photography

Zambia and South Africa

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I am now posting photos from Zambia and all of South Africa. I know that these are from August and September and it is now February, but that is just procrastination at its most extreme. Anyway, here are the photos.

In Zambia we stayed at Bongwe Camp, where I saw this male Red-headed Weaver constructing its nest. You can see the tube-like entrance at the bottom and the wider main area near the bird.
This is a cropped image of my best photo of an African Finfoot, which we saw at Mosi-Oa Tunya National Park in Zambia. Finfoots are rare and secretive, so to see this one out in the open on a river is unique. You can see the orange bill and white stripe behind the eye.
In the national park there is a herd of Southern White Rhinos that are kept under constant supervision to guard against poaching. On our trip to the park we got to see the herd, which included this baby.
This is the mother rhino of the baby seen in the previous photo.
Near the end of our time in the park we got excellent views of this White-fronted Bee-eater, in my opinion one of the most beautiful birds in southern Africa.
At the beginning of our time in South Africa we stayed at Moholoholo Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre where we got to tour the enclosures. This is a picture of one of their leopards that we got to see.
Once in Kruger National Park in South Africa we began seeing lots of wildlife, including this Brown-headed Parrot, seen at one of the many camp areas.
In one of the larger herds of elephants there were several babies, including this one, who had not even started to grow tusks, indicating very young age.
This is a young bushbuck, also seen in the middle of camp in Kruger.
In Kruger we repeatedly found that the most friendly and least afraid bird we met was the Wire-tailed Swallow. This one we saw at a hide in the park where there was an active swallow nest.
On one of our most eventful drives we saw a family of African Wild Dogs, a pack with several pups, one of which is this one.
Almost immediately after seeing the wild dogs we came across a group of around four rhinos, completing the day.
At one hide in Kruger the water was dry and we saw no animals except for this squirrel, which we used to practice photography. This is one of my best photos from that session.
This is another photo of the same squirrel.
This is a male African Gray Hornbill also seen in Kruger National Park.
This Hamerkop (Afrikaans for “hammerhead” after the bird’s backward-pointing crest) is standing on a hippo. This was seen at the Krokodilrivier, the southern boundary of Kruger.
Also seen at the Krokodilrivier was this Pied Kingfisher. They are pretty common in the area, but this was my only chance to get a close-up picture of one.
In eSwatini we stayed at Hlane (pronounced like Shlanay) National Park, where we got to see a lot of rhinos and this African Hoopoe, here raising its fan-shaped crest.
South of eSwatini we stayed at the semi-legendary (among birders of southern africa) semi-unknown (among everybody else, including even our guide) Mkhuze Game Reserve, which at a area of 150 square miles boasts the second-largest bird list in the country, after Kruger (For comparison Kruger is over 7,000 square miles). Mkhuze has a list of over 450 bird species because of the incredible diversity of habitats packed into it: There’s a fig forest, sand forest, Acacia savannah, marshes, ponds, a river, and more. This Long-crested Eagle was one of the first birds we saw there.
At one of Mkhuze’s several hides overlooking a watering hole we witnessed this pair of Woolly-necked Storks preening each other and attending to each other’s needs. It was very impressive.
At the same watering hole we finally got really good views of the Hadada Ibis, characterized by its loud call, iridescent wing, and gray coloring.
As mentioned before, Mkhuze has a fig forest, and it is here that some of the rarer birds reside, including the Pel’s Fishing-owl, Green Malkoha, Blue-mantled Crested-flycatcher, and, shown above, the beautiful Narina Trogon. As you can see, it has an iridescent green back, but its belly is bright scarlet. It is very quiet and secretive, and for us it just flew down in front and perched.
This photograph shows an adult male African Paradise-flycatcher. The male paradise-flycatchers all have one remarkable, eye-catching characteristic: their incredibly long, graceful tail. When we were watching this male fly it seemed as if his tail would always tangle or hook on some branch, but it never did. The male, along with being beautiful, was either extremely lucky, or extremely skilled.
Mkhuze also has hides on the river, where there is an abundance of wildlife, including this Malachite Kingfisher, one of the most beautiful birds in Africa.
At the same hide we also managed to see this African Jaçana using its extremely elongated toes to walk on lily pads without sinking.
Another of Mkhuze’s star birds is the Purple-crested Turaco, whose red and black wing feathers are actually the crown of the king of eSwatini. We saw two drinking at a bird bath.
Mkhuze is not just birds; we saw this unidentified mouse near our camp.
After leaving Mkhuze we had lunch at the beautiful Shayamoya Tiger Fishing and Game Lodge, where we got great views of this herd of Crested Guineafowl, one of the weirdest of the area’s specialties.
While eating at the lodge, this Eastern Nicator flew up to near the deck and perched. Nicators are generally very skulky and shy, so to see one in the comparative open was new.
At the White Elephant Safari Lodge near Mkhuze we saw this jackrabbit feeding on the lawn.
This is a Crowned Eagle. Adults have been known to kill children up to 12 years old, but this was a young bird, so it didn’t attack us.
Rose-ringed Parakeets are native to India, but since we were spending a night in Johannesburg where there is a feral population we still managed to see them.
Our house in Cape Town has a very nice Protea garden, which attracted this Southern Double-collared Sunbird.
Seen at the penguin area, this Blacksmith Lapwing chick was extremely cute.
This is a half-grown African Penguin chick. We called all the chicks “Bob Rosses” because of their fluffy plumage.
One of Cedar’s favorite African animals was this dassie or Rock Hyrax. This is a younger one.
This is a picture of a dassie scratching (Cedar is making me put two more dassie pictures in this post, so prepare yourself for more adorable cute, chubby, mammals).
This is a family of dassies, with a baby at the bottom.
This is an African Penguin shaking itself off.
African Penguins are actually classified as globally endangered, so it was kind of amazing to get this close for free.
One of the many endemic bird species of the Protea ecosystem is this Malachite Sunbird, only found in the Cape area.
During our trip to Cape Point we actually managed to see several whales spout and swim near the shore.
Our Cape Town house came with a dry pool, and this mouse managed to get stuck inside it. We used a broom to create a ladder for it to get out.
One of our neighbors was a birder and had bird feeders all around their backyard. We got to walk around it and saw this Speckled Mousebird eating an apple.
Seen in the same backyard, this is a Cape Sugarbird, one of two birds in its family, and endemic to the Cape Town area.
When we went to the Cape Town Botanic Gardens we saw this classic example of the Cape ecosystem. Here you see and adult male Cape Sugarbird, (with pollen on its forehead) sitting on top of a King Protea, one the most iconic plants of the region.
This is the last dassie photo, taken on Table Mountain, engaging in what Cedar calls “his little glare of happiness”.
Also seen on Table Mountain, this is an Orange-breasted Sunbird, another endemic, and one of the most colorful sunbirds (that’s saying a lot) in the region.
poetry

