What are the opening hours?

Monday 05:00 - 21:00 Tuesday 05:00 - 21:00 Wednesday 05:00 - 21:00 Thursday 05:00 - 21:00 Friday 05:00 - 20:00 Saturday 06:00 - 19:00 Sunday 06:00 - 19:00

Lawson's Birding & Wildlife Safaris

Name: Lawson's Birding & Wildlife Safaris
Address: 19 Palm Street, Mbombela, 1201, ZA
Telephone: +27137412458

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Lawson's Birding & Wildlife Safaris

Small-group birding, wildlife & photographic safaris in Africa. Making dreams come true since 1990!

23/06/2024

A great start to the day with the 13-member strong Mhangeni Pride on the move at first light after several days of being 'camped out' close to the lodge.

22/06/2024

The Golden Monkey, and other primates of the iSimangaliso Wetland Park: on our recent visit to Cape Vidal, we had good views of the two resident monkey species: Vervet Monkey, this male showing off his bright colors well; and the forest-dwelling Samango Monkey, including the normal specimens and an unusual albino individual, or 'Golden Monkey'. In other parts of the continent the Samango is known variously as Mitis, Blue or Syke's Monkey, with numerous very similar species and sub-species. This one is Cercopithecus albogularis erythrarchus, in the very south of its range here at Cape Vidal.

21/06/2024

And now, some of the highlights of our stay at Idube Game Reserve in the Sabi Sand Nature Reserve. We had 6 drives in total, and 5 of them were 'off the charts' - though the Sabi Sands does set the game viewing bar very high indeed. Nevertheless, there are still ups and downs, and we definitely hit it on the upswing. We'd had plenty of time to get our fill of general game during the preceding days, so were happy with a definite predator focus to end off the experience. And boy, we sure saw predators! Here are a few highlights from the numerous sightings...

21/06/2024

Lions, Leopards, Wild Dogs and more - on safari in South Africa! - https://mailchi.mp/0c326b570f76/south-africa-safari-review
Find out more about our recent 13-day South Africa safari and what's on the cards for the rest of 2024 and 2025.

20/06/2024

📷Lawson's Sighting of the Day: Side-striped Jackal (Canis adustus, also known as Lupulella adusta). On our recent visit to the Sabi Sand Game Reserve, staying at Game Reserve, we were bumbling along on a crisp morning when we came across a pair of beautiful Side-striped Jackals hunkered down in the grass on an open clearing, clearly waiting for the sun to warm them up a bit before they got moving. This species is seen far less often that the more common Black-backed Jackal, and generally prefers wetter habitats, and is also more catholic in its diet, eating a lot of fruit and plant material in addition to preying on small rodents, lizards, birds etc. Always great to see the more unusual mammals!

19/06/2024

🦁Lion at play! While staying at Rhino River Lodge in Manyoni Game Reserve we had a great sighting of a Lion pride at rest. Well, most were at rest, except a few youngsters who had found a piece of old irrigation pipe to play with. Like many private reserves, Manyoni has transitioned from being farmland to a conservation area, but there's still some remnants of the farming history in the form of irrigation pipes and other infrastructure etc here and there - which can make for handy play items for young, boisterous cats! Manyoni Private Game Reserve is a 23 000 hectare 'Big Five' reserve in KwaZulu-Natal Province, South Africa, with numerous accommodation options and some fantastic birds and wildlife.

18/06/2024

🐆🦅A few bird and mammal highlights from the first leg of our recent South African small-group safari, covering St Lucia and the iSimangaliso Wetland Park, Rhino River Lodge in Manyoni Game Reserve and Tembe Elephant Park. Great sightings (we even saw our first Leopard at Tembe, which is pretty unusual!), fantastic weather and wonderful guides and staff at the various lodges made or a highly successful first half of the safari (and it just got better from there!). Stay tuned for more great images and videos.... 😎

14/06/2024

A few photos from a very exciting day at Idube Game Reserve - Leopards, Lions, Wild Dogs and plenty of action... Stay tuned for updates!

09/06/2024

Amazing Elephant sighting from an afternoon drive at Tembe Elephant Park. Watch to the end!

07/06/2024

Upcoming safaris in Kenya and Tanzania! Contact us to reserve your spot!

Visit our website- www.lawsons-africa.co.za

05/06/2024

Not a bad way to end the day....

