite my morning drive.
A quick spin past Banyini and Nyari pan revealed some big herds of Zebra and Impala, with a few interesting looking butterflies to photograph. The great success of today, though, was in the afternoon when we were introduce to a new character – a male leopard.
Alan and the Malilangwe team have managed to tag him, so we will have a lot more time to spend with him.
It was just one of those days. As a wildlife filmmaker we have days of solid action, and then some periods of absolutely nothing happening.
Well today was one of those quiet days. The dogs must have hunted last night with the moon as they were all totally lethargic at dawn and not worth hanging around with.
Travelling around the reserve I saw the usual compliment of general game all making a living chewing on whatever unsuspecting plant lay before them.
This sable bull, down for a drink, was covered in red-billed oxpeckers and happily went his way.
I took the girls out walking this afternoon to look for a spring in the hills near the top end of the dam. This is an area that is different to the rest of the reserve and great walking country. The bush gets a little thick at times and following game trails covered in elephant and black rhino tracks, we were cautious not to bump into those fellows.
The spring was welling up gently through the sand, ofcourse providing a lot of interest to the girls. There was also a lonely ‘water scorpion’ swimming in the spring. These insects aren’t poisonous and only look like scorpions. They have a long thin stick like ‘tail’ that they push up to the water surface and this is for breathing.
With the day drawing to an end we spend the last hour watching the birds on Malilangwe dam.
It was drizzling at dawn which didn’t make any sense to going out filming in my open vehicle. AND the dogs had fed so well last night, there was no ways they were going hunting this morning.
At sunset the dogs moved south for a little refreshment at Nhoro pan before resting up some ways to the west. With the full moon rising in the east they retired, probably with the plan to go hunting later in the evening.
We had left camp earlier driving around Malilangwe dam before heading out to the dogs in the afternoon.
The dogs weren’t really into hunting this morning and sauntered down to Nhoro pan.
Of course the hyaenas were there too and the 2 parties were again having it out with each other. This is not really a battle of life and death. They both seem to take great delight in enticing each other for a game.
Today luckily was a lot cooler with a slight drizzle having set in for a short while this morning and kept the day cool. This meant the dogs were off hunting earlier than usual this afternoon.
And again they hunted against the fenceline, using it to chase the impala against.
The alpha male strangled one of the impala on his own. This is unusual in that wild dogs usually rely on ripping the animal apart in seconds to kill it, but he had no help. And amazingly the impala was dead in about half a minute. Far quicker than a lion or leopard strangling an impala. This was probably because the animal was already out of breath from the long chase. Something lions and leopards don’t do.
The wild dogs had another jackpot morning killing 2 male impalas and one pregnant female, all only about 400m apart.
They fed mainly on the one male but BB’s pups never made it to the kills. There was frantic calling for them and eventually they got a response but the adults being so full must have regurgitated plenty of food for them.
Leaving the dogs in the uncomfortable state they must have been in, we travelled looking for further action. And that we got. This buffalo calf stuck in the mud at Chekwa pan.
I called on management asking what to do. They wanted to help but were all tied up with a controlled burn in the upper reaches of the park, and so asked if I could help.
With the help of the my daughters we managed to rescue the little fellow, well not so little and with a mind of its own.
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