Day Ten

Yet another trip to Kruger and this time we decided that i will drop the guests off at the gate so they don't freeze in the way.
Our new Guide Chris was great and i organised a good route with him for the day.
Following a few kilometers back wasn't a good plan for me as Tom and myself missed what seemed like every sighting my 30 seconds! but we did get a few opportunities throughout the day.

The guests had some good images of Hyena in the morning and one youngster was carrying a tortoise which is pretty cool. Until a Warthog came and chased the hyena away.

Red crested Korhaan or first bird of the day

the birding continued with a pair of African fish eagles waiting for the fish to come to the surface

Finally a mammal we could photograph a big old pig

 As the day went on we were not having any luck still but the guests where having a great time and they found a juvenile martial eagle with a francolin kill, again we just missed this!

We finally found our first member of the big 5 in the form of some buffalo bulls they where in some nice light so we spent some time hanging with them trying different shots

Old bull almost lost the end of his horns just leaving his boss.

Nice bull peeking over anothers back

This is what i call a "Tom shot" as my colleague and friend Tom Svensson is amazing at getting underexposed shots with pockets of light

After a nice lunch at Satara we went out to again and this time we had a little more luck and found some better sightings if they were a little far away. Again we where sorely beaten by the guests.

Some hippo's and a croc relaxing in the afternoon sun

Grey heron stepping around some marsh terrapin's in a small lagoon

Giraffe have no manners!

Because of the Wind the animals have been very spooked and are not hanging around for much.
We came across a funny situation of some Kudu which were afraid of some elephant dung in the road which was very amusing to watch them stare and freak themselves out over some poo!

Kudu being ever vigilant but over poo? thats just silly

Even the large impressive bull was cautious on his approach to the dreaded elephant dung pile

Our best sighting was with cats but they were not the stars this time.
We found a herd of Zebra snorting and very nervous all grouping together and staring in one direction. We knew we were on to a predator of some sort.
And we were right there was some lions on the far river bank and one young male crouched low looking at the zebra.

Then suddenly as these things happen the zebra's lost there nerve in the staring match and bolted. I have anticipated this and set up for a panning shot.  Risky move i know to try this as you can seriously miss every shot when attempting panning but i managed to get a few out of the many missed ones.

Spot the lioness there is actually 3 lions in this shot

Zebra running towards me panned. I was pleased with this shot

As they ran past the vehicle causing a huge dust cloud

And finally here as some other images i managed to get during the day.

Not a good image but check out the tusks!

Really like these little lizard buzzards they are very busy little hawks

Impala running around

Impala having a scrap

Dwarf mongoose a tiny predator which hunting in family groups lead by a alpha female

Lastly a common bird the red billed hornbill preening itself late afternoon

Again a brilliant day but we are all very tired now!
No rest for photographers though and we have Two more full days out before we can rest.
So keep watching the blog and i will try get it up to date :)