Harrow School Photographic Safari at Leopard's View

Leaving the lodge for an afternoon game drive

Lions - winner of Most Atmospheric Picture
Charlie Biddle                                     Balule Nature Reserve

We have just entertained a party of pupils and staff from Harrow School, England, who were here on a photographic safari.

Red-Headed Weaver - winner of the Best Bird Category
Mark Ridgeway                               Leopard' View Game Lodge

Burchell's Zebra - winner of Best Mammal/Best Overall Shot
Ted Ratcliffe                           Balule Nature Reserve               

In a week of varied activities in and around Balule, they visited Blyde Canyon Dam, Hoedspruit Endangered Species Centre and The Kruger National Park.  In the course of their drives and walks both here in Balule and in the Kruger Park they had amazing sightings, which included all of the Big 5. At the end of the week we held an informal photographic competition for pupils and staff to enter with their five best photographs.  Prizes were awarded in a range of categories and the winning pictures shown here on the blog page.  

Leopard                                                     Highly Commended
Henry Kenyon                                          Kruger National Park

On their last morning here at Leopard’s View a large herd of buffalo came past and they were able to finish the week with some beautiful misty early-morning shots of the buffalo grazing just below the deck and drinking at the waterhole.   

  

Buffalo in the early-morning mist taken from the deck at Leopard's View

Elephants bath and scratch

We have been treated to a very good elephant sighting in the last few days.  Sitting outside our house a few days ago, we heard the familiar crack of breaking wood and saw a large tree fall over down in the valley.  We quickly went up to the top of the viewing tower and scanned the bush to see if we could see any sign of what we thought must have been elephant activity.  There was nothing to be seen, but as the bush is very thick in places we would not see them unless they were browsing in an open area.  We decided to investigate further and drove down to the waterhole in the game drive vehicle.  Two elephants had arrived before us and had obviously been enjoying a bath as they were very wet and muddy.  We recognised the two big male elephants.  One has a collar and is called Soshangane and the other we knew to be Ezulwini.  They moved away from the waterhole and then spent some time using the trees around as scratching posts – their skin sounded like sandpaper rubbing against the trees.  They then carried on up the slope towards the lodge and passed close by one of the huts before moving off.  We were very pleased to see them as it has been a little while since the elephants have visited the water hole.  
 



Soshangane and a view of the lodge decks

Elezwini enjoys a final scratch

A Tale of Two Impalas



'One-Horn'

Followers of our blog site or newsletter will know about the one-horned impala we have seen around Leopard’s View at regular intervals over the last three years.  Lately it seems that ‘One-Horn’ has teamed up with another impala male with a serious injury and the pair are now seen together often.  This other impala, whom we have named ‘Three-legs’, was first seen in January with a very bad leg injury, which has since quite miraculously healed to a great extent, although as you can see in the photograph the knee joint is very enlarged and the lower leg very thin.  He limps around but is able to run reasonably effectively even with such a damaged leg. 



Injured back leg of 'Three-Legs' 

These two impalas spend a lot of time around about our lodge and house sticking close to the buildings especially at night when the injured male is obviously in danger of being easy prey.  We are always delighted to see them and will keep you posted on their progress. 


'Three-Legs'

Rare visitors at the waterhole

The last ten days or so have seen several visits to our waterhole by rare animals of one sort or another.  Firstly on Saturday 10^th March a leopard drank there at around 8.00 p.m., and soon afterwards a hyena came by as well.  Another (or the same?) leopard spent some 10 minutes near the waterhole just after 6.00 p.m. on Monday 19^th March. 

Leopard - 19 March - hard to photograph as behind tree!

 A white rhino drank at the waterhole, also around 6.00 p.m., on Tuesday 13^th.  Although not common sightings, these are nonetheless animals that we do expect to see from time to time.  However, around midday on Wednesday 21^st a female eland with a calf appeared at the waterhole, drank for some minutes and then moved off.  There have been no sightings of eland in the Reserve for many years and we are at a loss to explain how or why this pair was there.  Our habitat is not really their normal one:  they are generally found in drier parts, and particularly in the western half of South Africa. They may have moved in from Kruger Park, where eland do occur at a low density, especially in the northern parts; or more likely they may have come from a game farm or private reserve bordering Balule.  Whatever the explanation, it is always a treat to see eland in the wild.  They are the largest of the antelope in Southern Africa and live in small family groups, generally with one mature male, several females and their offspring.

