Monthly Archives: April 2018

Spotted Thick-knee

Burhinus capensis

The Spotted Thick-knee, or Spotted Dikkop, prefers open habitats, including fynbos, semi-arid scrublands, grasslands and savanna, but has adapted well to agricultural and urban environments and is often seen in fields, parks and gardens – at night their shrill call has become a familiar sound in our suburbs. They are mostly nocturnal in habit and feed primarily on insects and other invertebrates. Adults weigh around 500g with a wingspan of about 80cm.

Pairs of Spotted Think-knees are monogamous and solitary nesters, although they could assemble in groups of up to 50 outside the breeding season. Their nests are little more than a scrape in the ground, often out in the open but more usually in the shade of a bush or tree, and camouflaged with a few pieces of plants or pebbles, in which a clutch of 1-3 (usually 2) splendidly camouflaged eggs are laid. The parents take turns to incubate the eggs over a period of 4 weeks, and the chicks leave the nest within a day of hatching to move around with their parents. The chicks fledge at about 2 months old. Spotted Thick-knees breed through spring and summer and pairs can raise as many as three broods in a season.

Spotted Thick-knees occur over much of sub-Saharan African, being absent only from the equatorial forests, and is listed as being of least concern by the IUCN. In South Africa they occur over the entire country.

Spotted Thick-knee

Spotted Thick-Knee

Spotted Thick-knee

Spotted Thick-knee protecting nest

Spotted Thick-knees with eggs

Spotted Thick-knee with eggs

Spotted Thick-knee eggs

Two-day old Spotted Thick-knee chick

Parent with two-day old Spotted Thick-knee chicks

Spotted Thick-knee with 3-day old chicks

Three-day old Spotted Thick-knee chick

Spotted Thick-knee with 3-day old chick

Three week old Spotted Thick-knee chick

Spotted Thick-knee

Spotted Thick-knee with month-old chick

Spotted Thick-knee

Month-old Spotted Thick-knee chick

Spotted Thick-knee

Spotted Dikkop (Spotted Thick-knee)

Spotted Thick-knee

Spotted Dikkop

Spotted Thick-knees

Spotted Dikkops, or Thick-knees (photo by Joubert)

Spotted Thick-knee

Spotted Thick-knee with chick

Spotted Thick-knee chick

Spotted Thick-knee

Common Dikkop (aka Thick-knee)

Spotted Dikkop

Spotted Thick-knee

Spotted Dikkop

Easter in Kruger

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The Easter break afforded us the opportunity to visit South Africa’s flagship National Park, and one of our favourite destinations, again, spending first three nights at Skukuza Rest Camp in the south of the Kruger National Park, and then four nights around Mopani Rest Camp in the north. After a summer of apparently good rainfall, the Park’s vegetation is lush and green, with water in ample supply. These conditions make searching for wildlife a bit trickier, but it is wonderful to see the Park transformed from the harrowing effects of the recent drought that is still so fresh in our minds.

Leadwood stump

Tsendze pool

Nshawu view

Sunset on the Shongololo Loop

Sunrise over a pan near Mopani

Malelane mountains

Kwaggaspan

Sabie Bridge from Skukuza

Sabie River

Sabie Bridge near Skukuza

Blue Water Lily

White Water Lily in Skukuza

Kruger sunset

Sausage Tree Fruit

Shipandani Hide

Nkumbe View

The Kruger National Park is renowned for its Big-5 sightings. There isn’t very many other places where one can so easily find completely wild lions, leopards, elephants, buffaloes and rhinos from the comfort of your own vehicle, at your own pace and according to your own schedule. And then there’s always a chance that you may cross paths with a magnificent big tusker!

White rhino’s poor attempt at hiding

Lion near Skukuza

Lion with his zebra meal, just outside Satara

Lioness pacing the H4-1 between Skukuza and Lower Sabie

Pride of lions at Kumana Dam

Leopard near Lower Sabie

Leopard in a tree south of Skukuza

Buffalo near Mopani

Buffalo in the rain

Buffalo roadblock

Trio of buffalo bulls

Elephant near Mopani

Unknown Kruger Tusker (2018/03/21)

Testing their strength

Just a little irritated

Walking along the Ngwenyeni

Elephants on the way to Phalaborwa Gate

Elephant bull enjoying a puddle near Mopani

Young elephant interactions

Crossing the Letaba River

Tiny baby next to mom

Testing the wind

Elephant’s tail

The deep water in the reservoir is much cooler than that in the trough

On the other side of the scale are those less frequently noticed smaller critters (“creepy crawlies” or “goggas” as we call them), that fairly seldom feature on any of the Kruger visitors’ sightings wish-lists. They may be small and unobtrusive, but they are certainly no less fascinating than the glamorous Big-5. We already shared with your the exciting scenes of a Western Stripe-bellied Sand Snake catching and swallowing a skink in Shingwedzi, but there’s plenty more to see if you bend your knees!

