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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 …