Flavour of the Month - June 2015: S143 Tropic of Capricorn and Tihongonyeni waterhole

[Richprins]

And, last not least, 2 very special encounters: a Liechtenstein's Hartebeest at Tihanganyeni and my last Roan also on the S143

[Richprins]

Heksie in 2013:

Now we are an hour behind schedule and we have to do the Capricorn loop to search for the Kittlittz plover, a lifer and challenge from our dear tannie VVV. This is now one of my favorite roads as it has such diverse animals and birds. We got to see a badger with a ‘pup’ a bit far-ish when we stopped for a MMC refill.



Zebra, willies, wooly-necked storks, fish eagle, some tsessebi with eety beety ones,



And the infamous Kittlittz



Elephants and then another fave bird, the Kori bustard



Wendy stopped and not seeing what she was checking I drove up to her and asked her what is going on, she said there’s a reedbuck, after checking with my binocs I asked her were as I still saw boggeroll. She pointed right in front of me, he was about 10m from me… She had a lekker laugh about this.

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[Richprins]

By Pumbaa, 2013:


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who finally found something very interesting in the grass.



Eventually both of them could no longer to be seen so time for us to capture some birdies such as this red-billed teal



and we even could hear the roar of some lions not that far away and although we still stayed quite a while we never saw them so time for us to carry on and we decided to discover today the S50 into the Northern direction as far as we were able to drive as same was still closed from one point there onwards.

At last still on the S143 another of my wishes came true today because we met a beautiful kori bustard in the best light and without any disturbing grass and same even allowed us to come close enough



for some nice close ups and did not to run away.



But it somehow got even better and same spread its wings



and we already thought that same might now take off but after some unenthusiastic attempts whilst flapping the wings and even jump up



same decided to use its legs for the rest of the day



and cleared the road whilst walking into the grass and looking for some food instead - What impressive bird!



Far away we could see another large buffalo herd but indeed too far away for any pictures - Gladly to the relatively short grass and lack of thick bushes we could look extreme far in that area. On the sporadic bushes we found on the road side the birds were having a ball and even allowed us some nice close up shots without flying away. Lots of groups of European bee eaters could be seen



either close or in groups on some bald bushes where they do look like blossoms.



The magpie shrikes were also present and somehow looking a bit miserable



and also some lovely amur falcons taking a rest



could also be found whereas most of them were already in the air high above circling around which was a great sighting to watch.

[Richprins]

More stuff by aat, 2013:

Getting closer to Tihongonyeni , one of our favorite places it was and looked empty.

In the area we almost did not see animals… no elephants, no buffalo… no…and no…

A bit away from the waterhole we found Tsessebe. One of the species you don’t see at many other places so I am happy I can show them to you

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Great to see young ones , good for the population

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And after a bit of whispering this beauty was posing for a nice close-up

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Along one of the dirtroads further on , heading to the Old Main road we found some more Tsessebe.

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and coming towards us friendly posing

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And a picture of a nice group

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Another day and following same route. Just passed Tihongoyeni and saying to each other something like “this is not our place” all empty…burned… we followed the small road towards the main road (capricorn loop) and suddenly huhhhhhhhhhh…???
Followed by a loud yessssssssssssssss SABLEEEEEEEEEE
Just too late to see them crossing the road but ohhhhh they are so beautiful

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They decided not to stay too long and starting moving away from us…so a last look before they disappeared in the bush

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You still like the drive ? Hope so….
After a small break let’s continue

Let me first tell you this…. Some months before we started our trip we were reading bad news about the Roan antelope. Most of them died in the Mopani area. It was so sad to read this because the number of Roan is not that big in Kruger and when I am right about 40 of them were found dead.

Another day in Mopani and happy about the sightings on other days with Tuskers and Sable and Cheeatah we were taking the Capricorn Loop again….
Suddenly…. At the right side of the road I saw something moving…. Yes..? No..?…. yess…a Roan antelope…. Couldn’t believe my eyes but true….it was a male Roan
Feeling happy and sad at the same time thinking about what happened to them…and at the same time happy to see at least one.

