Sunlit doves in the Kgalagadi
When the sun’s rays are at a low angle in the Kgalagadi and the heat of the desert day is dissipating into the cool of the night, animals and birds come for a drink. The waterholes are busy and the unwary are in trouble. We sat by a waterhole before sundown and waited. Nothing. Well the waiting game is played best by playing it.
So we stuck around, and before long we were greeted by wave upon wave of doves. They were so numerous it seemed like 100s came and went over the period of an hour or so. Lanner falcons and red necked falcons and even jackals bide their time at these waterholes trying to snag a plump dove for dinner but no such luck this time. I was hoping to get a great shot of the feathery chaos that ensues at such an attempt but nothing happened.
It was however surreal to capture an ever-changing collage or you could call it a live mosaic of these beautiful birds as they came in to drink at the waterhole, stayed a while and left. The setting sun gave us a hint to head home and we did albeit sadly to leave such a beautiful sight.
