Tag Archive for 'birding-african-birds'

Elephant calf plays cat and mouse: Video

Scary day.
Luckily the footage I shot today wasn’t the most riveting stuff ever because then I’d be cursing.

Actually working
Barend was out there with me today hoping to shoot footage of me with the elephants but we never got to them. We got side tracked by about a dozen Marabous Storks on Banyini. Some were at the pan drinking and just standing around and others were hunting the grasslands plucking unsuspecting grasshoppers.

Real wingspan
They really don’t look the most appealing of characters with their balding, scabby heads and pendulous pink air sac. But at least their mothers love them AND they do a great job in cleaning up the veld of rotting carcasses. And more recently as man invades their territories they are found cleaning up at rubbish dumps.

Gathering
Down at Chimize pans we encountered 2 sets of White Rhino cow and calf. They had their compliment of Yellow-billed Oxpeckers that kept them clean from external parasites and are their watch dogs as the rhino’s eyesight is really poor.

Real wallow
The rhino’s were wallowing when we arrived but came to investigate us initially before heading on their way.
And what do we have to show for it? Well there are a few photographs BUT no footage even though I shot plenty.

White or Black?
While shooting the Marabou’s I commented to Barend how hot the camera was. On the side where the tape goes in it was too hot to touch because of the sun baking down on it.
And although we could see the images on the computer we couldn’t download them as the tapes were faulty. They had probably been stretched/warped from the intense heat. But I wasn’t consoled until I’d shot more footage to be sure it wasn’t the camera that was faulty. That would have been a disaster as I don’t have a backup camera. I do have a small Panasonic but it just isn’t good enough for what I’m doing. It’s just another of those cogs that you don’t want to lose a tooth. Could put us down for days.

TopDeck
So the video clip for today was actually footage shot yesterday, of Chipfongwe playing with his plant.

Abdim’s Storks Descend in Thousands: Video

Hot hot hot!

Steel bull
And getting very dry for this time of year. Apparently we’re about 200mm below our average for this time of year and that’s quite something when we only average 560mm and the rainy season only lasts a couple more months.

Forward stretch
There is apparently a cyclone off the Mozambique coast, which is moving towards land and this will possibly bring rain in about a week. Generally these cyclones don’t hit the coast in a big way and we’re still further inland so they don’t normally cause us any damage. Although in 2000, the big one that hit us in South Africa also hit here causing substantial floods.
The lions were out of it at dawn as temperatures kept rising. And even when 2 impala blundered upon they only woke when they were already running away in fright.

Serious Stare
I got a call from the game scouts that storks were landing in their thousands in the Runde river in the far south of the property. I raced down there (being careful on the gas as there isn’t any available at present) and sure enough, where I had filmed the hippos the other day, 2000 or more Abdim’s Storks were descending and landing in the riverbed to drink and bathe and then sun themselves.

Mass fly pass
And the ever present enormous crocodiles that live there were patrolling the shore waiting for any unsuspecting bird.
Access to the river was nice and open, but that was a ways up from the Storks and I wanted to get up close. This meant climbing through thick undergrowth on the banks of the river. Then down a well eroded hippo path and into the water giving me just the slightest window on the storks.

Soaring Storks
Bad place for me to be especially when at that very moment I was filming a croc approaching the storks.
I could always kick myself for getting into these situations, but only after the fact. I think the drive to get the image is like a drug to me and I tend to brush these issues aside. Maybe I’ll eventually get wiser with age.

Stork Take Off

Lions Socialising: Video

I thought the lions were in for some big action last night.

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And maybe they were involved in some tough games as they tackled a herd of buffalo. But not being with them all night, I’ll never know.

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I did see a big herd of buffalo close to Banyini yesterday afternoon and this morning the lion’s tracks were over theirs.
By dawn the lions had only moved about 3kms south from where I’d left them last night. They were now lying up near Chekwa pan and that was them for the day. And they didn’t look like they had fed last night.

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Moving on east I was hoping to pick up on the elephant herds on the Mahande but had no joy. There were some tracks in the hills near Chimbye but only a few individuals.

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I’m keen to find Snorkel again to see how he’s doing and if his breathing has improved.
Temperatures are rocketing now. February is one of our hottest months and usually really wet. But we haven’t had any rain for the last 10 days and the veld is drying up fast.

