Category: Game Drives

Game Drives & Wildlife

Tips For Photographing Wildlife In Nambiti

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When you’re in Nambiti, there are plenty of opportunities for close-up wildlife photography. If you are shooting with a digital SLR, make sure you’ve got special close-up lens on hand, if you’ve got a compact camera, set it to a close-up mode that will allow you to fill the frame with even the smallest of subjects.

Try and capture a wild animal’s behaviour, not just his bum as he runs away. That said, I think my parents, avid wildlife photographers, had masses of photos of animal’s bottoms – the source of much mirth to visitors who had to politely endure some excessively long slideshows of our safaris.nambiti

Always be prepared
You never know when you’ll come across an animal so have your camera switched on and ready for action.
Make sure that you have a fully charged battery and a memory card with plenty of space.

Don’t shake
Camera shake appears worse when using a telephoto – use a faster shutter speed: at least 1/750 second if you are handholding a 400 mm lens on a digital SLR with a crop sensor. You can set a slower speed if you use a monopod as this one-legged support gives stability but also allows mobility.
If you are shooting from one of the Nambiti Hills Land Rovers, make sure that the engine is switched off. Engine vibration can cause camera shake, especially if the lens is touching the body of the vehicle.(You might want to take a sandbag along with you if you’re really serious.)

Stay focused
Particularly when shooting with a telephoto lens, as this lens has a very shallow depth of field. Want your subject to be sharp? Then use a wide pattern of focus sensors to pick up a subject that isn’t just in the middle of the frame, and a predictive continuous autofocus mode if your subject is moving. (In other words, your camera will try to lock on to any moving subject and predict where the moving animal will be when you take the picture for more accurate focusing.)
If you don’t have a telephoto lens or you’re shooting with a compact camera, compose the picture so that it shows the animal in its environment rather than slap bang in the middle of the frame.

Experiment
Try panning – moving the camera during the exposure to blur the background, not the subject.
Compose your shot, combining animals, vehicles, and anything else you consider meaningful within the frame.

Shoot in the early morning and late afternoon light
Not only is this the best light, but it’s also the time when you are most likely to see animals. The blazing midday sun will send them searching for shade and mainly hidden from view.

- Siobhan, writer and avid wildlife snapshoter
- Photos by Clinton Friedman

Beautiful Kingfishers At Nambiti

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Photo by Paul Toslo

One of the most relaxing things you can do at Nambiti is go fishing. Mention it in advance, and Brett or Ross or one of the wonderful Nambiti Hills game guides will take you down to the dam or river to try your luck. The dam, to my knowledge, is full of bass so I’m sure you will get a few bites. You will also be in good company, as several hippo reside there too.

The weather is perfect right now for a little fishing trip. Not as hellishly hot as mid-summer but still warm as we head into winter. You can spend most of the day down by the water’s edge, with nothing but the sound of your line going out and the occasional call of the African Fish Eagle to interrupt your meditative state. Wild animals are likely to be grazing nearby and may venture closer for a drink or quick bathe. This is where you unwind and connect with some of the magnificence of Africa – the heat and smells and wildlife and birds and vegetation of the bush.

If you’re keen to make a meal of it, so to speak, and stay down by the water for several hours, the lodge will prepare you a snack or even deliver something tasty later on. And the chefs, I’m sure , will gladly prepare you a gourmet dinner with the fish that you catch. You can expect to be joined by a fellow fisherman, the Kingfisher. A brightly coloured bird with a large head, long sharp pointed bill, short legs and a stubby tail.

I gather there are 86 different kingfisher species throughout the world, with 18 in Africa, and 10 of those occurring in Southern and East Africa.

And they are just a small part of the beauty of being at Nambiti. If you haven’t relaxed yourself into the state of a coma by the end of your fishing session, you’ll have just enough time to try and eliminate any dreaded fishy scent, and head out with other Nambiti Hills guests on a magnificent evening game drive. A perfect end to a perfect day.

- Siobhan Gunning, writer, wildlife enthusiast, lapsed fisherwoman

Nambiti Hills, And The Wonder Of Nature

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Photo by Tony Heald

If I said I had recently seen Phacochoerus africanus at Nambiti, you’d be forgiven for thinking I was swearing. I suppose it’s not too far off someone calling one a “Pig!” They are at least related. What am I on about? The Phacochoerus africanus is in fact a warthog, which is part of the same family as the domestic pig, although its appearance is quite different.

