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 craneBlack-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 legsStrutting their stuffShowing 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)HoopoePale 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 orderA gemsbok/oryx arrived, but did not yet go near the pool.Wildebeest hold backAs 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.
Tuesday 26th February. Today we were leaving Halali Camp and moving on to Mokuti Lodge at the eastern end of Etosha National Park in time for lunch, and to stay two nights. While we were waiting for our vehicles to collect us, some of us were amused to see a honey badger arrive at the row of bins opposite us, (all closed at that stage), sniff at each, and, clearly much practised, neatly flip open the lid of the end one – holding it open with its back leg to prevent it falling shut – go inside and take out this packet of meat, then calmly tear it open and eat the contents, slice by slice. It then proceeded to do exactly the same with a packet of cheese slices. Not the way you really want to observe wildlife, but a clear illustration of adaptation to human presence. They were there first!
We set off through the national park, taking our time, stopping at the roadside and waterholes, making for our new lodge.
Lilac-breasted roller?ImpalaKori bustard (BL)
I was in Jakes’s vehicle this day, and he was particularly excited to see this rhino. It is a White rhino, quite rare (and, as I discovered later, a reintroduction). ‘White’ is a corruption of, I believe, Dutch ‘wijd’, referring to its wide mouth. The White rhino also has a prominent neck hump. It is noticeably larger than the Black rhino. The Black rhino is also called the Browse rhino.
Hooded vulture (BL)Spotted hyenaAt the roadsideEuropean bee-eatersOryx. Answers also to the name GemsbokIt’s not only giraffes who have to splay their legs to drink. So do impalaWhen we saw elephant approaching from our right, we not only stopped, we backed up a little. We were clearly in the path they were going to take.
This is how near they were, even as they were going away.
When we were only a few miles from or next lodge, we stopped at Namutoni Camp, a former German colonial fort, now another government-run lodge.
There was a small museum there, and a family of striped mongooses.
But our next lodge was privately run, and a distinct notch or four up on those we had already stayed at. After a leisurely lunch, and a siesta, we were due to go out, though this was put slightly in doubt by rain, the first of only two occasions when we wondered whether our plans might be affected in this way. But the storm was brief, nothing like enough to help do anything about the drought, and we went out at the planned time.
Southern red-billed hornbillLeopard tortoiseRed-necked falcons Signs of the recent rain soon disappearedOur first ostriches. We were to get better views in later daysSwallow-tailed bee-eaterNorthern black korhaan (aka White-quilled bustard)Adult warthogBut it was nowhere near these three little hoglets we saw later, running out of a culvert, no parent in sightPale chanting goshawkBlack-backed jackalWildebeest and cattle egretsAll of life is here! Impala (as far as I can tell), zebra, giraffe, grey heron, and just two Greater flamingos. But for the drought, there would have been huge flocks of flamingo we were told. As it was, we were very lucky to see any.Although it was very warm, we had little sun all afternoon, and rain threatened much of the time, though never fulfilling its threats. Such rain as there was anywhere was very localised. This part rainbow accompanied us for a good while as we made our way back to the lodge in the late afternoon. I wondered whether its curious shape was because the sun was so high, but this theory was well disproved nine days later.
Tarangire National Park. How’s this for a view from your accommodation?
Next morning was Wednesday 17th February. Actually, I think I’ll just let these pictures, taken during our morning outing, speak for themselves. Suffice to say that if I had been sad not to have seen many elephants before this, these two days in Tarangire National Park more than made up for it – though you can never have too many elephants.
These are baobab trees. They store enormous amounts of water in their ‘trunks’, and can be centuries old.
Tawny eagles
Helmeted guinea fowl
White-headed buffalo weaver
Lilac-breasted roller
Yellow-collared lovebirds
Von der Decken’s hornbill
Superb starling
Pygmy falcons
Vervet monkey at breakfast stop, one of many such to ‘greet’ us
Wistful? Melancholy? No, pondering what mischief he can next get up to!
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