The nice rains continued by means of February, and after Cyclone Eloise in January had crammed the water desk, this deluge (228 mm in complete) took all of the dam ranges to the utmost! For the primary time in in all probability eight years, Georgie’s Dam in entrance of the lodge has overflowed! Extremely, the hippo responded instantly, and we’ve counted over 20 hippo on some days. We now have a continuing cacophony of hippo calls resonating up the valley to the lodge within the early mornings and evenings. We additionally look ahead to it attracting many attention-grabbing birds once more.
The bush has continued to thicken up, lowering visibility considerably. Whereas we often see various kudu at the moment of the yr, being strictly browsers, they simply disappear and it’s tough to get an excellent view of them.
The rains have attracted a variety of attention-grabbing birds, particularly those who love tall grasslands and the wetland sort of environments. We have now seen numerous African crakes which have been scarce over the previous couple of years, and likewise managed to see (pictured proper) the elusive Corn Crake!
Most of the birds are additionally persevering with to breed, from the big Saddle-billed storks (pictured left) to the diminutive Little Bee-eaters (pictured under). We have now additionally began seeing fairly a number of child warthog, particularly out on the brief grass of the big open clearings.
The younger Ottawa sub-adults have continued to remain in improbable situation, opposite to our expectations. Being so younger and inexperienced, we suspected that they could wrestle to seek out meals or hunt, however they’ve proved us incorrect and are wanting extremely good. All 4 of them are nonetheless collectively, and the older male particularly is beginning to present indicators of being a really huge lion!
The Ottawa females, in flip, don’t appear to be too upset in regards to the children transferring off, and could also be having fun with the truth that they don’t have to combat for meals with the three males. They’re additionally very often aside, with one feminine being with a Thumbela male, whereas the opposite two keep away and revel in some alone time.
Misava has remained in his natal territory for fairly a while. At 4 and a half years previous, it could have been anticipated that he would transfer additional afield however, like Ravenscourt, he has remained near the place he was born, and continues to provide nice sightings. Lately, he had an impala carcass hoisted in a marula tree, which gave us some nice alternatives to {photograph} him.
Thamba and Ravenscourt are nonetheless having their territorial disputes, though it’s in a extra passive approach for now. Thamba has been pushing additional north and west, and evidently Ravenscourt has responded to this stress by coming down south fairly steadily this month. He nonetheless has Euphorbia placing stress on him within the north, so he by no means stays down south too lengthy, earlier than marching again to the river to guard the core of his territory.
Nyelethi can also be nonetheless seen pretty recurrently, however his boundary with Ravenscourt is rather more settled, and so they appear to have come to an settlement as to the place it’s a while in the past.
The younger females, Khokovela and Tisela, have for a while now been our greatest viewing leopards. Khokovela not too long ago had a recent impala kill, however earlier than she might hoist it out of attain, hyenas arrived and stole it from her. She had no alternative however to slink away, but posed superbly on a fallen tree to look at her kill being devoured.
Tisela additionally had a kill, however fortuitously she managed to hoist the kill, giving us fairly a number of days of fantastic viewing and, as it’s in her genes, posed completely for the keen photographers.
Our resident male cheetah has been seen fairly numerous instances and truly used the cooler, wet situations on one event to efficiently chase down and kill a younger impala at Nkombe Dam clearing.
The pack of Painted Wolves has not but totally resumed their common visits to the West, however a number of of our friends have been lucky to see them on a number of events. As at all times, they’re wanting good and hopefully quickly they are going to return extra recurrently. We hope the identical for our friends!
Elephant numbers have been on the regular enhance within the Better Kruger, though we’ve seasonal actions and sporadic excessive and low numbers within the Sabi Sand as they transfer in the hunt for good meals and water. Typically it may be arduous to seek out the breeding herds, however now in February we’ve had quite a few nice sightings of those unimaginable animals.
We even have had fairly numerous giraffe within the southern elements of the Western Sector of late, which is uncommon, as we would not have the best habitat right here for them. They’re often discovered additional north, close to the Sand River, the place we’ve the next focus of Acacia bushes, which is their most well-liked weight loss plan. Nonetheless, we’ve been loving having these giant ‘Journeys of giraffe’ out on our clearings.
We go away you with an odd sighting, in that we don’t usually get to see or {photograph} these little creatures. We discovered two Mauritian Tomb Bats roosting on the primary stem of a giant Scotia tree, and curiously, they don’t roost in giant teams. Normally solely as much as 5 will roost collectively. In addition they have unusually good eyesight in comparison with different bats, permitting them to detect hazard extra simply. In addition they use echolocation, which suggests they emit sounds that bounce off their prey, to find and hunt. Many individuals don’t significantly like bats, however they’re very important in feeding on bugs which frequently carry ailments dangerous to people. They’ve been recorded as feeding on as many as 4000 bugs every per night time!
We hope that every one our buddies and friends have been maintaining protected and wholesome, and that your vaccine rollouts are going nicely, which in flip might enable you to all return to us quickly to witness in individual nature at its finest.
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With heat needs
Neil, Natasha and The Savanna Crew