The Week In Pictures #656 – Londolozi Blog

This last week, like any other, provided many opportunities to get behind the camera and take some unique photographs.

The Full moon was clearly visible on a cloudless winter’s night, making hunting conditions for the nocturnal predators slightly more challenging. Whilst the sun was rising behind us in the east, the moon was sinking towards the western horizon and we were lucky to come across a journey of giraffes to capture this moment with an adult female being the subject in the foreground.

It was the same journey of giraffes that I got a close-up shot of a red-billed oxpecker perched alongside the same female’s ossicones. The Sunbirds have been out and about feeding on the nectar of the aloes in blossom and an African Barred Owlet perched beautifully next to the road in the morning light.

On the leopard front, we were lucky enough to have an amazing sighting of the Three Rivers Female nursing her young cub, whilst the Nkoveni Female and her cubs have continued to provide us with some amazing leopard viewing.

The South Western grasslands provided some amazing, unobstructed views of a large male kudu as well as a tiny elephant calf seeking refuge underneath the stomach of her mother after suckling in the late afternoon.

Lastly, in the early hours of the morning near camp, it was roaring that led us to finding the Ntsevu pride of three lionesses as well as the Ndzenga Males in an open clearing – a photographer’s dream! The following day we visited the Kambula pride that had been feeding on a giraffe carcass that they came across, after one lioness had fed sufficiently on the carcass we followed her to a nearby waterhole and watched her drink.

Let me know your favourites in the comments below.

Enjoy This Week in Pictures!

The Three Rivers Female’s latest cub takes a moment to glance towards elephants passing in the distance

A red-billed oxpecker perches atop a female giraffe in the early hours of the morning. Not a bad vantage point to have!

The Nkoveni Female rests atop the stump of a dead marula tree.

The Nkoveni Female is joined by one of her cubs

Whilst its sibling was playing with their mother on the fallen over tree below, the second of the Nkoveni Female’s cubs seeks out a higher vantage point in a dead leadwood tree

A cloudy winter sunrise

The full moon on a dark night, with the Tycho lunar crater clearly visible on its right-hand side

A Ndzenga Male gazes towards our vehicle after meeting up with lionesses from the Ntsevu pride

An African Barred Owlet perches on a bushwillow branch, its piercing yellow eyes standing out in the mid-morning light

A very young elephant calf seeks refuge under the belly of its mother in the late afternoon

A majestic male Kudu standing out in the open on a warm winter’s afternoon with a moody sky as its backdrop

A lioness from the Kambula pride quenches her thirst after having fed on the majority of a giraffe carcass that same morning

A lioness from the Ntsevu pride walks away from an Ndzenga male and towards her sister to greet her after a failed attempt at an early morning hunt

As the sun rises behind us, the moon sets behind a female giraffe