And then the rain set in or at dusk the bush comes alive

[Richprins]

What an unusual situation!

Were you alone in the hide, Pumbaa?

[Lisbeth]

How does the green-backed heron keep the balance?

Maybe February is not the best month in Kruger, I should have booked January instead.....maybe

Nice to sit in a dry place and listen to nature and the rain

[Richprins]

Plenty rain in Feb too, hopefully!

[Pumbaa]

Must have been lovely to be in the hide during the rain.

Lovely pics, thank you.

It was and it was so peaceful and quiet there besides the rain

[Pumbaa]

What an unusual situation!

Were you alone in the hide, Pumbaa?

With another couple and it was heaven - I guess the others were not willing to do the walkway during the heavy rain

[Pumbaa]

How does the green-backed heron keep the balance?

Maybe February is not the best month in Kruger, I should have booked January instead.....maybe

Nice to sit in a dry place and listen to nature and the rain

I guess January will be the same as in February - It definitely depends on the year especially during our first visits to Kruger in February we never had seen any raindrops but only the heat - For us it fits best in February so we take what we get at least weatherwise

[Pumbaa]

Plenty rain in Feb too, hopefully!

Yes but without any floods please

[Pumbaa]

Finally also the black crake dared to come out of their hiding place and same was also totally wet



and so was the water dikkop who even stood in the heaviest rain motionless on its place.



How I love those Kruger thunderstorms the air is fresh and it is even colder and meanwhile also more people rushed into the hide which meant that the walkway was accessible again and the rain water flow into the lake and only left mud - The squacco get rid of wet feathers,



the juvenile jacana started to clean its plumage



and finally also the noisy white faced ducks dared to land again into the hide after their presented their flying skills



only to land and say: "Do we have missed something?"



The thunder now only could be heard in the distance any longer and it cleared up immediately and the ducks even allowed some close ups shots.





We now also packed together but before we left Timon still noted a cute spotted flycatcher which simply had to be captured.



Needless to say that there were still large puddles on the parking lot and we now also got wet feet but did not bother. Meanwhile it was early afternoon and after a short break in camp on our verandah we went to the shop for a quick shopping and even had later still a bit time to captured a collared sunbird feeding on the figs in the tree close to our unit.

[Pumbaa]

and Timon also discovered in another tree a pair of black collared barbets which for us is also one of the rarer birds in Kruger.



Then we left a bit earlier as we wanted to drive our so called magical quadrat which even turned out to be magical that evening - First we stopped for some giraffes



and then Timon spotted something in the different which he first though were baboons but I finally could convince him that same turned into a lioness with her four tiny cubs which were extreme cute



and gladly they stay on the road and did not walk away.



Normally that tar road leading along the Sabie is a busy road at such a Friday afternoon but somehow it was as if the time stood still and we were for an extreme very long time the only car their - as already said it was magic and the cubs were so cute.

[

Although the cubs were still extreme small their paws were as nearly as big as the ones from their mom.



We knew that it will not take long until the crowd might arrive and so in relatively short time we snapped more than happily away whilst enjoying that very special moment.



As they moved closer and closer we also started to drive backwards so that we still could photograph them from the front - We even could capture all the cubs together





and finally some of them got tired and started to lay down onto the road



and finally the first car arrived but gladly all of them still stayed on the road and let us taking shots and even more shots.





to be continued......

[Lisbeth]

Even the rain helps sometimes. If the bush had not been so wet, you might not have seen the lion cubs and even if, there would have been more cars around. All in all not bad at all

Lovely wet birds