Addo Elephant Park - It's not just elephants

Steppe buzzard (best guess!)

 

More postings will follow about the amazing elephant experiences I had in Addo Elephant National Park in February this year, but I was lucky enough to see a lot more than just hundreds of elephant.

This is one of the postings that doesn't feature a single elephant!

I based myself at Main camp in the north of Addo for 3 nights and that gave me plenty of time to explore that scenic rolling area of thickly bushed hills and gulleys with large open areas inbetween. 

It was only when I drove down the centre of the park on day 3, to exit in the south, that I realised how much more there is to see.

My next visit will definitely focus a bit more on the southern section of Addo.

This selection of photos are as a result, mostly taken in the north.

 

 

Foraging for insects in old ele dung

 There are both lion and spotted hyena in Addo, but the Black-backed jackal is also commonly seen.

Scavenging a kudu hide

 Some of the other smaller wildlife I saw over the 3 days..........

The flightless dung beetle (endemic)

Many yellow mongoose

A scrub hare (typically nocturnal)

And although I wasn't specifically "birding", I did see a lot, including species that are not found in the north-east bushveld (Kruger NP and surrounds).

Denham's bustard

Crowned lapwing

A rather scruffy Fiscal fly-catcher

Close to one particular road junction, a pair of ostrich had obviously placed their clutch of eggs.

On my first morning, the male ostrich was sitting on the eggs, whilst the female was out foraging in the open field across the road, and on the second morning they had swopped positions.

They gave me a great opportunity to get close up shots of their faces.

And later on my third morning, in the south of Addo, I had ostrich mating - the pic below shows the male flirting/showing off for the female just out of the frame.

Being late summer, there wasn't a spectacular amount of flowers out, but the dense thickets were full of the creamy flowered Caustic-creeper, with dashes of pink flowering spekboom and blue plumbago.

Brown-veined White Butterfly on the Caustic creeper

Spekboom

Plumbago

Some more birds.......

A handsome Bokmakeri

Female Red-backed shrike

I saw more procreative activity in the 3 days than I've ever seen before. Those ostrich, a life-time sighting of mating elephant (will be posted about separately), and then this amazing pair of Angulate tortoises.

To wrap up this first, of several, postings on just 3 days in Addo Elephant National Park, I'll include an always cute pic of a warthoglet and it's mother.  

Mokala National Park - A gem of semi-arid savannah

 

Situated only 20 kilometers south of Kimberley, the Mokala NP is the newest of the South African National Parks.

It has 3 of the Big 5 African mammals, but it's primary focus is the rare antelope of Southern Africa.

This image is taken looking south-west over the open grasslands of the Lilydale section towards the dolerite hills and bushveld of the Mosu section. 

Note the red kalahari sand in the foreground.

On my first full day in the park I had wonderful sightings in the grasslands.......

a solitary Gemsbok (Oryx)

 

Roan Antelope

 

I spent some time at the lookout point over this waterhole in the middle of the grasslands, and had a herd of Eland antelope run past, without pausing, and then this small group of Tsessebe run down to the water.

 Most of the summer rainfall areas of South Africa have had a really good season this year and the grasslands were lush with most of the antelope looking fat and in good condition.

Eland

Tsessebe

Later in the morning I went south-west to the bushveld and saw many more tsessebe, giraffe, springbok, zebra, warthog and so on.

I also got a punctured tyre!! - the camel thorn trees in this part of the world have vicious thorns!!

Tsessebe

Tsessebe female and calves

Plains zebra and a midday drink

 

On day 2, after getting my tyre fixed at the nearby little settlement of Modderrivier, I had another great day in Mokala. 

This time I went meandering through the dolerite hills and valleys, which had abundant game, and then on west to the far side of Mokala, seeing more game in the flat, lush, thorn tree park lands.

Warthog close to camp

Buffalo sheltering from the heat

A herd of springbok coming down to drink.

Red hartebeest

Plains zebra

Gemsbok (Oryx)

Giraffe

 

I would definitely like to visit Mokala again, and perhaps stay in the other rest camp, Mosu, which is located in the hilly southern section.

I can also recommend Lilydale camp where I stayed this time. It's on the high bank above the Riet River and has glorious views. I include below, the view from my chalet's deck at 3 different times of the day.

Early evening and sundowner time

 Clear skies, and my first ever attempt at photographing the stars!

Dawn on my last morning

 

There had been some distant wildfires the previous day, so a little smoke in the atmosphere produced these wonderful colours the next morning.

