Here we present the second part of our Finance Desk Photographic Series…
Dave Dampier, Londolozi’s Head of Finance, takes us through some more of his stunning photographs. He thought it would be fun to troll through the archives on this one, bringing out some shots from a few years ago.
All captions by Dave.
Enjoy…
A photograph in which the record itself is what is important. This is an African Golden Oriole, a migratory bird that is very rare at Londolozi. This was taken during my training period, and I have not seen one since.
In my first two years of guiding we spent many hours tracking and following the Maxabene female and her two cubs – this is the black nosed male (now Makhotini Male) attempting to hunt a warthog. The warthog refused to come out with us around in the vehicle, so we left him to it, returning in the afternoon to find his kill hoisted in a nearby tree.
A young elephant calf shares a moment with it’s mother in the deep south of Londolozi
Whilst following up on leopard tracks, Simon Mathebula spotted this European Nightjar resting – with very similar markings amongst nightjars, one of traits exhibited by the European Nightjar that can help identify it is that it roosts lengthways on a branch during the day.
It’s not always relaxing game drives – a nightime fire in Southern Londolozi required an all night effort to extinguish the flames
Rangers and the Habitat team fought alongside each other to keep this blaze under control.
My first experience of a cheetah kill – this female had moved onto Londolozi some years ago with her single subadult cub and took down this impala on the clearings to the north of camp
An inadvertently comedic expression from a giraffe.
A goliath Heron at LTA dam.
We had gone to follow up on the hyaena den and came across the site of this Tsalala young lioness at the den badly injured. Being a cub of the Mapogo coalition during the Majingilane takeover meant the pride had been scattered the night before and this lioness had stumbled upon the densite and was unable to escape. She miraculously survived this incident and rejoined the pride, but inevitably the change of leadership saw her finally killed at the hands of the Majingilane a few days later
Although lions are incredibly resilient creatures, we were very surprised when this lioness managed to rejoin the rest of the pride.
Little Bee Eaters wait for a hawking opportunity down by the Sand River.
Lions crossing the sand river was a shot I had always dreamed of getting and was lucky enough to capture this scene of two of the Majingilane crossing from the northern bank
The 1992 documentary Eternal Enemies was aptly named – two of the Majingilane males caught and killed this hyaena cub soon after crossing the Sand River.
The first photo I ever printed was this shot of the Maxabene female snarling at a hyena, the backlight illuminating her breath in the cool air.
As mentioned earlier, we spent hours following the Maxabene young males – here the Pink Nose Male (subsequently Two-Tones Male, now deceased), completes the first kill that I ever saw him make.
Another incredible scene encountered during training – the strength of the Golden Orb spider web is well documented – although not a food source, a Red Billed Quelea is caught and unable to extricate itself from the web.
Two of the smaller yet very colourful birds at Londolozi, the Red-Billed Firefinch and the Blue Waxbill.
Stunning images. Lovely memories.
Superb images. One question, though: “Red Billed Quelea is caught and unable to extricate itself from the web” …did you unhinge it?
Superb photographic memories. Thanks for this post.
Thank you David, your pictures are outstanding! Love the one of the Golden Oriole & the Majingi’s walking in perfect step together in the water & oh just all of them!
Sadly the Quelea was already dead so all was left as is
After spending ten years trying to view leopards in other parks in southern Africa, the beautiful Maxabene female and her two cubs were our first siting of leopards on our first visit to Londolozi in 2009. We have returned many times since then and I had not realised Tu-Tones was one of those cubs. Thank you for putting it together for me David. Beautiful photographs.
Beautiful shots David! Miss seeing all the wildlife at Londoz! Coming back in 2017 and counting the days!
Absolutely stunning, I don’t know which one I love the best. Visited Londolozi twice, already planning a third trip. Can’t wait to return! I love these kinds of blogs!
Amazing photographs and beautiful memories Dave!
Great pics Doyle, The two male lions crossing the river is awesome…