axe

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axe

he loves so deep
any no hurts
so he says yes
yes yes yes yes
take everything

one day
he may see
too many yeses
harm the beloved
like that damned
Giving Tree
that always left me
feeling hollowed out
shivering
at just how heartless
one-sided love could be

poetry

manners

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manners

in Puerto Varas
nonstop dogs and parakeets
all day/night long
until the moment I close my eyes
then mercifully
they all go quiet simultaneously
and I hear nothing more –
one more miracle
of a brain that knows
when I’ve had enough,
lies to my body to just bring rest –
until the instant my lids open to sun
when the whole rough chorus
sings the day awake

poetry

on not changing

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on not changing

i

I love it all
even the way
I can’t say no

ii

buckets full
overflowing even
some spills over
does everyone good

iii

some days
there’s even more patience
than the day demands –
that’s when we laugh

poetry

3 Valentines

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3 Valentines

i

here where the choice of words
feels so weighted
tú vs. usted
ser vs. estar
every sentence revealing
one’s innermost thoughts
about where things stand
I say today and tomorrow and tomorrow
tú y yo
somos
enamorados

ii

you don’t need to
say you’re sorry
only accept
the warm fuzzy love
and bright grapefruit-pink joy
I hold out in both hands
for you

iii

I’ve never been disappointed
by what’s inside
your oh-so-deep
kind well of
patient and giving heart