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| | | "Rhino SIghting In North Luangwa by John Coppinger"
29 August 2010 00:00 | | | read more... |
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 | Game viewing Diary | |
| Date: | 27 July 2007 07:00 | | Guide: | Alex Phiri | | Outing: | Morning Drive | | Camp: | Tafika Camp | | Blog: | We saw a very big herd of Buffalo by Johns road which we watched for about 20-25 minutes. I decided to stop at the Lagoon before the Salt pan for tea break and another herd of Buffalo came down to drink. There was also African Jacana, Sacred Ibis, Doves and Guinea fowl also came down to drink. | | | | | Date: | 25 July 2007 16:00 | | Guide: | Alex Phiri | | Outing: | Night Drive | | Camp: | Tafika Camp | | Blog: | I decided to take Bandas Loop where we saw a big herd of Buffalo. When we stopped for sundowners, the big herd of buffalo came down to drink.
After Sundown, I thought of going to Chimbwi Lagoon, there we didn’t see much. But we saw Genets, Civet and Elephant Shrew.
On our way back we saw a female Leopard hunting some Puku and Impala. After we watched for 10-15 minutes, we left it alone as didn’t want to disturb the hunting process.
| | | | | Date: | 25 July 2007 16:00 | | Guide: | Bryan Jackson | | Outing: | Night Drive | | Camp: | Tafika Camp | | Blog: | Last nights evening drive started with questions about Winter thorn trees and lots of photos, we followed Bandas loop around to the river, stopping to watch a small group of Buffalo come down to drink. It turned into five hundred eventually at sundown time. As we were leaving a Leopard called in front of us, Packing the cool box quickly we set off in search. She must have been hiding in the thick bush as there was no sign of her, driving up and around Chimbwe Lagoon it was fairly quiet, a couple of Genet and an Elephant Shrew. A few Puku and Impala at the tennis courts, then a faint flick of an eye behind the antelope, Alex could not see anything, I spent some time searching with my Binos, there hiding behind a log was the faint out line of a cat. She was hunting. We had disturbed the antelope when we stopped to look for her, thus destroying any hope she had of making a kill. She sat up giving us a good view. We watched for a short time then moved on so she could start again. The drive ended with 3 Porcupines and 2 lesser Bushbabies jumping around the trees. | | | | | Date: | 25 July 2007 07:00 | | Guide: | Bryan Jackson | | Outing: | Morning Walk | | Camp: | Tafika Camp | | Blog: | On Johns early morning flights in the microlight, he watched 8 Lions and 50 Buffalo chase each other, 4 Giraffe, a small group of Elephants all close to camp. I was heading off on a walk so decided to try and find the Lions and the Buffalo. We walked back and forth through the area, managing to find the Elephant, Giraffe, Zebra, Bushbuck, Puku, Impala and eventually the Buffalo, but no Lions.
We stopped for tea with Baboons playing in the trees in front of us. Just as the water was starting to boil the Baboons lost interest in us, turned and started staring and barking in the opposite direction. So off we set, into the long grass and trees, following the Baboons stare. Nothing, I think the Baboons were playing a game with us. | | | | | Date: | 25 July 2007 06:00 | | Guide: | Stephen Banda | | Outing: | Chikoko Walking Trail | | Camp: | Chikoko Walking Trails | | Blog: | 25 July we left for crocodile camp at 0720 hrs and crossed the luangwa river.Walking along we saw a herd of buffalos,zebras,waterbucks,baboons and bushbucks. Few minutes later we stopped to at the plant,and as i wasexplaining the use of the plant Isaac Banda the scout heard the growling in the tree and he looked and saw a leopard walking a way.I stopped explaining to Denies and Carol who were my guests and turn round to see him.But my guests did not see it.There after we walked to camp and got there at about 1145 hrs.In the afternoon the animals started coming in around 1500 hrs.Giraffes,pukus,waterbucks,baboons,impalas,zebras,warthogs all came. It was time to go for the afternoon walk but Denies and Carol said why should we go looking for animals while they have come to see us.So we stayed in camp.As we walching them an eland appeared and walked near the zebras.
