From Satara to Lower Sabie
We left Satara and drove slowly south birding, and mammal-ing, as we went. The journey was slow as we kept on seeing amazing stuff. Every few hundred metres another bird or mammal would have us braking. Even before we had loaded the car we had enjoyed close up views of such delights as Crested Barbet, Green Woodhoopoe and Natal Francolin. As we turned onto the road south we encountered Lilac-breasted Rollers and Magpie Shrikes, none of these new but we just could not resist another look! This was how the day flew by, drive a bit, stop, drive, stop. We also eventually found internet access at Skukuza camp and spent the hottest hours of the day trying to catch up on admin. The internet was very slow so we are still way behind with emails, apologies if you still have not had a reply, we will catch up asap. Bird of the day was without doubt Southern Ground-Hornbill. Four of these monster birds, dressed all in black with glowing scarlet bare skin around their faces came marching down the road to meet us. These bizarre birds took not one bit of notice of us and walked right past us as we stared open mouthed.
Mammal highlights included a pride of Lions guarding a Water Buffalo carcass they had killed the previous night as four species of vulture looked on waiting their chance to feed.Bird species total 3122Posted 8th September,Kruger National Park, South Africa