Did I? Did I just catch it? For real?? - Lilac Breasted Roller, Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, South Africa. Wildlife photograph by Len Cokayne, finalist in the Shoot The Frame Wildlife photography award, February 2021

Finalist Wildlife · February 2021

Did I? Did I just catch it? For real?? - Lilac Breasted Roller

I was visiting the Kgalaghadi Transfrontier Park which is situated between 3 countries being South Africa, Botswana and Namibia. It was a sweltering hot December afternoon and I was sitting at a waterhole waiting in anticipation for any sign of animal activity. In my mind I visualised a Leopard or a Lion or a Cheetah lying in ambush waiting for a Springbok or even better still a Blou Wildebees to walk into the "Lions Den", so to speak. All of a sudden I heard a commotion in the big Camelthorn tree that I was sitting under. I saw a Lilac Breasted Roller very busy catching small insects and feeding its chick that was sitting very snug in its nest in a hollow of the tree. A skink was running up and down a dead log catching ants. The next moment the Lilac Breasted Roller grabbed it, flew up the tree and started bashing the poor skink from here to Timbuktu. As it is prohibited to exit your vehicle, I lied on my back looking up the tree and took this shot just after a segment of the skink's tail fell off. I was amazed when the Roller swallowed the skink whole. Phew, what a busy eventful sighting!