This little gem of a park is well worth visiting. The official website recommends a minimum of 2 nights, but I spent 3 nights and had no time to get bored. 

So on your next road-trip between the south and north, or west and east of South Africa, plan to stop here for a few nights.

Another Kruger Animal Check List

The Common Warthog

Just for fun, and to dilute the focus some of our international safari guests have on the Big 5 check list, we also have other animal check lists.......  The Little 5, the Big 5 mammals, the Big 5 Birds and so on.

The one I enjoy trying to achieve is the "Ugly" 5.

It's a little insulting to call anything truly natural Ugly, but it's still fun to try and find.  As with all the "lists" some of the animals are harder to find than others.

I'm not going to give you a lot more in the way of words, just some pictures for you to enjoy.

A fairly obvious contender for the "Ugly" list is the Common Warthog.

Not always easy to get close to, except where they have found a home in the camps and lodges.

Here they are not tame, but habituated to human presence.

The Spotted Hyena (which is one of my favourite predators) can be very ugly indeed, but also very cute!

We count ourselves lucky when we see them on safari.

I've previously dedicated a whole post, with lots more pics, on this amazing animal.

Click on this link to see.....

Encounters with The Spotted Hyaena (Crocuta crocuta)

The Lappet-faced Vulture is probably the hardest of the Ugly 5 to find. This is the largest vulture in Kruger, and is generally uncommon.

It's a magnificent bird, and I'm always extra excited when we see one (or usually 2).

And then the other bird on the Ugly 5 list is the Marabou Stork.  I will admit that I find it difficult to see any "beauty" in this bird.

Like the vultures it is mostly a scavenger so I suppose it's beauty is in it's critical function in nature.

Last, but definitely not least, of the Ugly 5, is the Blue Wildebeest (aka Brindled Gnu).

Not ugly to me, but rather "different" looking in many respects. I love their little eyes!

On safari - Kruger National Park, August 2016

Klipspringer, near the Olifants River

Three great safaris in 3 weeks - what more could a safari guide wish for?

Spring's hot, scorching days arriving a month early, combined with the gusty winds of August made the first week or two a little more unpredictable than usual.

Lion and leopard active on a mid-day game drive; thick fog early one morning; a couple of hours spent south of Skukuza, with absolutely ZERO other vehicles, on leopard, wild dog, rhino and hyena sightings....... and the list goes on.

Each safari produced totally different experiences - this is nothing especially out of the ordinary for Kruger safaris perhaps, but maybe I just appreciated it more since it's been six long months since I was last here.

On some of the best sightings I couldn't get the camera up as I needed to concentrate on positioning the vehicle in the best possible place.....

But despite that, this posting is going to be chock full of photos, so I hope you have the patience to scroll through them right to the end. (some I've already posted on Facebook, but there's also a lot more!)

As always, with late winter/spring, the focus, in this driest part of the dry season is the waterholes and rivers.

There were about 10 lion scattered around this waterhole, and although they weren't in "hunt mode"this lioness wasn't going to pass up a tasty warthog snack, if they had got close enough (the hogs look a lot closer than they actually were).







The "prey"animals are totally aware of this of course and are particularly wary and nervous when coming down to drink.

We couldn't see any predators around at this small waterhole, but that didn't stop the zebra scattering in panic a couple of times in between quick sips...

Croc at Lake Panic

We spent a lot of time along the Sabie River and weren't disappointed by the lion, leopard, hippo, buffalo and assorted antelope sightings..... 

Kudu in the tamboti

Buffalo crossing the Sabie River

Malachite Kingfisher

 The smaller, more colourful birds were also close to water.

Red-breasted swallow

Lesser-striped swallow

Elephant at Mohlabetsi Lodge

 





But when we ventured away from the rivers and larger waterholes we also had some great experiences........

Elephant, backdropped by the spring colours of the mopani veld

Including this very special encounter with two cheetah, early one morning, north of Satara.

As mentioned earlier in this posting we had an amazing morning drive south of Skukuza. The main target for the drive was to find rhino, which we did, but also leopard, wild dog and hyaena (and lot's more) - all on roads empty of other vehicles.

This hyena mother and cub were very alert, and heard the rhino well before we saw them. Needless to say the rhino could obviously scent the hyena and were also very alert as they crossed through the open area.

relaxing again......

We had strong gusty winds for much of the month but the weather's defining feature were the hot, parched days.

Whether the mornings started with thick fog, or gloriously clear blue skies, by 11 am every visible animal was huddled under the limited shade......

But, that's spring in Kruger.

Extremes of everything!