Tags
African Paradise Flycatcher, black-backed jackal, Blue crane, Crowned lapwing, Etosha National Park, flap-necked chamaeleon, giraffe, Gnu, Halali camp, Namibia, Pied crow, red hartebeest, red-crested korhaan, rhino, scrub hare, secretary bird, Sociable Weaver, Spotted thick-knee, Springbok, Wildebeest
Sunday 24th February, afternoon. This trip was timed to be the end of the ‘green season’, i.e. after the rains. Everything should have been lush, in fact making ground-living creatures more difficult to see, thus the particular interest of birders in this trip. But as were told right at the outset, the region had now suffered from seven years of drought, and areas that should have been marshy, and even flooded, were not. This was not only having an adverse effect on wildlife, but farmers were losing cattle, and entering into penury. For us however, shrinking waterholes were ideal for observing wildlife, not just birds. So after leaving our lunch spot…
… we visited a couple of waterholes, though many of the following pictures were taken from the roadside on the way to our first lodge within Etosha National Park.
After a long and tiring couple of days, we were very pleased to reached the Halali Restcamp, dine, and go to bed. Except that a few of them didn’t immediately, but walked to the nearby waterhole and saw lots of elephants. And apparently missed a leopard drinking there an hour later.
tootlepedal said:
I was very pleased to be able to confirm from your pictures that the gnu was not in the least like the hartebeest.
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Musiewild said:
Pleased to have been of assistance. There will be better pictures of hartebeest!
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Olive Simpson said:
Well how very unkind to name any bird a spotted thick knee! It could get depressed. But how sad about the drought – am typing this just after watching horrifying pictures of the monsoon damage – further east but not that far away. Amazing pictures as always – many thanks for sharing! xx
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Musiewild said:
And it’s not even its knees which are thick, but its ankles! Yes, terrible weather consequences in Zimbabwe at present, and, in the other hemisphere, in Nebraska.
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susanpoozan said:
Wow, you certainly kept your eyes open as you travelled, most interesting.
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Musiewild said:
It was our leaders who kept their eyes most open!
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Bernard L said:
Dear Musiewild,
The third image of this article does not present a spotted thick-nee but a bustard, probably Lophotis ruficrista – Red-crested Korhaan, Outarde houppette in french!
(11th image) About the thick-nee, it is the knee and its joint that are swollen!
Burhinus capensis Spotted Thick-knee Œdicnème tachard in french. “Oidèma” (ancient Greek) means swelling, edema, and “cnèmè” for the leg. The french naturalist Pierre Belon (16th century) called the thick-knee “the bird with swollen legs”!
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Musiewild said:
Thanks Bernard. One of my companions has also spotted the error, so I’ll attribute the correction to you both!
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maryh said:
A splendid record of your tour – so many interesting and exciting things to see, including the rhino. I would not have known it was a black variety! What a splendid picture of the hare .
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Musiewild said:
Yes, I really loved the hare – and the Dürer ‘original’.
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Christine said:
What a variety of wildlife! The hare made me think of Dürer too. Loved the Secretary bird’s breeches. Many thanks to our very own photo reporter!
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Musiewild said:
I was astonished at the variety of wildlife myself.
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