02/06/2024

🇳🇦Lawson's Photo of the Day: a blast from the past with a Cheetah shot from a Namibia small-group safari in October 2019, in the Etosha area. We were having breakfast when this beauty wandered down to the waterhole in front of the camp for a drink. Talk about good timing! And a good lesson too - always have your camera on hand when on safari, even if 'just going for a meal'... 😎👌

01/06/2024

Longclaws of the Mara: Rosy-throated (Mcronyx ameliae) and Yellow-throated Longclaws (Macronyx croceus), Maasai Mara, May 2023. Indeed, the Mara is not just about Lions and Wildebeest, there's a lot more to it, including some fantastic birds. Find out more about our epic 'Birds & Wildlife of Kenya' tour below 👇
https://www.lawsons-africa.co.za/birds-and-wildlife-of-kenya-safari/

30/05/2024

Elevation!🐆
An action photography sequence from a few years back. We were following a Cheetah family (i.e. a female and her young, as the male is not a family-type animal...) in the Kruger National Park, South Africa, when the female made her way over to a large Knob-Thorn tree. She kept looking up into the high branches, and suddenly started climbing the vertical trunk. And while Cheetahs often climb fallen tree trunks to gain an elevated view, a vertical trunk with few side branches proved to be too much - it's not a Leopard after all. Soon she realised that she wasn't going to get any higher and decided to come back down to earth to join her four yearling cubs. But what a great thing to witness! Join us on a safari for amazing photography, wildlife and birding moments! 😎

29/05/2024

Some scenes from the morning leg of a local guided birding day trip, which kicked off with several hours on our local patch, Steiltes Nature Reserve in Nelspruit. Great scenery, company and birds! Highlights included African Crowned Eagle (juv. and adult), Greater Honeyguide (crippling views), Striped Pipit, Yellow-rumped Tinkerbird, Olive Woodpecker, Purple-crested Turaco, African Goshawk, Red-faced Mousebird, Green Woodhoopoe and many others, with a total of 54 species recorded before moving on to the spectacular Lowveld National Botanical Gardens where a Scaly-throated Honeyguide stole the show. If you are in the area and 'at a loose end', contact us for info on local guided birding trips! With Nic Squires

28/05/2024

And the voting continues! Another two candidates are in the ring - Black-headed Oriole vs. Red-capped Robin Chat. Comment with👍for the Oriole and👌for the Robin Chat. Which party will get the most votes?😁

28/05/2024

https://mailchi.mp/338ac6b9e5cd/new-safaris-in-zambia-tanzania-and-uganda New safari alert - Zambia, the 'real Africa' safari.
Visit three of Zambia's great parks on this epic safari, with three nights in Kafue, Lower Zambezi and South Luangwa National Parks... It's wild, remote and authentic.

28/05/2024

Limited spaces available on our Tanzania Wildlife Safari: the Northern Circuit, November 2024. Visit Arusha National Park, Tarangire, Lake Manyara, Ngorongoro Crater, Ndutu and Central Serengeti. Unlimited game drives = loads of time out in the field. See masses of wildlife and plenty of birds

👇See more below👇
https://www.lawsons-africa.co.za/tanzania-wildlife-safari/

27/05/2024

Time to vote! As the big voting day looms for South Africans, who are you going to vote for? Comment with👍for Woodland Kingfisher; 👌for Southern Carmine Bee-eater.... 😁 Let's see who is the most popular party!

27/05/2024

Just another morning in the Mara Triangle!

26/05/2024

A few select upcoming small-group safaris for 2024 and 2025.

To see the full program, see our online catalogue:

https://wetu.com/Rack/View/Catalogue/14567

25/05/2024

Lawson's Destination of the Week: Maasai Mara, Kenya. The Mara needs little in the way of introduction, as one of Africa's most famous parks. Best known for the great Wildebeest migration that passes through between July and October, the Mara has a lot more to offer besides: the big cat viewing is exceptional, great birding, and the scenery is mind-blowing. On our two Kenya safaris we include both the Mara Triangle and the Maasai Mara National Reserve. These are adjoining portions of the overall 'Maasai Mara' but fall under different management authorities. The Triangle is generally better controlled - with policing of off-roading etc - and has better roads. The National Reserve though has nicer accommodation options, so they work well in tandem, starting off with two or more nights in the Triangle and ending with two or more nights in the National Reserve to get the best of both. Check out some of the photos from our 2023 Birds & Wildlife of Kenya small-group safari.

👇Find out more below👇
https://www.lawsons-africa.co.za/birds-and-wildlife-of-kenya-safari/

24/05/2024

Lawson's Photo of the Day: White-headed Vulture (Trigonoceps occipitalis), Kruger National Park, South Africa. What a beauty, perhaps the nicest looking of all our Vulture species, don't you think?

