Winter animals

We have been enjoying typical lowveld winter weather of late:  cold nights and crisp mornings with dry, sunny days that are warm but not too hot.  The cold in the early mornings has resulted in some beautiful inversion layers with mist blanketing the valley below the lodge and the ridge poking through behind.

After the wet months of April and May (when game animals were widely distributed and visiting permanent water only infrequently) the dryness of the last six weeks has increasingly led to animals visiting our waterhole in numbers. We have seen large groups of zebra (20 or so), large herds of impala, wildebeest, kudu (groups of 4, 6 and 8), duiker, warthogs and giraffe. 

One giraffe group included a mother and one of the smallest calves we have ever seen.  It was fascinated by the water in the waterhole, peering intently at it in the classic giraffe drinking position but then running back to mother at the slightest noise or gust of wind.  We couldn’t tell whether it was actually drinking but we saw it suckling from its mother so we suspect it was curiosity as much as thirst. 

A grey heron has spent several evenings at the waterhole as well and the days see an almost endless procession of guinea fowl.