The next mornig we walked along the small river called mwamba to a lagoon where we stopped for tea and there we saw baffalos which just finished drinking water.Stayed there at least half an hour then returned to camp for lunch.On our third day 27 July we moved on to our next camp chikoko.We did not see much exciting .On 28 July we had our long walk and there we first saw 3 eland and later a hyaena.Then we reached the river which was a good place to stop but before we stopped we baboons barking then we rushed to check there was a leopard but runing away from us.Then we moved on to camp .On 29 July we returned to Tafika our base camp | | | | | Date: | 22 July 2007 16:00 | | Guide: | Alex Phiri | | Outing: | Night Drive | | Camp: | Tafika Camp | | Blog: | This night had a lot of activities, because before sunset we saw a big herd of Buffalo 600-750. They all came down to drink in the main river.
I decided to go to the Wafwa lagoon where we saw 10 Lions trying to chase a Hippo. This Hippo ran to the river. After that the Lions had a chance of killing a Puku as all the antelope were looking to where the Hippo had gone.
| | | | | Date: | 22 July 2007 07:00 | | Guide: | Alex Phiri | | Outing: | Morning Drive | | Camp: | Tafika Camp | | Blog: | I thought of using Bandas Loop. We saw 6 Giraffe and a big herd of Buffalo further by Chimbwi lagoon. I decided to use Tiptoes Loop, where we saw Impala, Puku, Baboons and 3 Immature Saddle Billed Storks. | | | | | Date: | 21 July 2007 16:00 | | Guide: | Alex Phiri | | Outing: | Night Drive | | Camp: | Tafika Camp | | Blog: | We saw 10 Lions hunting Puku by the stork colony and the Lions could not make it because they were seen by the Impala early and all the Impala and Puku started to run and some started to call ( alarm call).
On the same way, we saw Civet, Mongoose, Genets and Elephant Shrew. The night drive was good as we saw 3 Giant Eagle Owl by Chimbwi lagoon.
| | | | | Date: | 16 July 2007 20:00 | | Guide: | Gerard Fagan | | Outing: | Night Drive | | Camp: | Tafika Camp | | Blog: | It's been a bit of a dry spell of late for myself with regard to the cats but that was all about to change, in a big way. The afternoon drive started off with some great sightings of elephants, buffalos and all the usual suspects as well as some great birds but the real action started after dark. First up was a great sighting of a solitary hyaena and then not long after that the first of 5 different leopards. The first was a female that had eaten far too much of an impala and was just lazing next to her kill. The second 2 were a mating pair and we had some fantastic close up views of both of them and just missed a bit of the mating action, although we definately heard it. The final 2 were seen just on our driveway near to the camp and were a female and her small cub of just a couple of months. Not to be outdone, we also saw 2 more hyaenas, porcupines, genets, a civet and a very quick view of the extremely "moveous" bushy-tailed mongoose.
| | | | | Date: | 15 July 2007 16:00 | | Guide: | Bryan Jackson | | Outing: | Afternoon Walk | | Camp: | Tafika Camp | | Blog: | The afternoon walk I decided to walk around the Tafika peninsula, 200 Buffalo, 25 Elephant, small group of Zebra, Impala, Puku, Hippo and Vervet Monkeys alarm calling at something, we could not find. Most likely a Leopard flushed by us. We arrived back at the Tafika bar just in time to see the sun go down and that compulsory G&T after an afternoon walk. | | | | | Date: | 15 July 2007 07:00 | | Guide: | Bryan Jackson | | Outing: | Morning Drive | | Camp: | Tafika Camp | | Blog: | Off to check on the Leopard kill ( Baboon up in a tree) that John had seen last night. Arrived to find everything gone, only a little bit of fur at the bottom of the tree. We searched the area close by, finding nothing we moved on.
Loads of Baboon, Impala Puku and one lone Wildebeest on Bandas loop. We drove down to the Stork Colony for Tea, most of the Storks have left for the main river now, a few of the young ones are still there waiting for the parents to return with food. The Marabous are still trying to steal food from the storks, as are the Fish Eagles. While watching the Stocks, a big herd of Buffalo walked behind us heading for a small pool of water at Oink’s drift. We drove through them, they parted and stood watching us until we drove off.
