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Vultures, joining the other raptors-just chillin in the overcast weather.














An hyena appeared briefly and disappeared quickly.

Noel,

Well this episode is filled with wonderful pics of stunning birds.

Gorgeous sequence of the Fish Eagles... they are awesome and their call always reminds me of Africa....so

Aha!!!! but there is a smaller bird who for obvious reasons has a beautiful sound in the summer bush. Stunning pic.

Those Quellea flocks always amaze me or any flock of bird for that matter, that they can navigate themselves without having an accident.

Ever graceful Jenny.

Whahahahahahahahaha NOEL! I love that commentary you placed with the fish eagles absobloddylootely Brilliant stunning quellia pics

Gorgeous bird pictures Noel! A Woody, awesome Quelleas, and a great Fish Eagle with their conversation!

The Giraffe behind the cars looks extra "long" to me!

Stunning Vulture pictures too, with a great shot of the last one in flight!

Thanks so much for sharing!

Noel, I've had some serious catching up to do. Loved your spiderman baboon and all the beautiful flowers. What a joy.. and then the vultures, the under valued undertakers of the veld.

Let's not go there Noel! I much prefer learning the Afrikaans names for birds. Us Afrikaners tend to disagree less on names, and thus don't change them that often... To me - that is a "Witborsspreeu" - and the translation in my Afrikaans Birdbook is Violet-backed Starling. If that is an old or new name - have no idea!

Anyhow - love all the vultures, the Fish Eagle fight , and one of my favourites - Trrp-trrrrr!

Great quelea shots, noel,

I thought originally they were no longer there when we were in Kruger but saw finally lots of them on the Tropic of Capricorn loop

Love also your fish eagle couple - It is always such a pleasure to spot these beautiful raptors

Hi noel,

Had to catch up on a lot of pages .

Stunning sightings all around .

Great Fish Eagle couple and the quelea shots are also great .

Also great to see all the stunning flowers you captured .

And the vulture pic's are tops .

Thanks for sharing

Lovely vulture photos, noel.

When they are around, one tends to search the bushes to se if there are other predators around.

Thank you for sharing.

Do I detect a bias towards a certain Trrp-trrrrrr birdie Very good bias-very rewarding on both the ears and the eyes. Quellea are amazing as you say-they change direction so fast too, and no accidents. They've got something we don't, but we could do with it, especially on the roads around here Thanks for commenting Trrp-Trrrrr. Appreciate it!



I was going to say something about that extra long look-but hey, gotta keep the comments short (or is that long ) Thanks for taking the time to comment Hilda-Much appreciated.



Thanks for still being here MM, value you comments . Vultures-I like seeing them too.



Ek se vir jou, daai Afrikaans naam klink sommer lekker-Witborsspreeu . I think we stick to the English translation from the Afrikaans-White chested Starling with a violet back:roll: Besides, the plums you get from the local Fruit and Veg City, is decidely not Plum Colored . Very confusing when your plums are yellow and the birds are ... welll... Plum colored. Thanks for commenting Bushbuddies. Ps. Ek is te lui om die afrikaans name to leer. Ek sukkel met die engelse name alreeds.



Hiya Pumbaa,
The day there are no Quellea's in KNP-then there is something seriously wrong. There are so many of them, and they seem to like crossing the roads, deliberately I'm sure, to get photographers very frustrated. Thanks so much for commenting Pumbaa, much appreciated .



Thank you Barry. Appreciate all your kind comments. As you can gather, I like all of Kruger, flowers, birds, insects, trees animals. Just not rocks-If I take photos of them, I'd have to explain what animals I thought it was resembling and Been there, done that and got the bump on the head-say what.



Hello Kaapsedraai, thanks for commenting hey! I appreciate it so much. Yep also look to see if I can see any predators, except on this rainy overcast day, I knew they were just chillin. You saying that reminds me of my first ever trip to Kruger in 1980. I spotted a lot of vultures flying overhead, a bit of a distance away, and with binocs, we soon tracked down a couple of Cheetah that had just made a kill. In those days of course there was mostly mik'n druk (point and shoot) Cameras and if I mukked and drukked, all you would see is trees and leaves and trunks, photography aka Heksie style Ps, don't repeat that to her, I'll be in trouble, on the bubble!

Ooops, been kept busy, and looks like an even busier period coming up over the next week or two, so I had better see how far we can move along. My apologies.
The only Bateleur I saw in this trip, this Juvenile was hiding in the trees. I consider a trip to the KNP incomplete if I don't see one of these birds.


And I was enjoying all these raptors exposing themselves on the trees in such abundance


And the Kudu's knew all this rain meant more luscious grass in the days to come-so they gorged themselves






This one had a particularly impressive dewlap






And what could be nicer than a gentle giant strolling in the rain.




He was much aware of me following him at a distance and eventually made his way into the bushes, much to my complete and utter relief As we would say in afrikaans "Hy loer vir my" (he is "spying me out from the corner of his eye)

This youngster got the fright of its life, when a car passed by unexpectedly, at maximum speed, and it veritably threw the proverbial tantrum, with its little trunk in the air and spinning around like a marble, all the while making a lot of noise and flapping its little ears, as it registered its fright with mommy. Of course Mom had seen all of this business with cars before, and as they were quite safe up on the embankment, there was no danger, she could gently afford it some comfort and safety. I, of course passed a moment later, and being terrified the mom would register her anger, and was relieved to find that she did nothing of the sort and calmly went on feeding as if nothing happened. Just a bot too late to capture the tantrum-quite something to have seen actually.


Mom's comfort


And then carry on as if nothing had happened.


This bull was enjoying the lush vegetation




and last, any photographer worth their salt (or Canon, Nikon, Pentax, Lumix, Samsung etc etc) will know that the true test of skill is not only in being able to capture birds in flight, but you've gotta prove yourself with something like this-Nasty, but such good timing

Ready ........


Steady ......


Go
.

I can''t believe myself on that one. how could I?

Noel, what magnificent Kudu really handsome creatures. I find the Kudu such a regal animal.

I can just imagine the ellie tantrum.

Noel,

Wonderful pics of the Kudu. posing ever so nicely for you.

Gorgeous of the Ellies ...love the baby is a real cutie pie... learning from an early age to face danger head on. They are adorable at that age when flapping their little ears to show who is boss with raised tail, on those stocky little legs

hahahaha Noel ja nee hoe kon jy LMGA!

That ellie tantrum mustve been something to see although Im pretty sure your car was already in reverse gear Ne?

That was surely a handsome Kudu bull Beautifull