Eland female - 21 March

Hot weather, birds and animals

February was an extremely hot month here with the average daily maximum for the month being 33.5^oC: except for a few days, March has been every bit as warm.  The heat and lack of rain have led to the water that was so freely available in the bush after the January floods drying up: as a result we are seeing more and more animals visiting the lodge waterhole, notably impala herds and giraffes.  However, it is the birds that have given us some excellent sightings over the last week or two. 

Long-tailed paradise-whydah (male)

Green-winged pytitlia

A male long-tailed paradise-whydah (Vidua paradisaea) has been resident in the valley behind the waterhole:  these birds, with their bright red and yellow chest and neck, have extraordinarily long tails when in their breeding plumage.  The females are a drab brown and the species is a brood parasite of a small local bird, the green-winged pytilia (Pytilia melba). 

Keeping company with the paradise-whydah was a purple indigo bird (Vidua purpurascens); as the name suggests, it is a uniform dark colour, except for pale wing panels and under-tail, with whitish beak and legs. 

Purple indigo bird (male)

Shikra

Twice in the last week we have had a shikra, formerly known as the little banded goshawk (Accipiter badius), perching in a dead tree just outside the lodge.  This bird has a banded chest and a striking cherry-red eye that contrasts with its yellow cere (the plate at the base of the beak.)  Many other bird species have been active around the lodge as well, notably green wood-hoopoes and arrow-marked babblers.

Escarpment silhouette with setting sun behind clouds, 5th March 2012

The king is dead….

Masinyo at buffalo kill near our waterhole, November 2009,
with Big Boy in the background

Our local lion pride, often known simply as “The Big Pride” in view of its numbers (19 at one stage a couple of years ago), recently suffered a setback.  One of the two pride males, called ‘Masinyo’, was found dead near the Olifants River.  He had not been in good health for a while and had been seen some two weeks previously with quills stuck in his mouth, having presumably come off worst in an encounter with a porcupine.

We had not seen Masinyo since March 2011 when both he and his brother, ‘Big Boy’, were feeding together on a giraffe killed in a collision with an electricity power line.  Only Big Boy was present at the giraffe kill near our waterhole in late November 2011 and was very thin and limping badly (but has recovered since.)  

Big Boy at our waterhole, November 2011

While theoretically Masinyo’s death leaves Big Boy and the pride more exposed, to date the surviving brother has been holding his own as the lone pride male, on several occasions roaring loudly very close to the Lodge.  The two of them had controlled the pride for over ten years, a far longer time period than is normal in lion society.

Cyclone hits Balule Reserve

The river behind our waterhole after approx. 175 mm of rain had fallen.

Out here in the bush rain is always welcome and so far this summer we had had 295 mm since the start of October, that is until Tuesday 17^th and Wednesday 18^th January, earlier this week.  It began raining on Tuesday and by 4.30 p.m. only 18mm had fallen.  Over the next 24 hours, however, a further 262 mm (10 inches) fell.  

The same river some 500 m upstream

As a result our normally dry river beds became raging torrents, audible even over the sound of the rain.  The largest river on the main road to the reserve gate was 40 m wide.  In the midst of this most of the local lion pride were in the area, on our neighbours’ property and here on Leopard’s View.  We even had to deliberately let water out of the splashpool at various intervals.  Luckily we have suffered only from erosion of paths and roads although we did have a mini-river flowing through one of the huts as the ground became saturated.  Giraffe Hut is now drying out and we have dug out around it to create better run-off management in the future – pictures to follow as the work progresses.

The main road through the reserve to the gate, Wednesday morning

At a stroke our rainfall total for this wet season has jumped up to 575 mm, which is 125 mm more than the annual average for Balule.

Afternoon of Thursday 19th - our river much subsided

All roads in and out of the reserve were impassable until the middle of Thursday 19^th and some routes are still closed.

The main road river shown above, 24 hours after the rain stopped

Our local town, Hoedspruit, which is 21 km away, was cut off by flood water and was declared a disaster area: some sections were completely under water.  Many major roads and bridges in the area have been damaged and the Olifants River came over the top of the high-water bridge.  The local Air Force base was active in the area, rescuing many people trapped by rising water.

Clean-up operations are in progress everywhere.  We hope that the cyclones now building in the Indian Ocean will not affect us this far inland over the next week or so.  With soils already saturated more heavy rain would undoubtedly lead to renewed flooding.