At 5:10 am we headed out to the game reserve.  Our first stop was a hide in front of a waterhole where we saw lots of animals and birds. Black Wildebeest Nyala and Helmeted Turtles closer Helmeted Turtles Red-billed Oxpeckers bathing Yellow-fronted Canary Nyala male Muddy Warthog We birded outside the hide and found a…

I seem to have omitted a few things on the former post that I wanted to mention.  When we were up in the mountains of Wakkerstroom looking for that Yellow Warbler we looked up high on the hill and saw a few Meerkats peeking in and out of the rocks.  Unfortunately they were too quick…

Our rooms in the shed were quite lovely. This shed had 3 rooms in it. dining area Bedroom area. In front of this are twin beds on one side and a couch and living area on the other.  There is also a kitchen in the back. and of course, a bathroom. We started our day…

This morning we left Pretoriuskop and Kruger National Park for Wakkerstroom.  Before we left we birded around the camp and found lots of beautiful birds. Yellow-fronted Canaries Violet backed Starling Helmeted Guineafowl Laughing Dove Purple-crested Turaco Scarlet-chested Sunbird Red-headed Weaver Forked-tailed Drongo Blue Waxbill Black-headed Oriole African Hoopoe After our walk and breakfast we headed…

This morning we packed up the truck and left Satara Camp and drove around some more of the park before stopping for breakfast at an outdoor restaurant.  We got out of our vehicle and went into the shop to order our meal and when we came out our vehicle was filled with Vervet Monkeys. Vervet…

We are staying at Satara camp in Kruger. Our bungalow Satara camp area We have a little bungalow in the camp that is completely fenced in. This does not keep everything out. There are Vervet Monkeys roaming around and seeing what food they can grab from people. There are also other critters such as Mongoose…

We left Sunrock after breakfast at about 7:30 to head to Kruger National Park which is quite a long drive, especially with all the birding stops we make along the way. Flowers along the road But, before we could do any serious birding we had to make it through the traffic of greater Joburg. By…

Our first full day on the tour started out with a bang. We met at 5:15 am to travel to Zaagkuildrift which is an area of arid scrub. Of the 5 target birds for the day we found all but one but we also ended the day with 95 species, most of them new to…

On the way to Johannesburg we had a layover in Amsterdam.  It was quite a nice airport, fortunately, since we were there for 4 hours.  They have this very cool clock that we sat and watched for a while with what looked like a man inside it painting, erasing, and repainting the time every minute.…

Phyllis Diller as a Reddish Egret (watercolor/collage) This is my first blog.  I’m trying this out so that I can put the pictures directly in the text instead of having to go somewhere else.   We are leaving for a 3 week birding trip to So. Africa tomorrow and hope we will have some time…