…..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, many are territorial so stay around all year. They may be less easy to spot in the thick cover, but they’re still there!
These elephant bulls were challenging each other and causing quite a stir in the herd.
At their feet, plenty of Cattle Egrets were hanging around, waiting for the big mammals to disturb insects from the grass.
Later in the afternoon, the Cattle Egrets began to fly towards their roosting sites.
And I found a beautiful Puku in the evening sunlight.
On the way back to camp, when the light was low, this Woodland Kingfisher posed near a lagoon.
And I spotted this Red-knobbed Coot, a species only seen in the Valley twice before!! Quite a find.
These kinds of unusual sightings do occur at this time of year when birds are moving around to make use of new feeding opportunities, and the strong winds and storms sometimes blow them off course. Since then, the Coot has vanished, presumably back to wherever it should be at this time of the year.
