Brown cherry on top

[Dimitri]

Saturday morning 7am my friend Lutz and I arrive on a farm near Magaliesberg. There is frost all over the place but by 9am it warmed up and the weather was very pleasant for the rest of the day.

Farm is very mountainous. Farmer farms cattle but also plants some maize and cabbage.

We walk from 7am until 4pm with a 1.5hr break for lunch in between. It's tiring work but very enjoyable. We don't have dogs at the moment so we have to cover a lot of ground to find birds.

Lutz is unlucky. The birds that flush from him offer very difficult shots or they flush too far. He returns empty handed but no less fulfilled in his heart.

I am fortunate to down 3 swainsons and 1 guinea. Frustratingly I also lose 2 downed birds and miss 2 easy shots. Sad that I don't get to see the covey of coqui partridge that we sometimes see on the farm. I hope they are still around.

We see lots of kudu and warthog spoor. I also see 3 warthogs. (Warthogs and kudu running free on an open farm an hour from JHB!! Lutz saw 2 young bulls there last year and he has seen the warthogs a number of times. We have also seen a mountain reedbuck on the farm)

I see 3 steenbuck and a pair of duiker - one of them with very good horns. A vervet monkey scoots across a ploughed field on the neighbour's farm.

We had a great day out, got lots of exercise and managed to bring home something for the pot.

On the way home we are driving passed Maropeng at about 5.15pm when I see something running along the fence parallel to the main road. I can't believe my eyes when I see it is a brown hyena!! It's the first time I have ever seen one outside of a zoo. I'm very excited and feel very privileged. We make a u-turn and stop on the side of the road 40m from the hyena. It gets all shy and lies down in the grass with only it's ears sticking out. Unfortunately it was too far and the light too murky to take a decent picture. For me, it put the cherry on top of a wonderful day out.

[mariusr]

It sounds great it just shows you be at the right time and place!

[Johan Nel]

It does indeed sound like a blessed day. I'm happy for you on your good fortune during your outing.
Regards,
JHN

[Dimitri]

It does indeed sound like a blessed day. I'm happy for you on your good fortune during your outing.
Regards,
JHN

Dankie Johan.

Ek voel baie bevooreg en geseend om sulke dae te kan beleef.

Ek was regtig BAIE opgewonde om die bruin hyena te sien. Beslis een van my hoogtepunte hierdie jaar.

Groete

Dimitri

[Johan Nel]

I have come to believe that there are quite a number of wild animals in our urban areas that will flourish even there, if we can eradicate stuff like snares and just put some thought into facilitating it. And I'm not referring to feathered game only. There is space for these animals in our green belts in and around our cities.
Regards,
JHN