Trip report: Kgalagadi Sept 2013 (The Family affair)

I am calling this trip “The Family affair” because I took my youngest sister (older than me) for the first time to the Kgalagadi joined by my other sister and her husband. Unfortunately my wife did not have enough leave credits – so she stayed in Bloemfontein. We planned the trip almost one year ago and the made the bookings accordingly – a necessity lately in order to get the accommodation you want). We stayed at Kalahari Tented Camp, Mata Mata, Kieliekrankie,  Nossob and Twee Rivieren – a total of 9 days. I told my sister (a non-photographer) to take a few books along because sometimes it could  be very frustrating and boring sitting next to the waterholes waiting for the animals/birds as well as the actions. However, I wonder if she read 10 pages while waiting. Not that boring after all. I gave her my bridge camera and she took a few very lovely photos herself.

 

Once again  – in this trip report, I’ll let the photos tell the stories theme by theme and not day by day.

 

As with my previous trip report on the Kgalagadi, let us start with the Bateleur – As usual Cubitje Quap water hole near Nossob did not disappoint. There were a few of them around and they provided us with the must needed entertainment. The Bateleur breeds in December–March. It constructs a well-concealed nest in trees, laying a single egg which is incubated by the female for 42 to 43 days, with a further 90 to 125 days until fledging. Bateleurs pair for life, and will use the same nest for a number of years. Unpaired birds, presumably from a previous clutch, will sometimes help at the nest (Wikipedia). Here are a few images:

Bateleur prancing 1

Nikon D3S camera with 600mmf4 lens, ISO1010, 1/3200 sec, f8, exposure comp = -0.3, Aperture priority, WB = sun.

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Bateleur taking off puffed 2

Nikon D3S camera with 600mmf4 lens, ISO1000, 1/2500 sec, f8, exposure comp = -0.3, Aperture priority, WB = sun.

This female Bateleur did not have time to compose herself – her partner decided to take off while she was still prancing – so she had to take off with her feathers in all directions

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Sometimes the Bateleur is too close for a 600mm lens and/or the action is just too quick. Therefore, if you want a full frame image you need to sacrifice to some degree. Here I was too close but I still like the image and so did an international salon as it already received one salon acceptance. In hind sight – should have used my 200mm-400mm lens.

Bateleur taking off water 1

Nikon D3S camera with 600mmf4 lens, ISO800, 1/2500 sec, f8, exposure comp = -0.3, Aperture priority, WB = sun.

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Next is a not-so-common bird in the Kgalagadi. Very common in the Kruger National park but nowadays I do see a lot of them in the Kgalagadi – the Southern Yellow-billed Hornbill. Like this flock foraging on termites near the northern entry to the 14th borehole. Unfortunately we were on our way to Kalahari Tented camp and we could not spend enough time with them. This one was very close to the road and provided me with some very nice close-up shots. I had to increase my shutter speed to 1/5000 (almost too slow) to capture the procedure from picking up a termite, throwing the termite in the air and then catch it before it was swallowed. I had to use an f4 aperture in order to blur a very busy background. With the f4 aperture and the closeness of the bird, only a few shots resulted in an entire sharp bird feeding on the termites.

Hornbill foraging 3

Nikon D3S camera with 600mmf4 lens, ISO800, 1/5000 sec, f4, exposure comp = 0, Aperture priority, WB = sun.

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Hornbill foraging 2

Nikon D3S camera with 600mmf4 lens, ISO800, 1/3200 sec, f4, exposure comp = 0, Aperture priority, WB = sun.

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Hornbill foraging 1

Nikon D3S camera with 600mmf4 lens, ISO800, 1/5000 sec, f4, exposure comp = 0, Aperture priority, WB = sun.

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Some information on the Hornbill (Wiki): The birds “feed mainly on the ground, where they forage for seeds, small insects, spiders and scorpions. Termites and ants are a preferred food source in the dry season.” And it was very dry in the Kgalagadi in Sept 2013.

 

Then it is back to Cubitje Quap waterhole near Nossob and this time it was the BB jackals and the honey badger providing all the entertainment. For 2-3 days the honey badger visited the waterhole at regular intervals to drink water. And boy-o-boy can this badger drink water!!! Even the BB jackals got upset and tried to chase him away. He was just lying next to the waterhole and no dove or sand grouse came down to drink. To our and the BB jackals frustration. On the first day, the BB jackals was already around the water hole when the badger appeared. The BB jackal tried to protect its territory  but without any success.  Here is the badger retaliated after the BB jackal tried to chase the badger away.

Jackal and honey badger 1

Nikon D800 camera with 200mm-400mmf4 lens @380mm, ISO2000, 1/5000 sec, f8, exposure comp = 0, Aperture priority, WB = sun

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And afterwards the honey badger was enjoying the water and the sun:

Honey badger drinking water 1

Nikon D3S camera with 600mmf4 lens, ISO1000, 1/1000 sec, f11, exposure comp = -0, Aperture priority, WB = sun.

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But the BB jackal became very curious or was it frustration:

My body guard

Nikon D3S camera with 600mmf4 lens, ISO200, 1/500 sec, f22, exposure comp = -1.0, Aperture priority, WB = sun.

