I was in awe of the lilac breasted roller at first sight, and they have remained my very favourite bird to spot on safari ever since. It would be a challenge to think of a time on a game drive when I saw one and didn’t mention it; not necessarily as a request to stop, but it is just such a striking bird that I can’t help but comment on it. Seeing them with a beautiful clear blue sky in the background is a bonus, but they are beautiful even in flat light.
Here are a couple of images of lilac breasted rollers from my most recent trip.
Thinking back over my last couple of trips to Southern Africa, the rhino sightings have been a bit more limited than during previous trips. A lot of the places on the tours I have taken recently aren’t known for having rhino in the area, and sightings are very rare, so it was my pre-tour safari stops that offered rhino sightings.
Rhinos can be challenging to spot in thick bush and seem to be able to disappear rather easily; which can frustrate guides that want to provide their guests viewing opportunities of the Big 5. We had followed tracks on and off over several game drives, looking for two rhino travelling together. While the tracks would surface and disappear, we couldn’t find the animals leaving the tracks, much to the dismay of our guide. We did come across this lone individual and had a brief sighting before it turned on its heel and disappeared into the trees.
Then, on the way back from a leopard sighting on a neighbouring property, we were on the paved road and were flagged down by a passing car to warn us that there were a couple of rhino on the road ahead. Finally, we had located the pair that were causing such consternation for our guide.
The only other rhino sighting this past trip was a quick view of an individual crossing through the riverbed at Klaserie Sands. Our guide spotted the animal in the distance, and even though it was getting dark and the view was brief, we followed as much as we could as other people in our vehicle had never seen a rhino before.
Today, my eyes were drawn to dramatic, saturated colours, so I selected a few landscape images to edit. While today was a lovely day, with sunshine and blue skies to accentuate the fresh snow on the trees, I often find this time of year lacks in colour, and that, along with the lack of daylight, leaves me feeling rather blah. It’s nice to have these images to look over to perk me up as needed.
I chose to highlight some of the predators that I saw on my last safari. Of course, there is more to predators than just animals; there are reptiles and birds that also fall under this category, but today I am sticking with the four-legged variety.
Predators are what a lot of people aim to see while on safari, but a game drive is so much more than seeing a glimpse of a lion or leopard. It always bears repeating, that the best game drives are the ones that you go on without a strong agenda, and allow the beauty of Mother Nature to unfold before you, and experience all that is on offer.
You never know what you might cross paths with when out on a safari game drive. Between the guides, trackers and all the guests, there are eyes scanning in every possible direction, off into the far distance. But sometimes, the wildlife makes it easy by hanging out on the road or crossing right in front of the vehicle, making them very easy to spot and view.
All of these images are animals spotted on the roadways; these are the types of traffic jams that I never mind being a part of.
I was drawn to elephants when I sat down to work through some photos today, but when I came online to create my post, I realized I did the same thing only a month ago (which you can find here). As I rebuild my habits for photo editing and posting, checking what I have done recently is probably a smart thing to add early in the process.
Throughout the years of this blog I’ve said time and again how much I love spending time with elephants; and if I could only pick one animal to see one safari, it would be elephants, as they are almost always active and on the move doing something: feeding, drinking or interacting with one another, which makes them very interesting to spend time with.
If you search my blog, you will find many posts dedicated to wild dogs. I’ve been incredibly fortunate to have so many sightings of these amazing animals, and of course, I certainly hope I will get to see more of them in the future (especially wild dogs puppies, as that would be a new one for me).
This past adventure had our guides finding a couple wild dogs, who then lead us to the rest of the pack. Watching their greetings is always so special.
I was drawn to work on landscape photos this week, so I picked a selection from the different places I visited between South Africa and Botswana this past April.
I find owls fascinating and love having the opportunity to see them (or hear them) at home or while away. I was fortunate to see several different species of owl during my trip to South Africa and Botswana, including one very, very rare owl that was likely my once in a lifetime viewing opportunity.
While I saw many Verreaux’s eagle owls on this trip, the sightings were either at night or early evening leaving me with less than inspiring images to share. But including them, we had 5 different owl species on the trip, which I think is fantastic.