Partway through our game drive on our last morning at Chitwa Chitwa, I spotted a fairly large bird in some trees a short distance from the vehicle, and our guide Surprise quickly realized that it was a hawk that had been successful hunting. We headed closer but the hawk was definitely not too comfortable with our presence and headed for a new tree as soon as we got too close. After that happened twice, we moved on to allow him (or her) to enjoy breakfast in peace.
It was such a cool sighting and I am very grateful I was able to capture it.
Have a great evening!
An African harrier hawk flies with a green spotted wood snake in its mouth. 1/1000 sec, f8.0, ISO 320Coming in to landHe seemed to be settling in to have breakfast, but soon changed his mind and was off again. 1/1000sec, f8.0, ISO 280We moved the vehicle and for a few moments, had a closer vantage point.Off again 1/1000sec, f5.6, ISO 140The poor snake had tied itself into a knot while being clutched by the hawk.One last view before he was off.
If you been following my blog for any length of time, I think you’ve probably noticed that I enjoy silhouette photos. Especially of birds. While staying at Chitwa Chitwa, we stopped for a sundowner and just as I picked up my glass of wine, I noticed the vulture in this tree. Actually, there were two, but the photo of both of them didn’t work out so well (perhaps if I had the 150mm-600mm then…)
I’ve included here both the cropped image as shot, with only a pass of Nik’s output sharpener as my editing, and one that has been further enhanced with both Silver Efex and Colour Efex. I’d be interested to know if there are any preferences. I like both (or I wouldn’t post them!).
Have a great evening.
This is the un-enhanced photo.And this is the one that’s had just a little work done.
When I was at Phinda, talking with my guide about the animals and birds I hoped to someday see, I mentioned my interest in seeing a pangolin. I don’t recall if he said “It’s never going to happen” or “That won’t happen here” but the message was pretty clear, sightings are incredibly rare (not the first time I had heard that). In fact, from speaking with many guides and trackers, there are lots who spend every day in the bush, and go years without seeing one, if they do get the chance.
Still, I hoped that perhaps one day I would be so lucky.
Fast forward to the very end of my trip, on the last evening game drive. We had been looking for leopard without any success, but still enjoying a lovely warm afternoon in the bush. Radio calls went back and forth, and it was determined that the tracks we had been following and trying to decipher were in fact far older than previously thought. Then another call came in. I know I won’t get the exact wording right, but Dave said something like this to us (with a wild look of excitement on his face) “There’s a really nice, once in a lifetime sighting, but it’s pretty far away. Are you guys interested in going to see a pangolin?” Well, I nearly jumped into the front of land rover to start driving there myself, I was that excited, and regardless if every other member of the group had protested, we were going to that sighting!
When we got there, this pangolin must have been feeling like a rock star. People were out of the vehicles (keeping a respectful distance) taking photos, and the atmosphere was a bit like a party. Vehicles were coming in from all areas of the reserve, and what makes the sighting even more impressive is a guest on another vehicle actually spotted the pangolin, not the ranger or tracker!
The sighting was also wonderful as we ran into Freddie, our tracker from our previous visit, and had a few minutes to catch up 🙂
In case you have never heard of a pangolin before, here is a bit more information:
And now for the photos! To save captioning everyone with the note “Not the best quality”; unfortunately for the photography aspect, the afternoon rapidly turned from beautiful to overcast, then by the time we stopped for a sundowner, lightning was beginning to play across the sky. I’ve done the best I could with editing to show the amazing texture of the scales, as the light just wasn’t there. It honestly doesn’t matter though – I saw one 🙂
We were very lucky to see the pangolin so active. Our tracker Judas had only seen them stationary before, and he has spent most of his life in the bush.Yup, that’s a pangolin sticking its enormous tongue out.I gave a black and white edit a try, in the hopes that might bring out more detail.Searching the in the ground for food (not rolled into a complete ball).
Flash helped a little bit with the difficult lighting conditions, but everyone used it very sparingly, so as not to scare the VIP.
