Kwando`s Green Season

[michael-ibk]

Thanks, @@SafariChick

 

Yes, let´s hope for the best. And for @@madaboutcheetah updating us regularly about the pack!

 

 

Thanks, @@TonyQ !

 

 

Well, you can always try to fulfill your dogs ambition in your upcoming Pantanal trip, though I´m afraid the Bush Dogs are even much harder to find than African Wild Dogs.

[Kitsafari]

Wow Lagoon really delivers. The cubs are adorable, and so are the dogs. What has happened to the splinter groups of dogs , I wonder?

[michael-ibk]

Thanks @@Kitsafari

 

The pack of 5 (four males, one female) is still around, they were mentioned in the February sightings report for Lebala, and were apparently seen mating there as well. They were also seen in Lagoon.

 

Nothing on them in Lagoon in the March report, though there a "pack of four males" is mentioned being seen in Lebala. Not sure if that´s the same pack or new dogs.

[madaboutcheetah]

@@michael-ibk - recent reports from Great Plains - says, a probable densite located already this early in the season. Will be interesting if it is the same pack or a different one .....

 

Re Kwando - the more elusive; yet - probably most interesting pack is the big pack of 20 more north of the concession up in Muvumbi valley that's the pack where the light color male dogs of the current lagoon pack came from......... We saw them albeit at night and no photo ops last October. That's also where the 3 cheetah brothers hang out these days. Same concession - yet, heck of a long ways away from Lagoon.

Edited May 13, 2014 by madaboutcheetah

[michael-ibk]

@@madaboutcheetah

 

Which pack is denning there? The one of eight or five? (It´s getting confusing... )

[madaboutcheetah]

Pack of 5 I think - but, not sure if the Lebala/Selinda pack of 5 or a different pack. They have 3-4 packs of dogs in the Selinda concession too......

[Zim Girl]

Great trip report - just loved the leopard pictures at the end, absolutely stunning.

[SafariChick]

I am now thoroughly confused about the packs and their composition and who is from where and who is mating with whom! Someone needs to create a family tree or something!

 

@@Kitsafari I think from my experience at Lagoon, Michael was very lucky because while we had excellent dog sightings - the pack killing and eating a warthog, and also another time watching them play - we saw virtually nothing else at Lagoon so it seems lucky to me to have seen the lions and leopard etc. that he saw!

[Double Dare]

Loving this trip report and thinking I should finish mine. Reading this just makes me long to go back!

[The Bear]

Lagoon photos at last!!!!!!!!!

For those of you that haven't read Michaels report from the start I was his jeep buddy on this epic morning drive. None of us could believe it as we saw one amazing sight after another and by far the longest drive I did anywhere in Botswana.

Michael, amazing photos. Not surprising I have identical shots of some. Although I do wildlife viewing on lots of holidays it is usually a small part of a longer trip, this is the first trip that was nothing else but game viewing and this morning was the best of 22 game drives over 2 weeks.

Michael I'm glad we brought each other luck this great day.

 

By the way,you never told us about the mokoro incident at Pom Pom. Was it because you knew we were still to go their? We'll no one told us and we did do the mokoros there. Luckily no hippos in sight!!!

 

All the best

 

Mark

[madaboutcheetah]

@@SafariChick - from memory you saw cheetah too?

[SafariChick]

@@SafariChick - from memory you saw cheetah too?

 

Not at Lagoon I don't think - I think only at Little Kwara - but let me go back and review my own trip report LOL! @@madaboutcheetah

[SafariChick]

@@madaboutcheetah just checked and nope, no cheetah sightings for me at Lagoon - but I saw the three at Little Kwara.

[madaboutcheetah]

Okay - maybe I was confused with another safaritalker - can't remember who; but there was a report where someone saw a female cheetah with sub-adults last year.

[marg]

We saw the three at Mombo in September.

[michael-ibk]

I am now thoroughly confused about the packs and their composition and who is from where and who is mating with whom! Someone needs to create a family tree or something!

 

@@Kitsafari I think from my experience at Lagoon, Michael was very lucky because while we had excellent dog sightings - the pack killing and eating a warthog, and also another time watching them play - we saw virtually nothing else at Lagoon so it seems lucky to me to have seen the lions and leopard etc. that he saw!

 

@@SafariChick

 

I don´t know about that. Lions seem to be a regular thing now, maybe because Blondie & Brother brought some stability to the population. We met guests at Tau Pan, Nxai Pan and Kwara who had all come from Lagoon, and all had seen Lions almost daily, most of them Leopards, too. No cheetahs, though, and not all of them had seen dogs. From what Hari said his relatives, who stayed there shortly before me, "raved about their sightings". And while it´s true that antelopes were scarce in some areas, we saw lots of them on other drives. Plenty of elephants, too. And Paul said sightings had been very good generally. @@wilddog will have more to tell about this in her upcoming TR, I hope. And let´s just say that the leopard sighting would not remain an isolated incident either...and not even the best...

 

Loving this trip report and thinking I should finish mine. Reading this just makes me long to go back!

