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

[Alf]

That purple roller looks amazing

[Mel]

Bateleur time Love them! And most of all when they are in that intermediate state between juvenile and adult, with mottled feathers and colours of all sorts in their faces - a bit like you last one

Fish eagles are always most welcome too

[Richprins]

Nice action shots of birds and animals, Pumbaa!

Ja, unusual to get steenbok and giraffe together!

Looks a bit windy at times?

[Flutterby]

Feathers, feathers and more feathers!

[Pumbaa]

A great show of different birds as always; lovely!

We do love all Kruger birdies

Bateleur time Love them! And most of all when they are in that intermediate state between juvenile and adult, with mottled feathers and colours of all sorts in their faces - a bit like you last one

Fish eagles are always most welcome too

Me too - From brown to totally colourful - I am always impressed by such a transformation

Nice action shots of birds and animals, Pumbaa!

Ja, unusual to get steenbok and giraffe together!

Looks a bit windy at times?

Yes, it was windy and more rain came overnight

[Pumbaa]

That purple roller looks amazing

They definitely did not show themselves as often as the lbr Therefore we were indeed happy with that shot

Feathers, feathers and more feathers!

And even more to come

[Pumbaa]

As nothing else came across we left again and also stopped shortly at Muzandzeni picnic spot to stretch a bit the legs on our way along the S36 we to our delight noticed a Leviant's cuckoo



whilst the rest of that road was totally quiet and only nearly at the end a hyena could be seen in the distance.



After another short stop at Nsemani we now headed back to camp but for sure stopped for a nicely posing magpie,



and lots of kudus, females



and males could be seen



nearly everywhere along the H7.





Today we skipped our last afternoon drive in that area and instead went for an early dinner into the restaurant but that obviously had also many other people in mind as the restaurant was rather full but service and food were good and for sure we had to capture one of the many resident woodland kingfisher in camp.



Wednesday, 21. February 2018 - Satara - Olifants

Explored roads: H7 - S40 - S12 - H7 - S40 - H 7 - H1-4 - H 1-5 - S91 - S92 - H8 - H8 - S92 - H8

Today was again moving day and whilst I was busy with the coffee and unpacking the refrigerator I noticed a stick insect close to our refrigerator which Timon soon had to capture.



It must have rained again heavily over night as we noticed everywhere large puddles and it was still dark when we left the gate but then the darkness was followed by some scattered purple sky



which obviously the marabou storks did not bother.

[Pumbaa]

After we paid a final visit to Nsemani with nothing around we again took the short detour via the S40 and Girivana we came across quite a great number of marabou storks on the ground



running around



in the meanwhile setting in drizzle and



many more of them could be seen in the air and they soon joined their buddies on the ground.



Until that time all roads remained open in this area but with the heavy rain overnight – which we did not notice anyway – we had no good feeling about the S39 which we wanted to drive and right when we were about to turn into that road same was closed and we had no alternative to turn around and as the S12 and S40 were open we wanted to drive these road to maybe join later S39 from Timbavati picnic spot onwards.

The S40 north of Girivana is furthermore a road which we so far only travelled along very rarely but will give it definitely more time in future. We stopped for giraffes



and impalas and you can also see very clearly the lovely green which started to sprout after the heavy rains in that area.



It was lovely to photograph a giraffe mom and her youngster but same had some strange bumps on its face and did not see that happy about it at least same was feeding normally.



Zebras were around as well



and we started to like this road due to the different vegetation and for sure because of the many we could discover



as next a group of amur falcons



could be seen and photographed quite long



only to be joined by a burchell’s starling.



to be continued…..

[Richprins]

Nice colours, Pumbaa!

Those storks really are revolting!

And a nice big stick insect!

[Flutterby]

Love the Amurs!

Those stick insects freak me out!!