The elephants are coming!

I am still sorting photographs from my visit to Kruger National Park and soon will post the elephant photos. Here is a taster.

Starlings in the May

We interrupt the photo-essay from Kruger National Park for some images of the starling flock in the back garden this Spring.

Adult starling high in a hawthorn tree in blossom (the hawthorn is also known as the May)

Adult and offspring.

Starling fledgling - no spots or yellow beak yet, these will appear later.

And there is one thing that the juvenile starlings just love on a sunny day - they love to bath - even when there is not enough room for them all. 

So double tier bathing is quickly instigated

And whilst we are out in the garden what is the goldfinch doing down on the lawn?

Answer:he is eating the seeds from a dandelion head

Oh and here's a handsome crow.

Some Animals of the Kruger National Park

I was fortunate enough to spend a few days touring the Kruger National Park with friends (further to a workshop there) last week and here are some images from this amazing piece of untamed Africa (an area larger than Wales or Israel).

Zebra gather at the waterhole

Vervet monkeys

a contemplative young baboon

African Buffalo - here a bull quietly grazes. Reportedly the most dangerous animal in the park - 750Kg of muscle and attitude.

Well-fed and sleeping lions

The white rhino (some impala in the background)

A young elephant enjoys a mouthful of blossom and leaves .... and thorns (which is one good reason for not running over their dung on the road as significant thorns pass through). 

An impala caught in the evening light

A distant male lion.

A handsome warthog

A couple of male impala square up to each other

Rutting like this occurs in early winter (which this is)

Burchell's Zebra [Equus burchelli]

The extraordinary face and gait of a spotted hyena -
once mistakenly thought to be exclusively a scavenger they are now recognised as very successful predators. Working in well coordinated packs they can take animals as large as giraffes and even drive lions from their kills. (They can also open the back doors of cars.) More of them in a future blog.

A dwarf mongoose

The tallest animal - the giraffe - reaching 5.5m and able to feed in the tree tops

A kudu female

The giraffes in Kruger are the South African subspecies

The blue wildebeast or gnu

Another white rhino - note the little feathered hitchhikers on his back

Giraffes at the river

An African Crocodile

And finally

A hungry hippo and friends

Also encountered but no good pictures achieved -
banana bat
black backed jackal
leopard - with its kill (an impala)
honey badgers
bushbabies
steenbuck
nyala
genet


Thanks to Jamie for making the arrangements and also to him and Nigel for driving.

Still to come - Birds of the Kruger and A Gathering of Elephants

Some birds of the Kruger National Park

The hadada ibis - common around the Skukuza Rest Camp and given to call 'ha ha ha dah ha'

Nests of the Red-billed Buffalo Weaver in mid-lake
(protected by crocodiles)

A Red-billed Buffalo Weaver returns to the community

Yellow-billed Stork fishing.

Grey Lourie

A friendly Redbilled Hornbill

Cape or African whitebacked vulture

Redwinged starling

And below - a Cape Glossy Starling

An entirely appropriately-named African Openbilled Stork - the bill gape is permanent and increases with age 

The largest flying bird - the Kori Bustard 

A not-at-all-camera-shy Red-billed Hornbill

A strolling Natal Francolin

Two Lappet-faced Vultures - a large species that helps open the carcasses - sitting here close to a recently deceased hippo 

A sleepy Giant Eagle Owl

Yellow-billed Oxpeckers on the back of a White Rhnno

Lilacbreasted Roller

Another  Cape or African whitebacked vulture in flight

Recycling: Cape Vultures (bird with white collar in foreground) and African Whitebacked Vultures on the body of a recently deceased hippo.