 

@@Double Dare

 

Yeah, you really should (get on with your TR). Missed that, I was in Bots at exactly the time you put it up, had a look at it now. Great stuff!

 

Lagoon photos at last!!!!!!!!!

For those of you that haven't read Michaels report from the start I was his jeep buddy on this epic morning drive. None of us could believe it as we saw one amazing sight after another and by far the longest drive I did anywhere in Botswana.

Michael, amazing photos. Not surprising I have identical shots of some. Although I do wildlife viewing on lots of holidays it is usually a small part of a longer trip, this is the first trip that was nothing else but game viewing and this morning was the best of 22 game drives over 2 weeks.

Michael I'm glad we brought each other luck this great day.

 

By the way,you never told us about the mokoro incident at Pom Pom. Was it because you knew we were still to go their? We'll no one told us and we did do the mokoros there. Luckily no hippos in sight!!!

 

All the best

 

Mark

 

@@The Bear

 

Hey, Mark, would really love to see some of your shots. And yeah, as I wrote before ours really was a lucky encounter. You and Lindsay need to join us for all future game drives, our luck power will be unstoppable!

 

Did you see Leopard, Cheetah and Dogs after Lagoon? Any other special sightings? (You see, I am - not so subtly - trying to nudge you into at least a Mini-Trip Report. )

 

And I´m sorry not having mentioned the Pom Pom incident, it simply didn´t cross my mind. Brain like a sieve sometimes here ...

 

Okay - maybe I was confused with another safaritalker - can't remember who; but there was a report where someone saw a female cheetah with sub-adults last year.

 

Hari, that was @@Carina here:

 

http://safaritalk.net/topic/10748-beginners-luck-botswana-april-2013/

 

She saw a female cheetah with offspring. And the dogs, lions and leopards to go with it.

 

@@marg

 

You know the two magic letters - TR!

[Marks]

Tremendous photos on the last page; love the dogs & leopard.

[SafariChick]

Well Michael I am glad if seeing more different types of mammals is becoming more common at Lagoon in the green season. I was just happy to have such wonderful dog sightings as i had there - that was what I went there for, and Lagoon delivered! To have lion and leopard on top of it would have been icing on the cake, but I was lucky to see those at other camps on my trip.

 

And Yes @@marg I second what @@michael-ibk said - TR!

[Atravelynn]

I'm up to the boating. Yikes at Pom Pom. I hate to hear/read about a mekoro incident. Your choice of the larger boat paid off with wonderful photos, both scenery and birds. Did you like the upper or lower deck better? You had some fantastic light on land too and even managed a lion scratching post photo utilizing it.

 

Glad you got to meet Wild Dog!

[madaboutcheetah]

Well Michael I am glad if seeing more different types of mammals is becoming more common at Lagoon in the green season. I was just happy to have such wonderful dog sightings as i had there - that was what I went there for, and Lagoon delivered! To have lion and leopard on top of it would have been icing on the cake, but I was lucky to see those at other camps on my trip.

 

And Yes @@marg I second what @@michael-ibk said - TR!

 

I think the game viewing is up and down on a weekly basis - some weeks you see everything; some weeks they play hide n seek .........

 

On the topic of the Lions; I hear the third Lioness has two cubs (about a month older than the 3 cubs in Michael's images) ...... yet, she has not re-grouped with the pride as yet.

[michael-ibk]

@@SafariChick

 

So from what Hari says I just must have had an "up" week. Can´t complain about that. And yes, Lagoon is about the dogs, it was for me, too. You had such wonderful (and numerous) sightings of them there, that was just fabolous stuff. And Cheetah at Kwara! (Really jealous about that ... )

 

 

@@Atravelynn

 

Well, the lower deck was giving more of a feeling of being "in" the Delta, being a part of it, gliding through it, dipping hands into the crystal-clear water, looking up to the reed grass.

 

But I was mostly upstairs because I enjoyed having a better overview, and you really only can detect mammals on land from up there. Didn´t see much though, one elephant, some very distant Lechwes. Of course I was hoping for Sitatunga, but was told sightings of them are very, very rare.

[michael-ibk]

Birds, pt. 10 (Bee-Eaters)

5 species are occurring in the area, and we saw 4 of them. Missed the White-Fronted Bee-Eater which is apparently easier to find around the Chobe River from what we were told.



European Bee-Eater. Strongly migratory bird, many of them are only wintering in Africa. So who know, this bird might be a summer-Austrian.




Blue-Cheeked Bee-Eater. Saw many of them during the boat drive in Kwara.




Swallow-Tailed Bee-Eater. The only one with a strongly forked tail.

Little Bee-Eater. Often seen in Kwara and Lagoon, mainly in camp in the latter.








Southern Carmine Bee-Eater. My favourite, only seen in Linyanti. Though they are very sociable and often gather in large flocks we would never see more than two or three of them simultaneously.

[michael-ibk]

Paul asked if we wanted to go a little later for our afternoon drive since we had been out for so long in the morning. Hell no, of course, we didn´t. And were on our way again at 16:20.





