
We received plenty of rainfall in the Ntswi Reserve that filled the winding channels at Moremi Crossing Camp during the festive season. It may not have been enough for us to ease the motorboats back out onto the waters of the Boro River, but there was an abundance of wildlife to see during walking safaris and game drives.
“Our big game did not disappoint”, reported Titus. “We managed to spot many big cats this month. Most of our sightings were in the flood open plains because of the clear view of animals from a distance”.
A coalition of four male lions was seen on a few occasions, and we encountered a leopard attempting an ambush on a breeding herd of impalas. We watched with rapt anticipation for almost an hour, but it was unsuccessful in landing prey.
We often found Small spotted genets on the hunt during the night drives. These pretty pock-marked carnivores generally forage on the ground for scorpions, spiders and small mammals (such as moles) rushing in to pounce on finding something much as a cat would.
On one beautiful morning, we found a cheetah marking its territory in an exceptional sighting and later bumped into four Spotted hyenas walking along the road.
The Ntswi Reserve is blessed with various birds that make each morning special with their sweet calls. Seagull-like cries alerted us to African Skimmers that graced us with their acrobatics this month. They flew low over the waters to the backdrop of a golden evening sky, undeterred by the pods of hippos. We also noted a healthy flock of pelicans, Giant eagle owls, Saddle-billed storks ambushing fish in the streams while Wattled cranes waded gracefully through the water.
One day, the guides counted a float of 13 crocodiles basking in the sun on the banks of the Boro River, and we also came across a southern African python (formerly known as the African rock python). The plains proved productive for general game, and we saw elephant herds, pairs of common reedbuck grazing, lots of buffalo, plus journeys of giraffe and tsessebe herds.
Though many of our guests are usually interested in the big five sightings, we loved sharing the secret lives of insects with our safari-goers this month. “We managed to spot insects like dragonflies, damselflies, ground beetles and stick insects”.
(Note: Accompanying picture is from our Kwando Photo Library which consists of all your great photo submissions over the years, it may not be the most up to date, but we felt it was worthy of a feature alongside this month’s Sightings Report!)