Elephant Plains Safari: Birmingham Male Lions again …

News from Villiers Steyn:  

It was raining again as we set out this morning wearing our rain ponchos for protection. 
We headed straight to the east where it didn’t take very long before we found three of the Birmingham male lions … this time two of the males were lying in a lovely open area while the third strolled slowly down the road to join his brothers. As the walker reached the others he greeted them with a face rub and walked walked past both resting brothers - and luckily for us he then treated us to a series of photos we have hoped for during the past days - he started to shake his head, spraying droplets in a huge halo around his head. Fabulous images!
It was wonderful to enjoy this sighting towards the end of our safari with this trio, especially as they started to roar – such an impressive sound from closeup!
When we left them we stopped at a pan for our coffee break. There we lay flat on our tummies for eye-level pics next to a pool where a hippo surfaced from time to time – and after a while he gave us a tremendous yawn … which is exactly what we hoped for. It was great to have the chance to photograph a hippo at eye level …
A very curious Burchell’s Starling came to see what we were up to, and to hope for some falling crumbs from our delicious rusks. At the same time a Pied Kingfisher hovered above the hippo and the water, so we switched between photographing the Kingfisher and the hippo.
We saw two herds of elephants, both with small calves, and not much further on was a venerable old Dagga Boy (buffalo).
In addition there were numerous raptors including Tawny Eagles, Wahlberg’s Eagles, Fish Eagles, and Bateleur Eagles.
We returned to the Lodge for breakfast and to prepare for our reluctant departures for our homes. Looking forward to our next trip …

Elephant Plains Safari: Thankful we are not Buffalo …

News from Villiers Steyn:  

We woke to a cooler, overcast and windy morning with temperatures closer to 20degC than the 30+degC that we have become accustomed to.
We started with a search for Salayexe and her cub, but could not find tracks anywhere, even when we looped around in concentric circles. However, we did see drag marks which suggested that the hyenas had removed the impala carcass to consume it elsewhere. There was not even an alarm call from a squirrel or any guinea fowl to suggest the presence of a predator.
After a coffee break at the Serengeti area we headed towards the eastern part of the reserve.
There we found three lionesses – members of the Styx pride, and two of them were heavily pregnant with fat bellies and swollen nipples. The two lay on their backs, paws in the air, just too uncomfortable to lie in any other position. The cubs were sired by the Birmingham males.
Other than that we saw numerous impala, - and a buffalo, roaming around in the lush green grass that seems to grow by the day.
This afternoon was even cooler and darker than this morning … so we were not particularly hopeful that we would see much at all.
We searched around the area for Salayexe and cub again, but there was no sign of them. While searching, however, we came across a hippo lying in one of the small pools, while in the next pool we saw a buffalo bull, and a large herd on wildebeest enjoying the new grass.
When we stopped for early sundowners we three Side-striped Jackals came into view. The mother was lying at the entrance to their den whie the youngsters ran around frenetically, being quite silly – and very entertaining. We approached on foot, but couldn’t get close enough for close-up photography.
After refreshmants we started our drive again, and soon found four of the Birmingham male lions. As we settled down to photograph them it started to rain, and we had an amazing moment where we could photograph the lions with strong backlighting and rain falling onto them. It was quite a surreal moment, especially as some of the lions started to roar – adding to the awesome atmosphere.
When the lions got up and started to walk down the road we pulled ahead of them to get images of all four walking towards us with rain pelting down. Magical! It was really special to see the four large, powerful animals walking directly towards us and totally dominating the space! We were extra pleased that thank goodness we are not buffalo!
We left them to return to the Lodge, looking forward to a nice hot drink and a very welcome supper.
Tomorrow we would like to search for Salayexe again …