On Tiptoes Loop we found a single male Giraffe and again loads of Antelope, a couple of Elephant before the gate. | | | | | Date: | 14 July 2007 06:00 | | Guide: | Ernst Jacobs | | Outing: | Morning Walk | | Camp: | Mwaleshi Camp | | Blog: | Ernst has been out of email contact for a while. So here is his diary from 14 June to 14 July.
14 June
After twelve days of camp building, our first guests arrive at Mwaleshi airstrip with a welcoming party of two beautiful black maned lions waiting for us, five minutes into the walk back to camp and hopefully a sign of good things to come!
15 June
On a pm drive to the leopard tree we witnessed a very spectacular buffalo stampede. We unfortunately spooked them from where they were having their afternoon drink and they all sped past in front and behind the vehicle! There must have been excess of 500 animals and the rush of hooves, dust and bellowing with beautiful late afternoon light shining on the scene made for a very exciting spectacle.
On the way back to camp we found a spotted eagle owl that had killed a four toed elephant shrew in the road. It was to big a prey to fly away with, so he would take it in his beak and run chicken like to put distance between us and him. He eventually flew into a tree and we passed the carcass quickly so that he could return to his meal.
16 June
Found a new large pool upstream on the Mwaleshi occupied by 3 hippos and many crocs. Also found 18 hippos in Sassu lagoon. Severe erosion on Mwaleshi and lone palm tree is standing on the edge of the bank where in previous years it was a few metres away from the side.
17 June
Identified a Rothmania whithfieldii with very distinctive fissured grooves on the seed pods at the Mwaleshi falls. River level still very high and swimming in the cold water quite invigorating. Three porcupine and hyena on the way back to camp.
21 June
18 Grey headed parrots feeding on duiker berries on pm walk. Zebra ,impala and warthog close to camp.
22June
Walk from camp to Chimpembi lagoon. Not much on the way ,but we found vultures circling as we approached the lagoon and hoped that we would find lions on a kill, but instead found 2 hyenas feeding on a baby elephant carcass. On closer inspection, it seemed as if though it had died from an infection in its leg as its front leg joint was extremely swollen and pussy. There were also waterbuck, puku, kudu, elephant, impala and warthog grazing around the lagoon. A new sight for this year was the establishment of three yellow billed stork breeding colonies in the ebony trees next to the lagoon. Some nests had up to three chicks waiting to be fed by the returning parents and they looked like little white cotton balls straining up to be fed.
Afternoon drive to leopard tree and we were lucky enough to spot a year old leopard cub walking along the road and then the mother lying on a termite mound not far from there.
23 June
Walk along Mwaleshi in the morning that provided us a view of four lions lying on the opposite bank, checking out a big herd of buffalo close to camp. Elephant, kudu, wildebeest impala and warthog were seen along the rest of the walk.
24 June
Big male lion on way to the airstrip.
30 June
4 lions in front of camp. Killed a puku at 5 in the morning. Seven hippos left in Sassu lagoon.
Pm drive to Mwaleshi confluence. A dead hippo attracted hundreds of crocodiles that made for a wonderful opportunity to watch them tear and rip pieces of flesh from the carcass using their spinning method. Also spotted a leopard on the other side of the Mwaleshi sunning himself in the late afternoon sun.
3 July
2 Lions on a buffalo kill close to the airstrip. I identified one of them as the old female that was with the resident pride last year and she is still looking in good condition.
Also found a dead impala that was attracting the attention of three bateleurs. Probably died of natural causes as we could not find any bite marks on her.
Watched a hyena chase a puku through the river in front of Mwaleshi camp as we were about to sit down for sundowners.
4 July
Drive to Chimpembi lagoon where we found the stork chicks already practising to fly by flapping their wings and doing false | | | | | Date: | 12 July 2007 16:00 | | Guide: | Bryan Jackson | | Outing: | Night Drive | | Camp: | Tafika Camp | | Blog: | Just back from the walking camps, the two guests wanted to see more cats, even though they had walked into 3 Lions out at Crocodile camp. So off we set, taking a punt on seeing Leopard’s at Chimbwi Lagoon. We had a young Bull Elephant walk down the road toward us thinking we should move off the road for him. We stand our ground. He gave us a little display, telling us what he thought of us, then moved off with his head held high.