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and

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He was not really close to the road but could photograph him well.
We were asking ourselves…is he the only one left ? Must be sad for him to see no other ones of the group(s) roaming the Mopani area…
Maybe one of you know if there are more Roan seen over the last few months ?

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We spent quiet some time with him , enjoying every second

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Well …bye Roan…hope times will change and hope you will find at least a female for a better future…
With some difficult to describe emotions we left him

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[Richprins]

Recently on Latestsightings...look how dry it is!






Kruger Sightings
‏Verified account @LatestKruger
Aug 4

11:51
2 Lion on the move
"Been following these 2 lions from Tihongonyeni waterhole for kilometers, not another car on theis road for the past 2 hours. Only in the north, pure bliss."
S143, heading towards the S144
Near Mopani
Vis 5/5
Tinged by Petro van Heerden

[Flutterby]

Wow, so dry!

[Richprins]

From a 2013 flying cheetah story:

https://www.africawild-forum.com/viewto ... 6&start=60

Thank you all for commenting here

When I stay in Mopani I do the Tropic of Capricorn loop every day, sometimes twice a day. The last years I had great sightings of Roan, Eland and Liechtenstein's. This year I didn't see these 3 species but again this loop didn't dissappoint. My first outstanding sighting was a pair of mating Steenbocks. I often saw a couple of Steenbocks before but never saw them actually mating. The problem for the male was another male who was very interested in the female and every five minutes he had to chase his opponent away. It's amazing to see the speed of these Bockies when they run through the thick bush
Here are the best pics I got from this interesting sighting, unfortunetely most of the time the animals were behind bushes oir branches

[Richprins]

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After a while the Goshawk started to scan the surroundings very carefully and then he started to feed. I don't know if the prey was hidden in the whole of the dead tree all the time or if he made the kill while I was there. Of course I wanted to find out what kind of animal he was feeding on but unfortunetely he never lifted the dead body into my sight. I guess it was some kind of reptile but I'm not sure.










I stayed more than an hour with the raptor still hoping to identify the prey or maybe using the good light for a take-off pic once he finished the feeding. The bird had no intension to follow my wishes but in the end I got the reward for my patience. Suddenly the bird lifted it's tail. I knew what was going to happen and started to shoot away. Here is the result





I must say that the last image is one of my favourite pics of the whole trip. But the dropping of the Goshawk looked very unusual to me so the following day I showed the pic to Amos who is working as a guide at Mopani. I said that there is probably a bone in it but I still wonder how such a bone could go through the digestive system of the Goshawk What do you think??

[Richprins]

The next morning I did my usual Mopani routine. First I was looking for the leopard near Shipandani (as usual without success), then I was going on the Tropic of Cap - loop. And once again it was a very productive drive. It started with a small family of Reedbucks (2 females and one male a few meters nearby). It was the very first time that I saw Reedbucks in the North of Kruger and was very happy about it





Then I followed the road to Big T., where I saw some more animals that I have never seen on this loop before

[Richprins]

When I came to Biug T everyting looked as usual. A herd of Wildebeests walked towards the waterhole, some Tsessebes were hanging around and there were only 2 cars. But when I came closer I saw this magnificent male lion taking a drink When he finished drinking he was accompanied by a lioness into the shade of the tank wall were another couple of lions were already waiting.. It was the first time ever that I saw lions here





It was very interesting to see the behaviour of the other animals who all knew about the lions. But there seemed to be an invisible line 50 meters around the lions that neíther Wildebeests or Tsessebes dared to cross and it seemed they all didn't know what they should do. Then a brave Warthog arrived and after taking a mud bath the Warthie walked up and down in front of the lions who were not at all amused. But it looked as if the Warthog enjoyed it's show a lotwhile all the other animals and humans were looking at him I was both impressed and surprised because I didn't know a Warthog would be fast enough to run away from a lion when it has no opportunity to hide Here are some pics of the show: