Daily Archives: September 30, 2022

Elephant Edition: Early encounter 2

African Elephant: Murchison Falls National Park, Uganda, August 2022 — Another shot from our early morning elephant encounter, on our last morning in Murchison Falls National Park. A well grown male posing for us as it plucked leaves from an acacia tree. Uganda’s elephants do not tend to have the huge tusks you see in Kenya (for instance), but the herds are still recovering from the days of Idi Amin when his soldiers slaughtered many thousands for their tusks. After Amin’s overthrow, even more elephants were killed by both sides for food and profit. It has been a hard road back for Ugandan elephants. Sony Rx10iv at 91mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 640 @ f3.5 @ 1/200th.

Immature Bateleur

Immature Bateleur: Murchison Falls National Park, Uganda, August 2022 — We must have seen a dozen immature Bateleurs. The adult Bateleur is a very distinctive African Hawk-Eagle, mostly black with bright orange-red bill and cere, and deep rust between the wings on the back. Both male and female have grey wing coverts on the shoulder and the female as a grey panel across the flight feathers. Along with the short tailed, big headed look, it is a very striking and unmistakable bird. The immatures share the shape, but are plain brown with a pale bluish bill and cere. Not nearly as exciting :). Still we were always happy to see them…especially since each sighting fueled our hope of seeing an adult in the area…but we never did. 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.