It was very, very quiet. As established in the discussion in the posts above Lagoon is apparently hit or miss, and this afternoon was "miss", if one measures these things in numbers of mammals seen. It was as if the Safari God had decided that we had had enough for one day and more sightings would be over the top. We sincerely didn´t mind, were still processing our impressions from the morning and were just enjoying the peaceful atmosphere of the area.

We stayed more than an hour at this pond, watching Pratincoles, Egyptian Geese and Plovers.




The one mammal species this afternoon were hippos. They put on quite a show for us:













Didn´t seem very brutal, it was more like these two playing with each other, testing their strenghts.

Lions were definitely around, we found fresh tracks:




We offroaded around following the tracks for quite some time, and Paul was sure that they must had made a kill not too long ago, and close. The sight of these vultures confirmed his assumption.



But we were unable to locate neither lions nor their prey, and so the afternoon drive ended as it had started - quiet but peaceful. With the dogs and leopard "ticked off" this morning, a lot of "Must see"-tension was gone and it was ok not finding anything - for once.



The evening was all but quiet, a newly-arrived group of 12 Americans stormed in like a whirlwind and wanted to hear all about our morning, Spencer had told them. These quite loud, but very nice people provided me with one of my most surreal experiences ever. Once we had established that I was Austrian they all wanted to talk about the musical film "The Sound of Music", some weird piece about the singing Trapp family. All were utterly and completely shocked when I told them that I had never seen it. And even more shocked when I explained that no one back home has. Though it is apparently very popular in parts abroad it´s virtually unknown in Austria, I know practically no one who has seen it - though we are aware that it exists. And no doubt presents a very accurate picture about all things Austrian.

Anyway, my neighbours at table decided that I would have to be converted to the greatness of this movie history´s jewel. And sang no less than three songs out of it to me. And all 12 of the group joined in. And went all "My Favourite Things", "The Sound of Music" and - very befittlingly - "No Way To Stop it" on me.

Needless to say, I needed lots of whine and whiskey that evening to cope with all this.

[michael-ibk]

A new day with a gloriously blue sky awaited us, not a single cloud in sight this morning.



We saw several Giraffes, some Impalas, a Verreaux´s Eagle Owl again and had other very nice bird sightings (Francolins, Guineafowl, Coppery-Tailed Coucal, Tawny Eagle and others).

And two Steenboks:




A troop of Chacma Baboons:





This is a Shepherd´s Tree, evergreen, animals take shelter in its shade in the dry season, hence the name.

We also came across four beautiful Greater Kudu bulls.










James found Leopard tracks, and we followed them for a while, the wonderful smell of wild sage always around us:




Then - flat tyre, Paul announced! And the spare wheel was unusable as well. But it didn´t really impact on our game drive, there was still pressure enough to go on for a little while, and Paul had a camp´s car coming for us at a rendevouz-point with a new tyre, so we actually didn´t lose time at all. But the Leopard stayed hidden. Still, there were smaller delights:



Tree Squirrel






Baby Warthog




During coffee break our car was fixed in no time. Meanwhile I watched a kill.

We then tried for the lion cubs again. They had moved but fortunately not too far, and their new home was soon found:







A tail is just irrestible. Good thing mommy is that tolerant.










Mother retreated deeper into the thicket. The cubs followed her, and soon all three happily suckled. No pics unfortunately, they were covered by lots of leaves around them, but a lovely scene.

The cubs came then out again, apparently to have a better look at us. They did their best to win the staring contest, but ultimately they couldn´t fight their drowsiness and fell asleep one after another.






We then returned to camp for lunch, with some Wattled Cranes on the way, and a few Giraffes and Impalas.



Here it was time to say good bye to Mark, @@The Bear and his wife. Never thought I would "meet" (or, as it is, read) them again, so that was definitely the nicest surprise of doing this Trip Report.

[Atravelynn]

The evening was all but quiet, a newly-arrived group of 12 Americans stormed in like a whirlwind and wanted to hear all about our morning, Spencer had told them. These quite loud, but very nice people provided me with one of my most surreal experiences ever. Once we had established that I was Austrian they all wanted to talk about the musical film "The Sound of Music", some weird piece about the singing Trapp family. All were utterly and completely shocked when I told them that I had never seen it. And even more shocked when I explained that no one back home has. Though it is apparently very popular in parts abroad it´s virtually unknown in Austria, I know practically no one who has seen it - though we are aware that it exists. And no doubt presents a very accurate picture about all things Austrian.

 

Anyway, my neighbours at table decided that I would have to be converted to the greatness of this movie history´s jewel. And sang no less than three songs out of it to me. And all 12 of the group joined in. And went all "My Favourite Things", "The Sound of Music" and - very befittlingly - "No Way To Stop it" on me.

 

Needless to say, I needed lots of whine and whiskey that evening to cope with all this.

On behalf of the dozen, my apologies. I hope they could sing.

 

You have a bee eater primer here!