A Heartbreaking Story

We have some pictures of this little lion cub up already, but we never told his amazing story. You can see from the pictures that he lacks good muscle condition even though his belly is quite full. In the video his sister walks past him and she is noticeably larger. His detailed story is told in full by the wonderful rangers at Londolozi in their blogs. In short, he was separated from the pride during a hyena attack and survived for five weeks alone. He stole our hearts, and he was so adorable to watch with his little tough guy persona. We subscribe to the Londolozi blogs and get nice updates and pictures, so we looked forward to watching this little wonder of nature grow up. Sadly, that is not going to be the case as he was killed by one of the four big male lion brothers the other day. This has been much more difficult for us to accept than all the other hunting and killing we saw while we were there. I guess that's the downside of getting up close and personal with wildlife.





Read more about this lion cub at Londolozi's blog

Read More about the attack at Londolozi's blog

Londolozi: Birding with Talley and Freddy

Our ranger Talley and tracker Freddy did a fantastic job of helping us round out our adventure by finding all kinds of new birds for us. We think they enjoyed it as much as we did, because they said most guests are only interested in the big five and don't take the time to sit and wait and admire the birds and their behavior.



Malachite Kingfisher


Diederick Cuckoo


Bearded Scrub Robin


Southern Masked Weavers


Egyptian Goose


Korhaan


Brown-headed Parrot


Greater Blue-eared Starling


Gymnogene


Golden-tailed Woodpecker


Sombre Greenbul


African Hoopoe
Mike's favorite bird.


African Pied Wagtail


Hooded Vulture


Little Bee-eaters


European Bee-eater


Marabou Stork


Natal Spurfowl


Red-necked Spurfowl


African Barred Owlet


Bateleur


Southern Yellow-billed Hornbill


Blue waxbill


Red-billed Quelea


Crested Barbet
Chris calls this the crazy ugly bird.


Black-backed Puffback


Burchell's Coucal


Red-backed Shrike


Magpie Shrike


Cinnamon-breasted Bunting


White-faced Whistling Duck


White-backed Vulture


White-browed Scrub Robin


Retz's Helmet-Shrike


Crested Francolin


Black-collared Barbet


Black-headed Oriole


African Grey Hornbill


European Roller


Purple Roller


Lilac-breasted Roller




Bearded Woodpecker


White-crested Helmetshrike


Southern Black Tit

Thonga: Birding with Maxwell

We mentioned in a previous post how much fun we had birding with Maxwell, but it's worth repeating. It's always nice to bird with someone who enjoys it in the same fashion. We don't just tick a bird off a list once we've seen it. Instead, we stop and enjoy it and admire it and sometimes laugh at it (which gives Mike lots of time to get abundant photos.) If a good one gets away, we try not to take it too seriously and look forward instead to what awaits us in the next field or tree. Max was just our kind of birder, he always seemed to have a smile on his face and didn't get too stressed about what we did or didn't see and just enjoyed the sport.


Purple-crested Turaco


Livingstone's Turaco


Yellow-billed Kite


Hadeda Ibis


Hammerhead


Common Waxbill


African Pippit


Yellow-fronted Canary


Collared Sunbird


Bar-throated Apalis


Dark-backed weavers


Rufous-naped Lark


Rattling Cisticola