Posts in Category: mammal
White-faced Capuchin
White-faced Capuchin Monkey: Los Consingos Sanctuary, Costa Rica, December 2022 — There was a medium sized troop of White-faced Capuchins in the clearing around the Alexander Skutch homestead…working their way tree to tree and roof-top to roof-top. As anyone who has lived with Capuchins knows they are not good neighbors. Noisy, messy, and intrusive! Still, from a distance they are cute. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Pro and Apple Photos. ISO 400 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
Yellow-billed Oxpecker on African Buffalo
Yellow-billed Oxpecker on African Buffalo: Queen Elizabeth National Park, Uganda, August 2022 — Pretty much your classic shot of a Yellow-billed Oxpecker…and pretty much your classic portrait shot of an African or Cape Buffalo. Oxpeckers are actually parasitic on some animals, like Giraffes, where they open wounds on the animals hide to attract insects, but in the Buffalo it is a symbiotic relationship where the Oxpecker eats the insects that would eat the Buffalo. Sony Rx10iv at 526mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 100 @ f4 @ 1/640th.
Leopard in a cactus tree (Candelabra)
Not the shot I wanted of a Leopard in the Candelabra Tree, but the only one I could get. There was simply no angle from where we stopped where the cat’s eye was visible. Maybe if I had been alone I could have gotten out and walked up the road a bit and crouched lower…or at least had the driver/guide shuffle the van forward…but both the cat and my fellow travelers were suffering from the extreme heat of the Equinorial afternoon…only a few miles from the equator. The Leopard was panting as though he or she had just completed a marathon, but as you see from the very relaxed pose, it was just the heat. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 250 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
Ugandan Kob fawn by the road
After our cruise on the Kazinga Channel in Queen Elizabeth National Park, we took a short game drive, still in the southern section. We caught this Ugandan Kob fawn at the edge of the road, crossing ahead of our vehicle. All of the antelope family are graceful, elegant creatures, and no more so than when young. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 100 @ f4 @ 1/640th.
Waterbuck edition
Defassa Waterbuck: Queen Elizabeth National Park, Uganda, August 2022 — Waterbuck is common three of the National Parks we visited. These are in Queen Elizabeth National Park, and in good light for a change (at least on this trip…generally we saw them close when the sun was setting or rising…just the way it was). Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 100 and 125 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
Cape Buffalo, with stalkers.
Cape Buffalo: Kasinga Channel, Queen Elizabeth National Park, Uganda, August 2022 — as a lover of both wildlife and birds, I am always delighted to get one of each (or more than one) in a single shot. The Cape subspecies of African Buffalo that they have in Uganda seems, at least in the Kasinga Channel, to think it is a hippo…I have seen them partially submerged near the boat dock both times I have been there…in 2018 and 2022. Or maybe it is just this particular few Cape Buffalos who live right there. ? The Yellow-billed Storks were the grace note on the photo. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 100 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
Almost a non-bird post :)
On the Kazinga channel, in Queen Elizabeth National Park in Uganda, this past August, on a school or pod of hippopotamus…a Yellow-billed Oxpecker works the hippos’ backs. Almost not a bird shot at all! The density of hippos in the Kazinga Channels is as high as any waters in Africa. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 100 @ f4 @ 1/800th.
Elephant Edition: early encounter
African Elephant: Murchison Falls National Park, Uganda, August 2022 — We were on our way early on the day we moved from Murchison Falls National Park to Kibale, since it would be our longest day on the road. Still we had the safari top up. We did not want to miss our last views of Murchison and its unique habitat and wildlife. We were not yet far from the lodge when we encounter this lone bull elephant feeding at its full reach from the lower branches of a big acacia tree. Lone bulls are likely to be older bulls ejected from the herd by younger rivals, but this one, from the size of the tusks, might be a young bull speaking greener pastures between herds. It was a great encounter and I have more photos to share. Sony Rx10iv at 32mm equivalent. (Gotta love the Sony’s 24-600mm zoom which makes a range of views available with a twist. In this situation I would have hated to be “stuck” with long wildlife lens on a conventional camera.) Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 200 @ f2.8 @ 1/500th.
Elephant edition: Two more.
African Elephant, Murchison Falls National Park, Uganda, August 2022 — A couple of other sots of the most cooperative, and most photogenic, of the elephants we encountered on our way back to the lodge from the Nile River Murchison Falls tour boat. You might think the Piapiac birds riding the elephant are like Oxpeckers…but they are quite different. Oxpeckers do not ride elephants because the elephant’s hide is too thick to host ticks…and too thick for the Oxpeckers to open wounds to attract other insects…which they do, for instance, on the tender hides of giraffes. The Piapiacs are strictly hunting from the handy perch of the elephant’s back…and are aided by the fact that the elephant moving through the grass stirs up a lot of insects. It is an opportunistic relationship as opposed to the symbiotic (or parasitic in the case of the giraffes) relationship of the Oxpeckers. 🙂 Sony Rx10iv at 351mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 1600 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
Elephant Edition: Catching a ride
African Elephant: Murchison Falls National Park, Uganda, August 2022 — We came up on a second small herd of Elephants moving parallel to the road on our way back to the lodge from the boat tour on Nile in Murchison Falls National Park. A whole flock of Piapiacs were catching a ride and hunting insects put up by the elephants. Sony Rx10iv at 351mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 1600 @ f4 @ 1/500th.