North to Punda Maria

Time to continue the South Africa trip. Tom and I left Johannesburg in a little Renault sedan. We decided to drive all the way to the top of the country and enter Kruger National Park in it's northernmost entrance gate at Punda Maria.
We could'nt get there in one day, and we stopped for the night at a small game park called Bundox, (boon docks). It was a pleasant place and we saw many good birds there. The highlights being Brown-hooded Kingfisher, and Pearl-spotted Owlet.
It was late afternoon when we passed through the Punda Maria gate. The Impala above is one of the first animals that we saw inside the park. Kruger is one of the gems of the whole African continent. There are other parks that may be just as good, but none better.
We had a good ways to drive to get to Punda Maria Rest Camp before dark, (they lock the gates at dark) so we had to hurry. We did'nt bother to make reservations ahead of time so we were really taking our chances on there being any vacancies there.

The late afternoon light was ideal for photography, and there were willing subjects everywhere. We had to stop many times in spite of the late hour. It was a little after dark when we made it to the rest camp, but the gates were still open. The park staff was very surprized, and not pleased that we had no reservations, but there was a vacant, large, air-conditioned bungalow with several beds. Thank goodness.

One of the African animals I really anticipated seeing was a giraffe. They were impossible to overlook in Kruger, especiall when they were blocking the road.
By the way, Kruger was nearly unbearably hot. You can even see the heat in this photo. Without air-conditioning in the car, and in the rooms, I doubt that I even could have endured the place.

A better view of a giraffe. Many of the giraffes were accompanied by Yellow-billed, and mostly Red-billed Oxpeckers.

We made sure that we were out at first light, and never returned to the fenced safety of the rest camps until the very last light of day. Often during the heat of midday we did go to a rest camp for a nap. This Cape Buffalo was near Punda Maria camp just before dark.

This particular herd of buffalo completely surrounded our car and kept us from travelling while they casually grazed. We went to the very top end of South Africa at a place called Crook's Corner. It lies at the meeting between South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Mozambique. We gazed across two crocadile and hippo infested rivers at the two other countries, then we headed back south from there.

We saw a number of striking, Black-collared Barbets but I could'nt get them to pose for me in good light.

A new species of francolin for me, Natal Francolin. Thet were quite abundant.

A target bird that I was thrilled to see, Lilac-breasted Roller.

Another species of roller, European Roller. This one enjoys a large centipede. They were more abundant, and dominant over, Lilac-breasted Rollers. I really had to wash out this photo to bring out it's colors because the bird was set against an overwhelmingly bright sky.

Another colorful, and abundant bird. Blue Waxbill. They are also known as Cordon Bleu in the pet trade.

Africa has a number of diminutive species of antelopes. We saw some really adorable antelopes that I wanted to bring home with me. The most abundant of them, and the largest, was the Bushbuck. The Bushbucks that we saw in Uganda were shyer, and more vividly marked.

Muskoxen and Mckinley

About fifteen years ago I was toying with the idea of painting some Muskoxen. The sketch above is the idea I came up with. At the time I felt that the idea was too mellodramatic, like a comic book illustration. So I put the idea away to give it some time to mature.

Every few years I would revisit the concept and try to come up with something worth painting. I filed the sketches between the pages of various reference books.

I kept fretting about what to do with the wolves, trying to figure out how dominate to make them in the composition, and where to place the center of focus. Eventually I decided to leave them out and concentrate on Muskoxen only.
Last year I finally started the painting and ran into difficulties immediately. I soon got discouraged and put the canvas into the recycle bin. This week I pulled it out with the intention of painting over it. Then a new idea came to me.

I remembered this Bison painting  from a few years ago, and how much I liked it. I thought that placing the Muskoxen in a blizzard and reducing the details down to a minimum, might make the painting look better.

This is how it turned out. Shaggy Beasts, 18x24". I tried to emphasize stronger highlights on the left edges of the animals. I guess it looks good. Time will tell if I keep it as is.

A few weeks ago, during the middle of our serious cold snap, Scott Christy decided to fly over Mt. Mckinley. It's a long flight over a frozen winter landscape.

This is one of the dominate peaks of the Alaska Range, The Moose's Tooth.

Mt. Mckinley. Many people have tried to climb the mountain during the winter. No one has succeeded. Lots of people have died trying to climb it. Even during the summer.

An avalanche starting to spill down a narrow pass. The reason that so many people die.

Some Good Stuff

Today I did something that I have not done in months. I hiked the Coastal Trail. This Moose with her growing calf were next to the trail.

The weather was very mild by Alaska winter standards, near freezing. So I got really ambitious and started hiking near Point Woronzof in the photo above. It was a much longer walk than what I was doing last summer.

Sleeping Lady had good light on her blanket of snow. Along the coast, there was not a shorebird, gull, or duck to be seen.

A cross-country skier glides along the trail with the buildings of downtown Anchorage in the background.

A picturesque view, for a city anyway. Anchorage looks better from a distance, like most cities.

A group of Crows is called a murder of Crows. What is a group of Ravens called?

It's a challenge to photograph a dark subject against a light background, especially Ravens against snow.