One female Giraffe, unusually by herself also walking along the road, and 200-300 Buffalo at Chimbwi.
It was sundown time so we moved off to the river bank for drinks. Having just finished sundowners and getting ready for the night drive, we heard a Leopard calling close by, not more then a 100metres from us we found her walking out in the open. She stopped, head down and called again 20metres in front of the car. Not a sound from the back of the car.
She moved off into the bush so we left her alone. Coming home, we came across two porcupines, several Genets, and Civet.
One Genet, just before camp had caught a small lizard and was eating it in a tree next to the road, we had excellent views and many photos were taken. | | | | | Date: | 08 July 2007 16:00 | | Guide: | Bryan Jackson | | Outing: | Night Drive | | Camp: | Tafika Camp | | Blog: | All everyone wants to see at the moment are the 10 Lion cubs, so off we set in search of the cubs. Around the Salt Pan. No cubs, but we did see Yellow throated Long Claw, Spotted Dikkop ( now called Spotted Thick-knee). Two birds not commonly seen.
We did manage to find the Adult Lions on a Warthog kill near the end of the drive, but no cubs. | | | | | Date: | 07 July 2007 16:00 | | Guide: | Bryan Jackson | | Outing: | Night Drive | | Camp: | Tafika Camp | | Blog: | Up to the Salt Pan in search of the Lion cubs, failed on that mission, but we had a great drive. Saw a Serval hunt and catch a Francolin, she raced off to the edge of the long grass to start eating. She was a little nervous and kept looking up with a mouth full of feathers. We watched her for 15 min or more, then left her in peace. Continuing on around the pan towards Kakonje we spotted another cat, which looked like a female lion lying out in the open. We stopped 10 metres in front, to find it was a Big male Leopard, very full and not moving anywhere in a hurry. He eventually got up and walked away from us, his full stomach swaying from side to side. | | | | | Date: | 07 July 2007 07:00 | | Guide: | Stephen Banda | | Outing: | Chikoko Walking Trail | | Camp: | Chikoko Walking Trails | | Blog: | We crossed the Luangwa river early morning going to Crocodile camp. In the first ten minutes it was quiet but a lot of birds. My guests wanted to see at least 100 birds before they left us. We got to a place where there is water and stopped for 30 minutes and saw at least 10 species of birds. Then we moved on and got to our first camp Crocodile.Two days at crocodile passed so quickly. Then we moved to Chikoko camp. On the way we saw elephants, impalas, waterbucks, kudu and baboons. The second day at Chikoko we heard baboons barking early in morning. I took my binoculars and checked I saw one lion walking on the Chikoko river bank. I called my guest to come and see but not all of them saw this lion. Then we left for our morning walk looking for birds. At this moment we were on number 96. We walked to a lagoon and stopped there for tea. Luckily we saw 5 more which gave us 101 birds. We were so excited to get that number since I had only one afternoon left. After that we walked back to camp for lunch. On our afternoon walk we saw a dead bushbuck up in a tree. The leopard ran away. The next morning we walked to crocodile camp where we saw three lions sleeping on the river bank. We got to crocodile camp only for one night. The next day we left for Tafika camp. | | | | | Date: | 06 July 2007 16:00 | | Guide: | Alex Phiri | | Outing: | Night Drive | | Camp: | Tafika Camp | | Blog: | We saw one Leopard at Chimbwi Lagoon. The Leopard was hunting, the first attempt failed, she continued to hunt until we left. Five minutes after we left we heard Impala, Puku and Baboon calling loudly. We went back to see what had happening. Finally we saw a Leopard with a kill and was dragging a female Puku toward a tree. | | | | | Date: | 05 July 2007 16:00 | | Guide: | Alex Phiri | | Outing: | Night Drive | | Camp: | Tafika Camp | | Blog: | We saw 10 cubs 5 female Lions and 1 male on Johns Rd. That was before sundown. After sundown we thought of going back to see them again. We only found the 10 cubs packed together when the female adult went for hunting and one male was found also but after some minutes the male left.
