The nice rains continued by means of February, and after Cyclone Eloise in January had stuffed the water desk, this deluge (228 mm in whole) 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 relentless cacophony of hippo calls resonating up the valley to the lodge within the early mornings and evenings. We additionally stay up for it attracting many attention-grabbing birds once more.
The bush has continued to thicken up, decreasing visibility considerably. Whereas we normally see numerous kudu at the moment of the yr, being strictly browsers, they only disappear and it’s troublesome to get a superb view of them.
The rains have attracted loads of attention-grabbing birds, particularly those who love tall grasslands and the wetland sort of environments. We’ve got seen a lot of African crakes which have been scarce over the previous few years, and in addition 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 beneath). We’ve got 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 unbelievable situation, opposite to our expectations. Being so younger and inexperienced, we suspected that they could wrestle to search out meals or hunt, however they’ve proved us flawed and are wanting extremely good. All 4 of them are nonetheless collectively, and the older male specifically 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 kids 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 will have been anticipated that he would transfer additional afield however, like Ravenscourt, he has remained near the place he was born, and continues to offer nice sightings. Just 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 plainly 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 way 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 contemporary impala kill, however earlier than she may hoist it out of attain, hyenas arrived and stole it from her. She had no selection however to slink away, but posed fantastically on a fallen tree to look at her kill being devoured.
Tisela additionally had a kill, however luckily 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 quite a few occasions and really 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 visitors had been lucky to see them on a number of events. As all the time, they’re wanting good and hopefully quickly they are going to return extra recurrently. We hope the identical for our visitors!
Elephant numbers have been on the regular improve within the Larger Kruger, though we’ve seasonal actions and sporadic excessive and low numbers within the Sabi Sand as they transfer seeking good meals and water. Typically it may be arduous to search out the breeding herds, however now in February we’ve had quite a few nice sightings of those unbelievable animals.
We even have had fairly a lot of giraffe within the southern elements of the Western Sector of late, which is uncommon, as we should not have the perfect habitat right here for them. They’re normally discovered additional north, close to the Sand River, the place we’ve a better focus of Acacia timber, which is their most popular food 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 principle stem of a big Scotia tree, and curiously, they don’t roost in giant teams. Normally solely as much as 5 will roost collectively. Additionally they have unusually good eyesight in comparison with different bats, permitting them to detect hazard extra simply. Additionally they use echolocation, which suggests they emit sounds that bounce off their prey, to find and hunt. Many individuals don’t notably like bats, however they’re important in feeding on bugs which regularly carry ailments dangerous to people. They’ve been recorded as feeding on as many as 4000 bugs every per night time!
We hope that each one our pals and visitors have been holding secure and wholesome, and that your vaccine rollouts are going nicely, which in flip could aid you all return to us quickly to witness in particular person nature at its finest.
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With heat needs
Neil, Natasha and The Savanna Crew