Another view of the mama Moose. She and her calf were near the very end of the trail where it connects with downtown Anchorage, right beside the busiest part of the trail. I had to walk past them within about 6ft, (two meters). She never even bothered to get up. The calf photos did'nt look quite good enough to include here.

My latest painting of a Mountain Goat, Death defying, 12x9".

Another recently completed painting, Black Turnstones, 9x12".

My latest Threadless submission. Check it out at, http://threadless.com/sharedesign/400365/Electrifying_Love.

Splendor in the Grass

"From Marievale, we went on to Suikerbosrand. It is hilly, open grassland"... The area looks like many places in the American west. It reminded me of parts of Central California most of all. The difference being that Suikerbosrand had a much greater diversity of wildlife. No cows at all.

At the park HQ, Malcolm, (far right) explained the unique subleties of the park habitats. Tom spies something interesting on the far left. Sue is in the middle of the photo. There are several good hiking trails leading from hq. Many birds all around the area.

"We got our first long distance views of proto-typical African mammals. Mostly Wildebeests and Zebras, also Blesbok, Eland, Greater Kudu, and a single Springbok".

"An attractive grassland bird, Cape Longclaw, only allowed me to get a few mediochre photos."

"Malcolm pointed out many obscure LBJ's (Little Brown Jobs) like Neddicky, and various cisticolas that I could not have identified on my own". ( Case in point, I dont remember what this guy is.)
I value the plain janes in the bird world as much as the more flamboyant birds.

"We found a pair of colorful, Mocking Cliff Chats. Their pattern is very similar to that of Painted Redstarts, though not quite as brilliantly colored. The male was very cooperative for photos."

"We got to see several Chacma Baboons. They were large and impressive, though Malcolm and Sue did'nt show much interest in them."

"There were more Swainson's Francolins and some Red-winged Francolins. Malcolm almost caught one with his bare hands. I may have gotten good photos of the red-wing if Malcolm did'nt chase it off before I was ready."

"I photographed another Cape Wagtail."

"Tom was very excited to find a Cape Robin Chat. It is apparently one of his favorite African Birds."

"I was excited myself to see some Cape White-eyes. My first species of white-eye, a family of birds that I missed in SE Asia."

"We saw some attractive Pin-tailed Widows. I got good photos of a male in prime breeding colors. They are known to be brood parasites of waxbills."

"At one picnic area, we saw many Fiscal Flycatchers. They look very similar to the larger Fiscal Shrikes. We also saw a magnificent African Paradise Flycatcher there, but I could'nt get passable photos."

"I was happy to see more Speckled Mousebirds. They are rapidly becoming a favorite bird of mine because they display so much personality."
On that one day I saw sixty new species of birds. That is not counting the twenty nine species that were new to me when I saw them the previous day in Johannesburg. Plus a good handful of birds that I had seen in other places before comung to SA. Nearly a hundred species in one day. A good haul for anyone.
I am very grateful for the generosity of Malcolm and Sue Henderson,  and for their bounteous hospitality.

Marvelous Marievale

Before we came to South Africa I checked out Birdingpal SA.com. I made plans with a local (free of charge) birder to be shown around the Johannesburg area. We got so much more than we were anticipating.
Malcolm Henderson and his wife Sue picked us up in front of Mufasa Backpackers at 7:00 am. It turns out that he was a big time bird guide who lived for birding.
On that day, (which remains the greatest birding day of my life) they took us to Marievale and Suikersbosrand Nature Reserves, about 20 or 30 kms outside of Joburg.

"We went to Marievale first, stopping along the way to check out several Amur Falcons, and Black-shouldered Kites, perched on barbed wire fences".

"Marievale is a large wetland outside the rundown town of Nigel. There was a hide in one area, where we saw Whiskered Terns in breeding plummage."

"Amoung the many common aquatic birds were the abundant, Red-knobbed Coots."

"White-throated Swallows were easily approached, like most swallows".

"Southern Red Bishops were present in large numbers".

"We were able to admire a Black-headed Heron perched atop a fence post."

"New birds were paraded before us along a flooded dirt track, one after another. I got decent photos of a large, Spur-winged Goose".

"Glossy Ibis is a near pan-global species. I have missed them everywhere until now".

"Another of the many new birds that were along the flooded track was the Black Heron. It's also called Black Egret. It looks like a melanistic Little, or Snowy Egret. It has the distinctive habit of forming an umbrella with it's wings to cut down glare on the water's surface."

'There wre many passerines as well. I appreciated Malcolm's help in identifying the LBJ's like Levaillant's Cisticola".

"The first Cuckoo of the trip was an attractive, and small, male Diderick Cuckoo."

"One of the most conspicious birds in the grass was the displaying male, Long-tailed Whydah".

" A bird I saw in Thailand, Common Stonechat, is possibly the same species that Malcolm called, African Stonechat. More research is needed by me to determine whether I should consider it a lifer."

" I always want to see at least one representative of each new bird family in a given area. One African bird family that I really wanted to see were the francolins. I got to see some Swainson's Francolins in both Marievale and Suikersbosrand." These are just a small sampling of the many birds we saw that day. Next up is super, Suikersbosrand.