| | | | | Date: | 05 July 2007 07:00 | | Guide: | Alex Phiri | | Outing: | Morning Drive | | Camp: | Tafika Camp | | Blog: | We saw one Male Giraffe at Chimbwi Lagoon. He was just coming from drinking water in the main river. Lots of Antelope such as Impala, Puku were grazing and others grooming themselves. We wanted to go to the stork colony but we couldn’t make it, because of after driving a few metres from Chimbwi we saw one Goliath heron, a number of Crocodiles, Skimmers and Sacred Ibises all on the same spot on the sand bank. Further after that we saw a male Leopard and stopped for about one hour watching.
| | | | | Date: | 04 July 2007 16:00 | | Guide: | Bryan Jackson | | Outing: | Night Drive | | Camp: | Tafika Camp | | Blog: | Out on a drive with two keen photographers, the light was good so we stopped many times for that one great shot. Loads of Impala, Puku and Elephant around. Crocs and Hippo’s sunning themselves on the sand banks.
The night drive was a little slower game wise, but we did get an excellent sighting of a March Mongoose. He ran across the road in front of us, stopped to look for a frog and started to move away. I made a call of a frog in distress and he came back so close to the car that the cameras could not focus on him. I think he decided that the car was a frog too big and he ran away. We did see another two March mongooses and two Giant Eagle Owls. | | | | | Date: | 03 July 2007 16:00 | | Guide: | Stephen Banda | | Outing: | Night Drive | | Camp: | Tafika Camp | | Blog: | We left Tafika camp for afternoon drive .We first went to our local school .After the school visit we drove into the park straight to the stork colony for sundown. We heard puku making an alarm call. We went to but nothing special. We moved on to a different road and a leopard came out from the bush. She was hunting. Then we saw two other leopards and three porcupines | | | | | Date: | 02 July 2007 16:00 | | Guide: | Alex Phiri | | Outing: | Night Drive | | Camp: | Tafika Camp | | Blog: | I thought of using Johns Rd, the beginning was a bit quiet, but in the end before sunset it was brilliant because we saw 4 female lions and 10 cubs.
The cubs were interesting as they were climbing the wild Jasmine trees, which was excellent. We watched them for about 30-45 min. Just about 300m there was a big herd of Buffalo which the Lions had showed an interest of hunting but the Buffalo ran away.
| | | | | Date: | 02 July 2007 16:00 | | Guide: | Bryan Jackson | | Outing: | Night Drive | | Camp: | Tafika Camp | | Blog: | Greg had seen a Lion kill close to the road when coming back from the airport, so off we set to find them.
10 cubs & 6 females, the females were fast asleep and the cubs, all ten, fighting and growling over a buffalo. They ranged in age from 3-4 months. Standing on top and inside the buffalo they were having a great time.
We watched until sundowner time, moving off down to the river for drinks. The night drive was the normal mongooses and elephant shrews, no other cats. | | | | | Date: | 01 July 2007 07:00 | | Guide: | Stephen Banda | | Outing: | Chikoko Walking Trail | | Camp: | Chikoko Walking Trails | | Blog: | We crossed the Luangwa river at about 0715 hours going to crocodile camp. Half an hour after we crossed, we saw a herd of eland about 18. There were also waterbucks, kudu, impala, and nearby was a hippo in the stream. We got to crocodile camp where we saw another herd waterbuck eating not far from camp. There were also baboons impalas warthogs and three giraffes all in one place.
