Wild and wonderful

Our readers see the wildest things – and they get the photos to prove it! In this bumper edition of With My Own Eyes, we share a handful of special sightings, from waterhole dramas in the Kgalagadi to family portraits of secretive kingfishers in Plett – even a black mamba munching a bat in the Kruger!

- Toast Cortzer

In September 2024, Rob Smith came across a breeding pair of half-collared kingfishers in his hometown of Plettenberg Bay. With the help of his photographer friend, Karin Braby, they documented the pair as they mated and raised chicks.

While exploring along the Piesang River, in a forest that forms part of the Plettenberg Bay Country Club, I spotted an iridescent bird in the shadows about 20 m away – a rare half-collared kingfisher!

I returned the next morning, this time armed with my Nikon D850 and Nikon 200–400 mm lens. I found the same bird, but then another arrived – they were a pair! 1

This chance discovery turned into an eight-week assignment. I returned daily to photograph the pair. Classified as “near threatened” in South Africa, discovering a pair of half-collared kingfishers on a stream in dense forest is testament to the health of the Piesang River.

I learnt a lot about the birds during the hours I spent observing them. For example, I noticed that once one of them had caught a small fish, it would hold its catch head-first when it carried it into the burrow in the riverbank where they’d made their nest. I later found out this is the way it presents food to its mate – always head-first.

The pair’s nest was 30 m from a small pond where they hunted. About a week into the assignment, I saw the two birds mating. 2 Many an hour was spent watching as one bird would bring fish and tadpoles to its mate.

From a photographic perspective, capturing fast-flying kingfishers in a dark forest presents significant challenges. Many of these images were captured at an ISO of 25 600. I couldn’t shoot hand-held with such a heavy zoom lens, so I would lug a sturdy tripod along.

Sadly, my forest forays ended in tears – for me, that is. My entire set-up, camera and all, fell into the stream! It was right after I’d snapped the shot of the kingfisher with the frog in its beak. 3