Reigning cats and dogs! Hellish heat, battling bugs, balky boats: A Botswana safari in early December

[Ginny]

@janzinThis is a fabulous photo!  His poor ears look a little worse for wear, but he is soooo beautiful,  and so nice

to pose for you.

[Thornburyswan]

1 hour ago, janzin said:

Thanks @KaliCAand @Zim Girl, your comment made me look back at the post and I realized I didn't include my favorite shot (which is the one I thought you were referring to!)

 

So here it is now

 

 

Just WOW !!

[Kitsafari]

gorgeous leopard! true serendipity.  

[John M.]

It's nice to know a photographer's favourite when a lot of shots are posted 🙂

[Peter Connan]

Beautiful!

[John M.]

I've come back for a third look, and I favour #7... paw raised, on the move towards the camera. The tiny bit of action makes it for me.

[janzin]

10 hours ago, John M. said:

I've come back for a third look, and I favour #7... paw raised, on the move towards the camera. The tiny bit of action makes it for me.

Thanks @John M. I just wish that branch wasn't in front of his foot.

 

As far as my favorites, certainly I am posting many more photos for the trip report than will make it onto my website or my Facebook photography page--many of the photos here are posted more for supporting the narrative and not for their artistic merit  

[John M.]

15 minutes ago, janzin said:

Thanks @John M. I just wish that branch wasn't in front of his foot.

 

As far as my favorites, certainly I am posting many more photos for the trip report than will make it onto my website or my Facebook photography page--many of the photos here are posted more for supporting the narrative and not for their artistic merit  

🙂  I felt similarly about the branch but settled on it as a minor distraction and part of the environment. 

   I also understand about the posting of many photos. But hearing or seeing the preferences of fellow photographers is always interesting and educational.

[janzin]

So after the leopard encounter, we headed back towards Splash camp but along the way we passed a hyena den with some cute pups.

 

Curious Hyena pup.

 

 

Pup portrait.

 

 

 

Giving me the eye.

 

 

Not much else except for a nicely posing Rufous-naped Lark.

 

 

After our usual brunch break we headed out--once again--for our boat ride to the rookery.  Would we have the right key this time? Moz promised that we would!

 

And we did! Yay, the boat ride was happening.  We had a relaxing ride to the rookery, stopping now and again of course to photograph other birds.

 

 

 

 

 

 

A highlight were these Southern Carmine Bee-eaters which were "fishing" for insects in the water--swooping and plucking them off the surface.  Difficult to photograph as we couldn't get too close (when we'd go towards them they'd just fly further up the river.) So these are quite cropped and they always seemed to be facing away, but I was pleased some did come out rather nicely.

 

 

 

 

Love the shape the tail takes on here...and the water flying off of it.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited February 9 by janzin

[KaliCA]

@John M.Gald you favor the same leopard shot i like. for me it's the foot and the TAIL!

 

@janzinOMG! those shots!! Absolutely stunning! the single drops, the poses... just superb. I didn't know they hunt over water and get wet. 

congrats on all of them.

 

[Treepol]

@janzinthe Carmine BE shots are superb!

[janzin]

Thanks @KaliCAand @Treepolit really was fun to watch. But we didn't stay too long as we had to get to the rookery.

 

There are actually two areas, close together, where the birds were nesting. It was already pretty late in the season so these were hardly "chicks" but pretty big fledglings.

 

The boat, which I forgot to take a photo of, has a platform on the top, reached by a ladder. So you could stand up there and shoot the nesting birds at eye level.

 

Mostly Marabou Storks and Yellow-billed Storks.

 

 

Honestly the Marabous are pretty ugly and most of the photos look very much alike, so I won't post too many. It's actually quite difficult in these rookeries to isolate your subject.

 

 

 

 

More interesting was when the adult birds came home to roost for the evening. We had fun trying to catch them in flight.

 

 

 

 

 

Love the wing position here.

 

 

 

As it grew later Moz said we had to leave; as since we were no longer in the conservancy, but in the Moremi Game Reserve, we had to be off the river by dark.  So we are making our way back but before too long we .... just.... stop.

 

Hmmm. Well a few times the boat has gotten caught in the undergrowth or whatever and we'd stopped and reversed for a bit, but this was different. A dead stop in the water. In the middle of the water.

 

 

I turn around and we see Moz and the tracker fiddling with the engine.  The BRAND NEW ENGINE.  I ask Moz (who is not the most communicative at the best of times) if there's a problem.  He sort of grunts. More fiddling. Now the tracker is opening our sundowner box and taking out a kitchen knife.  Hmmm.  I ask again "what's the problem?" and Moz says "fuel is not getting to the engine."

 

This doesn't sound good, nor does it look good when Moz and the tracker take the knife and start prying and cutting the hose to what I imagine is the fuel pump.  I have visions of exploding boats (don't they always explode in those TV shows?)

 

At least we have our sundowner box which probably has some snacks in it. And drinks. If we are here for a long time.

 

 

Now a slightly curious hippo is watching us.  Not that reassuring.

 

 

In my mind I am thinking, I really don't want to be out here after dark, with hippos, but we DO have a radio. Someone will come rescue us eventually.

 

Luckily after about 15-20 minutes they MacGyver the fuel pump/BRAND NEW ENGINE and putt-putt finally it's running again. WHEW.

