Tag Archives: Satara Summer 2021

Satara Summer 2021 – Raptors Rule The Skies

Protected places like the Kruger National Park is becoming the last strongholds for many birds-of-prey, the undeniable masters of the skies. Any visit to the Kruger is sure to provide regular encounters with a wide variety of meat-eating birds, and in summer even more so as many species migrate here to escape from the winter in the northern hemisphere.

Not all birds-of-prey boast the size and muscle of the big Eagles. Some, like the Falcons, Kestrels, Kites and Harriers make up for what they lack in brawn by being exceedingly fast, nimble and stealthy.

Amur Falcons at sunset

Amur Falcon male

Amur Falcon female (photo by Joubert)

Black-winged Kite

Lesser Kestrel (photo by Joubert)

Pallid Harrier female

Yellow-billed Kite (photo by Joubert)

Of course no one’s going to deny the absolute majesty of the Eagles. No wonder they’ve been featured in religion, folklore and heraldry for centuries.

Fish Eagle with prey

African Fish Eagle

Immature Bateleur (photo by Joubert)

Brown Snake Eagle

African Hawk Eagles

Martial Eagle with Steenbok prey

Lesser Spotted Eagle

Long-crested Eagle

Martial Eagle

Tawny Eagle

Wahlberg’s Eagle

If the Eagles rule the sky during the day then it belongs to the Owls at night. Of course this makes them much harder to see, and photograph, but we were lucky on a few occasions.

Verreaux’s Eagle Owl

Pearl-spotted Owlet (photo by Joubert)

Vultures fulfill a vital role in the ecosystem, efficiently cleaning away any leftovers remaining after the large predators have had their fill of a carcass, and in a place like Kruger National Park with healthy populations of all Africa’s large carnivores there’s certainly lots of work for the Vultures. Sadly these birds are all highly endangered outside our country’s large protected areas.

Hooded Vulture (photo by Joubert)

Hooded Vulture

Hooded Vulture (photo by Joubert)

Lappet-faced Vulture

White-headed Vulture (photo by Joubert)

White-backed Vulture

White-backed Vultures

White-backed Vulture

White-backed Vultures (photo by Joubert)

Satara Summer 2021 – African Cuckoos

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Another bird that we encountered much more frequently during our December 2021 visit to the Kruger National Park than on any previous visit is the African Cuckoo. Perhaps their exceptional numbers this time around is thanks to an explosion of caterpillars following good early rains.

African Cuckoo

Cuculus gularis

The African Cuckoo inhabits savanna and woodland habitats and feeds almost exclusively on caterpillars; only rarely does it include anything else, like other insects, eggs or small birds, in its diet. They are usually solitary.

As with the other members of the family the African Cuckoo is a brood parasite, relying specifically on the fork-tailed drongo to raise its brood. After mating the male African Cuckoo will distract the fork-tailed drongo parents from their nest while the female Cuckoo gets rid of any drongo eggs already in the nest and replaces them with one of her own. The Cuckoo egg hatches about 17 days later and the newly hatched chick immediately sets about pushing any other chicks or eggs from the nest. It is then cared for by its adoptive drongo-parents, growing rapidly until it fledges about three weeks after hatching. Even after the chick leaves the nest it is still cared for by the drongos for several weeks. Fully grown they measure about 32cm in length and weigh around 105g, so by the time they leave their foster parents the chicks are much bigger than them.

African Cuckoos spend the spring and summer months from August to April in southern Africa, migrating here from equatorial Africa to breed. In South Africa during that period they can be found in all the northerly provinces, being absent only from the Eastern and Western Capes and most of the Northern Cape and Free State. They’re found across most of Sub-Saharan Africa for at least a part of the year. According to the IUCN the African Cuckoo is of least concern.

African Cuckoo

Black-crowned Night Heron

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The Black-crowned Night Heron isn’t necessarily a rare bird, but because it is so shy and retiring, and nocturnal, is not seen very often and not very obliging for photographs. During our December 2021 visit to the Kruger National Park, we found a juvenile where the S41-road crosses the Nwanetsi stream. In the early morning it was often quite willing to sit in the open for a photo or two, and one one occasion we even got to see one of its parents flying back home on an overcast morning.