The reality is that Vultures are disappearing from the Kruger (and most of the rest of Africa), due to intentional poisoning by poachers, particularly in the north of the park, as well as habitat loss and collisions with electricity infrastructure. It's a very sad situation indeed. Find out more about the EWT's Vulture Program: https://ewt.org.za/what-we-do/saving-species/vultures/ Endangered Wildlife Trust

23/05/2024

Lawson's Bird of the Day: Burchell's Coucal (Centropus burchelli) portrait, Kruger National Park, South Africa (open up in full screen). This is a common near-endemic occurring across much of the wetter parts of South Africa. The 'Coucal' name derivation - it is perhaps an amalgamation of 'coucou' and 'alouette', or cuckoo and lark in French, by Francois Levaillant. But it shouldn't be 'cuckoo-lark', but rather 'lark-cuckoo', as it refers to the long, lark-like claw, with Lark-heeled Cuckoo being the original intention. Coucals do belong to the Cuculidae Family, even though they aren't brood parasites, but have nothing to do with larks!

22/05/2024

🇿🇦A few smartphone shots from a short 'Panorama Route' extension to a Kruger safari, including Graskop Gorge Lift Co and Blyde Canyon, A Forever Resort. The Panorama Route offers some nice diversity and scenery to a Kruger safari, as well as plenty of birds that don't occur in the Kruger, and a nice way to 'ease into' the safari if done at the beginning of the trip. Contact us for some awesome safari itineraries! 😎👍

20/05/2024

A few birds from a 'Windhoek to Victoria Falls' itinerary done in August 2022. We'll be running this one again a bit later in the year as an awesome custom safari itinerary. Looking forward to it!

16/05/2024

📸Lawson's Photo of the Day: 🐘Elephants at Klein Namutoni Waterhole, Etosha. A flash-back to an August 2023 Namibia safari, when we had a late afternoon stakeout of the waterhole to see out the day (5 mins from camp, so you can zip back just before the sun sets). A lone male Elephant arrived eventually, after 30 mins of sitting watching the Doves and Guineafowl. 'Something, at least...'. Little did we know that he was the vanguard of perhaps 100 more that were on their way, arriving in sub-group after sub-group until we lost track of how many there were. This was one of the first groups to arrive. An incredible afternoon indeed! Join us on a safari for many amazing moments in nature! 😎

16/05/2024

💥AMAZING NEW GLOBAL BIG DAY WORLD RECORDS MADE ON 11 MAY 2024

🦆7725 species recorded to

🗺️ 203 Countries & Territories submitted lists

😀 63,220 eBirders (plus the others involved!)

📋156,000 Checklists

🏆More than 1 Million people have now shared their observations on eBird since it started

👂 1.2 MILLION people identified birds with .bird.id - double last year’s participation

👉Full report here
👉https://ebird.org/news/global-big-day-2024-results

💚Don’t forget we are still raising funds for .international to support their work
https://birdlife.donorsupport.co/page/GlobalBirdWeekend2024?fundraiser=NFJETHTB&member=SQHQJLJX

🙏🏽MASSIVE THANK YOU EVERYONE INVOLVED
😀THANKS TO eBird for their entire system!
🔭THANKS TO SWAROVSKI OPTIK Birding for their ongoing support & continuing to develop amazing optics
🕊️THANKS TO BirdLife International for their incredible work across the globe
👂THANKS TO Cornell Lab of Ornithology for opening up a whole new world of birding to so many people

💚THANKS TO ALL THOSE WHO JOINED IN AND CREATED SUCH INCREDIBLE RESULTS

BirdLife International Asia BirdLife International Africa Vanuatu Birding & Bird Photography RSPB Casual Birder Podcast groupHareth Misrata BirdGuides.com Bird Watching Birdwatching Azerbaijan Algerian Birds Albatross Task Force Wader Quest Calf of Man Bird Observatory Croatia Birding South Georgia Heritage Trust British Antarctic Survey Yoav Perlman Colombia.travel RNBWS - Royal Naval Birdwatching Society
The Petrel Station Seabird Tours & Research - Tutukaka, New Zealand Samoa Conservation Society Palau Conservation Society Fugle i Grønland, Nunatsinni timmissat, Birds in Greenland Taiwan Bird Guide 8th Continent Expeditions Protection and Preservation of Natural Environment in Albania

15/05/2024

Lawson's Sighting of the Week: Elephant vs. Baboons, Kruger National Park, South Africa, taken a few years ago. In the depths of the dry season, surface water is scarce. And when essential resources are scarce, competition increases. This Elephant Bull took umbrage at the troop of Chacma Baboons trying to share the water in a small natural spring. He sure looks like a bully - four or five tons versus 15 - 20 kg... But at least one female Baboon showed him some attitude! There's always something to see when on safari! 😎

Address

19 Palm Street
Mbombela
1201

Opening Hours

Monday	05:00 - 21:00
Tuesday	05:00 - 21:00
Wednesday	05:00 - 21:00
Thursday	05:00 - 21:00
Friday	05:00 - 20:00
Saturday	06:00 - 19:00
Sunday	06:00 - 19:00

