Tiny Scops Owl and Honeybadger in Daylight, and other Satara Camp area wildlife

2009-07-22, Satara Rest Camp, South Africa

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Tiny Scops Owl in Daylight and Other Satara Camp pics

Got to Satara and turned into the parking lot to reception and the drive was blocked by people looking up in the tree. They would then move out of the way and we were able to park our car. Went over to see what they were looking at and were rewarded by a Scops owl, the smallest owl found in Southern Africa. It has an amazing camoufloge-it's feathers look like the tree bark and it takes some looking to find it. This particular owl is evidently a resident of Satara because it was there every day when we went for our walk.

We were fortunate that the person at the checkin desk was able to help us change our reservations for the next nights to Satara, as we had booked Shingwedzi but it was so far away.

One day on one of our walks, we saw an animal we had never seen before. Robert had moved over to one side to be in the shade when a Honey Badger came out of the bushes in front of us. We stopped to watch. The badger had evidently knocked over a trashcan and was going through it a little at a time. The first time he grabbed something out of the can and ran back to the bushes.

Robert went to see if he could see where it had gone when out it came again. This time it stayed out sticking it's head in the trashcan, pull it out, look over at us and back again. We watched this for awhile laughing at his antics.

The literature we have read on Honey Badgers is they are nocturnal and can be very aggressive. This guy did not display any of this behavior. We saw another one or the same one in a different place as we returned from an evening drive.

My other comment on the appearance of the Honey Badger. Their feet are pretty amazing looking. They look too big for an animal his size. They made me think of some of the strange creatures that are seen in Star Wars or Pirates of the Caribbean. It is as if they take some of Nature's strange creatures and create a character out of them.