24 November – Birds and Hyenas

There are no words to describe the thrill one has when one is woken in the night or early in the morning by the sounds of the bushveld. We have heard the shrill laugh of the hyena the howl of the jackals and the roar of lions on several occasions since being in The Park. This morning the hyenas were particularly vocal and urged me out of bed before 5 am. Pat had heard them and the lions too so was also up a the same rude hour.

We were meant to leave be out the gate by 6 am but it was a little after that before we hit the H1-3

First up was a zebra crossing and then a number of lovely bird sightings.

African Harrier Hawk – getting his adult plumage

Soon we turned onto the H6

A Swainson’s Spurfowl in full voice

Purple Roller

Isn’t the baby impala too cute

The H6 is famous for hyena sightings and we were not disappointed

These two were on a mission

They were not the only two we saw – there were many lying fast asleep. Clearly they’d had a hard night!

These two opened weary eyes to check us out

We also met up with wildebeest

A handsome ostrich

And this magnificent Martial Eagle

By 7:35 we’d turned onto the S37 where a herd of Impala scared The Earl silly by leaping in front of the car without warning. Luckily we were going slowly as one must in a game reserve.

At 8:30 we got out at Sweni Hide and had a good time observing the activity there.

A water buck and herd of impala came down to drink

This yellow-billed stork sat on its haunches

Then she lay right down.

Perhaps standing on one leg gets a bit exhausting

The grey heron walked post cranky crocodile without a care in the world

And went to chat to the storks

Next we went to Sweni Picnic site which has a hide overlooking the river but there was not much to see. However, we got a lovely puffback in the picnic area.

Not easy to get this very vocal bird as he hides in the foliage. Here he’s nicely puffed up.

We then followed the S41. The birding was good

We watched a bateleur catch and eat a mouse

Near the river we observed thousands of quelea swarming and hanging in the trees. Pat suggested a good collective noun for them – A cloud of quelea.

There were “Clouds” of Quelea everywhere

We then joined the S100 and had some good sightings along that route.

Trumpeter Hornbill

Great to get the pale form Wahburg Eagle

When he flew to another tree we saw this barn owl with its wings hanging down over the branch – very odd.

Barn Owl acting strangely

We also enjoyed the giraffe and zebra

We had planned to come back to camp for breakfast but only made it there by midday so instead went to The Rustic Kitchen for lunch. Pat and I enjoyed a chicken salad and the men had chicken may toasties.

We went out again at 4 pm and did the S100.

This male waterbuck was very relaxed

The Sabota Lark got some dinner

A puffed up purple roller

It was cool this morning but the temperature rose to 35 in the afternoon. Pat and Tony cooked chicken kebabs, butternut and sweet potato on the braai which we served with a Greek Salad.

Ánother ‘lousy’ day in Africa!

13 July Satara 175388
We left camp at 6:35 and the temperature was 10 degrees C. It rose to 28 later in the day.
As we turned onto the S100 we saw a car facing toward us driving very slowly. The driver waved us down and she was very excited. “Die luiperd is hier. Hy was nou op die pad.” (The leopard was here. It was just on the road.) She was the only other car and she pointed into the bush. Peter, Earl and I caught sight of him and then he disappeared. Not a fantastic sighting and no photograph but a leopard nevertheless. Peter told us we were now off the hook! He’d seen his leopard!
Coucals seem to be having a convention in the park this holiday as we keep seeing them.

Two wooly necked storks were next to capture our attention and straight after we were amused to find a saddle-bill at the top of a tree.

We enjoyed some good birding but did not find lions or any more leopards along the infamous S100.
We turned onto the S41 and continued our birding finding many interesting species.

Immature Batteleur

Then onto the H6 where there were zebra and other game to observe.

At 9:10 Peter alerted us to a traffic jam. We found a gap and after much talking at once managed to show Pete where the female was hiding behind a bush. Moving a little ahead we managed to get a good sighting of 2 cubs and then the mom got up and took them off into the bush.

We returned to Satara and Earl cooked us breakfast, we had a bit of a break and then went out again at midday with the intention of going to Sweni Water Hole. Right outside the camp on the H3 we found 3 adult and 2 juvenile Ground Hornbills.

Once again we spotted the usual game and then we were alerted to lion by another tourist coming in the opposite direction.
It was quite far off but we all got good sightings of her before she dropped down and disappeared into the long straw for an afternoon nap. No one would know she was there!
The Sweni Waterhole has changed since our last visit. There is now a road going right down to the river and you can sit there and watch the river before entering the hide. We found it most productive and found jacanas, kingfishers, crakes, moorhen and green backed herons. We spent a long time watching before going into the hide.

After enjoying the crocodiles and terrapin, more activity from the green backed heron and jacanas we were entertained with a love scene from the Jacanas.

We saw four different species of kingfisher in the hour or so that we spent at this spot. We watched the giant and the pied catch fish. The little malachite didn’t have much luck and the brown hooded simply posed beautifully for us when we exited the hide.

On the last leg of our drive back to camp we had a few more interesting sightings. A lovely pearl spotted owls which Earl spotted and reversed to check if he was right.

Burchell’s Sandgrouse, male and female.

Another stunning brown-hooded kingfisher.

An finally elephant and drinking and a hippo and baby on the bank of the river.

All day I’d been battling with my back which decided to rebel against the constant sitting and little exercise. Because of our early starts to the day I even neglected to do my Big Five exercises which my Witch Doctor insists upon. I did some stretches on our return home. I hope a good night’s rest will sort my out by morning.