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But the body guard was not so protective – in fact…. This was after the honey badger was lying in the sun for almost 30minutes with no doves and sand grouse coming in to land for water. The Jackal decided to encourage the badger to move along. But it did not work and the badger stayed for another 30 or so minutes.

 

Jackal and honey badger attack

Nikon D3S camera with 600mmf4 lens with Nikon 1.4 convertor = 850mm, ISO1000, 1/4000 sec, f5.6, exposure comp = -0.67, Aperture priority, WB = sun.

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And then the highlight of my trip – my first leopard sighting in the Kgalagadi since my first visit 3 years ago (already visited the Kgalagadi thirteen times before). Tshidi, son of Barolong, was lying underneath a tree next to the road about 1 km south of Rooibrak water hole. Several cars passed him but I was very lucky to spot him. If you look at him and his surrounding enviroment, you can see why many people overlooked him completely. I’ve spend about 10minutes with him alone before a second car arrived.  Here are some shots of him:

 

Leopard yawn 1

Nikon D3S camera with 600mmf4 lens with Nikon 1.4 convertor = 850mm, ISO800, 1/1600 sec, f7.1, exposure comp = -1.0, Aperture priority, WB = sun.

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After a few cars arrived, he seemed not to be so comfortable with all the cars around – got up and starting patrolling the river bank.

 

Leopard 1

Nikon D800 camera with 200mm-400mmf4 lens @330mm, ISO500, 1/5000 sec, f5, exposure comp = 0, Aperture priority, WB = sun

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Leopard 2

Nikon D800 camera with 200mm-400mmf4 lens @400mm, ISO500, 1/5000 sec, f5, exposure comp = 0, Aperture priority, WB = sun

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The Kwang pride of lions killed a wildebeest between Bedinkt and Kwang water hole in the middle of the river bed – unfortunately too far away and it caused a traffic jam of cars. So I managed to catch a quick moment between one of the male lion and the cub before moving on.

 

My dad

Nikon D3S camera with 600mmf4 lens with Nikon 1.4 convertor = 850mm, ISO800, 1/400 sec, f5.6, exposure comp = -0.33, Aperture priority, WB = sun.

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The next day the pride of lions reached Bedinkt water hole and the male provided me with an opportunity to do a landscape shot with him dreaming of some springbok steak in the early morning light.

 

Lion landscape

Nikon D800 camera with 200mm-400mmf4 lens @300mm, ISO400, 1/80 sec, f22, exposure comp = -0.33, Aperture priority, WB = sun

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These two springboks did not worry about the lions and they were doing their own thing:

 

Springbok fight 1

Nikon D3S camera with 600mmf4 lens, ISO1250, 1/4000 sec, f8, exposure comp = -0.67, Aperture priority, WB = sun.

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And then lastly, as I’ve mentioned in my previous Kgalagadi trip report, the pygmy falcon and the sociable weavers’ nest. The social weavers’ building their nest – this time the well-known nest between Samevloei and Leeudril water holes:

 

Social weaver 1

Nikon D3S camera with 600mmf4 lens, ISO800, 1/3200 sec, f8, exposure comp = -0.67, Aperture priority, WB = sun.

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And the sociable weavers’ nest between Kampfersboom and Monro water holes – the famous (or is it the favourite) nest for the Pygmy falcon kills. I was fortunate enough to capture yet another kill by the Pygmy falcon – the previous one was during my Aug 2013 visit. This time I parked my vehicle in a more favourable spot because now I know where the falcon is likely to land with its kill. And we waited but luckily not for long. I was able to capture how the falcon entered and exited the next but the shots are not great. Afterwards the falcon emerged from the nest with its dinner. Luckily this time around death was almost instantaneously as the falcon’s razor sharp claw was around the head of the chick and penetrated it.

 

Pygmy falcon with kill 1

Nikon D3S camera with 600mmf4 lens, ISO2000, 1/2500 sec, f9, exposure comp = -0.3, Aperture priority, WB = sun.

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Pygmy falcon with kill 2

Nikon D3S camera with 600mmf4 lens, ISO2000, 1/2500 sec, f9, exposure comp = -0.3, Aperture priority, WB = sun.

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Pygmy falcon with kill 4

Nikon D3S camera with 600mmf4 lens, ISO2000, 1/3200 sec, f9, exposure comp = -0.3, Aperture priority, WB = sun.

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I’ll be back in the Kgalagadi for the last three weeks of November 2013 and may the sightings be with me again.

 

Message to take home:

I still have a lot of images from this trip to process and it is important to let them “chill” on the external hard drive before starting the post processing. Usually I do make a selection of just a few images I want to develop immediately. The problem with this approach is what I called developing the “useless emotional images”. Usually the photographer is so emotionally involved during the capturing process that he/she cannot see the distractions or negative aspects of the images.  Or he/she cannot distinguish between those and the better type of images. One effective way to overcome this is to not process images immediately, but to leave them for a few days or even a few weeks until the (emotional) memory of that moment of taking the photographs isn’t quite so fresh in your mind. That way, you will see the image with fresh eyes, as others will. Therefore, waiting for some time before processing the remaining images.

Until my next trip report – keep on shooting.