Evening Pictures

Now on holiday and staying at an amazing place in Jeffreys Bay. We are staying on the canals which is something I haven't done before and it is great, very quiet and the water at night looks amazing.

Til next time

Thursday afternoon drive, 15th November 2012

So i'm spending a while at GVI going on drives and doing work at the camp. Took the volunteers on a drive yesterday afternoon and went out looking for the Wild Dogs and were we spoilt.

We found the Dogs lying in the middle of the road at the one small pan where they were drinking.

After they had finished drinking they started moving with the adult females who started running around and leaving the pups to start hunting.
The pups found a lot to do in the time they were waiting.
They were playing with each other a lot right in front of the bakkie and found a tree which interested them a lot because they were all jumping up against the tree to smell something which was left there by an animal rubbing itself against the tree.

This is where they were selling at the tree, they were incredible interested.

 After all the playing and sniffing the pups headed out into the bush to go looking for their mother. They were left once again under a tree but got very excited when a rabbit jumped out the bush and they started chasing it and the one got close but didn't get it in the end Their mother son returned afterwards and regeritated some food for them to nibble on then took them to the kill. We sat with them for about 40min before deciding to leave them be. We had a breeding herd of Buffalo close by to the kill with extremely small calves, they were a little bit anxious to what was going on and dissapeared into the bush soon after. Great drive all in all and hopefully still more to come.

Till next time

GVI Weekend

Spent a weekend with my mates it GVI again. Was amazing as usual.

Spent most of the morning with the dogs which always brings great excitement. The pups were playing right next to the bakkie.

Was amazing spending so much time with the dogs and just watching them amaze you at every turn.

After the dogs we went looking for the cheetahs, we found one of them in an old forest which is now just scattered trees but was hard to see him in the tall grass.

On our way back to camp we found a very old carcass with about 20 Vultures around it, among them was a Lappet-faced Vulture, and the common White-backed Vulture.

 Lappet-faced Vulture

White-backed Vulture

Till next time

Long Crested Eagle

Saw this Long Crested Eagle in cape Vidal right next to the road. Was amazing because it sat there for about 5mins just looking around. Was amazing!

Till next time

GVI Weekend 11-12 August

Spent the weekend away with my good old mates at GVI. Was a great weekend as I finally got to see the wild dogs properly for the 1st time and they have 11 pups which was amazing to see.

We followed them down the road for about 2km as all the dogs were running down to a kill that the one adult female had made. Unfortunately we couldn't see them eat as it was in some dense bushes. We walked in after them we gone and found out they were eating a female Nyala. There was very little left of it.

Here are the dogs running to where the kill is.

After this we went to the small wetland to have a look at what birds we could see. There were at least 15 Spur-winged Goose.

Got 2 flying away.

We went looking for the female Cheetah after this and found her chilling under the trees a little bit fat with blood on her face and paws.
She was grooming herself to try get the blood off herself.

She started rolling around from side to side as well which was amazing to watch. Amazing animal and definitely one of my favourite animals.

We came across an amazing thing when 2 White-fronted Bee-Eaters were sitting on a tree right next to the road flying up every now and again and catching small insects. Was amazing to see.

After the Bee-Eater we followed up on the male Cheetah who has been on a kill for 3 days and was still there when we got to him. He had eaten well and was just lazing around about 10m from his kill. Amazing to see both Cheetahs in 1 day.

Amazing day in the bush!

Till next time