Kruger Jan 2016: drought, duiker and dead hippos

[lmSA84]

@@Tdgraves - I'm really enjoying this.

 

We were originally planning a 6 day self-drive in Southern Kruger in first week of January, until we had to switch plans and go to Madikwe instead. So reading this TR, is kind of like me getting to do both!

[Atravelynn]

"Just found another one of the black rhino"

They are rather reclusive, so that's understandable!

 

Nice that the juvenile bateleur had his color showing.

Cool perspective of the green pigeon! Your best ever!

[TonyQ]

Those are particularly beautiful shots of the Bateleur - stunning colours.

I have never seen one on the ground

[Tdgraves]

Those are particularly beautiful shots of the Bateleur - stunning colours.

I have never seen one on the ground

Thanks @@TonyQ I have a couple of times, but on a game vehicle and it just flew off as we arrived. This one didn't seem bothered by us, giving us plenty of time for photography!

[Tdgraves]

Day 4 Morning drive, 20/1/16, Lower Sabie

 

Today we went south from camp down the H4-2. I was back with the 5D

 

 

The OH was driving first. We had hardly left camp, when he stopped. "There's a leopard in there" he said "right" I said. "There is". He reversed back whilst quickly changing the camera settings. No sooner had he pulled up, than the leopard appeared at the side of the road. It found an interesting scent and investigated further.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What an amazing sighting, our best ever Kruger leopard and we had it all to ourselves!

 

And some from the other side of the vehicle, courtesy of the OH

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just down the road and there was a raptor, which I couldn't quite work out, but I later decided was an amur falcon. (Birds are on the 7D)

 

 

 

As we set off, I saw another bird, so instructed the OH to stop - a Pearl spotted owlet! A first for the Kruger!

 

 

 

Off we went again. We started to see a few other vehicles as it got lighter and then we saw this...

 

 

A small pack of wild dog!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There were only 6 dogs and these two seemed inseparable, I wondered whether she was in heat. He kept biting her neck and resting his head on her shoulder

 

 

 

We had the sighting to ourselves for a while. Then others joined and left. They were very active, moving south first and then trotting off to the north. I think we were there about 45 minutes, before they left the road. When other vehicles joined, there was plenty of opportunity for photos, as the pack was split up. What a sighting.

 

 

 

 

 

And some from the OH

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Given the drought, we thought we would visit water holes and dams, however, several of them were dry. We had a morning break at a hide, where we saw some birds and buck.

 

 

 

[Towlersonsafari]

What splendid sightings!

Edited April 30, 2016 by Towlersonsafari

[Tdgraves]

Just noticed that the map above is incorrect - it is for the evening drive of 20/1/16

 

This is the map of the morning drive

 

[Tdgraves]

Day 4 Evening drive, Lower Sabie 20/1/16

 

As we were packing up the car, I hear screeching and found this brown-headed parrot above our hut, harvesting dinner

 

 

 

 

 

The map (as wrongly posted above)

 

 

It was a fairly quiet drive, but plenty of birds

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There were lots of warthog and tortoises

 

 

We stayed for a long time at sunset dam hoping for some action, but none was forthcoming. Several hippos gathered next to the edge near the road, but none left before sunset and gate closing time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Back to camp for a braai

[deano]

@@Tdgraves - just catching up; great details in all of the bird images and I particularly like the bateleur sequence and I am also drawn to the arrow marked babbler. Really nice sighting of the leopard - much nicer when you spot it yourself and can enjoy the sighting accordingly. The wild dogs images are fantastic - really like the one of the back of the satellite dish ears.

 

kind regards

 

deano.

[Tdgraves]

Thanks @@deano I've always thought of them as radars.....

[Kitsafari]

great photos of the gorgeous leopard. your OH has sharp eyes even while driving.

 

love the batelur photos, and fabulous you found the wild dogs.

[Tdgraves]

great photos of the gorgeous leopard. your OH has sharp eyes even while driving.

 

love the batelur photos, and fabulous you found the wild dogs.

 

And I'm usually the games potter @@Kitsafari....

[Geoff]

The day 4 morning drive was a cracker.

