When in Kruger it is early to bed and early to rise if you want to escape the heat and get the best sightings. It takes a day or two to get into this routine. This morning for the first time neither of us had any trouble rising before five o’clock. After a fortifying cup of coffee and a rusk we were out the gate by half past five. Yes, that is an hour after opening time and in the past we liked to be first out but those days are over. We actually find that the birding is better a little later.
Today the temperature was 23 degrees C when we left camp and it rose to 33 degrees C by ten o’clock.
It wasn’t long before we started seeing the animals, first up being the ever-present impala. Many tourist have bumper stickers reading, “Please pass, we stop for birds.” Or – “Birders on board, prone to sudden stops.” The Earl wants to get one that says, “Beware – we stop for everything!” Well – we do at the beginning but after the tenth lot of impala we tend to ignore them and drive past unless they’re being particularly engaging.
We also had fun watching many birds and our list is now up to 70 species. At the beginning of a trip new species get added to the list quite quickly and then slow down but this year we are taking a little longer to hit 100. I suspect it’s because some of the migrant birds have not yet arrived.
On the H4-1 we got a female Diederick’s cuckoo, monotonous lark, African Hoopoe, Rattling cisticola, Black-backed puffback, black-crowned tchagra and red-breasted swallow but our cutest encounter was with these arrow-marked babbler.
They were most obliging and let us watch them for quite a while before flying off one at a time.
By seven o’clock we had reached the H1-2 and had some interesting sightings on our drive to Tshokwane Picnic site.
They were very close to the car and suddenly we heard a loud knock. One of them had pecked at the back door, The Earl thought it was in an attempt to catch an insect.
One of our favourite birds is the Red-crested korhaan. This morning Mrs Korhaan made an appearance but did not stay long.
From time to time we saw small groups of elephant, in the bush, browsing on trees and sometimes crossing in front of us.
The ‘shiny’ starlings are plentiful in the park and are quite tricky to identify. This Burchell’s starling has a dark eye so is a little easier than the others.
Up until now we have seen very few wildebeest and those that we have come across have been far away or lying down. I needed to get a decent photo for my Australian friend, Erich who loves them!
By the time we arrived at Tshokwane it was half past eight and we were looking forward to a good African breakfast. This picnic site is our favourite in spite of its problems with baboons and monkeys. But shock horror – it is in the process of being taken over by new management and they were not doing cooked breakfasts! We could, however, get sandwiches, carrot cake or croissants from the shop. Fortunately they were doing Americano coffee and cappuccino. We settled for croissants and also bought some biltong. (For my non South African readers – biltong is similar to jerky but very much nicer.)
Hopefully they will be fully operational soon.
While paying for my coffee, I asked the cashier, “No monkeys or baboons today?”
“Do you want one?” she asked.
“How much?” I joked back.
“Free for you,” she laughed.
Well, at first there were no monkeys or baboons to steal our food but the birds made up for it.
Later a single baboon did appear but one of the staff chased it away. Perhaps during lockdown the monkeys learned not to come begging. Now all that remains is for people to learn not to feed them!
After breakfast we headed to Orpen Dam
The elephants were not happy that the buffalo wanted to share their watering hole. They trumpeted and complained and even tried to chase the buffalo away. Water buck and impala kept their distance at the far end of the dam. We also saw an openbill, three grey heron and some Egyptian geese.
On our way to Lower Sabi we found a male red-crested korhaan but he didn’t stick around for very long.
There was very little to see on the H10 to Lower Sabie. We stopped there at half-past eleven and bought Magnum Ice creamsi and rested a bit before making our way back to Skukuza.
Sunset Dam is usually full of activity but it was quite quiet today.
There was a lot to see on the H4-1 as it runs beside the Sabie River for much of the way. We saw our first black duck on the far bank but too far for a photograph. Elephants were present at various intervals along the way.
The animals of the Kruger National Park are really privileged. They get free spa treatments whether they want them or not. The ox-peckers work really hard to keep their clients looking good. Jerry here is a very popular client and all the therapists vie to keep him in tip top shape. Have you ever seen so many of them on one animal?
At one point of the river road we saw a number of cars stopped up ahead. Everyone was looking down on the river bank and on enquiry we were told that there was a very hard to see leopard in a tree far away. We moved slowly on and asked another chap if he could see it. “Listen,” he said. “Don’t waste your time here. Make your way to the bridge. There is a leopard in a tree close to the road. You can’t miss it.”
There were still several kilometers to go and we doubted that the animal would still be there but decided not to bother with the hard to see one anyway. There were too many cars fighting for position and it just wasn’t worth it.
And today was our lucky day! As we approached the bridge we could see a few cars parked on the side of the road. I saw the leopard immediately and we had a perfect spot to park straight away.
What a perfect ending to today’s trip.
