Sunrise Safari - June 11, 2016

Sunrise Safari- June 11, 2016

 We start off with Jamie who is at the most recently used Hyena Den hoping they would be here.
But it is empty and no signs of them anywhere

Jamie's is out on drive with what Jamie says "Is a new character". Jamie said Gert (pronounced Heart) will be with James on camera

Over to James who really didn't address "The new Character".
I think he is driving a larger vehicle. A mahindra.
James said he has Bryan on camera ..... ???  Perhaps Gert is watching.

Elephants this morning to start us off

 And we have a beautiful sunrise with James 

Large Elephant Bull.  James is going to give him some space.

 Some elements that he might be in musth.
He appears quite calm.

He also has a very nice tail

James says "Take a deep breath everybody and inhale the dawn"

Over to Jamie. She, Taxon and Herbert are looking for tracks of Tingana.
She thought she had a dream last night of a Leopard sawing, but it turns out there was a dream outside of her house last night. And it was the dominant Male of this area.

 Tracks are very obscured by Elephant tracks.
Its great that Hubert is on it. He is such an amazing tracker.

Update on Sindile (Info is on my Leopard Page)  . He has been on the Simbambili area. He is keeping company with a female Leopard. 
He is no longer used to Safari vehicles.

 Over to James who we immediately see driving in reverse quickly.
He has heard Impala alarm calling.

James Can Drive Quickly In Reverse

 James has stopped and listened.  The Impala seem to be further away into Arathusa.

 Typical game path

 This path goes straight to Sydney's dam.  Looks like a highway

 James is driving near the gate of the Sabi Sands

James has lost signal so we are back with Jamie. She is driving Rusty.

 Cheyne said the Lions were seen crossing into Torch Wood early this morning. They were chasing Buffalo.

Lion tracks

 Jamie Is Tracking These Lions

 Over to James

He has the Impala who were shouting a few minutes earlier

James hears Monkeys Alarm calling. He is off on a Ferrari Safari!

 Ferrari Safari With James

James is driving fast.. stopping. listening. Monkeys still alarm calling and away he goes.

OH OH!

WHAT WAS THAT JAMES?

While James sorts this out, We will go over to Jamie

Nice Herd of Buffalo in the road in the bright sunlight

a relatively large herd.

Beautiful sunlight streaming in

 Jamie just remarked on the dust the Buffalo kick up and said that she and Gert will be sneezing so he must be on camera with her.

Buffalo everywhere. Perhaps 200

And through the dust we see a Red Billed Oxpecker

Jamie talking about the smells of the various animals.

Her favourite is the Black Rhino although she has not seen any here.

Over to James

He can still here the Monkeys shouting.

 They are on the boundary and are looking straight this way.

We see some Kudu who don't seem to be alarmed.

Herbert is on his way here to assist James in figuring it out.

Monkeys in the trees and are still alarm calling.

James is considering going in there on foot.

 A hyena also shows up and is heading toward where the Monkeys are alarm calling.

 Hyena Also Following The Monkey Alarms

 We  see a beautiful Male Cardinal Woodpecker.

 Great Video Of A Male Cardinal Woodpecker

 James is heading out on foot so we pop back over to Jamie

She has seen fresh Female Leopard tracks with Cubs!

 We see the tracks

 Jamie is thinking now it might be a Male Leopard. Not sure if she now sees Cub tracks or not

She is on Cheetah Plains.

It is very windy yet the tracks have not been obscured by dust or sand which means they are very fresh.

 Tracks are walking on the right side of the road which usually means they are heading right. And yes, he is gone down this road.

Jamie says every time she sees Leopard tracks her heart rate goes up.

She now sees more then 1 set of tracks. Perhaps cub tracks. 

It might be InKanyeni

Our Cameraman's name is Gert.

 We are 1 KM from the border and Jamie is hoping to catch her before she heads into Mala Mala.

 Looks like she has headed into the block. Still watching her tracks.

We still see tracks on the road and they are beautifully fresh

So while Jamie continues to search we head back over to James.

He walked through the block and could see nothing.

Then Impala were alarm calling.  He cant see anything and he does not see any tracks.

The Impala's look very cross.

James says it is all very frustrating.

Elephants were also in there acting upset.

A strange wind coming up. He heard the wind from a long way off.

Jackal berry Tree

 Quick view of a Horn bill

Crested Francolin Underneath a White Berry Bush

Kudo munching on Buffalo Thorn

Wow James Says!

He is amazing

Large Elephant Bull.

He is MASSIVE

MASSIVE Elephant Bull

Giving himself a nice spray of dust

James saying he is an absolute GIANT!

 

An Absolute GIANT

 

 Over to Jamie who is having a difficult time.
Jamie says it is "Scribbled Weather."
The wind is howling. The brush is dense.
She is still following tracks.

 Scribbled Weather

Over to James who has some Mongoose.
We have gone from seeing a huge Elephant to these tiny Mongoose.
They are huddled together keeping warm.

Brent is in the area where the Monkeys were alarm calling earlier. He has Hubert with him.

Bateleur flying high in the sky.
With the strong wind he is making many corrections while flying.

Bateleur Flying So Gracefully

James hears loud Elephants.

It is the large Bull we saw earlier and he is very interested in the ladies

Over to Jamie who has picked up a passenger underneath her vehicle.

Jamie has picked up a passenger

Over to James

We see the Female Elephant making a hasty exit across the road

And the Male following quickly to catch up with her

Jamie is trying to get a visual of a Harrier Hawk she saw

We see Crested Lapwings who were mobbing the Harrier Hawk.  

Harrier Hawks are known to be nest raiders.

With the wind blowing leaves are tumbling into the vehicle along with the dust

Black Bellied Bustard

(sorry the pics are not focused- This is the way I saw them)

Black Bellied Bustard

Over to James.

He is discussing naming his new Mahindra (Vehicle)

Sashine is a name he has thought of.  We have Rusty, Jigger, Wendy and maybe he should call the Mahindra the Black pearl.

James was still with Ellies

Buffalo with James but the focus is totally off

So No Leopard on this drive but we do have pigs says James

Warthogs

Warthogs

Update :Jeandre has damaged his foot again.
He has various medications to take that we will hope that will help.
James  offered to cut his foot off so Jeandre went off into his bedroom

And this concludes our Sunrise Safari