Juvenile Black-crowned Night Heron

Black-crowned Night Heron

Black-crowned Night Heron (photo by Joubert)

Nycticorax nycticorax

The Black-crowned Night Heron is a nocturnal bird whose habitat requirements are closely linked to slow-moving water with lush growth of emergent vegetation. As these habitats are often fleeting in this part of the world many of our local populations are nomadic in response to rainfall patterns through the region. Their prey ranges from insects and other invertebrates to fish and amphibians and even small reptiles, birds and mammals. As their name suggests these herons are active from dusk to dawn, hiding in dense vegetation by day.

Black-crowned Night Herons often breed colonially, with others of their kind or even other species of water birds. Adults form monogamous pairs with both partners participating in the nest building, incubating the clutch of 2-8 eggs (that take between 3 and 4 weeks to hatch) and rearing the chicks, who fledge at around 7 weeks of age. Breeding can take place at any time of year but reaches a peak in our wetter summer months. Fully grown they measure around 56cm in length and weigh approximately 630g.

Black-crowned Night Heron

Black-crowned Night Heron chick

Juvenile Black-crowned Night Heron

Occurring widely but sparsely all over South Africa where there is suitable habitat, the Black-crowned Night Heron’s distribution stretches far beyond our borders to every other continent except Antarctica and Australia. The IUCN considers it to be of least concern.

During a visit to the iSimangaliso Wetland Park in March 2022 we found a slightly older Black-crowned Night Heron and its parents near Cape Vidal.

Black-crowned Night Herons

Another special sighting of this bird was one we saw flying over De Hoop Vlei during broad daylight during a visit to De Hoop Nature Reserve in December 2022.

Black-crowned Night Heron

Southern Carmine Bee-eaters

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The Southern Carmine Bee-eater is a regular summer visitor to South Africa, so they are not entirely unfamiliar to us. We have however not seen them in such numbers before as we have during our December 2021 visit to the Kruger National Park.

Southern Carmine Bee-eater

Southern Carmine Bee-eater (photo by Joubert)

Southern Carmine Bee-eater

Merops nubicoides

The beautiful Southern Carmine Bee-eater is a bird that lives in open woodland and savannah habitats, often found near open water, and that feeds exclusively on insects, most of which they catch in flight and usually much bigger than the fare enjoyed by most other bee-eaters. They’re often seen hunting near to large mammals and ground birds – often using them as a perch – catching the insects these bigger animals disturb into flying. They’re attracted to veld fires for similar reasons.

Southern Carmine Bee-eaters breed in huge colonies numbering up to a thousand pairs, where each monogamous pair excavates a nest-tunnel up to 3.5m deep into earthen banks, usually along rivers and gullies. The clutch of 1-6 eggs take 2 weeks to hatch and the chicks then leave the nest when they’re around 3 weeks old. When not breeding they are less gregarious and more dispersed. Southern Carmine Bee-eaters are the largest of the family occurring in Africa, measuring around 25cm in length (excluding the elongated tail feathers) with a weight of about 62g.

In South Africa, Southern Carmine Bee-eaters are found mainly in the provinces of Mpumalanga and Limpopo, and marginally into Gauteng and North West, with most birds arriving locally by December and departing again by March. Interestingly the majority of birds arrive to breed in our northern neighbours Zambia, Zimbabwe and the Okavango region of Botswana from August to November, with the chicks already fledged by the time they then move further southwards to other parts of Botswana and South Africa’s northern provinces. At the onset of our autumn season they then return northwards to countries as far afield as the DRC and Tanzania. Only in a very narrow band crossing parts of Angola, Zambia, Malawi and Mozambique are they resident throughout the year. The IUCN lists the Southern Carmine Bee-eater as being of least concern.

Southern Carmine Bee-eater

Satara Summer 2021 – Greater Painted-Snipes

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The Greater Painted-Snipe is not a bird that we get to see very often, much less photograph, so we were thrilled to have several wonderful sightings of this elusive bird along the S90 and S89 roads between Satara and Olifants when we visited the Kruger National Park in December 2021.

Greater Painted Snipe female (photo by Joubert)

Greater Painted Snipe female

Greater Painted Snipe (male)

Greater Painted Snipe female (photo by Joubert)

Rostratula benghalensis

Among Greater Painted-Snipes it is the female which is the dominant sex. She is bigger, boasts the bolder plumage and leaves the incubation of the eggs and rearing of the chicks entirely to the male. Shy birds that inhabit flooded grasslands, marshes and other muddy wetlands where they skulk among the reeds and other emergent vegetation, the Greater Painted-Snipe searches for the insects and other invertebrates that forms the bulk of its diet by probing in the mud with its elongated bill. They are usually seen singly or in pairs, with family groups encountered during and shortly after the breeding season.

