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     The rains have continued to come this month which is very unusual for this time of year but what it has done for the bush with the hot days that we have been having is phenomenal. In the past 20 years, we have never seen the bush looking as thick as we approach May. The grass is lush and green; we have had a second flush of bush flowers that has transformed the terrain into a scene similar to early summer.

     Even though we had another heavy downpour just two days ago, the temperatures plummeted by a massive 6 degrees! This reminds us that winter is finally on its way. The last 2 days have been typical of this with clear blue skies and the crisp early morning chill. The light for photography has been simply amazing.

     Leopard viewing again this month has been outstanding. We have had good viewing of most of our leopard females. Shangwa, when last seen, was still looking very pregnant and the fact that we have not seen her in the past few days could mean that she has found a den sight and had her cubs.

     The Makubela female (Shangwa’s 4 year old daughter) seems to have moved her territory boundaries a little further east so we are not seeing as much of her as we would like. However, when we spotted her a couple of days ago, she was definitely in season. She was busy marking vigorously and calling constantly to try and attract a male. Mkwela always pops up at the right time and ensures that we have regular leopard sightings. We have had some fantastic viewing of Mambiri (Mkwela’s 6 year old daughter) and her cub. I am very pleased to announce that Mambiri’s cub is no longer the “ugly duckling”. She has now turned into a beautiful young leopard and grown into her eyes but because we have not viewed her as much as other leopard cubs, she is still a little skittish.

     However, over the past few days we have been viewing them on a couple of kills. Mambiri first killed a duiker and then on the same evening an impala. This is not unusual as leopards will take every opportunity they can to kill whenever they can. The impala was stolen by hyena but she managed to retrieve the duiker and take it into a tree. This has provided us with 3 days of outstanding viewing. It has also given the cub exposure to Land Rovers for prolonged periods and over this time the cub has become a lot more relaxed and is even approaching the vehicles out of curiosity. This is a good sign for our leopard viewing.

     The Wallingford and Ottawa male have been seen regularly and a few days ago, they were having a territorial confrontation. There was a lot of growling and marking of territories but no physical contact. These two wily old men obviously realized that a full confrontation with one of them getting badly hurt or even killed was not an option. From a leopard’s point of view, being a loner, they cannot afford to get injured so will only indulge in full conflict when absolutely necessary.

     A large bull elephant died on Savanna property earlier this month. Although an unfortunate happening, this provided us with some incredible viewing. Remarkably, the first animals on the carcass were Mambiri and her cub. It is not unusual for a leopard to scavenge off any carcass but it does look a bit bizarre seeing a leopard feeding off a huge bull elephant. However, she was not on the carcass for long as hoards of hyena soon found the body and turned it into a hyena restaurant for approximately 2 weeks. At any one time there were up to 25 hyena feeding on this carcass.

     Also in evidence, were over 200 vultures and with the constant squabbling between hyena and vulture, this area became a stage scene full of excitement. It was disrupted briefly when several of the male lions – the Mpogo – decided to venture south, obviously driven by their noses, as the stench became fairly strong. They chased they hyena and vultures off and then left the carcass without eating. It was obviously too high for even them to sample!

     The introduction of so many new indigenous trees into the Savanna Camp has encouraged all sorts of new birds that would not normally occur in this area.

     One species is a Mourning dove that is normally only found in the central and northern parts of Kruger Park.

     One is the Red Headed Finch which should only occur in the High veldt. This has been seen on our bird feeder in front of the Lodge. The Heuglins Robin (or its new name, White Browed Robin Chat) frequents the riverine areas has also moved in and I regard this bird as the Nightingale of Africa. It has a beautiful call which is generally heard late in the evening and early in the morning.

     On game drive a few days ago, we were lucky enough to also view quite a rare Franklin, the Shelley’s.. Although they do occur occasionally, they are not often seen. It has a very distinctive call which sounds like “ I drink your beer, I drink your beer”! It is also a beautiful Franklin as I am sure you will agree.

     Numerous breeding herds of elephant have been in evidence. A few days ago several herds all joined together making approximately 200 elephants, a huge social gathering.. It was a wondrous sighting seeing so many elephants slowly feeding and hearing the constant rumbling as they communicate making their way across a large clearing. There were elephants of all different sizes including tiny babies. We are unsure as to why they should join up like this but the huge herd will stay together for a few days before they split into their family groups again.

     The big buffalo herd came in at the beginning of the month and has not been seen since. However, we have had groups of bulls scattered around the Reserve so buffalo have not been short.

     This month we are donating seedlings to Babati Primary School. They have started a vegetable garden which the children tend as part of a project and they sell the vegetables to the parents. This brings in funds to buy equipment for the school for extra mural activities such as soccer, netball etc.

     So now with Easter behind us and winter on its way, it is a wonderful time to visit Savanna, with good game viewing and really good opportunities for photography.