It all started in the Magaliesberg

The Magaliesberg

I got my first camera while still living in Johannesburg (as a present from my wife). Our family has a small holiday house in the Magaliesberg at a place called Utopia (next to Mountain Sanctuary Park). We had some great times there and I miss it A LOT (after we moved down to Cape Town). Unfortunately my parent also moved to the Eastern Cape during the same time and now almost nobody ever goes there anymore. We'll probably have to sell it sometime soon :(

During the first visit with my camera I set it up next to the house to test the camera out. I had no way of viewing the images while we there and had to wait until we got back home in Jo'burg before I could download them. Below are some of the images I got:

Tree Squirrels (Boomeekhorings) eating sunflower seeds under a garden chair

I put out sunflower seed to attract animals and the squirrels worked in some overtime while the going was good

Vervet Monkeys (Blouape) also made their (unwelcome) appearance, but I quickly got rid of them

A Slender Mongoose (Swartkwasmuishond) was a lot more welcome to have it's share of the feast

I was pleasantly surprised to see that a second mongoose also payed the camera set a visit

During the night a Large-Spotted Genet (Rooikolmuskejaatkat) looked around for some tasty treats

It considered whether a grape is worth eating or not... and decided it is not

Not strictly "camera trapped", but worth sharing were the local Warthogs (Vlakvarke) that would come by and dig around in the dirt in front of the house.

We had to hide inside the house because the youngsters where very interested in us but their mother did not think that we where appropriate friends for her little angles

The three youngsters messing up the "garden"

The next trip I decided to leave it in a more remote area that looked good on Google Earth. The camera stayed there for about 3 weeks before I went to retrieve it. I was really excited with the results, especially because it is not in a "well protected" area.

Warthogs where the most frequent visitor to this location

A face only a mother can love

A big surprise was this Lesser Bushbaby (Nagapie) - The Moultrie D40 is rather slow and bushbabies move quickly and don't easily come down from the trees to have their pictures taken

I was very happy to photograph two beautiful Black-Backed Jackal (Rooijakkals) - Only one of them was ever in flash range, with the other one's eyes sometimes shining just outside the reach of the flash

Sniffing around for some rib bones I scattered in the grass as bait

A few Common Duiker (Duiker) also passed by the camera, usually at night

In total I photographed 8 mammal species and 3 bird species in the Magaliesberg. Unfortunately I didn't have a chance to put my camera out again because we moved down to Cape Town shortly afterwards.

Maybe one day I will have some cameras to spare and get an opportunity to go camera trapping there again :D