Telephone

+27137412458

Website

http://www.lawsons-africa.co.za/

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Videos

Somehow these creatures seem to turn up when least expected.... Go out for a short afternoon bumble and not far out of camp a Ground Pangolin is seen foraging close to the road. Amazing stuff! #safari #lawsonssafaris #krugersafari #krugernationalpark

Elephants 1, Tree 0... another mature tree down, thanks to these mega-herbivores. #krugernationalpark #elephants #elephantimpacts #ecology #lawsonssafaris

The excitement of following a Wild Dog hunting party as they make their way back to the den site to feed the alpha female and pups. The ultimate team players! #safariadventure #wildlifesafaris #travelsouthafrica #southafricasafari #sabisands #idubegamerserve #lawsonssafaris

Yet another great way to start a day: three Cheetahs on a mission near Crocodile Bridge, 25/06. #travelsouthafrica #safariadventure #bigcats #southafricasafari #photosafari #leonmaraisphotography #wildlifesafaris #lawsonssafaris

Lion pride on the move at first light.

A great start to the day with the 13-member strong Mhangeni Pride on the move at first light after several days of being 'camped out' close to the lodge. #safariadventure #sabisands #lions #travelsouthafrica #lawsonssafaris

Not for sensitive viewers! The Mhangeni Pride with an unfortunate adult male Warthog who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. #sabisands #leonmaraisphotography #idubegamerserve #southafricasafari #wildlifephotograpy #lawsonssafaris

A male Leopard known as the Ravenscourt male out for a stroll on a glorious winter morning. #safari #lawsonssafaris #idubegamerserve #sabisands #leopards #leopardsofinstagram #leonmaraisphotography

The Bat Show at Lower Sabie Rest Camp in the Kruger National Park - bats zipping through the torchlight to create an amazing show.

Just a little teaser from an awesome last safari on our South Australia Zoo Volunteers' tour of South Africa. Finished up at Idube Game Reserve #idube #safaritime #safariadventure #awesomeness #leonmaraisphotography #wildlifesafaris #southafricasafari #photosafari #krugersafari #wildlifesafaris #lawsonssafaris and the group is now on their way back to Johannesburg via a short domwstic flight The Sabi Sands sure lived up to its reputation! Lots to share in the coming days...

An amazing start to the day with all 13 members of the Mangeni Pride on the move at dawn. Now that's a Lion sighting to remember! Idube Game Reserve #awesomeness #wildlifesafaris #safariadventure #idube #safaritime #photosafari #southafricasafari #lawsonssafaris #leonmaraisphotography

Yesterday we had a great Hyena day, culminating in a visit to a den site at Idube Game Reserve #safariadventure #wildlifesafaris #safarilive #lawsonssafaris #idube #awesomeness

And the Hippo's say it's time to start thinking about coming out to feed... #safari #lawsonssafaris #krugersafari #lowersabie

Excitement as you come around a corner and there's a Lioness walking down the road. #safariadventure #wildlifesafaris #rhinoriverlodge #lawsonssafaris

Amazing Elephant sighting from an afternoon drive at Tembe Elephant Park. Watch to the end! #lawsonssafaris #safari #elephantlove

Listen to this! The ground-shaking roar from a pair of male Lions, from this morning's game drive. Just awesome. #safari #lawsonssafaris @rhinoriverlodge

Live from the PM game drive at @rhinoriverlodge, Manyoni GR, KZN, South Africa. Elephant bull doing some 'landscaping'.... #safarilive #lawsonssafaris #rhinoriverlodge #safari

Nyla bulls showing off, Rhino River Lodge #welovewhatwedo #wildlife #wildworld #wildlifeaddicts #wildlifeonearth #africansafaritravel #naturephotography #wildlifephotography #safari #lawsonssafaris

'And there she was justa walkin' down the street...' Dinner interruption in St Lucia. #stluciasouthafrica #lawsonssafaris

ISimangaliso Wetland Park really living up to its name, as wet as we've ever seen it. #lawsonssafaris #isimangalisowetlandpark

Monkey encounter in a forest - a troop of Vervet Monkeys seen in Igwala-Gwala Forest, St Lucia, KZN. #safari #stluciasouthafrica #forestwalking #lawsonssafaris

Shortcuts

Our story...

Lawson’s Birding, Wildlife & Custom Safaris is South Africa’s original birding tour outfit, started in 1990 by avid birder Peter Lawson. Over the decades since then we have grown in stature and scope of operations but still retain that small family business ethos. We offer first-class birding, wildlife and photo safaris to prime destinations in Southern and Eastern Africa, catering for birders (both keen ‘listers’ and more casual types), wildlife enthusiasts and photographers. With over a quarter of a Century of experience behind us, we are confident that we can offer you a first-class safari experience and that, once you’ve experienced Africa on one of our tours, “you’ll want to return to Africa with us time and time again!” And that’s our story... contact us today for the safari of a lifetime that will be a new chapter in your story.