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Musiewild's blog

~ An occasional blog, mainly photos

Musiewild's blog

Tag Archives: hoopoe

Namibia/Botswana/Zambia 6

24 Sunday Mar 2019

Posted by Musiewild in Photography, Travel, Wildlife

≈ 14 Comments

Tags

black-backed jackal, black-winged stilt, blacksmith lapwing, Blue crane, elephant, Etosha agama, European bee-eater, gemsbok, giraffe, hoopoe, Hyena, laughing dove, lilac-breasted roller, northern black korhaan, oryx, Ostrich, Pale chanting goshawk, pearl-spotted owlet, red-eyed bulbul, vulture, Wildebeest, zebra

After as early a breakfast as the hours of Mokuti Lodge would allow, we set off for the morning’s drive.

Very near the roadside and indignant at being disturbed.
Lilac-breasted roller. I seem to have taken a lot of photos of this species. They seem to be quite co-operative. And pretty.
?
?
Risking the slight irritation of my birdy companions, I asked if we could stop for a photo of these palms, which we had seen the day before without stopping. My companions were in fact quite pleased, in the event, since …
… they spotted in one of them what we would note at the of the day as a white-backed vulture.
?
Northern black korhaan. If I were to go by my bird book I would say it might be a White-quilled bustard but that is not on our checklist, and it has a different Latin name.
Blue crane
Black-winged stilt and very blurry ‘duck’. ?Teal?
We came across a lot of ostriches.
Many, many ostriches.
A male (black) and a female (brown)
To me they seem rather sinister when you can only see necks and legs
Strutting their stuff
Showing their irritation I think. We had hung around for a while.

We stopped for unexpected mid-morning hot drinks, prepared and served by our leaders.

Any stop provides an opportunity for looking out for birds.

African red-eyed bulbul

Someone said, rather patronisingly, that this bird was far too far off for me to be able to take with my small camera. Well, ya boo shucks! Pearl-spotted owl(et). Book says ‘appears dumpy, large-headed and short-tailed’. Yup!
Laughing dove. Soooo pretty!

And we continued on our way.

European bee-eater

How leader Neil managed as he was driving along to spot this motionless creature by the side of the road, so well camouflaged against its background, I couldn’t say. ‘Experience’, they said.

Etosha Agama (lizard)
Hoopoe
Pale chanting goshawk

We arrived at a waterhole, where we were to observe wildlife drama. Wildebeest and zebra were standing around, preparing to drink, but then along came an elephant troop.

A hyena sloped off.

Indeed, two elephant troops arrived – and merged.

To take over the pool entirely. I love the way giraffe’s heads show up against a treeline.
After drinking, mud baths are in order
A gemsbok/oryx arrived, but did not yet go near the pool.
Wildebeest hold back
As do giraffe. The bolder zebra were soon ‘discouraged’.
Two of which took it out on each other.
In due course the elephants did move off…
And the first to drink in the, by now very disturbed, waters were a black-backed jackal and a blacksmith lapwing.

It was time to return to the lodge for lunch and a siesta.

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Tanzania 2

29 Monday Feb 2016

Posted by Musiewild in Cats, Photography, Travel, Wildlife

≈ 14 Comments

Tags

Blacksmith plover, cape teal, cheetah, Dik dik, dung beetle, eagle, giraffe, grey-crowned crane, hoopoe, Lion, long-crested eagle, Ndutu, northern white-crowned shrike, secretary bird, shrike, side-necked terrapin, Tanzania, Thomson's gazelle, three-banded plover, vulture, Wildebeest

After lunch, a short wander round the grounds, observing this notice

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Board near our accommodation at the lodge

and this Dik dik

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No danger, though, from this,

and a rest, it was time for another trip out in the jeeps.

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Cheetah

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Masai giraffe

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Dung beetles. The dung is the size of a tennis ball.

 

Impressed by the antics of the dung beetles, I made a video:

Vultures like being near lions, hoping to help clear up after a kill. We just liked being near lions for sheer pleasure, in this case observing adult females and cubs doing nothing very much.

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Vultures in weaver bird’s tree

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Just too cute or what?

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Lions spend most of their day sleeping

We’d now arrived at Saturday, 13th February.

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Sunrise over the plain

Lots of lions again today, but no ‘action’, despite much soliciting by the females.  We stuck around them for much of the day, breaking for breakfast after a couple of hours,

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Secretary birds

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Long-crested eagle

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Grey-crowned crane, and missis

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Northern white-crowned shrike

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expecting action of some sort when another male hove into view,

 

(but it turned out they were brothers),

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Cape teal

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Blacksmith plovers

We went back to the Lodge for lunch and a rest from the fierce sun of the middle hours of the day. Later we returned to the marshy area to see what was happening.

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Thomson’s gazelle

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Side-necked terrapin

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Three-banded plover

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Hoopoe

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Juvenile tawny eagle

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Long-crested eagle

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Grey-crowned crane

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But all the lions wanted to do was to lounge around, at least until the sun was going down (around 6 pm) and we had to be away. They are entirely unfazed by human presence, though it would not be advisable to get out of the jeep.

(To be continued)

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