Cassia blooms
August 26, 2008
The Sjambok pods or Scrambled egg trees (Cassia abbreviata) are in full bloom at the moment. They are particularly striking as they are deciduous trees and their branches are bare apart from the beautiful sprays of yellow flowers. A couple shots.
Content Copyright Patrick Bentley Photography
Dogs!
August 25, 2008
It is rare for us to see wild dog in this area so I was very lucky to spend some time with a pack of 3 females yesterday afternoon. The light wasn’t great so I went for some slow shutter shots to blur the dogs slightly as they were running around. This image was exactly what I was after, blurring the legs of the dog but still keeping the head sharp. I think it portrays the character of a wild dog well – very energetic and always on the move.
Content Copyright Patrick Bentley Photography
Serval
August 22, 2008
Having not seen any Serval in this area last year, I have had two excellent sighting in the last couple of weeks. The first one was at night but it came really close to the car which was great. This one was also not at all shy and it was wonderful to see and photograph it in daylight as they are predominantly nocturnal cats.
This photo shows just how well camouflaged it is in it’s environment…
Content Copyright Patrick Bentley Photography
Full moon
August 17, 2008
The moon was full last night and was so bright that it was no problem driving around with the lights turned off. We have a lot of strangely shaped trees in this area and I had some fun shooting silhouettes of these dead leadwoods.
Content Copyright Patrick Bentley Photography
Hyaena census
August 14, 2008
Last night I had the privilege of joining the AWDC (African Wild Dog Conservation) team who were in the area doing a census of hyaenas. They had a PA system with them and played a recording of various animal calls including lions roaring, hyaenas whooping and a buffalo bellowing in its death throes. It was very interesting to observe the hyaenas as they came running in thinking that a kill had been made and then joining in with the whooping! We even had 3 wild dog have a look in at one point which was great.
Unfortunately because of their appearance and reputation for being devious hyaenas are often vilified by visitors to the park. This is actually undeserved and they are fascinating and entertaining animals. Personally I think that their numbers have reduced over the years so it will be interesting to see the outcome from this census.
The photo was taken a few days ago of two hyaenas I found polishing off the remains of a buffalo on Lion plain.
Content Copyright Patrick Bentley Photography
African Grey Hornbill
August 13, 2008
This bird is very common in the Valley and is often ignored by photographers as it is not very colourful – even the bird books describe it as drab. I think he is pretty impressive for a common, drab bird…
Content Copyright Patrick Bentley Photography
Leopard kills baboon in broad daylight
August 10, 2008
I had an incredible leopard sighting on a game drive yesterday morning. We were driving along quietly when suddenly all hell broke loose in a Tamarind tree near the road. There was a huge troop of baboons surrounding the tree and they were going wild.
As we approached the tree we saw a small female leopard descend with a large baboon clamped in it’s mouth! The rest of the troop surrounded it and were screaming and barking furiously. The racket was incredible. The leopard paid no attention to them though and took its time dragging the dead baboon toward some nearby combretum thickets. Eventually it reached the thickets and disappeared from view. As soon as the baboons had lost sight of it they went very quiet and began their normal behaviour of feeding and grooming again…
The leopard had obviously been hiding in the Tamarind tree and when the baboons came to feed on the fruit she had taken the opportunity to grab one of them. I doubt that it was an intentional ambush but this is possible. It was a very brave thing to do though as the leopard could easily have been overwhelmed and injured or possibly even killed by the baboons. Generally leopards fear baboons and usually kill them at night so that they can easily get away from the rest of the troop. She must have been very hungry.
Content Copyright Patrick Bentley Photography