[MR1980]

Awesome report @@Tdgraves with already a lot of superb sightings!! Wild dogs, leopards, blackies and some great birds!! Looking forward to the rest of your trip...

 

Last June we had 9 days in the Kruger and sightings were also amazing during those 9 days, also visited Breg-en-Dal, Lower Sabie, Satara & Shimuwini. But I still have to finish my TR of my South Africa/Botswana trip from 2012 though...

 

Cheers,

 

Michel

Edited May 4, 2016 by MR1980

[Atravelynn]

Great closeups of the harvesting brown parrot!

 

For the dogs and the leopard, especially the leopard, it seems as though you were right down there on the ground with your subjects! Love the dog interactions.

 

The map will be very helpful for those wanting to duplicate your self drive route, but I hope they realize they may not be able to duplicate your great sightings!

[Safaridude]

@@Tdgraves

 

You had great birding and images. A purple-crested turaco! Congrats on that one… I know they are very hard to photograph.

[Tdgraves]

Day 5 Morning Drive, Lower Sabie, 21/1/16

 

I had the 7D today

 

 

The drive started with some birding, including a really close sighting of an emerald spotted wood dove

 

 

 

Chinspot batis

 

 

Magpie shrike

 

 

Martial eagle

 

 

Brown hooded kingfisher

 

 

And then we met a couple of hyaena on their way home

 

 

 

We covered quite a distance (considering we were changing camps today) as the game was sparse. There was a traffic jam on a bridge close to Crocodile bridge and we had to wait for a couple of vehicles to leave before we could get a view over the edge. There were several water birds....

 

Squacco heron

 

 

Goliath heron (sorry about the photo)

 

 

African openbill

 

 

Grey heron

 

 

Fish eagle

 

 

I was driving and had put my camera down to take in the scene. There was then an almighty splash and the herd of impala gathering to drink were alarm calling like mad. I turned to see a giant crocodile had grabbed an impala. By the time I picked up a camera, this is all I managed!

 

 

 

The croc never resurfaced, so presumably stashed its' kill underwater somewhere. I'm not sure whether the other vehicles knew that there was a large croc in residence or that they were just lucky....howevere, I don't think anyone caught it on camera

We saw the obligatory duiker

 

 

 

 

We refuelled at crocodile bridge and stopped for a drink. As I parked the car, the petrol attendant met us - I had overpaid (mistaking a 200 rand note for a 50) that's honesty for you!

 

We decided to go back on the gravel road, for a bit of variety

 

 

Where we met a herd of buffalo

 

 

 

and some very sleepy hyaenas

 

 

 

 

And our first hint of how bad the drought was and the inspiration for the TR title - a hippo carcass

 

 

 

Back to camp to pack up and breakfast in the restaurant

[Towlersonsafari]

really like the impala shot ! @@Tdgraves the croc was just very shy and didn't want the publicity

[Tdgraves]

Day 5 transfer to Talamati, 21/1/16

 

Firstly, I have just found a few birds from the previous day that I forgot to post

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lesser masked weavers (new for us)

 

 

 

No sooner had we left camp as we found a raptor, which we worked out was a crowned eagle, another new one for us, but of course we had seen one on a previous day and not identified it!!

 

 

 

It soon clouded over. Our next significant sighting was of vultures.

 

 

Including a Cape vulture, which we do not think we have seen before

 

 

It took us a while to work out what the carcass was - another dead hippo

 

 

 

 

 

We had a break at the Tshokwane picnic site, now fully operational, including a "primate supervisor" which was a man with a catapult and sjambok, rather than a baboon in a tabard with a clipboard!! This is required as we have previously seen idiot tourists feeding the vervet monkeys, which are very persistent....

 

 

 

 

Soon after leaving the picnic site, we left the tar road to make our way towards Talamati, from here on in was unchartered territory!!