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But this hasn’t stopped the Quelea nesting. Massive flocks are seeing flying around all day and there are now 3 breeding colonies on Malilangwe. They breed at a rapid rate. In 3 weeks the eggs are laid, chicks hatch and fledge. And in some years they can breed up to 3 times in a season. We could be in for amazing spectacles of millions of birds on the wing.

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Sunbird Feast: Video

It’s that time of year.

Trio
February and March are always tough times to be working in the bush. Our main rains fall over this period and the bush is just so thick we battle to find the game and then to stay with it.
I usually try and take some time off in this period because of it just not being very productive. And the last couple of days have proven just that, with it not looking like getting any better in a hurry.

Tall sunset
The elephants were still in the south in those clays that have me running scared. Did I say I was scared? No ways, tough guys don’t say that. Must have been the American.

Leopard Tortoise
But I was able to catch up with the lions and that wasn’t fun. They had placed themselves in some really horrible bush. Thick thick stuff! But after much crashing and twisting and turning I was able to locate them. No they weren’t on a kill, just sleeping and hardly visible. I waited a while with them in case I might have missed a kill in that thick bush, but nothing materialised and I bashed my way out of there.

Covered
Up in the hills the Sunbirds were having a feast on the Aloe Erythrina. This is a lovely big specimen of these rare trees. But they get heavily persecuted by elephants and only survive when hidden in the hills in inaccessible places.

Aloe Erythrina
On Banyini at sunset the quelea are back! They’re nesting in huge numbers in several places on the reserve but only have eggs at the moment. As soon as the chicks hatch the predators (eagles, storks snakes, etc.) will descend on them. But in such huge numbers the predators have little impact on the overall population.

They're back

Elephants create bushveld pans: Video

After the good rains yesterday the elephant herds moved back into the sandveld they so love when it’s moist.

Chocolate?
They can stand around for ages digging and throwing the moist red soil over themselves while Chipfongwe falls into these holes getting in the way rolling around.

Wanting attention
Of course further south in the clays the rain had filled up a number of mud wallows and as soon as temperatures showed any tiny sign of getting hot, the herds ducked into a wallow.

Mud wrestling
I think I too have to master this art then at least I won’t be cooking in the heat.
While following the elephant I disturbed a pair Wahlberg’s Eagles on the ground. They took off and on investigation I found they had killed this European Roller which they had been feeding on.

Roller kill
When the elephant kept moving south into the clays I abandoned them.

Cheeky Fellow
Arriving at Lojaan dam soon before sunset a lone hippo started displaying for me. Or rather at me in the vehicle. It was fun to watch him open his mouth as wide as possible as if yawning, but it was a dominance display to say watch out I’ve got a big jaw and big teeth. Then he jumped half out the water only to crash back in again. And when he wasn’t doing that he would surface in spray of water. Quite the display. But then he is just a young bull all on his own trying to make it in the world.

Neat bum
(Earlier in the day I had been challenged by a 22year old American guy working here as a volunteer for a few months. How rude of him to want to challenge me, more than twice his age! This challenge has been on for several weeks now and soon became America vs South Africa. The challenge was to kayak around the Malilangwe dam, about 20 minutes and then a 6km run. He sure was a confident fellow with a big mouth, but lots of fun! Unfortunately he let America down badly in both events!!! Now he’s calling for a mandatory drugs test! Next he’ll be calling his mother.)

Elephant calf survives challenges: Video

Where did those lions get to?

Giraffe herd
Hopefully for them they’re sitting on a buffalo kill. And sorry for me if they really are, but I wasn’t able to pick up any trace of them.

Impressive horn
The elephants were in the Albizia woodlands again but at midday headed southeast. All along the way they were dropping in at mud wallows to cool off.

In Between

So when they got to Bandama all they really wanted was lots of refreshment and then it was back on the move again.

Moving in to Bandama
There aren’t many bulls accompanying the herd at the moment. This could be that they are spending their time more to the south where the grazing is better and the cows are relying on the productive Albizia woodlands to sustain them.

Leaning post
I had a great jog today running along the shores of the Malilangwe dam. I came across about 20 vultures and some Marabou storks milling on the ground but closer investigation didn’t reveal anything. Really don’t know what they were up to. Further on I disturbed 2 buffalo bulls wallowing in the dam and they ran away. I also encountered some impala, zebra and a waterbuck with a small calf. The waterfowl that are usually in abundance around the dam are not there at the moment probably having moved on now that the veld is full of other surface water.
Marabou flight