Western Stripe-bellied Sand Snake swallowing a skink in Shingwedzi

Common River Frog in Skukuza

Painted Reed Frog in Skukuza

Plain Grass Frog at Twanana

Cricket perfectly imitating a mopane leaf

Rainbow Skink

Serrated Hinged Terrapin

Juvenile Mozambique Tilapia in the Tsendze River

Water Monitor

The Mopani area is well-known for prized sightings of the rarer antelope species, and we weren’t disappointed on that score either, ticking bushbuck, nyala, eland, tsessebe, reedbuck and roan antelope on our list.

Eland near Bowkerskop

Eland at Tinhongonyeni

Roan antelope in the dense mopane near Middelvlei

Southern Reedbuck in the Nshawu Vlei

Tsessebe at Mooiplaas

Tsessebe at Nshawu

Nyala near Skukuza

Bushbuck near Skukuza

Bushbuck mingling with baboons and impala along the Sand River

The lush vegetation made it very challenging to see the smaller antelope species. We managed to photograph steenbok, grey duiker and klipspringer, but unfortunately the grysbok just weren’t willing to pose for a picture this time around.

Grey Duiker

Klipspringer

Steenbok

There’s quite a few herbivore species that you are virtually guaranteed to see when visiting the Kruger National Park. Among these are baboons and vervet monkeys, blue wildebeest, plains zebra, impala, kudu, waterbuck, giraffe, warthog and hippo.

Wet Baboon after a rainstorm

Baboon youngsters at speed!

Blue wildebeest

Giraffe

Hippo eyeing us from the Sabie River

Impala Ram

Kudu Calf

Plains Zebra

Vervet Monkey

Warthog

Waterbuck Bull on the bank of the Sabie

Waterbuck cows and calves

Of course, with such a menu there are many predators in attendance. Apart from lions and leopards, on our latest visit we also encountered spotted hyena, side-striped and black-backed jackal, crocodile and large-spotted genet.

Nile crocodile at Sunset Dam

Large-spotted Genet patrolling outside our bungalow at Skukuza

Black-backed Jackal

Spotted Hyena cub

Spotted Hyena cub and mother

Spotted Hyena cubs with a bone

The Kruger National Park is regarded as a paradise for bird-watchers, and that is not without reason. During the warmer months especially, when many summer migrants from northern latitudes enjoy our warm weather, the variety and numbers of bird species to be seen is absolutely prolific, but even in winter feathered life abounds in the Lowveld.

European Bee-eaters

Temminck’s Courser

African Mourning Dove on a nest at Satara

Knob-billed Duck

White-faced Whistling Ducks

Black-chested Snake Eagle

Wahlberg’s Eagle

Tawny Eagle

Spotted Flycatcher

Swainson’s Spurfowl

Natal Spurfowl

Green-backed Heron

Grey Heron

Ground Hornbill juvenile

Hamerkop

African Jacana

Pied Kingfisher

Black-winged Kite

Red-crested Korhaan

Black-bellied Bustard

Kori Bustard

Blacksmith Lapwing

Ostrich male

Verreaux’s Eagle Owl

Red-billed Oxpecker

Yellow-billed Oxpecker on a festering wound

Long-tailed Paradise Whydah

European Roller

Common Sandpiper

Double-banded Sandgrouse

Lesser Grey Shrike

Male Red-backed Shrike

Saddle-billed Stork

Black Stork

White-backed Vultures in a tree near a carcass

African Pied wagtail

Greater Painted Snipe

Blue waxbill

The Kruger National Park is an addictive place. You only need to visit once for it to get under your skin, and stay there. The more you experience of Kruger’s wonders, the more you pine for it. We’ll be back again and again, no question about it.

Easter Encounters with Tuskers

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One of our greatest joys when visiting the Kruger National Park is being treated to an encounter with a real “Tusker”; a majestic elephant bull carrying massive ivory. There are only a handful of these enigmatic animals on the continent, and they are living monuments to those who protect our wild places for generations to come. Owing to their special status, they are given names by the Park authorities, often according to specific areas they roam or in remembrance of rangers or other members of staff that dedicated their lives to the Park.

During our Easter visit to Kruger, we were lucky to have seen no less than three of these awesome animals. Each one of them has some unique features – scars on the ears, marks on the trunk, characteristic tusk shape, etc. that aids in the identification. We’ve submitted our photographs to the Kruger’s Emerging Tuskers Project and will update this post once we hear the names of these tuskers.

This is Xidudla, the name being in reference to his large size:

Xidudla (2018/03/29)

This big bull is known as “Hahlwa“, which is Tsonga for “twin” because he looks so similar to Masasana, another big tusker roaming the Kruger Park.