 

We had another comfort break at what must be one of the quietest picnic sites in the Kruger (Nhlanguleni I think), but it was busy with game, having a waterhole. You can see how dry and dusty the ground was

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On the final road to camp, we found another new bird species, a black-bellied bustard

 

Edited May 7, 2016 by Tdgraves

[Tdgraves]

Day 5 Evening "drive" - hide visit Talamati wilderness camp, 21/1/16

 

One that I missed from the transfer

 

 

Given that we had driven a long way and it had got up to 34 degrees, we elected to stay in camp and sit at the hide, as it looks as if it would be fruitful. There are actually 2 hides in camp, but one is supposed to over look some wetlands, so not much point to that in the drought, however, given that, the pumped waterhole was a popular place

 

 

 

This kudu was very skittish

 

 

 

As usual, the elephants were very excited as they approached water

 

 

 

 

 

A very enjoyable and peaceful end to the day. As we were walking back to our room, the OH spotted something in the grass "mongoose!" he said as he pointed into the grass near the chalets, au contraire - a cane rat! the first time I have seen a live one....

 

[Atravelynn]

Oh boy! Cane rat! The 2 impala faces are an excellent portrait. Your account reinforces how quick those crocs are!

[Peter Connan]

Well I'll be! A cane rat in daylight! You lucky fish!

[Tdgraves]

Day 6 Morning Drive, Talamati, 22/1/16

 

I think that this was the camp where the drought really kicked in. There were lots of dams and waterholes which were supposed to offer good chances of sable sightings, so we would plan a drive round them, only to find that they were dry and so obviously no sable. This turned out to be quite a long drive and we ended up at Satara camp. We went on the S145 from camp which then joins up with the tar road to Satara, where we had a comfort break. We then went back towards camp on the H7 tar road and off onto the S36. I had the 5D today.

 

 

Our first sighting was a lone buffalo calf. There were no others around and no herd. As we slowed to investigate, it came towards us and then followed the car. We were worried it was going to imprint on us, so we hurried onwards. Further down the road we found the main herd, which were heading in its' general direction and as we were both feeling anxious about its' chances, we followed the herd back. Unfortunately they turned towards camp and the waterhole, but we assume that they were reunited as there was no sign of the little calf as we retraced out steps (and no sign of any predators either!)

 

 

This Korhaan gave us a concert

 

 

The ubiquitous duiker

 

 

As we got nearer to Satara, the drought was really apparent. The grass was completely dead - like we are used to seeing in September, not January. We found a pair of jackals, who posed a bit for us.

 

 

 

 

And then the best purple roller sighting ever

 

 

 

and a brief glimpse of a slender mongoose

 

 

Back near camp we were watching this European roller struggling with a kill. In the end we had to move to let a safari vehicle pass

 

 

 

And some eles having a dust bath next to camp

 

 

 

When we got back to our room, I set about making breakfast. I started to notice a few strange things in the kitchen. Where was the bread for toast? Where were the rest of the tomatoes? Why was there a mango under the coffee table? And had the cleaner managed to break our cafetiere (and the much more important question - how on earth were we going to make coffee???). All became apparent when the primate supervisor wandered over to tell us what had happened. When we checked in, the receptionist mentioned about closing the windows, but we had been talking about the hide and I wasn't paying 100% attention, having driven a long way in the heat, so I assumed that she meant in the hide. There were signs in the room about closing the door with the specially fitted extra security bolt, but no signs about problem animals/to close the windows. The windows all had the metal mesh sliding mosquito "nets" inside them. So when we left for the drive, when the OH asked if we should close the windows, I stupidly said "no" as nothing would be able to get through the sliding nets....how wrong was I? Apparently the male vervet waited for us to leave and then got in through one of the lounge windows. He then proceeded to eat everything that he could lay his hands on, knocking the cafetiere off in the process. The primate supervisor watched him lift up the netting layer, climb in and let go. He would then get a mango (bread/tomatoes etc.), lift up the netting again, climb outside, eat the item and repeat etc etc. He could not scare him off, as the monkey knew that there was a large supply of food inside. So we had to endure the telling off we received and promise never to leave the windows open again. I remain very surprised that SANParks do not put notices inside the rooms that windows should be closed when unoccupied, especially the number of other signs/notices around in other camps and what a problem they have with monkeys.

c

[Atravelynn]

Quite a tale about the crafty vervet! I recognized that purple roller. It's the latest addition to your big year birding thread. Nice "kill" shot of the European Roller.

Edited May 11, 2016 by Atravelynn

[twaffle]

Lovely report, the photos are stunning.