SANParks.org Forums

Your wish is my command.....
http://tinypic.com/player.php?v=2hh2iyc&s=3
Apologies..the quality is not too good...I have copied the video from VHS to DVD...then from DVD back onto the computer..... :

Watch out Dreamer....I believe rock monitors can climb steps...best you keep your gate closed at Urikaruus !!!
Okay so I am green .....4 nights at Urikaruus......Don't you think that is a bit greedy!!! :

My rarest sighting... a little hedgehog! No - not a porcupine! Have a very bad photo but need to go and search for that. Will post it next week - now of the Kalahari!

Spotted a Malachite Kingfisher at a waterhole in KTP on the road from Grootkolk to Nossob. According to the distribution maps in Roberts and Newmans they aren't found in KTP. Would be interested to see if there have been any other sitings.

Hi Rob,

Yes they are not meant to be found there as they are fish eaters and not insect eaters like the Brown Hooded. There must be lots of tadpoles in a wet season and came up from the Orange or Hardap dam in Namibia...amazing,,,saw your pic on ODP

I think I described one of my strangest sightings ever experienced in Kgalagadi on another thread before. Nevertheless, I'll repeat it here for those who did not read it.

On 1 September 2004 we travelled in a northerly direction from Nossob. I cannot recall exactly whether it happened between Kwang and Bedinkt or whether it was between Bedinkt or Langklaas. However, it happened in that region.

I was driving and my son-in-law, seated behind me, focussed our attention on a Black Crow, flying next to our vehicle, right next to his window. He (my son-in-law) did the naughty thing by opening his window and offered a potato chip to the crow. In flight, he took it from his hand, went to sit on little shrub and ate the chip. We stopped and watched this ado.

The crow then came to sit on the side mirror on my side. We did not offer him anything else to eat. I started driving off, and he really had a struggle to keep sitting on the mirror. Later he flew off to the side and came to sit in the middle of our windscreen (on one of the wiper blades). The whole time he was making his typical crow noises ("kah-kah") as if he was protesting against our inhospitable way of handling him.

He travelled for quite a few kilometres with us, before taking off when another vehicle approached us from the front.

I have always been wondering how this apparently "tame" crow ended up in such a remote area. Or was it indeed a wild crow spoiled by tourist feeding him. But how did he learn to beg from moving vehicles?

I have travelled that road quite a few times ever since, but never came upon the fella again. I have photos to proof this incident.

We saw this bird south of Nossob recently and need some help with an ID please. Unfortunately it was quite far and I don't have a photo of the front of it. Wanda (wanderw) and I went through all sorts of bird guides but could not come to any conclusion. Juvenile something? Brown Eagle? Dwarf Eagle? ..... can anyone help please.

Isn't it an African Fish Eagle (West African River Eagle)??

With its white head, it looks like that

You won't believe this lirritma, but it is a juvenile black breasted snake eagle!, looking nothing like mum & dad. We saw a very similar one on a night ride from Nossob a couple of years back and the guide assured us it was a juv BBSE.

Thanks for that BB. Not so rare then ?

We see one or two BBSE's per trip, but one December, we saw lots around Nossob.

Correct BB a BBSE the most common SE in the drier areas...the bare legs,yellow eyes and small beak are diagnostic

Its Tourists who feed animals that wreck their wild ways as you and your party proved...so there's no need to wonder how that happens...The Kalagadi is crowded out these days but what we dont need is people who feed and disturb the Wild life...there are so many other places where these people can go like Warmbad, Pretoria Zoo and the circus to see animals with chips etc...Kalagadi certainly doesnt need them

Peter

Perhaps it would have been better to send you a PM, but then I thought as it was dealt with on a public forum, I should rather respond here.

I reckon that you are maybe a bit harsh with your condemnation on our "party" regarding the incident with the crow in Kgalagadi. I know as well as you do, and I share your hefty disapproval of it, that feeding and disturbance of any animals in a National Park or other nature reserve, are to be adressed in a serious manner.

And I am not trying to find excuses for our "party's misbehaviour regarding the mentioned incident - a wrong is a wrong and cannot be varnished over. But to a certain extend you are judging our "party's" disorderly conduct out of context.

Just as a matter of background - I am a serious nature lover as you are too (being a professional wild life photographer). I spend about all my holidays in National Parks and gets very upset when people do things (like feeding animals, speeding, etc) that should not be done in a park. Since 1986 (when I started recording my visits) I have spend 85 nights in Kruger, 36 nights in Kgalagadi, countless days in Karoo (where I will spend another 9 nights from this coming Friday) and visited many of the other parks like Bontebok, Addo, Tsitsikamma, Vaalbos, Golden Gate, Mountain Zebra, Augrabies, etc. And I can assure you it was not to have zoo- or circus-like experiences. As a matter of fact, I am presently in correspondence with two different regional chairmen of the Honorary Rangers to join their ranks.

What happened with the crow incident was rather a unique episode. Normally our "party" would give no consideration to feed any animal. As the crow's behaviour was very strange, by flying next to our vehicle (on window height) and making their typical loud noise the whole time, as if to attract our attention - we were amazed by this strange conduct by a wild bird in such a remote area. We said to each other that it is doubtful that a wild bird (far away from any human settlement) will be begging for food from a travelling vehicle. Knowing that crows are kept as pets on some farms (against the law, naturally), we wondered whether it can be a bird which "escaped" from detention. It was then that my son-in-law said that if it is a wild bird it will surely not take anything from somebody's hand - not to speak of taking something from a person's hand coming from a moving vehicle. And that is how (and why) the incident took place. I am up till this day quite convinced that it was a tame bird that ended up (somehow) in this very remote area.

I plead culpable on behalf of our "party" for rendering ourselves guilty by trespassing a rule/regulation/law - but it was done (wrongfully) to confirm our presumption.

I really hope you can somehow find a bit of extenuating circumstances in your conclusion of our "party's" action. I apologize (and I really mean it) to you and all other lovers of our beautiful National Parks if what we did was a short-sighted deed.

@ Stoffel

We ( the Kalahari Girls) came across some crows behaving strangely north of Nossob as well. There were 3 of them but one in particular was dive bombing our Kombi. We stopped and he continued flying around and investigating the kombi. The other two landed on the ground next to the kombi shouting the odds big time. I am not sure what the the crow was trying to do..either he fancied the kombi or he fancied his reflection that he could possibly see on the kombi...he was very entertaining to say the least!!!

Hello peeps!

lol @ michelle & the crows

Dunno if this is rare but we were driving down the road near Nossob & saw this funny little mushroom thing poking out of the ground - I certainly didn't expect to see a mushroom in the Kgalagadi of all places!