2019-06-02: Honey Badgers!

First off, I must apologize for not posting for the last couple of week.  I had the best of intentions while away to keep up with my regular posting schedule, but that fell by the wayside pretty quickly as I relaxed fully into holiday mode.  I’ve been back a little over a week and am just now getting into organizing photos.

It may surprise some that the first images I am posting are pretty crappy photos, but I was so excited about the sighting that I had to share them.  This was my 6th trip to Africa, and after hoping and wishing that one day it would happen, I finally saw honey badgers.  Not only that, I saw them on my very first game drive of the trip!

We were in quite a dark, tree lined area near Lion Sands River Lodge, and these two honey badgers shot out of the bushes onto the road, ran in front of the vehicle chattering amongst themselves, and then disappeared back in to the bush.  All told, we probably had a view of them for 30 seconds or so.  The images that I captured were only in a 6 second window.  So while the images aren’t great, at least they are proof that I finally saw the elusive honey badger.  We actually had one run across the road in daylight while at another camp towards the end of the trip, but that was literally a blink and you miss it moment, and I didn’t even have time to get my camera up to my eye before it was gone.

I edited these images using both On1 Photo Raw (for basic corrections) and then using Topaz Studio and the new Topaz Denoise AI program.  The Denoise AI was able to get the best out the image that I could.  These won’t be featured images printed for display around my house, but they are a wonderful reminder of an amazing game drive filled with interesting sightings (I’ll share some of the other interesting creatures at a later date, as for now, duty calls and I have a lawn to mow).

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2019-05-13: Monochrome Monday

During my travels it has been heartwarming to see several different rhinos cows with their calves.   I did have one sighting that turned out to be quite a missed opportunity though.  The Mom was busy having a drink at a watering hole, and the baby began to whine, wanting access to milk.  Mom wasn’t interested at that time, and the whining from the baby got louder and more insistent.  This went on for a good couple of minutes, and I didn’t even think to switch into video, and kept capturing still images instead.  The only time I have heard rhinos before is on nature programs, so it was definitely a wonderful moment in the bush for me.

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2019-05-11: What I’ve seen this week

Here are some images from the past week of my travels, staying at two properties; Lions Sands River and Tinga Lodges.  I have had a wonderful time being back in the bush again!  It’s tea time shortly and then off to see what the afternoon has in store, so I will keep this brief.

I hope you enjoy my selections!

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One of my rare view of a scrub hare in the daylight.
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A group of oxpeckers atop a rhino.
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A long-crested eagle and a fork-tailed drongo.  The drongo had been mobbing the eagle, and resumed its pestering when the eagle took flight again.
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A wild dog looks off towards the rest of the pack.
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A very relaxed lioness.
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Baby elephants are just the cutest!
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Elephants galore on an afternoon game drive.  I think we saw more ellies than impalas!
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An elephant quenches his thirst, with a large herd of buffalo in the background.  Two of the big five in one shot 🙂
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A family of dwarf mongoose in the fading afternoon light.
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An impala making good and sure this lioness was heading off.
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A buffalo making his way past our vehicle, while some rhino look on.  Another two of the big five in one shot.
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A group of wild dogs greeting one another.
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Soon after this was shot, this baby elephant picked up the pace to catch up with Mom.

2019-05-06: Monochrome Monday

I’m currently traveling so posts will be brief, but I wanted to share an image from my travels so far.  I did a day trip on the Panorama Route Sunday, and enjoyed seeing amazing landscapes throughout the day.

The day started out a little bit hazy, but cleared throughout the day and in the end, the weather couldn’t have been more perfect for exploring.

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The Three Rondavels in Graskop, South Africa.

2019-05-05: Lisbon Falls

Greetings from South Africa!  I’m so happy to be back in one of my favourite places.

I did a trip along the Panorama Route today, and explored Lisbon Falls, Berlin Falls, the Potholes, God’s Window and the Three Rondavels.

A relaxing glass of wine is calling my name, so I have just edited a single image for now.

I’m heading into the bush tomorrow, so I won’t have a lot of time to post, but I will try my best to keep up my normal Sunday, Monday and Wednesday schedule.

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Lisbon Falls, along the Panorama Route in South Africa.

Month in Review – April 2019

 

April’s topic of the month

April was topic free, as I was trying to work through my image backlog, and just post whatever I felt like at the moment.  And, I am happy to report that I met my goal of getting all of my image backlog edited before heading off on my next adventure.  I finished with less than 12 hours to go, so it was cutting it close, but I am happy to have a clean slate to return to when I get home.

What’s new this month

The snow has finally melted, the temperatures have started to warm up, and I even saw (but didn’t photograph) my first hummingbird of the year a couple of days ago.  I am looking forward to spending some time outside capturing the hummingbirds when I return home from holiday.

5 favourites of the month

What’s coming up next?

I’ll be traveling in South Africa in May, so my regular posts may be a bit sporadic at best.

For those that have been printing out my calendar pages each month, below are the links for May and June:

Full Page Calendar for May & June

Half fold calendar for May & June

2019-04-29: Monochrome Monday

Just a quick post today as I am running a little short on time at the moment!

I loved watching these elephants greet each other as they all congregated around a dam. Different family groups joined up, took their time with greetings, getting refreshing drinks, and eventually, heading off  in their separate ways.

It’s always a joy for me to spend time amongst elephants.

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