Birds of prey. Look at me getting ambitious with some amateurish cutting. These were all filmed in Kruger years ago. Featured birds: African Fish Eagle, the fearsome and mighty Martial Eagle, the Giant Eagle Owl (now called Verreaux’s Eagle Owl), the Bateleur - the skymaster - and the… Wahlberg’s Eagle? Fun fact: I know how to talk to Giant Eagle Owls. That Owl was responding to me talking to it. ...
Apparently I took this almost exactly ten years ago. August 7, 2010. A slightly gloomy winter’s day down at the good ol’ sewrage-works with my dad, @millar6300, relieved by the firework-brightness of these Greater Flamingos.
@furiousgreencloud learns the art of birding the old fashioned way - with a big-ass fieldguide and a pair of West German binoculars. We were visiting her aunt Sharon at her house on a beautiful farm outside Moreesburg. I’m not much of a birder but I hopefully conveyed some of the basics.
Rush hour at the bird hide in the South African Astronomical Observatory.
Crested Barbet. Not uncommon to see in Johannesburg gardens. I managed to photograph a few things that got close enough for my Pentax 67 film camera. I’ll have to wait and see whether any of them worked out. I might try it again though. It’s a lot of fun to use and the clatter of that enormous shutter is very satisfying.
The first success of camp day. This Violet-Backed Starling appeared in the tree next to where I was sewing a button and @withoutaleaf was preparing breakfast. I’ve wanted to photograph one of these since forever. A jewel of the bushveld.
The car thermometer peaked at 48C this afternoon. So the lions we saw were asleep under a bush. But at Lake Panic, this killer was undeterred. We probably have little furry ancestors that hung from the jaws of this Squaco Heron’s dinosaur ancestors like this doomed frog.
It’s hot in the Kruger Park. Yesterday was 42 degrees. Today is predicted for 44 (as usual, I have no idea what that is in loony units - join civilization and go metric). Everything we saw on our drive from Malalane to Skukuza was moving slow in the boil. Birds were panting in the trees. If anyone can say what this dark brown eagle is, I’d appreciate it. Brown eagles are my Waterloo. ...
White Fronted Bee Eater at Pafuri picnic area in the extreme North of the park. It’s our last day 😢 We saw a leopard in the dark just after leaving camp at 4:30am. And, later, very sad scenes of and impala ewe and two lambs stuck up to their necks in a pool of mud.
The fancy roller. We thought for a hot second it was a Racket-Tailed Roller - which would have knocked my socks off (had I been wearing socks). But it’s the very common - but still lovely - Lilac Breasted Roller.