Incredible Video of a dry river coming down in flood in the Kruger National Park with the recent rains.
We are not sure of exactly where this was, but according to the message it was the Letaba river, we are also not sure who the authors of this video are and would welcome them to contact us so that we can give credit to this amazing footage! Truly something spectacular to witness!!
The resent rain has caused widespread flooding in the park and subsequently caused quite a bit of damage to infrastructure. Lots of roads have closed due to the flooding, but the park remains open!
Elephants enjoying the rain today… Werner Heinrich Claassen had this great sighting with our guests today in the Malelane area.
A while back we had this curious young Elephant bull come and inspect the vehicle… a magical moment!
Amazing sighting of a female Greater Painted Snipe by Mario in the Kruger National Park today!
She was one of 4 individuals, 1 male and 3 females at the Biyamithi Weir.
With Greater Painted Snipes, the roles with the sexes are reversed. The females are more colourful and larger than the males and it’s the females that call to attract mates. They are polyandrous meaning females will often have multiple male partners and its generally the males who do most of the incubation and parental care. Their breeding seasons can be erratic and breeding can occur in most warmer months, depending on rainfall.
An beautiful bird, sought after by many birders, but often overlooked because of their crepuscular & secretive nature. They are also mostly nomadic and move around depending on environmental conditions, making it difficult to reliably finding them in certain spots.
One of our highlights of the year!
The Pennant-winged Nightjar male only has these long pennants from about the last week in October to the first week in December (sometimes earlier of later). This is your best time to see them in all their glory and there is no better place in the KNP to see them than on a sunset drive from Punda Maria Camp. These guys frequent an area which is not accessible to the public and can only be done with Sanparks.
It truly is a memorable experience! Once you arrive at the site, everyone gets out of the vehicle and sits down next to the road. Then the waiting starts! At first you will hear their feint cricket like call come from the bushes, then out of no where, the males appear in their glory, displaying and chasing one another around above the road. They fly by you less than 2-3m without being bothered by your presence! This site has been active with them for many years and I think they have become used to people admiring them just a few meters away!
Absolutely incredible!
We can’t wait for our pennant-winged nightjar tour for next year! If you would like to join us, please enquire about the Pennant-Winged Nightjar Tour with us. Its a fantastic trip as we also explore the Northern part of the park where we target all the other specials like Arnot’s Chat, Racket-Tailed Roller, Dickinson’s Kestrel, Three-banded Courser, Lemon-breasted Canary to name a few! We dedicate 2 nights at Punda Maria for the nightjar and we spent another night in the Pafuri Border camp which gives us the best possible chance in finding all the target species.
[email protected]
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+27824486444
+27827090996
www.wildphotoafrica.com
— at Punda Maria Rest Camp, Kruger National Park
All fun and games… until they decide to make you part of those games! We were watching a group of 4 young ellies playing in a big breeding herd for quite a while. They completely ignored us and the entire herd was very relaxed. We had some good laughs at their antics, until this little fella decided that we are part of their cat and mouse game 😂 needless to say, our guests skipped a heartbeat for a second, and we had a good laugh afterwards and reflected on what just happened… just a group of youngsters playing and having fun. The adults where all around us feeding with not a worry in the world
Epic leopard sighting just outside of Shingwedzi camp on our Pennant-Winged Nightjar tour. Watch till the end! Absolutely insane! Having him do that so close to the vehicle is such a privilege!
We just finished our 7 day Pennant-Winged Nightjar trip to the north of the park for Let's Go Birding - Tours & Excursions SA. It was a huge success with us not only connecting with our main target bird, but having it fly past us a couple of times! This was by far the best views we have had of the rare and elusive nightjar. It flew a mere 1.5 - 2 meters past us!! Watch the video of this epic encounter!! Alfred our guide from Sanparks who took us out to see these birds was incredible and knows them so well! He placed us in the perfect position!
Thank you Jacques Giliomee and all of your guests for an amazing trip! Can’t wait for the next ones next year to go and see this amazing bird again!
To book your spot on next years trip, contact us or Jacques. Limited spots available!
Jacques: +27 (74) 699-5545 / [email protected]
WPA: +27 (0)82 448 6444 / [email protected]
Although we specialise in Private, Birding & Photographic Safaris, we also cater for bigger groups! Here our vehicles are ready for the arrival of our 74 American guests who are currently embarking on a epic journey on the African Explorer (Rovos Rail) from Victoria Falls, through Zimbabwe, Hoedspruit, Kruger and back to Pretoria. On the Kruger leg they stop for two days to enjoy the park!
We are so grateful to be part of this experience and proud to be able to collaborate with Fairfield Tours and the amazing team behind these tours.
So if you would like to colaborate with us to take care of your groups, then get in contact with us on [email protected]
Wow!! Just watch this amazing video of this pack of Wild Dogs late this afternoon! Viljoen Jordaan and his guests were properly treated with an amazing sighting!
If you would like to book a game drive with Viljoen as your guide and experience first hand his incredible knowledge and passion for the bush, then contact us at [email protected] !
A few day ago we were blessed with this epic cheetah sighting very early in the morning close to Crocodile Bridge Gate. Seeing cheetahs in the KNP is very special, their numbers are very low due to habitat restrictions & high densities of Leopard and Lion.
What a special sighting this morning of this Tusker!
From what I can gather, his name is “Nambu” which means “river” in Tsonga.
