I’ve often said that if there was only one animal I could watch on safari, it would be elephants. They are always doing something: feeding, drinking, fanning themselves with their ears, and most importantly, interacting with one another.
It’s the interaction that I wanted to highlight with my selection of photos today.
I decided to focus on birds this week, and looked for images where I had a pair of the same species together. I was surprised how many I found, and surprised by how many bird images I still have to go through from my last few trips.
While the wattled cranes are a fairly rare sighting and the pygmy geese were a first for me, the rest of the birds featured are fairly wide spread and easy to spot. I’d be pretty shocked for anyone to go on a southern African safari and not see a lilac breasted roller and at least one type of hornbill.
I had originally planned to post some elephant photos today, but I came across one hippo photo that made me change my direction.
Hippos can be interesting to watch and listen to while out on a game drive, but they generally aren’t an animal that a guide specifically seeks out to show guests – at least not on any game drive I’ve been on. Hippos have their typical ponds and pools that they spend time in, so it is usually quite easy to add a drive past the area during a game drive, or stop nearby (at a safe distance, of course) to have morning coffee or sundowners in the evening.
It is very interesting to have the opportunity to see hippos out on land, especially in the daytime when you can really appreciate their size and bulk. Our camp in the Okavango Delta had a resident hippo in the camp that they called Oscar. Oscar wandered around in between the cabins grazing, even during the day. We were lucky to have him hanging around our cabin one afternoon, although the only photos I managed of that sighting were of his butt as he walked away, or when he was mostly obscured by bushes.
After a few dreary and grey days, I was in the mood for colour again, and these giraffes images certainly fit the bill. The shape of the giraffe is so easily recognizable that they are a great subject for a silhouetted shot, if you are fortunate enough to be at the right place at the right time, with both subject matter and weather cooperating.
I was treated to a beautiful sunrise sky this morning when I was out walking my dogs; in one direction, warm yellow, orange and peach tones, and in the other, cool blues and purples. It was such a lovely start to the day. While I didn’t have my camera to take any pictures, I did have a few lovely sunrise shots just waiting to be edited from my last trip.
I was in awe of the lilac breasted roller at first sight, and they have remained my very favourite bird to spot on safari ever since. It would be a challenge to think of a time on a game drive when I saw one and didn’t mention it; not necessarily as a request to stop, but it is just such a striking bird that I can’t help but comment on it. Seeing them with a beautiful clear blue sky in the background is a bonus, but they are beautiful even in flat light.
Here are a couple of images of lilac breasted rollers from my most recent trip.
Today, my eyes were drawn to dramatic, saturated colours, so I selected a few landscape images to edit. While today was a lovely day, with sunshine and blue skies to accentuate the fresh snow on the trees, I often find this time of year lacks in colour, and that, along with the lack of daylight, leaves me feeling rather blah. It’s nice to have these images to look over to perk me up as needed.
I chose to highlight some of the predators that I saw on my last safari. Of course, there is more to predators than just animals; there are reptiles and birds that also fall under this category, but today I am sticking with the four-legged variety.
Predators are what a lot of people aim to see while on safari, but a game drive is so much more than seeing a glimpse of a lion or leopard. It always bears repeating, that the best game drives are the ones that you go on without a strong agenda, and allow the beauty of Mother Nature to unfold before you, and experience all that is on offer.
You never know what you might cross paths with when out on a safari game drive. Between the guides, trackers and all the guests, there are eyes scanning in every possible direction, off into the far distance. But sometimes, the wildlife makes it easy by hanging out on the road or crossing right in front of the vehicle, making them very easy to spot and view.
All of these images are animals spotted on the roadways; these are the types of traffic jams that I never mind being a part of.