Female Greater Painted-Snipes mate with 2-4 males in a breeding season, which spans the period September to March in our part of the world, leaving the males to incubate the clutch of 2-5 eggs over a period of almost 3 weeks. The chicks leave the nest before they’re a day old, moving around with their father who feeds them for the first ten days of their life. The chicks can fly when they’re a month old but remain with their father for another month or two before becoming fully independent. Fully grown Greater Painted-Snipes measure around 25cm in length and weigh approximately 120g.

Greater Painted-Snipes are very sparsely distributed over South Africa, with the Kruger National Park seemingly the most reliable place to find this species in our country and especially so during periods of above-average rainfall. Beyond our borders they’re found over most of Sub-Saharan Africa, in Madagascar, the Nile Delta, and in Asia from the Indian subcontinent to Japan and while the IUCN considers it to be of least concern overall, in South Africa it is listed as Near-Threatened due to the loss of suitable habitat.

Satara Summer 2021 – Summer Birding

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We were fortunate to see and identify at least 202 bird species during our December 2021 visit to the Satara area of the Kruger National Park. This gallery features many of them. Over the course of the next few days we’ll be looking more closely at four very special species that made this trip even more memorable, and then on Friday we will showcase the magnificent birds-of-prey that rule the skies of Kruger.

In most browsers you should be able to click on the first image and then work your way through the carousel of pictures:

Acacia Pied Barbet

African Cuckoo

African Green Pigeon

African Hoopoe

African Jacana showing off its very long toes

African Mourning Dove

African Pipit

African Spoonbill

Arrow-marked Babbler

Black Crake

Black Flycatcher

Black Heron

Black Storks

Black-backed Puffback

Black-bellied Bustard

Black-collared Barbet (photo by Joubert)

Black-crowned Night Heron (photo by Joubert)

Black-headed Heron

Black-winged Stilt

Blue Waxbills

Bronze-winged Courser

Brown-crowned Tchagra

Brown-headed Parrot

Brown-hooded Kingfisher

Burchell’s Starling

Cardinal Woodpecker

Southern Carmine Bee-eater

Cattle Egrets (photo by Joubert)

Chestnut-backed Sparrow-Lark

Chinspot Batis

Cinnamon-breasted Bunting

Collared Sunbird

Common Greenshank

Common Sandpiper

Crested Francolin hen and chicks

Dark-capped Bulbul

Double-banded Sandgrouse

Dwarf Bittern

Egyptian Goose

European Bee-eater

European Roller (photo by Joubert)

Fork-tailed Drongo on its (very exposed) nest

Giant Kingfisher (photo by Joubert)

Great Spotted Cuckoo

Greater Painted Snipe female (photo by Joubert)

Green, or Red-billed, Wood-hoopoe

Green-backed Heron (photo by Joubert)

Green-winged Pytilia (photo by Joubert)

Grey Heron

African Grey Hornbill

Grey Tit-Flycatcher

Grey-headed Bush-shrike

Dustbathing Grey-headed Sparrow

Ground Hornbill

Hamerkop (photo by Joubert)

House Sparrow (photo by Joubert)

Jacobin Cuckoo

Jameson’s Firefinch

Kori Bustard

Male Knob-billed Duck strutting his stuff

Laughing Dove

Lesser Grey Shrike

Lesser Masked Weaver

Lesser Striped Swallow

Lilac-breasted Roller

Little Egret

Little Grebe

Little Swift

Long-tailed Paradise Whydahs

Malachite Kingfisher

Marabou (photo by Joubert)

Marsh Sandpiper

Monotonous Lark

Neddicky

Olive-tree Warbler

Orange-breasted Bush Shrike

Ostriches

Pied Kingfisher (photo by Joubert)

Pied Wagtail

Red-backed Shrike

Red-billed Buffalo Weaver

Red-billed Firefinch

Red-billed Hornbill (photo by Joubert)

Red-billed Oxpecker

Flock of Red-billed Queleas

Red-breasted Swallow

Red-crested Korhaan

Red-headed Weaver

Reed Cormorant

Rufous-naped Lark

Sabota Lark

Saddle-billed Stork

Southern Black Tit

Southern Masked Weaver

Speckled Mousebird

Spectacled Weaver

Spotted Dikkop

Spotted Flycatcher (photo by Joubert)

