Stephen Barnard is busy with his new video-making, and has put up one on YouTube showing Desi and Lucy. It’s called, “Honey, I’m home!” (remember that the telvision Desi used to say that?). Sadly, Desi appears to be empty-taloned, so Lucy may have to send him out to the fish store again:
And reader Joan Faiola sent us a passel of African bird photos. Her notes are indented:
I recently visited the Kruger National Park in South Africa, at the hottest time of the year – February, when temperatures soar to 45+ deg Celsius, so it can be unbearable! However, for that reason it is the quietest time to be in the Park, so the West Rand Honorary Rangers hold their main fundraiser at this time. The fundraiser comprises birding weekends at many of the camps, and I have attended 5 of these so far at various rest and bush camps since 2008. The Honorary Rangers have raised many thousands of Rand for conservation in the parks of South Africa, including providing equipment for the ongoing war against rhino poachers. I would add that elephants are under pressure from poachers throughout Africa, and poaching of these magnificent animals has increased in the Kruger Park too.
There has been a widespread drought this summer throughout South Africa, though my province, Gauteng, has received some good rains since January. However, the Kruger Park is pretty dry right now. It’s feast or famine with Kruger: there have been devastating floods in some years which have irrevocably changed some aspects of the park, such as destroying giant trees on the river banks, sweeping them downstream as though they were twigs.
I could write my own book about Kruger. I really love it. (I love lots of other places in Southern Africa, but that’s another book!) Most people go there to see the Big Five, but I have always preferred the small 5000. Birds are what I mainly go for – there are over 550 species in the park. But whatever I find there is worth looking at, including the smaller animals such as elephant shrew, the spring hare (a strange animal that reminds one of a tiny kangaroo, but of course it is not a marsupial), the pangolin, wild dog, and this visit I saw the side-striped jackal for the very first time. Of course I have no objection to the Big Five. And naturally I love cats. Leopards are very elusive and we were lucky to find one on a night drive with the Rangers, although I did not get a photo. Cheetahs are hard to find too and are always a welcome sight.
I don’t know what your protocol is for receiving multiple files. I have selected 22 from my trip, but obviously don’t want to send them all at once. So I will start with the bird photos.
The African Fish-Eagle (Haliaeetus vocifer) is widespread throughout South Africa. It is in the same genus as the Bald Eagle of North America, as you know.
The Great Egret (Ardea alba) was in breeding plumage, as evidenced by the wonderful aigrettes this one was showing.
The Lilac-breasted Roller (Coracias cordatus) is a fairly common bird in bushveld, but has spectacular colours.
The bee-eaters: I drove into a glade where I found four different species hawking for insects in the same space. I managed to get photos of three of them (the fourth being the European Bee-eater (Merops apiaster), a non-breeding Palearctic migrant from southern Europe, although there is a breeding population of intra-African migrants in SW South Africa – a future speciation event perhaps?
Little Bee-eater (Merops pusillus) – resident all year round:
Southern Carmine Bee-eater (Merops nubicoides) is an intra-African summer migrant. This individual was less brightly coloured than usual, so was probably sub-adult.
White-fronted Bee-eater (Merops bullockoides) – resident all year round:
White-crowned Lapwing (Vanellus albiceps) is found in South Africa only in Kruger and along the Limpopo. It also occurs in northern Botswana, northern (Zambezi)and southern Zimbabwe (Limpopo) extending into Mozambique (Limpopo and Zambezi), and elsewhere on major rivers in Africa. It is said to be decreasing but it has never been common.
Woodland Kingfisher (Halcyon senegalensis) is, as its scientific name suggests, a breeding intra-African summer migrant. Its beautiful call is the sound of summer, and the bird is one of the first to call in the period before dawn. I have heard it at 4 am, a full hour before dawn in summer.
Lovely birds and gorgeous photos! The lilac breasted Roller is outstanding, but I would be hard pressed to choose a favorite out of these beauties. Thank you for sharing, Joan.
Nice photos, but the captions were mixed up a bit. The one labeled “white-fronted bee-eater” was a little bee-eater; the “little bee-eater” was the lapwing; and the “lapwing” was the white-fronted bee-eater.
Also, the great egret is always said to be the same species as we have in North America (Ardea alba), but it makes me a little suspicious that in Africa, breeding-season birds have black beaks while here they remain yellow. Small difference, but possibly one important in breeding.
I fixed the captins; it was my fault, not Joan’s, who had labeled her photos correctly.
I’d love to visit Kruger Park some day. Lovely photos. A Facebook friend, Tony Webb, posts a lot of photos from Kruger.
I’m experimenting with the video. The camera shoots high resolution 4K (3840 x 2160), but my Internet connection is too slow to upload 4K files. The video in this post was converted to 1080p (1920 x 1080), and the resolution was further reduced by Youtube. To give an idea of the full resolution of 4K, here’s a single frame from the video.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/110292855@N05/26240738721/in/dateposted-public/
Wow! That’s spectacularly detailed video. Nice work!
That is worth a double click!
That’s an impressive still. You’ve got a great setup. What was the digiscope and camera you’re using? Looks very good on Youtube. Is it slowed down? It almost looks like slo-mo.
It’s slowed down to 50% speed.
I’m have the same rig as Tara Tanaka: a Panasonic LUMIX GH4 and a Swarovski 85mm scope with a Digidapter. (I depended on her advice because she’s the best.) I don’t have a good video head to let me track subjects smoothly, though.
How I envy you and Tara. Modern technology is making life better, don’t you agree? Electric toothbrushes and GH4s make life so much better. What a great time to be alive!
Ha!
I’m filming the nest every morning and evening when I have good light — eagerly awaiting the first appearance of the eagle chicks. The earliest date I’ve seen them in years past has been April 14. There are clearly hatched chicks because I see the adults feeding them. They grow fast. And don’t worry, Jerry, the adults seem to catch as many fish as they need.
I’m amused by the anachronisms we use in photography. I say I’m “filming”, but there’s no film. I accumulate “footage”, but it’s measured in gigabytes, not feet.
Anachronisms: Yes, those terms still remain and are accepted. Another one – editing is still “cutting”.
Big budget films still often use true film, but with the advent of very high resolution digital cameras (8K for example) there is a gradual shift to digital even in Hollywood. Digital is so much cheaper that independent films are now using it widely.
Holy Shiznizzles! I am officially sold on 4K.
4K is still rolling out. There aren’t many venues that take full advantage of the higher resolution. But, it seems to enhance most outlets to some degree and will probably become standard for TV in the not so distant future.
The 4K performance of this GH4 blows me away. Combined with the Swarovski scope it’s insane. It’s like having a 1000mm equivalent DSLR shooting at 24 frames/sec. The downside is that hand-holding and autofocus are out of the question.
Wow! Thanks!
Clocking in, PCC(E). 😉
Wonderful tales and photos.
One of my favourite places, great photos!
Wonderful, and thank you.
The Lilac Breasted Roller is beautiful.
Lovely photos, but just one comment: the Fish Eagle is common all over sub-Saharan Africa, wherever there is plenty of water, fresh or sea. Somewhere I have a photo (film, unfortunately) of a huge treeful of the things by a small lake in Kenya’s Tsavo East.
Its loud and characteristic call carries over great distances: in Kenya people refer to it as “the sound of Africa”. It is very similar to that of the Common Buzzard (Buteo buteo), but louder.