I actually think they look really cute but they have been described as not the world’s most aesthetically pleasing animals. This is due to the fact that they have large, flat heads covered in protective bumps that could be misconstrued as warts. They have sparse wiry hair and a thickish mane on their backs. I concede, not pretty, but certainly full of character.

Whilst they look somewhat ferocious, they are mainly grazers, eating grasses and plants and using their snouts to dig or locate roots or bulbs. You will often see them at Nambiti, sometimes really close to the Nambiti Hills Private Game Lodge. Most likely, when they see you, they will just charge off. When startled, they can apparently get up to speeds of 48 kilometres an hour which is pretty impressive. Something else I learnt from one of the Nambiti Hills game guides (Joe, I think it was), was that warthogs are extremely adaptable and are capable of going for long periods without water – as much as several months in the dry season.

I am forever in awe with how in tune animals, birds and insects are with their environment and each other, and their innate ability to quickly accommodate to changing situations. As humans, we have so much to re-learn and the only way to really do this is to get back into the wild. The added benefit of doing this at Nambiti Hills is that you can get the best of both worlds: you can not only engage with mother nature, you can also experience the best of what human nature has developed – artworks, well-considered and luxurious interior design, 5-star cuisine, superlative service, and a range of wonderful creature comforts.

- Siobhan, writer and wildlife enthusiast

Eagle Owl At Nambiti Spotted

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Photo by Peter and Beverly Pickford

Going on a night drive through Nambiti Private Game Reserve is always memorable and offers its share of surprises, thrills and African romance. If you’re fortunate enough to be staying at the glorious Nambiti Hills now, you will be setting off into an increasingly chilly night, wrapped up in the back of the open Land Rover in a luxurious blanket. As you bounce along the rocky road, creatures will dart into the bushes or trees. You will likely drive past herds of wildebeest standing exposed in the savannah, and maybe need to stop for a zebra or two, ambling across the road in front of you. You may well almost rub shoulders with an elephant helping itself to fever tree leaves as you turn the corner, the sun behind sliding quickly beneath the horizon.

Then, much later, as the sky blackens and you begin your return to the lodge for massive glasses of wine at the bar followed by dinner, the creatures of the night come out. Bats, nightjars, cicadas, and many more. The game guide driving will swivel his spotlight, an arc of light swinging across the road, over the grasses and bushes on the edge, and into the trees. If you’re lucky, you will see it. The spotted eagle owl. It’s one of the smaller eagle-owl species but, that said, it still possesses an impressive one-metre wingspan. Also known as Bubo africanus, the spotted eagle owl’s plumage is heavily marked with large white spots and blotches and it has two distinctive, elongated ear tufts that point upwards.

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Photo by Frits Hoogendijk

Emerging at dusk to start hunting, the spotted eagle-owl swoops silently down from its tree perch onto its prey, either snatching it up in its talons or pursuing it on foot along the ground. It will skilfully chase and catch airborne prey such as bats, birds and insects on the wing. But it also preys on mammals, reptiles and amphibians. It is also known to eat carrion, and is often found on the roadside scavenging road kill.

With the image of this magnificent bird forever imprinted on your mind, you will continue your journey back to the welcome warmth of Nambiti Hills Private Game Lodge, where the fires will be burning in the lounge and dining areas. You will share your sightings with other guests, settle down to another magnificent 5-star meal created by Bryce and his fellow chefs, and then retire to the luxury of your executive suite from where you may still hear the haunting hoot, hoot of the spotted eagle-owl.

- Siobhan, writer, wildlife enthusiast and lousy birder

Rutting in Nambiti

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Photo by Clinton Friedman

March is traditionally the start of the rutting season in the bush. March is the month so that the calves will be born once the rains come in November after a 7-9 month gestation period. This is when the males of various herbivore species compete for territory and females.

Throughout the summer, the males have been in bachelor herds while the females form nursery herds with their young. Now the males start to break away from the bachelor herds and set up territories. They do this by scent marking in various ways. They rub their preorbital glands on trees or on the ground, they scrape their hooves on the ground and they also leave dung middens in the area.

All these scents serve to tell any other males that this area is taken and they should find another area. Then, if the females come through that area, the dominant male has the rights to them. This is when the real activity starts, as intruding males are chased away and the females are herded up to remain in the demarcated area. There are also lots of sounds associated with this time. The impala make what’s called a ‘rutting roar’ which one can’t quite picture coming from a little antelope. Guests often confuse it for a lion call. The wildebeest make a strange ‘gnu’ type sound to let the other males know of his presence.

Every season in the bush is fantastic for various reasons, but this is certainly one of the times when the bush feels very alive.

- Ross, game guide at Nambiti Hills