13th Borehole

[pooky]

This was our first visit to KTP - June 2012 - with minimum temperatures of -7 degrees and maximum
temperatures of only 14 degrees. The skies were beautifully clear and most days were calm.
Certainly a huge difference to our normal KNP visits

On our last full day in KTP we left Mata Mata and slowly made our way along the road from
one waterhole to the next. As we approached 13th Borehole two pale chanting goshawks
were dive bombing some doves at the water. We slowly coasted towards the waterhole
hoping for some nice action shots. Suddenly all the birds flew away and four cheetah
slunk around the pump enclosure towards the waterhole. One dove remained and we realised
it cuouldn't fly. It had been damaged by the goshawks. The dove tried to walk towards the
cars but was seen by the cheetah. the following series of photos tell the story of this unfortunate
dove.





























This was the highlight of our trip by far. And now it is a matter of fitting in another trip between
all the other wonderful places to visit

[pooky]

Hi nan

That was Mum and 3 cubs - cubs looked as if they would be leaving Mum soon.
There wasn't much difference in size. In the pic with all 4 of them, Mum
is on the left in front

[nan]

ok... I see... I saw the family in January 2012... almost at the same place (but don't know the name)... will search

[Toko]

Dertiende Borgaat: some large and small birds drinking

Video:

[Toko]

[nan]

it was these ones
17.2.2012

Mum, ready to hunt... was some Springboks near the waterhole, but nothing happens

what a nice roadblock

[pooky]

Great birds Toko

Awesome nan

The day we saw them Mum did catch a springbok later in the day just down from the waterhole

[Mel]

A bird ID challenge

Let's see...

Pic 1 -
yellow canaries on the right top (female and a young one (?)), violet-eared waxbill smack in the middle (never saw one on the Auob side )
and scaly-feathered finches for the rest of the bunch.

Pic 2 -
yellow canaries again distributed in the background, female cape sparrow on the left at the front and scaly-feather finches for the other two.

Pic 3 -
almost the same as in pic 2, but with an additional male cape sparrow

Pic 4 -
female yellow canary, Kalahari scrub-robin and male yellow canary on the rock, a scrub-robin-yellow-canary hybrid in the back on the right ( ).

Pic 5 -
a non-breeding male quelea flying in from the left, still the canaries in the middle and a female cape sparrow on the right.

[nan]

It was just before the waterhole, on the left side, going to South
a Caracal eating an AWC

[Mel]

The 13th Borehole is marked as Dertiende in the map.

13th Borehole = Dertiende Boorgat