 

But now we are really late and they go top speed all the way back, not daring to stop or slow down. We get back to the landing just before dark.  And we still had a ways to go to get back to Splash, so we were a bit late to dinner, but with a story to tell!

 

Just one last morning to our trip. But there will be dogs!

 

Edited February 9 by janzin

[madaboutcheetah]

Well done Moz and your unnamed Tracker !! 

 

I haven't been to Godikwe lagoon in what must be over 15 years now !! Great shots of the BIF 

 

PS - Can't wait to see your shots from that Wild dog morning .... 

Edited February 9 by madaboutcheetah

[janzin]

10 minutes ago, madaboutcheetah said:

Well done Moz and your unnamed Tracker !! 

 

I haven't been to Godikwe lagoon in what must be over 15 years now !! Great shots of the BIF 

I feel bad I can't remember the trackers name. He never wore a name tag and it didn't seem like he spoke much English. But he was very good!

[John M.]

Sharp-as-a-tack bee-eaters! Lovely!

[michael-ibk]

Great photos, love the Carmines especially (of course)!

[Bush dog]

@janzin

 

The bee-eater's bath, great art!  I also really like photos of birds in flight, especially those of the ibis.  I think the darter would be more of a juvenile reed cormorant???

[janzin]

4 hours ago, Bush dog said:

@janzin

 

The bee-eater's bath, great art!  I also really like photos of birds in flight, especially those of the ibis.  I think the darter would be more of a juvenile reed cormorant???

As usual Bush Dog you are correct! Once again I just relied on memory and didn't look it up All that white threw me off. I will fix it.

[janzin]

11 hours ago, madaboutcheetah said:

 

 

PS - Can't wait to see your shots from that Wild dog morning .... 

It will be a few days! Have to go through 2,116 of them--most will be deleted of course and many too gory to show haha. 

[TonyQ]

A beautiful sequence of bee-eaters. And you did get to complete your boat trip!

[ElenaH]

@janzin

Excellent report! Stunning photography, i't just a pleasure to look at it. It is kind of illustrative - the photos look like illustrations. Yes, you can achieve it in post but need to be experienced with tools :-) You could have quite a workflow!

There are also gorgeous captures. I love Carmines because I often take pictures of European Bee-eater here, in Europe and I know, it is not easy! You need to be quick with your gear! Great job!

It's a pity you don't have a few pictures of the Splash camp so, you need to come again ;-)

Very good sightings. OMG you have those cheetah cubs! And Mom. Such beauties! Also a lot of birds! Did I see a picture of a dotted bug? 

So, I am looking forward to the next chapters.

[Towlersonsafari]

the Carmines-Bravo- I dont think I have ever seen better pictures of them, wonderful!

[Kitsafari]

agree with the rest - super carmine shots and how those water drops were vivid and glistening.  

[Peter Connan]

Absolutely stunning bird photos!

[janzin]

Thanks @TonyQ@ElenaH@Towlersonsafari@Kitsafari@Peter Connan! 

 

This was our departure day but I hadn't yet given up on seeing the dogs one more time. Apparently the prior afternoon they had returned to the Kwara concession!! Moz assured us that we had time to go after them on our morning safari before catching our flight out at around 11:30. We would go out at the usual 5:30 and be back for breakfast at 9:30.  We'd just have to truncate the safari a bit, but we could make it. 

 

I was definitely up for it but Alan decided to forego it and get a bit of a sleep-in. We had a long travel day ahead with no break--flight to Maun, flight to JNB, flight to JFK. So I left him sleeping and went off alone. And I took his new  Nikon Z 180-600 lens to try out

 

I need to recount one small anecdote from the prior night's dinner to fill in my narrative. A new couple had arrived; he had been on safari before but this was her first, and you could tell she had no idea what to expect. She made a point of telling us all that "she loved all the animals and wanted to see everything--but nothing killed or hurt or in pain."  Uh-oh. You can imagine what is coming

 

But not yet.

 

So I went out with Moz and our nameless tracker and we made a bee-line towards the Khwai border, which is where the dogs had crossed back over. I told them "don't bother stopping for anything else--off to the dogs!"  And sure enough, there they were!

 

Hari and his team were already there, of course

 

At first the dogs were just milling around, waking up--it was still early and a cloudy day, even a little drizzly, so the light wasn't great. I concentrated on just making some portraits.

 

This guy has seen the wars, for sure.

 

 

A handsome female.

 

 

 

 

 

They started getting more active, but not actively hunting.

 

 

That gorgeous one with the light coat.

 

 

 

Check out the spots on those legs. So beautiful.

 

 

 

 

 

Now they were really starting to run. The hunt was on...

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was about this point that Moz requested to let another couple into our vehicle as the three vehicle limit had been reached.  Oh boy, normally I'd be fine with it but it turned out to be that couple with the woman who "didn't want to see a kill." Hmmmm. Meantime it took her forever to get into our vehicle as she really didn't understand what was happening, was trying to bring her lunch and all her stuff, Moz and her guide are trying to explain that this would only be for a short while while we were at the dogs.  In my head I was shouting at her to hurry up (honestly maybe I said that out loud, I don't remember!) Eventually her and her husband got in the back (since Alan wasn't with us there was plenty of room.)

 

But because of all this in the end we missed the take-down....but maybe that was for the best...

 

(Interlude again while I go through the rest--down to about 1400 now. The gory stuff.)

Edited February 11 by janzin