Mkuze Assessment Week

Spent the last two weeks at Mkuze Game Reserve practicing for our assessment drive and then going to do our assessment. Was a lot of fun as we got to guide to do our assessment and I passed so was extremely happy. Here's just some of the highlights of the trip.

We spent our 1st hour or so there sitting at a bird hide which proved to be great. Saw this amazing bird drinking water.

A Golden-Breasted Bunting. An amazing bird.

While driving we came across this awesome bird which was in its mating ritual. It was displaying and just taking a break from playing as for them displaying takes a lot out of them.

A Long-Tailed Paradise Whydah.

Last time we were at this hide we had a White Rhino bathing in the water but this time was unlucky because we didn't have anything there but was still a great time listening to the bush and looking out for birds.
Here's the view from the hide.

This was one of my favourite sightings as I hadn't seen this bird before but i have heard a Fork-Tailed Drongo imitate its call. I found it amazing how it sat in the this tree.

An African Goshawk. Amazing bird and more amazing how it sits in this Acacia. Awesome sighting.

Now this Rhino popped out of nowhere while we were driving and it looked quite aggressivebut calmed down very quickly.

A beautiful White Rhino Bull.

The next morning we took a road which is very thick but not a lot of people know about it and they don't use it and we were amazed by the tracks we came across.

 A White Rhino track.

 Spotted Hyena tracks.

And the best were the Leopard tracks, but the interesting part was that it was a female Leopard with a cub because there were two sets of tracks and one set was smaller than the other. It was amazing. I loved it.

Then we had an awesome sunset picture with this Green Thorn in front.

And even more amazing was the next morning sunrise.

What a beautiful sunrise.
Then we had the normal plains game like Impala and Blue Wildebeest.

While looking at some grass next to the vehicle we noticed something on the one piece of grass and found this waiting inside.

 A Sac Spider. Easily recognized by its black face with creamy colour body. This is a venomous spider.

We were lucky to come across another pair of White Rhino later on in the drive which was quite a beautiful one.

The sun was setting on the last day and we saw these two Little Bee-Eaters sitting on the branch. The sun made for a great photo.

This was an extremely special and amazing sighting.

A White-Headed Vulture. Our instructor said that this is a really special sighting and youdon't see these birds often where we are in KZN so was really really awesome.

Around camp at night we had a visitor join us running up and down the trees. A really awesome little character.

A Large-Spotted Genet.
Great week in the end.

Till next time