Kruger Part 10 – Summary

11 November to 7 December 2018

Report by Sally and Paul Bartho

The intention of this summary is to:

• show you in one chart our birdlist for the entire Kruger and which birds we identified when based in each camp area.
• comment on the birds we thought we might see but didn’t.
• make comments on our time in the Park.
• show you photos of the birds we could not identify.
• show you photos of what we considered “Special” birds.
• show you photos of animals we took.
• show you photos which we considered to be of reasonable quality.

Despite the dryness of the Park we still identified a wide variety of birds in all 230 different species. Click here to see the total list of birds we identified in our stay in the Kruger also showing a summary of the birds we saw in the area of each camp.

Having said that, we were surprised not to identify any of the following:

• Bishops*
• Buzzards
• Coots*
• Falcons
• Grebes Little*
• Kestrels
• Longclaws
• Mannikins
• Martins
• Moorhens*
• Pigeons Speckled
• Saw-wings Black
• Teals*
• Terns*
• Tinkerbirds
• Weavers Village
• White-eyes

* We attributed these particular missing birds due to the dryness of the Park.

Some Comments and Observations:

• Our favourite camps were Lower Sabie in the South, Balule in the middle, Tsendze and Punda Maria in the north. And Malelane in the south as a gateway for both entering and leaving the Park.
• Yellow-billed Oxpeckers have thrived in the north and now it is unusual to see a Red-billed Oxpecker on Giraffe or Buffalo.
• Yellow-billed Oxpeckers have extended their range and it is not unusual to find them lower down at Tsendze.
• It is about time that Punda Maria management bought a washing machine for their laundry.
• The Deck at Lower Sabie gave us many interesting sightings not only of birds but interacting animals too.
• The swimming pool at Shingwedzi was a real life saver.
• Crocodile Bridge area looked like a desert – trees all knocked down, barren and dusty sadly

Unidentified Birds:

Of the birds we photographed there were two which we could not identify. Perhaps you can?? And there is one snake for ID please.

White-rumped Raptor

White-rumped Raptor

Blue Snake head

Blue Snake body

Special Birds:

The following photos are of birds that we considered to be special – either because they are hard to find or they are not birds we regularly see where we live or they show something about the bird..

Kori Bustard in all his majesty

White-headed Vulture

Pallid Harrier

Pallid Harrier

Retz’s Helmet-Shrike

White-crested Helmet-Shrike

Saddle-billed Stork juvenile less than 6 months old

Southern Ground-Hornbills

Squacco Heron well tanned and in a hurry

White-crowned Lapwing

Stierling’s Wren-Warbler

Swainson’s and his mate the Natal Spurfowl – nice to see the comparison

Tropical Boubou

White Storks

White-backed Vultures

African Hawk-Eagle

Woodland Kingfisher

Woodland Kingfisher

White-browed Robin-Chat

Willow Warbler

African Snipe

Allen’s Gallinule

Bearded Woodpecker. Sorry wrong tree

Bennett’s Woodpecker female

Brown Snake-Eagle

Black Cuckoo

Black-crowned Night-Heron

Black Heron in fishing mode

Brown-backed Honeybird

Burnt-necked Eremomela

Brown-hooded Parrot

Chestnut-backed Sparrow-Lark

Coqui Francolin female

Coqui Francolin male

Eurasian Golden Oriole

Grey-headed Kingfisher

Juvenile Hooded Vulture

Hooded Vultures

Jameson’s Firefinch

Mosque Swallow

Zebra and friend the Yellow-billed Oxpecker

Knob-billed Duck male

Marabou Stork

Malachite Kingfisher cf Water Thick-knee

Lappet-faced Vultures

Lappet-faced Vultures. Look at the size of its claw

Some Animals

Buffalo pond

Side-striped Jackal

Buffalo and Yellow-billed Oxpecker

Buffalo kneeling with both Oxpeckers attached

Cheetah and cub

Cheetah and carcass

Bushbuck female

Colourful Lizard

Crocodile

A bank of Crocodiles

Crocodile

Crocodiles making a meal of a hippo

Elephant and baby

Elephant and new born

Elephant family getting too close

Elephant romp

Elephant on his knees stuck in the mud

Hippo youngsters

Giraffe and new born

Grey Duiker

Honey Badger

Spotted Hyena bathtime

Impala new born

Impala with new born

Kudu female collared

Kudu female

Leopard

Leopard – full and sleeping it off

Leopard cub and 4 feet

Leopard cub feet up time

Leopard cub. I’m cool

Leopard cub. I’m off

Leopard cub. I’m watching you

Lioness waiting patiently to strike

Lions resting after futile chase of Gnus

Lions at Buffalo kill

Lazy Lions

Mammoth Crocodile

Leguaan

Pangolin. Note his clawed front foot?hand

Pangolin

Pangolin

Red and Yellow-billed Oxpecker on buffalo

Red Hartebeest

Red-billed Oxpecker using a hippo eye to perch on while drinking

Road Block

Sable Antelope

Sally in the Mandenzeni Picnic site but what is over her left shoulder yes lions

Steenbuck

Spotted Hyena relaxing with its back feet well tucked in

Scrub Hare

Terrapin

Tsessebe and young

Tsessebe young

Warthog and Red-billed Oxpecker

White Rhinos on their way to cajole the buffalos

Wild dogs

Zebra cross-legged

Other birds we can’t forget:

African Paradise-Flycatcher with a rather long tail

Green Wood-hoopoe

Western Barn Owls

Verreaux’s Eagle-Owl

Bennett’s Woodpecker female

Cardinal Woodpecker female

Brown-crowned Tchagra

Arrow-marked Babbler

Brown-hooded Kingfisher mouth open

Burchell’s Coucal

Cape Glossy Starling

Greater Blue-eared Starling

Black-winged Stilt

Common Greenshank

European Bee-eater

Little Bee-eater

Great Egret

Little Egret

Green-backed Heron

Lesser Masked-Weaver

Green-winged Pytilia

Grey-headed Bushshrike

Tawny Eagle

Martial Eagle

Levaillant’s Cuckoo

Mocking Cliff-Chat

African Mourning Dove

Rattling Cisticola

Red-billed Firefinch

Red-crested Korhaan before he took flight

Red-faced Cisticola

Red-winged Starling female

Spectacled Weaver

Spotted Flycatcher

Tawny-flanked Prinia

Terrestial Brownbul

Yellow-billed Stork

Yellow-billed Stork

Yellow-billed Hornbill

Acacia Pied Barbet

African Hawk-Eagle

Yellow-throated Petronia

And that’s it Folks. We hope you have enjoyed the series.

Paul and Sally Bartho

Splat and Rocky enjoying being in the Tropics

Baobab it is reaching for you

Pointed Anthill