Tag: wildlife

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2020-07-12: Wild Dogs

Much like elephants, I have posted many, many times about my love of wild dogs. They are amazing animals to spend time with, and the more I learn about them, the more I like them.

I was super fortunate on my last trip to see two different packs at two different camps. The sightings were very different; one had us with them as they awoke from a day of napping and set off on the hunt, and the second had us finding them late morning, getting ready to rest away part of the day in the cooler shade of a dry riverbed.

I look through my images and dream now, more than ever, of having the opportunity to travel back to my favourite places again sometime soon.

I’ve posted lots of other wild dog images in the past. You can find them through a keyword search, or check out one of these posts. Some of these go right back to the very start of this blog 🙂

Zimanga Game Reserve

Wild Dogs

Even More Wild Dogs

Wild Dogs at Play

A group of wild dogs greeting and playing after waking up from an afternoon nap.
Setting off on the hunt. We lost them very soon after this.
A pack of wild dogs resting in a dry riverbed. Even if this was the only sighting you could have of them, it is absolutely worth it to try.
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2020-07-05: Photo Art – Rhinos

For my Dad’s Father’s Day gift, I adopted a blind rhino named Maxwell, being cared for at the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, in his name. Rhino’s were the animal he was most excited to see on our first trip to South Africa, so it seemed like a good fit (and proved to be a very popular gift, as was the elephant I adopted for my Mom for Mother’s Day).

I try to make homemade cards whenever possible, and created these two images to make my Dad’s Father’s Day card. These were done with images I shot my last time in South Africa, using a variety of filters in the Topaz Studio program.

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2020-06-21: World Giraffe Day

Today is World Giraffe Day, and an opportunity for me to not have to think what to post! I can just share a few images of these adorable and goofy looking animals 🙂

A pair of giraffes in the late afternoon light.
A very interesting, and very sad sighting. This was from my 2017 trip to the Skeleton Coast in Namibia. We found signs of a lion and followed it until we also found drag marks from a kill, and ended up, seeing this mama giraffe holding vigil while her youngster was being dined on by a lone lioness in the bushes. The track marks shows that the giraffe had tried to charge the lioness, but sadly nothing could bring back her calf. I have a few other shots from this sighting that you can find in an older post here.

This image was so brightly coloured it looked like some type of HDR image; so I had to do some serious desaturation to get it to look reasonable. I’m not sure what causes that to happen every once in a while, but it does make for interesting editing. This young giraffe was part of a group of 4 or 5 that were scattered in the trees enjoying some browsing.

Have a great week everyone!

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2020-06-14: Civet

On my 6th journey to Africa, I was fortunate enough to add two new species to my wildlife list; both on the same evening and both quick, blink and you’d miss them, type sightings. And both on the 1st game drive of the trip 🙂 The first were honey badgers, which I had desperately wanted to see (and if you missed the photos of those, you can find them here) and the second is the civet that is pictured below.

I don’t know much about civets, and as we had such a jam packed game drive, while sharing our vehicle with some wonderful safari newbies, our guide didn’t have a chance to provide too much of a chat about them. While I am sure any search engine could yield me more information on a civet than I ever could need to know, I might just leave this one and hope I see one again, and get a bit more information on it while out in the field. As if I needed another excuse to return to Africa!

Wishing everyone a wonderful week ahead.

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2020-06-08: Monochrome Monday

Being on safari in the dark is quite a magical experience. Some people find it scary, I am sure, as predators are more active after dark, but I find the experience exhilarating, even if the photo opportunities are more limited.

We came across this particular pride of lions on the way to a bush supper, and our spotlight was busted. Another vehicle came along and we had their spotlight for a minute to get a look at the cats, and then we were both off. This was the lead lioness, and the rest of her pride was a few paces behind her on the road and in the bushes. I’m sure my supper was far more easy to come by that evening than the lion’s was!

I’ve shared other lion at night images, if you missed them the first time around check here.

Wishing you a wonderful week!

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2020-06-07: Local Birds (and more)

We have had some truly dismal weather the past few weeks, so much so that almost all of the hummingbirds have disappeared, presumably to find somewhere a little more hospitable to nest. But, I have seen a fair amount of wildlife, even though I haven’t had a chance to take pictures of all of it. The western tanager couple is back, and I see them flit through the yard usually once a day. Out on my walks, there have been frequent sightings of hermit thrushes, which surprises me after all the years I listened to them singing without being able to see one. There have also been a few different warblers; the Townsend’s, which I didn’t manage to get a photo of, and the Wilson’s warbler, which I managed a couple of ID shots of.

A male western tanager
A Wilson’s warbler
A hermit thrush

In addition to the variety of birds, I’ve seen both black bear, a cinnamon bear, and I finally caught a glimpse of the lynx that I saw tracks of all through the winter. I was walking my dog early one morning and saw it at the side of the road off in the distance, and it was so far away that I needed my camera to figure out what it was! Gratefully it stayed put for enough time to let me snap one photo, and then it evaporated into the bushes.

That’s all for today, wishing everyone a wonderful week.

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2020-06-01: Monochrome Monday

I’ve kept on with the lion theme started yesterday, though with one a bit more active. She was taking a rather leisurely stroll down the road; she definitely had a destination in mind, but was in no hurry to get there.

Wishing everyone a wonderful week!

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