Hahlwa (2018/04/01)

This last bull has not been named yet, but the project team will be keeping a close watch on him until he too receives his well-deserved moniker.

Yet to be identified Kruger Tusker

Unknown Kruger Tusker (2018/04/02)

For some more pictures of tuskers we’ve seen in Kruger in years past have a look at this post.

Western Stripe-bellied Sand Snake

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Psammophis subtaeniatus

One of the most exciting and memorable sightings of our Easter trip to the Kruger National Park took place right in front of the reception office at Shingwedzi Rest Camp. We watched as a Western Stripe-bellied Sand Snake (aka Western Yellow-bellied Sand Snake) stalked, caught, killed and swallowed a skink – the whole episode playing out within perhaps ten minutes at the most.

Western Stripe-bellied Sand Snake hunting skinks in Shingwedzi

Western Stripe-bellied Sand Snake – Note the skink just behind the snake

Western Stripe-bellied Sand Snake swallowing a skink in Shingwedzi

Western Stripe-bellied Sand Snake after swallowing a skink in Shingwedzi

This was a fairly large specimen of this slender species, which grows to around a metre in length. Western Stripe-bellied Sand Snakes are strictly diurnal, equally at home on the ground or in low trees and shrubs, and extremely fast moving. Aside from lizards they will also prey on frogs, small birds and rodents, which they dispatch with a dose of mild venom (not lethal to humans though).

Females lay between 4 and 10 eggs in summer, and probably lives for between 5 and 10 years in the wild.

The Western Stripe-bellied Sand Snake is described as widespread and common by the IUCN, which considers it to be of least concern. It is distributed from southern Angola and northern Namibia through to Swaziland and South Africa (North West, Limpopo, Gauteng, Mpumalanga and possibly northern Kwazulu-Natal), occurring in a variety of savanna types and being especially closely associated with mopane veld (such as which occurs around Shingwedzi).

While visiting Marakele National Park over Easter in 2019, we encountered another Western Stripe-bellied Sand Snake at the Thutong Environmental Education Centre, and watched as it searched, this time unsuccessfully, for a lizard to catch.

Western Stripe-bellied Sand Snake

This Western Stripe-bellied Sand Snake visited our tent at Tlopi in the Marakale National Park during a visit in February 2021:

Western Stripe-bellied Sand Snake at our tent

While staying at Shingwedzi Rest Camp in the Kruger National Park in June 2019, a Western Stripe-bellied Sand Snake came to visit us at our campsite – seems Shingwedzi is a really good place to go looking for this species!

Western Stripe-bellied Sand Snake

We were parked at a Leopard sighting while visiting the Kruger National Park in December 2021 when Marilize noticed this Western Stripe-bellied Sand Snake in a bush next to our car.

Western Stripe-bellied Sand Snake (photo by Joubert)

In July 2022 we visited Marakele National park and Tlopi Tented Camp again, and were delighted to find another Western Stripe-belllied Sand Snake guarding our tent again.

Western Stripe-bellied Sand Snake

Back from our Easter Bush Breakaway

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We’re fresh back from our Easter break around Skukuza and Mopani in the Kruger National Park, and of course well be sharing lots and lots more photos from this beautiful place with you soon! (as well as replying to all the comments you left us over the last few days).

Buffalo near Mopani

Lion near Skukuza

Elephant near Mopani

Leopard near Lower Sabie

White rhino’s poor attempt at hiding

Long-tailed Widowbird

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Euplectes progne

The Longtailed Widowbird is a grassland species, even occurring up to 2,750m above sea level in the Drakensberg mountains. They feed primarily on seeds, and occasionally insects. Long-tailed Widowbirds live in flocks consisting of 1 or 2 males and several females. At night they roost in reedbeds or long grass.

The male Long-tailed Widowbird only carries the exceptionally long tail (up to 50cm) in the breeding season, displaying it prominently by flying slowly over his patch of grassland. In winter the males have the same drab colouration of the females. The breeding season stretches from October to April in South Africa, and during this time males may mate with up to 5 females. Either sex weave the dome-shaped nests in tall, dense grass in wetlands or along rivers, in which 1-4 eggs are incubated by the female only for two weeks. The chicks leave the nest at just over two weeks old, but are not very strong flyers yet and thus remain dependent on their mother for another two weeks or so. Adults weigh between 25 and 46 grams.

The Long-tailed Widowbird is patchily distributed in pockets of East and Central Africa, with the largest part of the population concentrated in parts of Lesotho, Swaziland and South Africa, particularly the Eastern Cape, Kwazulu-Natal, Free State, North West, Gauteng and the Highveld of Limpopo and Mpumalanga. The IUCN lists it as least concern, describing its populations as common and stable, despite much of its range being intensively farmed.