The 2018 Africa Journals, Ch. 19: About those birds Marg promised me....

Today's the day.   I am about to see some of the birds Marg has been promising me for forever.

It's O-Dark-Thirty when we gather in the dining area at the main lodge.   Because this camp is fenced, and there's very little chance of meeting a lion or a Cape buffalo or a hippo, we don't have to wait for security guards to escort us.

We have a quick cup of coffee or tea, and soak a rusk in it so we don't break our teeth.   Then off we go.

No one wants their photo taken before daylight.

We head back to the lagoon where the lions got their revenge on us for interrupting their nap and where the hippos bared their fighting tusks.  This time, however, we take a different trail through a heavily wooded area.

Margarite parks next to some solid fencing, opens the gate, and leads us down a long descending tunnel to another locked door.

Inside is a narrow room with laminate flooring, several rolling executive chairs, and tripods with heads.  All we have to do is mount our cameras/lenses.

This photo was taken after daylight, a while later than our arrival.

There is a long narrow window front and back.   The glass is special one-way glass inported from Europe.   One  window is covered with a black curtain.  She explains that we must be very careful about raising the rear curtain, as it might enable the birds to see us inside.


This practice shot to check exposure accidentally captures a giraffe on the far side of the lagoon.

Still too dark to shoot birds.    Wait, wait, wait,

And then, much to my delight, bm favorite African bird shows up and entertains us with its raucous laughing cries.   This hamerkop walked right up against the glass, shuffling its feet to scare up the little fishes and things that it eats.

I missed some of the hysterical cries in this video, but this will suffice.   Volume up, please.

I love watching these funny-looking birds and it tickles me that ornithologists can't decide if they are storks or herons.   While it has some of the features of both, recent studies have shown a relationship to pelicans and shoebills, and their feet are similar to a flamingo's.

Standing less than two feet high, these ambitious birds build nests in trees that can be six and a half feet high (including the roof) and just as deep.   The nests are strong enough that a grown man can sit on one. 

Some sources claim that is the female doesn't approve of the nest, the male will build her another and another and so on.   The assumes, of course, that the male doesn't get tired of the fussy Miss Pris and go looking for another mate.

A great egret showed up, and was photo-bombed by the hamerkop.   In this photo, you can see how they got their name, which translates to hammer-head.

The photo bomber.

The great egret in the rising sun.

More hamerkop:

A green-backed heron.   Still too dark as the sun was rising directly across from us.

And then the pied kingfishers showed up.   These active little birds were catching fish right and left.   It astonished me how many of my photos showed them holding fish in their bills.

The ubiquitous Egyptian goose.

And the hamerkop, of course.

Lots of reflections on this coy hamerkop.

The great egret at sunrise.

And a little later.

The legs of the egret.

 

 

The pied kingfisher with a fish.

And a beautiful gray heron:

Then it was back to the lodge for breakfast.   We have much to do in the next few hours as we will be going to the overnight hide and waterhole, where we will be from 3 P.M. this afternoon until 9A.M. tomorrow morning,

This is not what the lodge serves; this is what I ordered.   I certainly could have had more--cereal, fruit, etc. 

For more info about Zimanga's hides:


http://www.photosandafrica.com/photo-travel-workshops/photo-experiences/great-hides-to-seek/zimanga-hides/

The 2018 Africa Journals, Ch. 18: Revenge of the Lions

We are on a game drive at Zimanga Private Game Reserve.   Two lions had caught and eaten most of a zebra and when we first saw them, they were sound asleep.

We photographed some other birds and animals for a while, and as it got closer to sunset, circled back to see what the lions were doing.   Fortunately for us, they began waking up.

It's fun to watch these huge cats and see them act exactly like house cats--yawning, stretching, covering their eyes, rolling over.

A male nyala peeked out of the brush at us, perhaps never knowing how lucky it was that two huge lions were too sated to give chase.

Look at the size of those paws.

When all the stretching and yawning was done, the lions came towards us.

And plopped down on the road in front of us, effectively blocking our way.

I suspect they knoe exactly what they were doing.   Is that lion sticking its tongue out at us?

After a time, the lions moved into the brush.

This lion circle the thicket behind it, and we moved forward.


Wrong thing to do!

There's an old adage about letting sleeping dogs lie.   The same should apply to lions.   We never should have awakened them from their sleep, as you are about to see.


This lion is defecating.    The stench that reaches us is overwhelming!     Gasps of horror and moans of dismay emanate from the vehicle.   "Oh, my God.   That is awful!"

It goes on forever.   I swear if lions could read, this one would have finished War and Peace and gone back to reread its favorite chapters.

Meanwhile, we are suffocating.

(When you watch this video, note that something dark falls into the grass between the lion's hind feet.  I thought the lion had finished its bodily function when it came out of the bushes and when I started this video.   The laugh's on me.)



With the lions so close, we couldn't move.   I pulled my shirt up to cover my nose.   I long for Vapo-Rub.

I have smelled a urine-soaked, musthe-smelling elephant and that doesn't come close to the putrescent reek of the lion's feces.   We can't escape it, but have to wait until the lion moves.

At long last, the lion finishes its bowel movement and wander down the road away from us.   It climbs an overhanging tree branch to survey its kingdom.

Finally, finally, we are able to escape the area.   The revenge  of the lions is complete.

It's dusk now, and we head for the lodge.   On the other side of the lagoon, the hippos are near shore so we stop to photograph them   Soon there are a number of photographers (from other vehicles) sitting or lying on the shore with long lenses pointed at the beasts in the water.

There are lots of yawns from the "river horses" but not from ennui.   When a hippo opens its mouth, it is displaying its fearsome  weapons.   Those sharp tusks that are visible are offset from upper tusks that are hard to see in these photos.   They are pure ivory, which makes the hippos vulnerable to poaching.

And off we go.

Darkness falls quickly.

Margarite grabs a spotlight and illuminates the surrounding area.    This is a black-backed jackal.

And then it's back to the main lodge for dinner.   Early tomorrow morning I fully expect Marg's promises to be fulfilled.   Bring on the birds!