Londolozi is well known for having amazing leopard sightings, and I certainly had one during my stay, but you’ll have to stay tuned to a future post to hear all about it and see the photos, as that encounter definitely deserves to be a post on its own (as does the Pangolin sighting!!!) 🙂
We had an absolutely fabulous time during our two night stay, and a lot of laughs with our ranger Dave and tracker Judas. I’d be back there tomorrow if I could (I think in fact I asked Phil the camp manager more than once if I could hide myself away somewhere just so I could stay longer).
The following are just a few of the moments that made me smile during my time there; I took over 1500 photos during my stay, so you can be certain you’ll see many more in the coming days and weeks.
This very blog was started after my first trip to Londolozi in 2013. In case you missed those first posts, you can find some of them here (or use the search function at the bottom of my home page to find them all!)
A small group of wildebeest gather around a tree, on a perfect autumn afternoon. 1/1000sec, f10, ISO360A saddle billed stork on one of the sandy bars in the river. 1/1000 sec, f9, ISO 560This photo brings me close to tears; I think it shows what I love best about being out in the bush, just bearing witness to the day to day lives of animals. I absolutely love elephants, and capturing this tender moment when the youngster had a chance to suckle was one of the benefits of parking ourselves in the river and hanging out with this small family. 1/1000sec, f8, ISO 360We parked in the river to watch this small family group drinking and crossing the river. What came next??? 1/1000sec, f8.0, ISO 400We got well and truly stuck! Our position in the river gave us brilliant viewing and photographic opportunities, but unfortunately left the land rover with tires at least half buried in the sand. Dave was so worried that we would be upset at waiting for rescue and being late for breakfast, but we all had an absolute blast; just another part of the safari adventure! 1/1250sec, f16, ISO900The tractor arrived to remove our stuck vehicle from the river; I’m not sure if Dave has lived that one down yet. 1/1250sec, f10, ISO500The result of having to call for rescue, Dave ended up with the dreaded pink ammo pouch. I think it may be good luck though, as we had some amazing sightings after he took possession of it!Even after getting dragged out of the river, Dave still stopped in the sand along the river so I could photograph this beautiful white fronted bee-eater. 1/1250 sec, f10, ISO 1000The morning sky was like a painting, and I was happy just to sit and watch that; stumbling across this herd of elephants made it all the better. 1/640sec, f5, ISO 3600My first attempt at photographing lightning; I set up my camera on the tree camp deck under a patio umbrella, and let the camera do it’s thing on a timer function while I enjoyed wine and dinner. We were out on drive and returned just before the rain started, but watched the most intense part of the lightning from the vehicle on the way back to camp. I’m pleased with the results for my first attempt; it was basically focusing and aiming at nothing and hoping for the best! 25sec, f11, ISO 800A slightly different editing technique, but from the same storm as the other lightning photo (one of only a few periods of rain I had on holiday). 25 sec, f11, ISO800I asked both my Dave’s to find me owls, and they both succeeded 🙂 The light was not in my favour for photographing this southern white faced owl, but I really like this black and white conversion. 1/1250sec, f6.3, ISO 900A couple of iconic African shapes – elephants and cheetah. 1/250sec, f7.1, ISO 3600
I was originally planning to combine the two areas of the Sabi Sands I stayed at into one highlights post, but I’ve been having such difficulty finding the time to work on my photos the last few weeks that it just wasn’t feasible. Fingers crossed I’ll be able to get to the final highlights post this weekend, so I can move on to the other editing projects that I want to do – and get out and do some more shooting too!
This guy only had eyes for one thing (the female that is out of shot). More about that in another post.We turned the corner, and there he was!A huge group of vultures gathering near a kudu carcass. They were waiting for a female lion to clear off before heading in fight for scraps.A wild dog peers at us from between two small tree trunks.A lion take a pause from his kudu breakfast.A dagga boy. One of the old buffalo bulls cooling off in the watering hole.A yellow billed hornbill, or as my Dad likes to say “the flying banana”.A wildebeest enjoying the cool air of early morning.Not who you would expect to see in a wallow.One of my favourite birds, the beautiful lilac breasted roller.
This time-lapse was one of my first attempts, and shows a mid afternoon at the dam in front of Chitwa lodge. Lots of waterbuck around that afternoon!
