Tag Archive for 'birding'

Hyaenas ruffle vultures feathers: Video

Published

on February 11, 2007

. 0 Comments Tags:adventure, africa, animal-kingdom, birding, birding-african-birds, blogumentary, buffalo, conservation, documentary, ecotraining, education, experience, flickr, giraffe, GLTP, gonarezhou, Great-Limpopo-Transfrontier-Park, hyaenas, kill, malilangwe, marabou-stork, mashable, narrowcasting, Open-Content-Alliance, ornithology, pamushana, peace-parks, photos, podcasting, polls, predators, teach, video, vultures, wildcasting, wildlife, wildlife-documentary, youtube, zimbabwe

Long night with the lions.

I spent last night with the lions only getting back to them soon after midnight. They were still chewing on the carcass in relays.

Somewhere in the night the hyaenas had moved in and tried to make a stand trying to intimidate the lions with their giggles and whoops. But there just weren’t enough of them and they had to spend the rest of the night lying in the wings waiting.
At dawn the lions were into a renewed feeding frenzy, all trying to get their last bite of what really was nothing.
The young male was the last to hang on stuffing himself.

As he moved away the vultures flung themselves at the carcass in numbers and seemingly in desperation. But their feast was short lived.
Descending on the carcass as they did was the cue for the hyaenas that all was safe and they could move in.

They moved in cautiously but soon had command of the carcass and tucked in to what the lions just couldn’t chew. But with their tremendous jaws the hyaenas were soon working the carcass all the time on the look out for the possible return of the lions. They never did come back.
About 8 hyaenas feasted and having all but cleaned up the carcass they left the scraps to the vultures.

I headed back to camp for a few hours nap before moving out again for the afternoon.
The Marabou’s were still on Banyini along with giraffe, impala, zebra and of course thousands and thousands of quelea.

Marabou Waltz: Video

Published

Wildcaster

on February 10, 2007

in videopost

. 2 Comments Tags:adventure, africa, african-birds, animal-kingdom, birding, birding-african-birds, blogumentary, buffalo-stampede, bush-knowledge, conservation, documentary, ecotraining, education, flickr, GLTP, gonarezhou, Great-Limpopo-Transfrontier-Park, hunting, kill, lions, malilangwe, marabou-stork, mashable, narrowcasting, Open-Content-Alliance, ornithology, pamushana, peace-parks, photos, podcasting, polls, predators, teach, video, wildcasting, wildlife, wildlife-documentary, youtube, zimbabwe

The Marabous Storks were still on Banyini this morning, giving me the chance to recapture the footage that was ruined yesterday when my camera overheated.

They kept me busy for several hours and I only left them once they had cooled off in the pan and temperatures were soaring.

I went on to find the Nduna pride on a buffalo kill right down in the south east of the reserve. The kill was probably made last night and all were well fed. But when I got there, only one lioness was lying in the shade near the carcass, which was out there in the sun.

The others had moved off into deeper shade.
This lioness wasn’t budging. The skies were full of vultures and others were already landing in nearby trees. Had the lioness given them the slightest chance they would have descended en masse and polished off the carcass.

She spent her day guarding the carcass.
Only at sunset did the others venture from their shade and continue to feed. And as overloaded as they were I always wonder how they manage to stuff more meat down their throats.
I’ll be spending the rest of the night with the lions to be with them at dawn when they probably move off and the hyaenas move in. That’s if the hyaenas don’t challenge the lions tonight and take over.

Elephant calf plays cat and mouse: Video

Published

Wildcaster

on February 9, 2007

in videopost

. 3 Comments Tags:adventure, africa, animal-kingdom, birding, birding-african-birds, blogumentary, bush-knowledge, cites, conservation, documentary, ecotraining, education, endangered-species, flickr, GLTP, gonarezhou, Great-Limpopo-Transfrontier-Park, IUCN-Red-List, malilangwe, mashable, narrowcasting, Open-Content-Alliance, ornithology, pamushana, peace-parks, photos, podcasting, polls, teach, video, white-rhino, wildcasting, wildlife, wildlife-documentary, youtube, zimbabwe

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

Abdim’s Storks Descend in Thousands: Video

Published

Wildcaster

on February 7, 2007

in videopost

. 26 Comments Tags:adventure, africa, animal-kingdom, birding, birding-african-birds, blogumentary, bush-knowledge, conservation, documentary, drought, ecotraining, education, experience, flickr, GLTP, gonarezhou, Great-Limpopo-Transfrontier-Park, hippo, lions, malilangwe, mashable, narrowcasting, Open-Content-Alliance, ornithology, pamushana, peace-parks, photos, podcasting, polls, predators, teach, video, water-birds, wildcasting, wildlife, wildlife-documentary, youtube, zimbabwe

Hot hot hot!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Lions Socialising: Video

Published

Wildcaster

on February 6, 2007

in videopost

. 3 Comments Tags:adventure, africa, animal-kingdom, birding, birding-african-birds, blogumentary, buffalo, conservation, documentary, ecotraining, education, elephants, experience, flickr, GLTP, gonarezhou, Great-Limpopo-Transfrontier-Park, hunting, lions, malilangwe, mashable, narrowcasting, Open-Content-Alliance, ornithology, pamushana, peace-parks, photos, podcasting, polls, predators, rain, teach, video, wildcasting, wildlife, wildlife-documentary, youtube, zimbabwe

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Sunbird Feast: Video

Published

Wildcaster

on January 31, 2007

in videopost

. 17 Comments Tags:adventure, africa, african-birds, animal-kingdom, birding, birding-african-birds, blogumentary, conservation, documentary, eagles, ecotraining, education, elephants, flickr, giraffe, GLTP, gonarezhou, Great-Limpopo-Transfrontier-Park, kill, lions, malilangwe, mashable, narrowcasting, Open-Content-Alliance, ornithology, pamushana, peace-parks, photos, podcasting, polls, predators, rain, teach, video, wildcasting, wildlife, wildlife-documentary, youtube, zimbabwe

It’s that time of year.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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Tag Archive for 'birding'

Hyaenas ruffle vultures feathers: Video

Marabou Waltz: Video

Elephant calf plays cat and mouse: Video

Abdim’s Storks Descend in Thousands: Video

Lions Socialising: Video

Sunbird Feast: Video

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