It’s been a rather strange winter (weather wise – no pandemic commentary here!) and I’ve not been seeing the neighbourhood deer as frequently as in past years. I know they are around, both from the tracks in the snow and the need to refill the food bowl I keep out for them every couple of weeks. Any time I catch a glimpse of them lately it is always after dark, which doesn’t lend itself to photo taking, so instead I’ve gathered up some images of some African antelope instead. To be honest, even if the deer had been around in broad daylight this past week, the best I would have done would have been a photo out the window, as it was far too cold to be going out to take photos (at least for me).
Here are a few images of Mom’s in the bush, all taken during my last trip to South Africa. Looking through my photos brings back such lovely memories, made even better by the fact that I experienced them with my Mom 🙂
These two couldn’t have posed any nicer if I has asked them. A pair of young male waterbuck seen while on a game drive in South Africa. Oh, how I miss that beautiful place!
I’m working on a guest post for a friend doing an Armchair safari series, and thought I would share the images here as well. I decided that the theme of my post would be sunrise to sunset on safari; showcasing images from dawn till dusk while out in the bush. These are all shot during my last trip to South Africa and were from all of the camps that I stayed at. I would have to plan a lot more in advance while out in the field to have a sunrise to sunset images from a single day (note to self, do that next trip!).
Rather than a highlight reel of amazing sightings, these are just a collection of moments out in the bush.
I hope you enjoy.
6am – Lions. Two of the Torchwood Pride greet each other.
7am – Hyena and Impala. A group of impala look on wearily as a hyena approaches down the road.
8am – Elephants. A pair of youngsters tussle while the older elephants graze nearby.
9am – Giraffe. A giraffe bull paused in the road allowing me to capture this image while on the way back to camp for breakfast.
10am – Waterbuck. A waterbuck heads towards the dam for a drink.
11am – Hippos. A group of hippos making their way back to the water to beat the midday heat.
12pm – Yellow-billed hornbill. A “flying banana” perched just beyond the deck at camp.
1pm – Landscape in infrared. Midday was a great time to wander around camp with my infrared filter and play around with long exposure photos. This was shot from the deck at Lion Sands Tinga Lodge.
2pm – Purple Crested Turaco. I tried for ages to capture a good image of this beautiful bird from my balcony, but given they like to be deep in the branches, it really wasn’t meant to be. It was a fun way to spend part of the afternoon though.
3pm – Cheetah. We’d only been out on game drive for about 10 minutes when we came across this cheetah, and had the chance to watch her stalking some impala. They spotted her right away so supper wasn’t in her immediate future.
4pm – Wild Dog. Spending time with wild dogs always makes my heart happy. We had a good half an hour with them before they took off in all directions, setting out to hunt.
5pm – Honey Badgers. I had always wanted to see honey badgers and on my first game drive of the trip I finally had my chance. It only lasted about 30 seconds but it certainly was thrilling, even if all I could get were butt shots!
6pm – Leopard. We were heading back to camp for drinks and dinner and came across this leopard heading in to this large puddle to drink. It was a quick stop before the leopard was on its way.
The waterbuck image caught my eye today while I was editing, and I thought a selection of antelope would be a good feature for the day.
This nyala was grazing peacefully behind my room, so quietly that I didn’t notice him until he was quite close to the edge of the deck. I was sitting out enjoying the early afternoon with a book and a cup of tea.
I can’t see a photo of a male kudu anymore without hearing the voice of my guide Harley saying “So majestic!”
This waterbuck was the boss of the dam, and was busy keeping all the females and youngsters in check while I was watching him.
An impala ram in his prime, taking a break from guarding his harem to take a quick drink at the dam.
I’m sure most would have expected me to start with elephants for my first post in a series on babies in the bush; and I was tempted to. We spent time with so many large herds, and saw so many young elephants, I am spoiled for choice with images. But, I decided that I would start with something different, and chose to focus on animals with hooves instead. My timing was wrong to see tiny impala, but I did see a fair number of young giraffe, waterbuck and zebra during my travels.
I hope you enjoy my selections, and wishing you an excellent week ahead.
This giraffe was acting a bit like a crossing guard for several youngsters crossing the road in front of us. Not the best images, but great to show the size difference between the babies and the adults. I only wish there had been an impala in the shot too, to really show how large the young giraffe actually are.
Fulfilling the cross guard role as another youngster moved from one side to the other. There were about a half dozen giraffe in this group in total.
A herd of zebra pause to allow the littlest one a chance to suckle.
A young waterbuck blending quite nicely with the autumn tones of the bush. Mom was nearby grazing.
A zebra and her foal pause to check out our vehicle, before carry on slowly strolling through the bush.
One waterbuck mama acting as babysitter for a group of youngsters. They were all lounging close to the dam at Chitwa Chitwa, while other members of the group were grazing or drinking.
