WILDLIFE BLOG

Surely the most elegant of all birds, I spent a long time enjoying watching a pair of Southern Crowned Cranes. After a while, they moved around so that the light was behind them and I was able to take some photos of them foraging in the grass.

It's been cloudy almost every afternoon that I've been in the park this week. It makes me realise that I do miss the guaranteed afternoon golden light of the dry season. But there are some situations which work well in overcast conditions, provided you can get enough light into the camera to ensure a sharp image. This stumpy-tailed Zebra is well-known to us and lives on a grassy corner just inside the gate. And this big [...]

I was going through some folders of old images the other day, and came across this sequence of a lion pride feeding on a hippo carcass! Not sure why I hadn't posted them before, but here they are, in all their gory detail...

Christmas feels a little different here in the Luangwa. Hot and sweaty is the order of the day, with the high chance of rain being the only similarity with a UK Christmas. Here a roosting flock of Egrets gave us our Christmas tree. The hippos don't seem too impressed however. Happy Christmas everyone. Ed

.....have well and truly arrived now. There is long green grass everywhere, the lagoons are filling and the chorus from the birds is deafening as they prepare for breeding. I took a nice drive in the park a few days ago and was pleased to see that there's still plenty of game around. Traditionally, people think that animals move away in the rains, because they don't need to access water at the river, but in fact, [...]

You would think that with all the nice new grass around, the elephants would be content to feed and not pay much attention to anything else. Not so with this young bull who showed considerable bravado and aggression towards me when I tried to take his picture. Of course, with elephants it's their sense of smell which informs most of their decisions and my scent was drifting towards him on the wind. I took some photos [...]

As the rains arrive, and the storm clouds build, we get some awesome sunsets. Here's one from a week ago, and even though I've seen a thousand sunsets, I still took a number of photos of this one! And when you turn with your back to the sunset, you'll find a beautiful effect - golden sunlight against a stormy sky.

This is the time of year for baby animals. Baboons, monkeys, impalas, puku, warthogs, and especially elephants. This little one was only a few hours old. The mother's legs were still covered in blood and he was very shaky on his own legs. We struggled to get a shot of him since he was so well protected in amongst the legs of his family, but occasionally we could spot him clearly. Strangely, baby elephants are just [...]

It's not too often that everything comes together to give a perfect scene, but I was lucky to observe one the other day. Beautiful morning light, a clean view of the animals, gorgeous colours and a lovely intimate moment....some days it seems so easy!

There's a small spring nearby where many animals drink when there's no other water around. A couple of hippos made it their home this year as well, but recently one of them succumbed to the lack of nutrition and died in the lagoon surrounding the spring. Initially a leopard came along to have his share of the feast, but soon the hyaenas arrived and took over.

I was lucky recently to find a leopard hidden in a tree early in the afternoon. She was very sleepy and had a full belly so we knew she wouldn't go far until it got nearly dark. We continued our drive and returned to the area as it was cooling down. While watching elephants feeding on the sand, I saw a couple of antelopes raise their heads and look towards the steep river bank. Knowing that [...]