The next morning we walked to Chikoko camp. On the way we saw elephants two porcupines not more ten metres from where we were standing. In the afternoon we saw elephants crossing the Luangwa river with the sunset behind them. We watched them crossing and walked back to camp | | | | | Date: | 27 June 2007 07:00 | | Guide: | Gerard Fagan | | Outing: | Morning Drive | | Camp: | Tafika Camp | | Blog: | The big cats are still eluding me in the vehicle but the exciting and action-filled bird encounters are not. Early on in the drive we came across 2 young Martial Eagles doing battle with a family of Banded Mongooses. Again and again the eagles would drop out of the trees and try and grab one of the feisty little mongooses who were not going down without a fight. At times they would group together and actualy approach the eagles who were perched on a fallen tree, chattering and growling the whole time. We saw the eagles grab 2 who somehow managed to break free and fall to the ground as the eagles tried to fly away with them. You've got to admire the tenacity of the little guys but I'm sure they must have received some injuries after being caught in the powerful talons of the mighty Martial Eagles. Sightings like these are what make the Luangwa such an amazing place to live, work and go on safari. | | | | | Date: | 26 June 2007 16:00 | | Guide: | Gerard Fagan | | Outing: | PM Drive | | Camp: | Tafika Camp | | Blog: | Once again it was time to head off to one of my favourite places, the salt pan, in search of the Salt Pan pride of lions. I always enjoy the long drive through the Mopane forest towards the pan although there's been many fires of late that has cleared off most of the grass plains near Kakonje pan. The green sprouts have however started to come through attracting loads of plains game which we don't always see up there. No luck with the lions but we did come across a rather accomodating young leopard closer to the river. Despite that it was a fairly quiet night but always exhilarating and exciting searching for the nocturnal creatures. | | | | | Date: | 25 June 2007 18:00 | | Guide: | Bryan Jackson | | Outing: | Night Drive | | Camp: | Tafika Camp | | Blog: | We picked up four guests off the airport run at Chichele stream, headed straight to 3 Hippo Lagoon for sundowners. The night drive produced loads of Elephant Shrews and Genets. We did chase around the long grass looking for a Leopard, the Baboons were barking looking straight into the grass, but we couldn’t find anything. Maybe it’s a game the baboons are playing, trick the tourist.
We did come across 11 Giraffe lying down next to the road close to the gate. And a young Elephant who gave us just as much of a fright as we gave him. | | | | | Date: | 25 June 2007 07:00 | | Guide: | Bryan Jackson | | Outing: | Morning Walk | | Camp: | Tafika Camp | | Blog: | Morning walk out from Tafika, the Hippo’s at the crossing point, paid no attention to us as we canoed across. Lazy day for most things, good birds on the first lagoon and again Hippos opening one eye to see who was walking by, but very little else around. We decided it was tea time and headed for a small Lagoon, getting close we could see lots of storks flying in, a fishing party. We made ourselves comfortable under a Tamarind tree to watch as Brighton boiled the Kettle. 2-3 hundred birds chasing and catching cat fish, Fish eagles diving in to steal the storks hard earned meal. Rodger could not resist taking that last great photo as the storks flew from one side of the lagoon to the other chasing that big one.
Dragging Rodger away our next encounter was with a tuskless cow Elephant, not happy with our presents, she made some threatening moves toward us, Rodgers camera stayed firmly in it’s pouch this time. It all came to nothing as she finished have fun with us and moved away into the long grass. Back across the river back into camp for that will earned cool drink. | | | | | Date: | 24 June 2007 13:00 | | Guide: | Gerard Fagan | | Outing: | Chikoko Walking Trail | | Camp: | Chikoko Walking Trails | | Blog: | The last 3 days out at our Chikoko trails camps have been fantastic with many memorable encounters and some wonderful scenery as well. 2 great lion sightings were the talking point for some time and the second one being a rather close and clear view. We watched the 3 lionesses for some time while they sat on the edge of the Chikoko channel watching the camp in the near distance. Eventually they spotted us in the open and trotted of into the thick stuff. There were some great bird sightings as well but not always for the birds themselves. We saw a young Martial Eagle take out a baby Egyptian Goose, a young croc that had just caught a Spurwinged Goose and an extremely nervous dove being hottly pursued by a Gabar Goshawk. It's sightings like these that making walking in the Valley such an amazing experience and I look forward to heading out again soon. | | | | | Date: | 20 June 2007 07:00 | | Guide: | Alex Phiri | | Outing: | Morning Drive | | Camp: | Tafika Camp | | Blog: | I thought of stopping on one of the lagoons and I saw lots of birds, like African Jacana, Ibis, Yellow Billed Stork and the early flight of White Pelican. Big herds of Buffalo, Impala and Zebra coming to drink. | | | |
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