Swainson’s Spurfowl

Tawny-flanked Prinia

Three-banded Plover

Village Indigobird male

Village Weaver

Violet-backed Starling male (photo by Joubert)

Water Thick-knees

Wattled Starling

White Storks

White-browed Scrub-Robin

White-crowned Shrike

White-faced Whistling Duck surrounded by Little Grebes

White-fronted Bee-eater

White-winged Widowbird

Wood Sandpiper

Woodland Kingfisher (photo by Joubert)

Woolly-necked Stork

Yellow-billed Hornbill (photo by Joubert)

Satara Summer 2021 – Squirrels, Rats and Bats

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Bats and rodents are not everyone’s cup of tea, but in South Africa’s wild places they’re very much at home and a crucial component of the ecosystem. During our visit to the Kruger National Park in December 2021 we were lucky, though not all equally happy 😉 , to bump into a few of them in and around Satara Rest Camp.

The Red Veld Rat (aka Red Rock Rat) sauntered closer to Marilize while I was busy taking pictures of the Brown-backed Tree Frog one night.

We seem to be more forgiving of rodents that roam during the daylight, like these cute and cuddly Southern African Tree Squirrels.

Southern African Tree Squirrel

Southern African Tree Squirrel sneaking a drink

Squirrel hijacking our car while we were having a picnic

Now Bats again are a different story. I’ve heard them being referred to as the “rats of the air”. If you could look past their appearance, often smelly colonies, and the fact that they are indeed carriers of some pretty serious diseases, they are actually a quite fascinating and diverse group of creatures!

As yet unidentified insect-eating bat that unfortunately grounded itself

The identity of this insect-eating bat, roosting against a tree trunk, has me stumped.

Free-tailed Bat juvenile that fell from the roost (photo by Joubert)

Epauletted Fruit Bats

Mauritian Tomb Bat

Mauritian Tomb Bats (photo by Joubert)

Mauritian Tomb Bats

Clouded Mother-of-Pearl Butterfly

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This wonderful present came my way while I was taking a walk through Satara Rest Camp on Christmas Day last year when we were visiting the Kruger National Park for our summer holiday. Looking this butterfly up in my guide book i thought “What a beautiful name for a beautiful butterfly!”

Clouded Mother-of-Pearl Butterfly

Protogoniomorpha (Salamis) anacardii

The Clouded Mother-of-Pearl is a medium-sized butterfly with a wingspan of up to 7cm. They prefer dense habitats ranging from coastal and montane forests to riverine galleries, and in South Africa are found through coastal Kwazulu-Natal and into the Lowveld and escarpment of Mpumalanga and Limpopo. Adults are seen throughout the year though their numbers reach a peak in late summer and early autumn. Their flight may seem ungainly but they’re exceptionally quick when troubled – this one gave me quite the walk-around through camp trying to take its picture. Clouded Mothers-of-Pearl love sitting exposed on prominent perches such as leaves and flowers, apparently basking in the sun – behaviour this one also displayed at least long enough so I could get a few photographs.

While visiting Cape Vidal in the iSimangaliso Wetland Park in March 2022 we again encountered this beautiful butterfly, though this time a really tattered specimen.

Clouded Mother-of-Pearl

Satara Summer 2021 – Invertebrate Diversity

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With the Kruger National Park as vast as it is, and with human impacts kept to an absolute minimum, invertebrate life can thrive to an extent that is no longer possible in most of our “developed” society. Summer is a good time to see these fascinating creatures, as our visit in December 2021 proved yet again.

Beetles form the largest and most diverse order in the entire animal kingdom, and there are thousands of beetle species in the Kruger National Park.

Interesting Beetle that mimics a bird dropping

Tiger Beetle (photo by Joubert)

Net-winged Beetles mating

Ground Beetle

While perhaps not as numerous as beetles, the various kinds of Butterflies gets lots of attention thanks to their delicate beauty.

African Migrant

Broad-bordered Grass Yellow

Common Diadem male

Common Diadem female

Clouded Mother-of-Pearl Butterfly

Common Orange Tip Butterfly

Common Purple Tip male

Common Purple Tip female

Queen Purple Tip

Scarlet Tip Butterfly

Scarlet Tip female

Twilight Brown butterfly

Veined Tip Butterfly

Why exactly Moths are often regarded with such disdain compared to their relatives the butterflies I can’t comprehend, as some of these night-flying creatures are equally beautiful.

