June 26, continued
Afternoon game drive:
A Burchell’s starling - a spectacularly iridescent crow-sized black bird
A lone male waterbuck
A marabou stork & white backed vultures picking at a hippo carcass (the same carcass will feature in future posts)
A group of elephants at a pool, of which the closest was a bull in musth (a heightened level of testosterone indicating readiness for mating)
Three spotted hyenas in the shade of a bush
Vultures drying their wings, much the way cormorants do
An African jacana (lily trotter)
A great egret
A long toed plover
A salt lick dug by elephants
An African fish eagle
More buffalo
A Burchell’s starling - a spectacularly iridescent crow-sized black bird
A lone male waterbuck
A marabou stork & white backed vultures picking at a hippo carcass (the same carcass will feature in future posts)
A group of elephants at a pool, of which the closest was a bull in musth (a heightened level of testosterone indicating readiness for mating)
Three spotted hyenas in the shade of a bush
Vultures drying their wings, much the way cormorants do
An African jacana (lily trotter)
A great egret
A long toed plover
A salt lick dug by elephants
An African fish eagle
More buffalo
Then our guide heard from other guides via radio that some lions had been spotted. We took a long drive to see them, and found two gorgeous males, in their prime at about 6 or 7 years old, looking very much alike, and probably brothers. Our guide said they were from the same pride as the cub we glimpsed this morning.
While viewing a magnificent sunset, we watched elephants in a dry pan.
During dinner back at the lodge, a hippo came up out of the pond to scratch himself on a dead tree.