While I have been home now almost a week, I thought I would continue on with posting my highlights of each area I visited in Southern Africa, and then move on to other blog post formats. I came home with over 13,300 images, so I will have lots to work through over the next couple of months.
I hope you enjoy, and have a great day!
After moving all night, this lion just couldn’t go any further, and laid down for a nap on the road.The beautiful textures of the inside of an elephant’s trunk.This is what it looks like driving through the bush at night.A heavily pregnant alpha female wild dog looks our way from behind some branches.A leopard cub peers down between the branches of a tree.Hyenas come in small, medium and large at this sighting.A lioness looks on while the cubs swarm her sister.
I spent an amazing few days at Phinda recently, and was lucky enough to not only have a fabulous ranger and tracker team to work with, but also got along brilliantly with the other guests on the vehicle. I have so many photos to go though when I get home; some of the highlights included some of the tiniest babies I have had the pleasure of seeing in the bush (elephant and rhino), spending time with two families of lions, a mother with 3 cheetah cubs, 3 older cheetah brothers, and some really cool eagle sightings. I’d still rather be outside than on the computer, so here are just a few of the special moments from Phinda.
I asked Dave to find me an owl if possible during my stay – he said give me 15 minutes (at 4 in the afternoon). About 20 minutes later he and Thoks found this adorable sleeping southern white faced owl.3 cheetah brothers lounging on a termite mound.Look between the leader’s front legs, and you will see a tiny elephant calf 🙂 Quite possibly the cutest thing I have ever seen.I had two opportunities to photograph lions at night with red filters. I am looking forward to the black and white conversions when I get home.We spotted Mom and the cubs late one evening, and came back in the morning to view. Sadly, in the night the mom had lost one of the cubs, leaving her with the 3 seen here.The young lions were far more interested in getting up than the adults.The resident genet at Phinda, hanging around the dining area at night, hoping someone will drop something tasty. They call her Genet Jackson.
A quick panorama from the top of table mountain.The old limestone quarry at Robben Island.Rusted barbed wires around Robben Island are just one of the reminders of its very sad past.A view of Table Mountain from Robben Island.A couple of hungry African penguin chicks beg their parents for food at Boulders beach.A baby baboon, no more than a few days old, scampered around the side of the road, seen on our way into Franschhoek.An orange breasted sunbird on some flowers (which I didn’t note the name of) at the Kirstenbosch Gardens in Cape Town.
I am gratefully, happily, joyfully back in Southern Africa again, and spent the past few days in Cape Town. This time, I was lucky enough to get the cable car to the top of Table Mountain (the “tablecloth” covered it almost my entire stay last time, and high winds had the cable car closed). I took the journey to Robben Island, seeing where Nelson Mandela spent his imprisonment and heard a first-hand account about what life was like in the prison, and had a lovely day trip to Franschhoek, the Cape of Good Hope and Boulders Beach (penguins!).
Honestly though, the absolute highlights of my time in Cape Town was having the opportunity to meet up with a friend I met my first trip over, and finally meeting my fabulous SA based travel agent in person.
I’ve brought along a tablet/PC hybrid to back up photos, and the editing capacity is a bit on the sluggish side, but I will do my best to get a few highlight photos posted when I can, because I can honestly say I would much rather be outside enjoying the beautiful scenery than spending too much time inside on the computer.
I’ve finally had a chance to sit down to post this one day two of my time in Namibia, depending on internet connections, I might get a chance to post some photos of the desert and animals in the next couple of days.
Seeing about 6 or 7 of our beautiful great blue herons on Tuesday reminded me that I still had a few photos of grey herons to edit. These are the last of the photos I had flagged off from my stay at Zimanga for editing.
Enjoy 🙂
A grey heron, an egret and a pair of pied kingfishers. Those were some busy rocks!Grey heron reflectionA grey heron with an antelope skull and various bones littering the background.A grey heron in flight above Jozini Dam.A grey heron nicely poses in the grasses next to the dam.
I may have posted a version of this photo before, but I somehow lost the PSD file when transferring things from one computer to another, and I liked it enough to edit it again 🙂
