Showcasing the beauty of Mother Nature
I’ve been really enjoying working through bird images lately, so I have carried on with that today. These images are from both my 2022 and 2024 trips and the only thing that unites them is that they caught my eye when I wanted to work on some images. Perhaps that isn’t the best theme or reason, but I went with it anyways.
We were fortunate to see a lot of lions the last time that I was in Southern Africa. Both South Africa and Botswana provided some amazing lion sightings – from cubs playing to mating to lounging away the heat of the day, we had a little bit of everything.
This male was seen in Chobe National Park during a morning game drive. He was following in the footsteps of a female, and she was leading him around to a variety of different places. Here, we were parked on the road and had the opportunity to watch him walk directly towards us, and then after he passed in front of the vehicle, off into the bushes.
I’ve been incredibly fortunate to see a lot of lions now, and honestly, it doesn’t get old. Each time is a thrill and a privilege.
Continuing on with the bird theme from a couple of weeks ago, I decided to focus on herons this week. When I used to live near Vancouver, I loved taking my dog for a walk along a river and would usually spot a great blue heron or two along the route. My current walking area doesn’t feature herons, but it does sometimes have animals like deer and moose (as well fox and coyotes tracks left overnight for the puppies to enjoy), so, I definitely can’t complain about a lack of things to see. At some point, I am hoping I will have both my dogs comfortable and calm enough while walking to take my camera out with me, but that is still a work in progress. But back to the herons.
The variety of herons that I have seen in Southern Africa is impressive, boasting a wide range of sizes and colourings. The striated, purple and squacco herons are on the smaller side, the grey heron is the size that comes to mind when I hear the word heron, and then there is the goliath, which is truly impressive in its stature. The one thing I never really understood was the naming of the purple heron, as the bird is more grey and rust coloured than what I would call purple. But, bird naming conventions (or renaming, as that seems to happen fairly frequently) isn’t something I can claim to understand.
On to the photos.
When I chose the ostrich images last week, I flagged quite a few other bird images to work through, and settled on a few water birds seen in Botswana on my most recent trip. All of these images were taken during the Okavango Delta portion of the trip.
I think this year finally needs to be the year that I get my act together and start my E-Bird list to track all the birds I’ve seen. Thankfully, my last two trips I’ve travelled with an incredibly organized, avid birder, so hopefully I can get some screenshots of her lists to get me started from the most recent trips. The rest will be scanning through my image catalogues; and to be honest, I can think of worse ways to pass the time. Who knows what images might jump out at me, wanting to be revisited.
I remember how peaceful it was to sit on the deck of our cabin in the early afternoon and watch this beautiful herd of elephants. They came down to a dam (just out of the picture to the left) to drink, and once they had their fill, begin heading into the (mostly) dry riverbed to feed on the abundant vegetation.
Part of the herd had already moved deeper into the riverbed; there were perhaps 15 – 20 in the group in total.
Just because the game drive is over doesn’t mean the wildlife viewing is over. There is often an abundance of birdlife and animals to be seen just relaxing around camp.
Watching a sunrise with giraffes is never a bad way to start a day. I’ve shared some images from this sighting before, but it was so beautiful, another one won’t hurt.
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 wish I could provide the type of tree this is, but unfortunately all I know is that I thought it was stunning, and worth taking the time to take pictures of.
This view was off of the pool deck at Simbavati Hilltop Lodge. I spent some time between lunch and our afternoon game drive playing around with long exposure photos using my infrared filter. Each time I capture images like this and edit them, I remember again how much I enjoy them, and how much more there is to learn about the process.
I realized I still have a lot of images from my 2022 trip that I wanted to work through, so I decided to select some images from Victoria Falls, both from the Zimbabwean side and from the Zambian side.
I first visited the Zambian side of Victoria Falls in April of 2013, and the water level was perfect for viewing as there was a strong water flow to highlight the epic scale, but not so much as to shroud the entire falls in mist. My second visit was November of 2022, and there was far less water flowing over the falls and a lot more exposed rock, which showed off the scale of the falls in a completely different way.
On the day we visited the Zimbabwean side, clouds hung heavy in the air, but I don’t believe delivered any rain that day. Our visit to the Zambian side 8 days later couldn’t have been more different, with clear blue skies and fairly significant heat and humidity, around 38C or so, going from memory.
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.
