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1. Prelude
What do you do when you are in a situation of “use it or lose it” regarding your vacation leave?
OK – there were a number of ideas, of which one option was to ask Vlakvarkvrou
if she might PERHAPS had any plans to visit a National Park – and may be- I can join up.
Well, within a few days she put an itinerary together – or rather secured the sleeping places.
The daily trips were put together as we went along. At the end my SO also joined us -
3 people, 3 cameras and booked at Pretoriuskop for 3 nights.
But what about Monday? Again VVV made a plan.
So our first overnight place was on the “stoep” of the Kruger.
I do not know whether this disqualify our footage since our feet were not within the KNP boundaries,
but it was, truly , Kruger-animals that we saw and photographed.
When we arrived, it was difficult to concentrate on the booking procedure.
When we turned around – facing the Crocodile River, ....
there were a rhino, buffalo and elephants.
Not bad to see 3 of the Big Five within 10 minutes after arrival.






The hostess also told us about big birds (BB) with big beaks (BB) that they saw earlier in the day,
which they have not seen before. So we were curious and VVV guessed about what it might be –
and it turned out that she was right.
May be we are going to be lucky – but that would required that we change our plans reagarding the time that we had planned to the Kruger.
Luckily we were on holiday with our own “wheels” – 

Early morning – we were ready to leave for Kruger,
and we hoped a few animals will visit the river as we waited for the sun to rise.
All eyes on the river!






After a while the tree behind us became the focus.
We turned our backs on the Kruger – because of the variety of birds that were feeding in the big tree ….







This photo is not that good, but tells the story of the ubandance of these birds... and how difficult it was to get them into focus through the camera lens....

Good day Me Skarabee and all the readers - and did we enjoy our camaras It was an excellent idee of Me S's workplace to "force" her to take leave ..... and did I enjoy it

As you can see above, we had sightings even before we booked in There were about 30+ of the Green Pigeons in the fig tree

And of course the BB's with the BB's

Hi To all of you that reacted so promptly... Thank you. Indeed it was a 'magical" sunrise since it brought the BB with the BB.

Considering the cold winter - hope we can bring you some entertainment over the weekend - and the rest of the week and may be more weeks .

I did most of the driving and the passengers had to do the "shooting" and 'direction shouting'.

So I will post the photo's and VVV must to the identification of the birds and fill in since she kept the "diary" (although she was also in charge of the "dairy" (food on the back seat next to her) - that is the deal!

I will name them as my 'brain" sees it

And there were the usual and little ones as if they have discovered 'Eden".













And then THEY arrived!
(Sorry - have to 'upload' first).

Pana& Sonic in action!



And they played "hide and seek" all the time.



We should have 'billed" them!

Documented on a KNP poster.

Trumpeter hornbill and green pigeon

Awesome start Me Skarabee

and also the ellies in a row are simply fantastic

I like our new names ..... Pana and Sonic

The 2 unidentified birdies are

Dark-capped Bulbul (Bottergat or directly translated "butter ass")


And a Black collared Barbet

Joanm456 and Phumba - thanks.
It was indeed great to see something special.

Thanks VVV for filling in.

Day 1 - Part 1

Just after we had booked in, and crossed the river, we passed the "gate keepers' – one sleeping on the job! (Or may be they thought he/she was 'covered'. )



And if you think that was unprofessional, watch the following.







Being put off by this animal behaviour, it was more pleasant to focus on the birds.

I will now “list” (VVV’s task to tag them) the variety of birds that we have encountered during Tuesday.

(It was only because of the ‘end of day one” sighting that softened my heart tore-consider to give credit to the animals as well - will post that after the birdies.)

Hi, DoT and Me Llorry... Welcome. (Will call you so just for now, otherwise others could get confused.)

Somehow it seems that the 'common' hornbills wanted to compete with their cousins for attention
and a few did some 'cartoonist' movements.

Usually they are very much in the open (unlike the trumpeter hornbill) and it is very also
easier to get them on camera.

Here are a few and the last one was caught throwing a tantrum.
I will show in another series of photos why it was so upset.







[IMG]http://i1230.photobucket.com/albums/ee484/MsSkara/Intro%20to%20Mid%20week%


Now back to the birds encountered on the firsts\ day. We could not wait to open the windows
and experienced the background sounds of nature. And suddenly there was a distinctive sound -
not familiar to me, but it must be someting different.

I saw a silhouette of the head and announced ... "... a little owl?"





Lost in tracks



Some gathering








Another gathering - but they have some strategy... to achieve what we don't know...





A sunset dam(ner)



And SO's luck





Someone home?



I am watching you !


Always a sparkling star...



Always beautiful



The road is so busy today - when can I cross?






These little ones does not make a big impression from a distance - but so elegant in a close up

Good evening,
Thanks Sharifa and John and Poppy and Pumbaa - It is nice to have Me Skarabee doing all the hard work with the posting and I am in the lucky position to name some of the birds

We were very lucky with the wide variety of birds we saw for this time of year We saw the Southern White-crowned Shrike at Croc Gate and he was in a good mood to allowed us enough time to take a photo. When we turned onto the the H4-2 the Pearl-spotted Owlet flew across the road and sat in a tree next to the road. We saw some again later in the week.

Not far from there we stopped at Gezantfombi and were entertained by these 2 Hamerkoppe


Apart from the Crested Barbet in the tree at Ntandanyati we also found this Egret in the dry river bed. During March there was still enough water to make it look like a proper river. There was still a little bit of water further on



Mr Burchell's Coucal tried his best to prevent us from taking photos of him

For VVV




What was interesting for me were the many warthogs we saw in the southern area in comparison with the "higher/upper" areas.

So let us kick off

Then there was this typical liquorice all sorts' herd



Which to choose?
OK first go for the "melting" part





Zebras always make nice photos -contrast between black and white, but to get nice photos of the 'others" was a challenge - where are the eyes...?

Close to Lower Sabie we were halted by these 'B'edestrians.

This one seemed to have called the crowd over...



It was wonderful to watch the group and how they interact – and how the moved in silence.
Unfortunately we could not move the car to get better shots and so some were done through the screen.
And one of them was pested by a swarm of insects.












And immediately when they have crossed, they started to graze...



Many of the buffalos had collars on - but it was also noticeable how many had patches of bad skin



Like mother like child





Boredom or not so fit anymore?

And.... a bicycle track?



... the tyre got off and was flat....