6:38 pm CAT

I joined the drive late today - but in time for them to find leopards!
I didn't catch the name - but assuming Karula as it is a mum and two young ones.

6:42 pm

Waiting for the other one!


Mum and one cub going off - where's the other cub?


Ah - here he is - did a necessary stop in the bushes - Mum had to come back for him!

Thanks for the s'caps of Karula and the kids, Pat I didn't get a chance to review the archives but I hope to have the time to do that soon

Off-topic but I'm not a happy camper!!!!!!

Although I sort of understand why the Sidney threads have been locked, it just might backfire. People have no place to express themselves about this. This is is what I said on Facebook

Although I will miss Mom and Dad Sidney, I fully understand and support the landowners decision and I think we all should too! Given other tragedies in the eagle world recently, I'm just glad the Sidneys are alive and well and will continue to raise more offspring to soar the skies -- and just maybe someday, they will return to the Garry Oak Tree where the adventure began!

Edited to add:

It's now about an hour later and I finally got a chance to get back to the drive And when I brought up the cam, Marc was explaining about how spiders mate

Spent some time with playful Dwarf Mongoose -- kind of miss the closeups we used to have in the "old" days



Lions!!! A male and two females -- Marc doesn't know who they are:



There's several other vehicles arriving so Marc decided to leave to go and see if he can find Karula's mapinpans (kids in Shangaan).

OK--we've arrived at the Xivi and Xiva sighting but they are laying in the shade so not a great view :-( A hyena has just arrived and the kids are chasing it

Now one of them has gone into a tree and the other one is on the ground. This is the one in the tree but I don't know which one it is -- I'm not able to tell the difference in these two unless they are together (Xivi is smaller than brother, Xiva)



It's after 3 a.m. my time now and Marc is signing off so they can get the ganda back to camp to charge the batteries for the nest drive.

Evening (we need a smillie for the Djuma Game Drive ). I watched the 9-11 tributes this morning so I wasn't on the ganda.

Tonight they are having "sound issues" and the drives hasn't started as yet.

A blog by Tara about the latest "kitty" sighting and how to tell Xivindzi from Xivambalana

http://blog.wildearthsafari.tv/2011/09/ ... alana.html

Tara points out several ways to tell them apart in her blog but Xivi has almost the "wow" like her Mom at the top of her nose. But these two look more alike that the previous two litters IMHO. When they are together, Xiva is definitely larger than Xivi.





Update

And away WE go!!!! with Tara presenting and Marc on cam.

I really should pay attention because I get these two confused anyway but this is either a nyala or a kudu -- pick one :-)



Both Marc and Tara just heard lions roaring so they are off to investigate.

Who Dung It?



Tara picked it up so it's not from a carnavore. She said it doesn't have leaves in it and it's BIG so I'd say that it's elephant

Darn! NOT elephant :-( It's rhino dung.

Before the "Who Dung It" we spent some time with tikitoro (shangaan for Dwarf Mongoose)




Time for me to go off to None of the guides have found lion yet but they are still looking.

Morning! Tara presenting and Marc on cam (so Seb must be in FC)

Sitting with a giraffe but once again the view is not good. The animals are in the shade and Marc hasn't learned how to use the cam yet



Seb's brother is on the drive with us (wonder if he's as good-lookin' as Seb )

We're at the vulture's nest now and it's obvious to me that there's a least one chicklet in there. Mombrella is sitting on the side of the nest and, every once and a while, I see a little head pop up (although it's quite a distance away). And Mom is leaning over at times.

Who Dung It?



My guess (and I'm almost 100% sure on this one) is buffalo dung (it's flat like cow dung and buffs and cows are related).

Update:

Seb told Tara that he's just see Karula's mapinpans by Final Control!!!! She hightailed it over there but no joy so far and it's getting dark

Moonrise over Djuma



It's dark now (and you know that I'm not a fan of "night" drives) and Tara's giving up on trying to find Xivi and Xiva -- so I'm signing off. Bye!!!

Morning -- missed the drive last night (fell asleep on the couch!).

Brought the cam up this morning in time to see Seb making a bush toothbrush out of a guarie (sp?) branch:



Well Djuma Djunkies -- you might have sensed my frustration in the last few drives. The quality of the picture has deteriorated quite substantially since Becky left. She is the only one there that had any formal training on how to use the camera. The stream now has a distinct yellow/brown cast to it and very dark and out of focus. I've had to do a lot of "fixing" of my screencaptures to get them so you can actually see what's in them as most of the time all that you see are silhouettes of animals.

So for now, I'm not going to be posting. Instead I'm going to try my best to get someone at Djuma/WildEarth to pay attention and fix the problems.

TTFN