Unidentified Moth species

Wavy Owl Moth (photo by Joubert)

Specious Tiger Moth

Our dislike of Flies is a lot easier to understand, though only a very few of them are actually a nuisance to humans and they all perform a wide variety of vital functions in the ecosystem.

Interesting fly that appears to be mimicking a bee (photo by Joubert)

Spider-wasp Robber Fly

We were lucky to see several “armies” of Matabele Ants on the hunt:

Matabele Ants

Another diverse insect group, with equally diverse survival strategies, are the Bees and Wasps.

Carpenter Bee on Wild Parasol Flower bush

Thread-waisted Wasp (photo by Joubert)

My aptitude at identifying the various kinds of Damselflies and Dragonflies is still sorely lacking.

Damselflies

Little Scarlet Dragonfly

Julia Skimmer Dragonfly (photo by Joubert)

Web-spinners are a small and little known insect order.

Web Spinner or Embiid

A group of Gregarious Spotted Cockroaches scrambling up the wall of the laundry building at Satara was a welcome distraction on washing day.

Gregarious Spotted Cockroach

So scary and large was this Bark Katydid crawling up a tree in Satara that you’d have to forgive me for the photograph not being entirely in focus…

Bark Katydid

Millipedes are such a familiar group of animals, and yet every time we visit the Kruger Park we are astounded to see just how many unique kinds find a home there!

Millipede

Giant Millipede

Millipede

We end of this post with a group that makes many peoples’ skins crawl: Spiders. Being responsible in no small part for controlling the numbers of all the other invertebrates, the entire ecosystem would collapse in their absence.

Large Community Nest Spider nest

Crab Spider

Lynx Spider

Huntsman Spider

Rain Spider curled up in self-defense

Satara Summer 2021 – Reptilian Encounters

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There’s just something about reptilians that grabs our attention. Maybe it’s the fact that they’re cold-blooded, or covered in scales, or because they remind us of dinosaurs and dragons. Whatever the case might be, if you are as fascinated by reptiles as we are then the Kruger National Park, home to at least 118 species of reptiles, should definitely be on your list of places to visit and perhaps this collection of reptile photos taken during our visit in December 2021 is all that is needed to convince you.

Of course, there’s probably not many people who think of Flap-necked Chameleons as being dangerous. These masters at camouflage whose eyes can move independently to see almost every inch of their surroundings are always a welcome sight. Easy to notice when they cross a road or pathway, they quickly disappear from sight as soon as they reach the vegetation on the verge.

Flap-necked Chameleon

There’s a rich variety of lizards and geckos in Kruger Park, and the best place to see them is undoubtedly inside the rest camps and picnic sites where they’re accustomed to having people around.

Common Dwarf Gecko

Giant Plated Lizard

Male Rainbow Skink

Rainbow Skink female

Variable Skink

Striped Skink

Tropical House Gecko (photo by Joubert)

Tropical House Gecko

Turner’s Thick-toed Gecko

Yellow-throated Plated Lizard

Of course we can’t forget Satara’s show-off Agama King we posted about on the 22nd of January!

Male Tree Agama in breeding colours in Satara Rest Camp

Female Southern Tree Agama (photo by Joubert)

Due to their massive size the two species of monitor lizard that occur in the Park – the Rock and Water Monitors – really are a class apart!

Rock Monitor

Rock Monitor in the process of shedding its old skin

Water Monitor swimming

We were parked at a leopard sighting when Marilize noticed this Western Stripe-bellied Sand Snake in a bush next to our car. For a while we forgot all about the leopard above our heads…

Stripe-bellied Sand Snake (photo by Joubert)

Tortoises and terrapins too are sure to please the crowd. Often seen crossing the road in hot weather their endearing habit of crawling into their shell when you stop next to them never gets old. Seeing two Speke’s Hinged Tortoises mating – the female munching on flowers through the process – was an unexpected highlight of our latest visit.

Speke’s Hinged Tortoise

Mating Hinged Tortoises

Mating Speke’s Hinged Tortoises

Baby Leopard Tortoise

Leopard Tortoise (photo by Joubert)

Marsh Terrapin

To end of this post with, the fearsome Nile Crocodile. Kruger Park is home to some of the biggest specimens of these top predators you could ever imagine seeing.