South Africa 2013 Pt 7

Kruger Park, Pretoriuoskop Rest Camp and surrounds:

We are here for two nights which now gives us time to explore a little. We also had time to book onto our first guided tour, we chose a rather early and chilli morning.

Pretoriuoskop turned out to be my fav camp of the four that we stayed at. The camp site wasn't as busy as the Satara Camp that we would visit in a few days. The bird species around the camp were stunning and seemed a little more tolerant of humans, probably due the more relaxed atmosphere of the camp. More of those species later!

Southern Kruger turned out to be a stronghold for the magnificent Bateleur Eagle. The adult birds are quite stunning, but unfortunately I only captured the adults in flight

 

Bateleur

 

however I did get a juvenile perched

 

A few kilometres from the rest camp was Shitlehave Waterhole. It was productive for a few species, especially these Hammerkop that were mating

 

 

Wooley Necked Stork (and Turtles)

 

 

Three Banded Plover

 

 

Waterbuck

 

 

 

While out travelling along the roads between Pretoriuoskop and Skukuza the stunning birdlife continued to show
 Lilac Breasted Roller

 

 

Black Collared Barbet

 

 Burchells Coucal

 

the incredible Purple Crested Turaco

 

 

Grey Go-away Bird

 

 
Crowned Hornbill (Which became my 1000th Life species)

 

Tawny Flanked Prinia

 

 

Laughing Dove

 

The most fantastic thing you could wish to see ....
Southern Ground Hornbill

 

 

and the full version.....

 

Back in the camp early morning walks bagged me
Grey Tit- Flycatcher

 

  

Beautiful African Green Pigeon

 

 

Red Headed Weaver female (confusingly without a red head!)

 

Common Scimitarbill

 

Green Wood-Hoopoe

 

 

 

Southern Black Flycatcher -a beautiful understated bird

 

 

African Whiteye

 

 

Yellow Fronted Canary

 

 

Crested Barbet checking out a nest hole

 

 

What a stunner!

 

Cardinal Woodpecker

 

and the female

 

 

other species around the camp were African Mourning Dove,  Green Backed Camaroptera and Marico Sunbirds while Little Swifts congregated in their 1000s in the evening making a deafening screech as they fed, Lesser Striped Swallows seemed to be more of a morning species as they swooped around the camp and a single sighting of a Fiery Necked Nightjar as it flew across the camp one early evening.

 

In the surrounding areas of Pretoriuoskop camp a few sightings of Coqui Francolin, a large roadside flock of White Crested Helmet-Shrikes I guess if they hadn't been so skittish with the traffic passing along side I may have seen a Retzs Helmet-Shrike or two in the flock, as it happens one of my trip target birds escaped me. Add African Stonechat and Black Crowned Tchagra.

  This lovely raptor didn't escape me as we had quite a few sightings in the area of
Brown Snake Eagle

  

The star of this post was undoubtedly the sighting of three Cheetahs.

The early morning guided drive was certainly chilly. It started off under spot light as we looked for eye- shine from the nocturnal and early morning risers. Small-Spotted Genets were numerous as were Water buffalo, however as the early morning sun rose the dense fog made viewing near impossible...... most of the tour group huddled under the blankets in the back of the tour bus. The drive was becoming fairly non eventful (but still very much enjoyable) until we reached the point that we have to turn back to return to camp. Just a few hundred yards up the road at a junction two cars were parked at the roadside, the driver said he would just check this out before we turned back, as we neared the cars a hand appeared from the drivers side window and pointed across the road where bingo!!! Three Cheetahs had been resting in an open area, our bus must have disturbed them as they all got up, stretched and proceeded to walk past us. One stopped  a few yards away and unbelievably  started to scent mark the junction corner....

Cheetahs

 The other two had now walked in front of our vehicle and even felt confident enough to stop in the sun-lit road

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What a way to spend part of a morning! Cheetah watching.
 

Of course the Cheetahs didn't hog all the limelight.......
Impala males

 

 

Warthog

 

 

Nyala male

 

 

Giraffe

 

 

The impressive Greater Kudu Male

 

African Elephants

 

 

Zebra

 

 

Wildebeest

However it was really turning out to be a few days of big cat sightings. Our third cat species of the area.

Leopard
It walked right alongside our vehicle but quickly disappeared into the bush and out of sight

 

This group of Impala was the intended prey.

 

We soon figured out that while Cats are hunting, Vultures Gather, Although we had now lost sight of the Leopard the Vultures were gathering in large numbers, Possibly upto 50 were now circling above us including White Backed, White Headed and Hooded species

 

White Backed Vulture

 

 

Ten minutes later we relocated the Leopard a few hundred meters away using the long grass as camouflage, the Impala didn't stampede but were on edge enough to retreat to the thicker bush

 

 

We needed to make headway as we had many kilometeres to travel........

 

Next stop Satara Rest Camp, but not before we stopped to witness yet more cats

 

Four Lioness`s (three in the foreground to the left)

 

 

unfortunately we really must move on now, many more kilometres to travel