Southafricansummer on The Singemonkey

February 14, 2023

Tue, 14 Feb 2023 16:12:11 +0000

A mess of hippos.

January 20, 2023

Fri, 20 Jan 2023 12:08:21 +0000

Another perfect day in Africa.

January 14, 2023

Sat, 14 Jan 2023 12:27:52 +0000

Little fruitbats dangling themselves to sleep in Satara restcamp. I think they’re probably Wahlberg’s Epauletted Fruitbats. They’re about the size of my fist. When they’re settling themselves down they look like someone struggling in a sack.

January 12, 2023

Thu, 12 Jan 2023 10:15:28 +0000

A new zebra. They’re fluffy and their stripes are rather brown at this age.

January 11, 2023

Wed, 11 Jan 2023 10:32:01 +0000

Our cancellation-surfing approach to staying in Kruger worked less well than in other years we’ve done it. We ended up pinballing between camps a fair bit. Who can say why? Are more people doing it now? Are there companies grabbing cancellations and reselling? Or is it just the ‘post’-pandemic situation? Hard to say. It makes it a less appealing prospect for future trips, for sure.

January 09, 2023

Mon, 09 Jan 2023 12:33:58 +0000

Two large, impressive vultures. The lower bird is a Lappet-Faced Vulture which sports the largest wingspan of any non-seabird in Southern Africa. A huge, powerful vulture that’s able to tear open carcasses to the benefit of slighltly smaller vultures like the White-Backed Vulture shown landing here.

January 08, 2023

Sun, 08 Jan 2023 11:50:58 +0000

But when these doggos aren’t ripping impala lambs apart without bothering to kill them first, they’re very sweet and sociable. These painted wolves made a cuddle puddle under a bush to wait out the rain with the reassurance of family all around. Though they’re obviously vulnerable to lions, they’re not easily taken unawares with many ears and noses at work for their common defence.

October 28, 2022

Fri, 28 Oct 2022 11:28:03 +0000

Looking through some pics to make some prints and I discovered this lion pic from 2018. They really are strange-looking cats. Very long and lean. I guess they’re built for more endurance than Tigers and most other cats that are ambush hunters. Lions have to keep up with prey for longer periods of time, I think.

September 22, 2021

Wed, 22 Sep 2021 12:59:07 +0000

I found a few pics on cards from our 2019/2020 trip to Kruger. That was summer and the impalas were giving birth to huge numbers of lambs - most of which are destined to be dinner rather than grown up impalas. But they are delightful little creatures.

December 28, 2020

Mon, 28 Dec 2020 09:11:21 +0000

All the thorny acacias in the Karoo are blooming with these tiny yellow pom-pom flowers.

December 26, 2020

Sat, 26 Dec 2020 08:43:47 +0000

The Red Bishop. There’s great business at the camp’s bird hide. Bishops and Masked Weavers are weaving their nests in the reeds and trying to get takers to lay eggs in them. It’s loud and energetic.

The newfangled autofocus was completely bamboozled by the reeds and I had to fall back on manual focus again. Olympus has just brought out a bird-detect AI-driven autofocus mode. Doesn’t sound like it would have fared much better but it points the way the future of bird photography in which the camera’s autofocus has a much better idea of what you’re trying to photograph.

December 25, 2020

Fri, 25 Dec 2020 12:02:38 +0000

Eland are pretty spectacular. The second-largest antelope (after the Giant Eland of West Africa). They’re recovering their numbers in South Africa after being nearly wiped out through hunting by the end of the 19th century.

Gotta say, I found the operation and layout of my Fuji XE1 much more understandable from the get-go than the Nikon Z50. It’s really great for us olds who grew up on film gear that Fujifilm makes cameras that use film-camera control layouts as a starting point. Very lucky.

December 25, 2020

Fri, 25 Dec 2020 11:56:36 +0000

I also brought my little Fuji XE1. We arrived at the park pretty late and got to see the Karoo turn gold in the evening light. Course with the Fuji there’s no autofocus and no image stabilisation. So I felt I was pretty lucky to get anything close to sharp pics as these were all handheld grab shots.

October 05, 2020

Mon, 05 Oct 2020 13:46:12 +0000

Young lions being sweet. This is a bit unusual to see. 90% of the time lions do nothing at all. 8% of the time they’re terrifying murder-machines that set our ancient alert system on defcon GTFO. All their other behaviour fits in that last bit.

If this seems a weird environment for a wild lion outside India, this is what the bushveld looks like after heavy rains. Kruger is mostly described as, “savannah woodland,” with plenty of large trees. This was in December 2013.