Tag: South Africa

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2019-11-04: Monochrome Monday

While staying at Lion Sands River Lodge, we set out on our afternoon game drive and came across a small bachelor group of elephants.  These four broke off into pairs, play fighting as the day grew dim, while a couple of other bulls grazed nearby.  It’s so cool watching the interaction of these animals.

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Happy Monday everyone!

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2019-11-03: Baby Elephants

My focus for the month is on elephant images, and I decided to start off with some of the adorable babies that I saw on my last safari.

I’ve had the great fortune to spend time amongst the shy ones, the boisterous ones, the playful ones and the ones too focused on food to even give the vehicle a passing glance.  I adore them all.  I hope that the individual character of each animal shines through these images below.

Wishing everyone a fantastic week ahead!

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This little elephant was having a blast playing with this branch.  Waving his trunk while holding it, smacking itself on the sides with the branch, and at one point, tossing it in the air and having it land on its head, wearing it like a leafy crown.
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When you’re hungry, you’re hungry.  Even if that means creating a bit of a traffic jam for the herd behind you.
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This little elephant seems to be very proud of the stick that it is holding.
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Another elephant calf with a stick.  Fetch anyone???
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This was the first group of elephants I saw on my trip.  Being around these beautiful animals makes me incredibly happy.  The elephant baby boom we witnessed at all the properties we stayed at was just amazing.  There were babies everywhere, and so many of them, in large herds.

 

 

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2019-10-28: Monochrome Monday

I found this image in my file of edited images; somehow I missed posting it.  It’s a few years old now, and seeing it brings back such happy memories of a wonderful morning out in the bush.

I hope you enjoy, and wishing you a wonderful week ahead.

 

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A pair of leopard cubs playing in a ravine area, amongst fallen trees and swampy water.  These two definitely kept Mom busy.  She was enjoying a quick nap nearby.

 

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2019-10-27: Weaver Nests

I’ve been having fun this weekend working on some of my photo art images, but decided to share a few images of interesting weaver nests today.  They caught my eye, and I decided to just go with it.

On my most recent trip, we saw communal nests of the red-billed buffalo weaver and the typical hanging basket style nest of southern masked weaver (that’s my best guess, as we didn’t actually see anyone in residence).

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Loads of tiny basket style nests, abandoned for the season.
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These nests are built on the north and east branches of the tree; I believe in order to keep the nest cooler.  Our guide told us that this was one way to determine direction if you are lost out on the bush.

On previous trips I saw several other great examples.

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In Etosha National Park, the Sociable weaver nests had gotten so large, it brought down the branch of the tree.
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One of the many sociable weavers still in residence in the broken nest.
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In Amboseli National Park, another tree filled with the basket style nests of the weavers.  I don’t recall which variety would have bee the architects here.
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A black headed weaver gathering supplies to work on a nest in Queen Elizabeth Park in Uganda.
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2019-10-21: Monochrome Monday

I wanted to share a few landscape scenes from some of the camps I stayed at this past May.  The first two images were taken while staying at Lion Sands Tinga Lodge, and the last image was taken while staying at Chitwa Chitwa.

I hope you enjoying, and wishing you a fantastic week!

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Blinded by the light!  We stopped for a quick view of the river as the sun roe behind; but I definitely didn’t have time to do anymore than a single quick photo and then we were off again.  
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A different portion of river later in the morning.  The tall reeds amongst the meandering water could be hiding all manner of animals.  I’ve seen both leopard and lions in conditions like this.
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A view of an afternoon game drive.  Oh, how I wish I was there now!
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2019-10-14: Monochrome Monday

For some reason, lions were calling to me today, so that’s the feature of monochrome Monday for the week.  These images were from a few different lion sightings on my most recent trip to South Africa.  I hope you enjoy, and wishing you a fantastic week!

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The Torchwood pride spent one day around Chitwa Chitwa, and we were fortunate enough to see the whole pride on the move, both in the morning, when this image was taken, and long after dark the same evening, where instead of trying to take pictures, I just sat back and enjoyed watching the lions walking under the light of a full moon.
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A lone lioness moving through the bush.
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An impressive male lion.
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2019-10-13: Leopards

I finished off last Sunday’s post with the promise of sharing a few more leopard images this week, and here they are.

I was fortunate enough to spend time with this mother leopard and her cub on a couple of different occasions, in slightly different areas, providing a nice variety of images.  All the ones shared today though were taken on the same morning.

I hope you enjoy the selection below.

Wishing everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving today; I hope you have the opportunity to share the day with people that you care about, and can take some time to reflect on all the things to be thankful for.

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Five seconds that felt more like five minutes.  This tracker remained calm and completely still when the leopard stopped by and checked him out. 
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Once Mom was away from the kill in the tree, and out in the open, the cub came out of hiding.
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Greetings between mama and her cub.
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I like to share images like this to show the reality of a lot of leopard sightings, which is often viewing them through trees, tall grass or other obstructions.  Still beautiful to see (of course!) and it makes the moments when they are completely out in the open that much more special.
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Something startled Mom and caused her to sit straight up and look around; the cub is quite indifferent and sniffing an interesting spot of grass (which reminds me of walks with my dog!)
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