Namibia/Botswana/Zambia 17

Tags

African fish-eagle, Botswana, buffalo, Cattle egret, Chacma baboon, Chobe National Park, Common waterbuck, Egyptian goose, elephant, giraffe, Goliath heron, hippo, Kasikili, leopard, Namibia, Nile crocodile, pied kingfisher, Puku, Reed cormorant, Sedudu, vervet monkey, warthog, water monitor, Water thick-knee, waterbuck, white-crowned lapwing

Wednesday afternoon, 6th March. Vervet monkeys hung around the lodge. Indeed we were advised not to leave our sliding doors open. I did go onto my balcony a couple of times to look, but I didn’t see any. These were in a common area.

After a rest it was out on the boat again, in the same direction. Some familiar wildlife and some new. One very special.

Reed cormorant

Chacma baboon

Water thick-knee

Young Nile crocodile. Looks almost benevolent.

White-crowned lapwing. This time the reason for its name can be seen.

Water monitor

The first and last time we saw this animal, a Puku

Pied kingfisher

Yes, we saw lots of elephants, but I didn’t take lots of photos

I was intrigued and, I confess, slightly amused to see this flag. I had noticed it in the morning, but this time I asked Neil for confirmation that it was indeed the Botswanan flag. ‘Why is it there?’ ‘To show that the [uninhabited] island belongs to Botswana.’ And I recalled from my previous reading that, while the boundary between Botswana (then the Bechuanaland Protectorate) and Namibia (then German South West Africa) had been settled between respectively the UK and Germany (I find myself indignant on behalf of the Africans) in 1890 as, at this point, the ‘main channel’ of the Chobe River, no determination had been made of which channel either side of this island was the main one. The two, by now independent, countries took the matter to the International Court of Justice in 1999. The ICJ studied the geography, including depth and speed of water flow, and determined that the main channel was to the north of the island, so it belonged to Botswana. At the same time it recalled to both countries that seven years previously, they had reached an accord whereby each would have unimpeded rights of way on the river on both sides of the island, known as Sedudu in Botswana and Kasikili in Namibia. Interestingly, leader Neil, Namibian, referred to it as Sedudu.

A very scarred back

African fish-eagle

Egyptian goose

Common waterbuck

Goliath heron

Buffalo and cattle egret

‘A long time’ since we’d seen a giraffe

Vervet monkey family

These last two pictures had been taken while the boat was moving fast, with, unusually, no stopping, and at a time when I would have thought we would be turning round. Yet the boat sped on, further and further from the lodge.

After a short while all became clear. A leopard! Those local boat steerers/guides keep in touch with each other!

I hadn’t given my hope of seeing a leopard – which would complete my big cat ‘list’ – a thought for days. But given this opportunity, I, like everyone else, took zillions of photos, of which here are a very few. It (I don’t know whether it was male or female) was a long way off, but once you knew where it was, there was a clear view.

At least she (no, sorry, I have to give the feline a gender) was alert, and not stretched out fast asleep

We dreaded that there might be/hoped that there would be some leopard/warthog action…

… but neither seemed very interested in the other in the event.

I moved to the upper deck of the boat, and by the time I was there, she also had moved.

Short of seeing her catch prey and dragging it up a tree (the chances of seeing that from a boat were slim to non-existent, I would imagine) this was the best possible view we could have had. From these pictures, I extract the following enlarged portraits.

It was now indeed a race to get back to the lodge before the (Chobe) national park shut. I don’t think we made it in time (there were no physical barriers) but I didn’t hear of the boatmen being fined either.

Namibia/Botswana/Zambia 15

Tags

Botswana, buffalo, Carmine bee-eater, Chobe river, Chobe Safari Lodge, Chobe Safari Park, Collared sunbird, Common myna, Dark-capped bulbul, emerald-spotted wood-dove, golden weaver, Impala, Lucky bean tree, Magpie shrike, Malachite kingfisher, Namibia, Openbill, Red-billed quelea, Schalow's turaco, tree squirrel, white-winged widowbird, Zambezi River

Tuesday 5th March. Last few hours in Namibia. During our customary pre-breakfast walk around the grounds of our lodge, the Zambezi River looks much the same as it did the evening before.

These splendid flowers are those of the Lucky bean tree.

Poor early morning light , and distance, made it difficult to get a good take on these woodland kingfishers.

Dark-capped bulbuls

On our way to a different border crossing…

Emerald-spotted wood-dove

But before getting there, we stopped for coffee at a very small lodge, with, I think, the hope of seeing a particular bird.

Not this tiny one, spotted first by me (a rare occurrence!), a collared sunbird…

but this large pigeon-sized one, very elusive high in the tree, a Schalow’s Turaco, only found immediately round here, and in the same group as the Go-away-birds.

This is the young man who showed us round. He was raising the tree squirrel, hoping to release it into nature in due course. It was very tame.

Continuing, and near the border crossing…

Malachite kingfisher

Another of those Openbills

By lunchtime we had reached the Chobe Safari Lodge, right by the Chobe Safari Park, where we were to spend two nights. I have to say, very comfortable and smart as it was, it was my least favourite resting place. It was HUGE! As a result the dining area sounded like a large works canteen, very noisy, though I had no complaint about the food. There was a large swimming pool which had many people around it, as if we were at a seaside resort. And my room, on the second floor (there hadn’t been any second floors so far) was really just a very modern, characterless, hotel room, from which this was the view, onto the Chobe River.

Not to be blamed on the lodge, but the temperature that day was the highest we were to know – 38° C max – and, with an overnight temperature of 20°C min, at last I gave in and put some air conditioning on. I had been resisting up to that point on environmental grounds.

A corridor area and part of the dining area, with, rarely, no-one else immediately around

Our leaders, being themselves visitors from Namibia, were not licensed to show us round the national park, so later in the afternoon, we went out for a drive to … another sewage works. Some good sightings though. Here are a few.

Carmine bee-eater

Magpie shrike

We kept a wary eye on this buffalo. It does not appear close because I used a lot of zoom. It appears close because it was close!

Common myna

Impala, solitary, and a long way off.

Red-billed quelea

Red-billed buffalo weaver

African Golden weaver

White-winged widowbird, related to the Red bishop.

Namibia/Botswana/Zambia 14

Tags

Bradfield's hornbill, buffalo, Caprivi Strip, Cattle egret, Darter, Egyptian goose, Grey go-away-bird, hippo, Kwandu river, Levaillant's cuckoo, Long-tailed starling, Meves's starling, Namibia, Nile crocodile, Openbill, oxpecker, reedbuck, Water thick-knee, waterbuck, weavers, White-browed robin chat, Zambezi Lodge, Zambia, zebra

Monday 4th March. Breakfast was to be at 8 a.m., we were told, preceded by a pre-breakfast walk round the grounds at 7 a.m.

Woodland kingfisher

Fascinating to see that what we have in our museum locally in the UK, as a remnant of rural transport hundreds of years ago, is still commonplace in rural Namibia. And so ecological.

I was very ‘interested’ to meet this little chap. At the time we saw him, his sound was quite normal and reasonable and pretty. At 6 a.m. … well, you didn’t need to set an alarm, and it wasn’t pretty!

Here he is again, a White-browed robin chat. My book says , ‘Considered by some as the best songster in Africa’. Hmm. His song perhaps, but definitely not his early-morning call!

Bradfield’s Hornbill

And another. They appeared to be talking to each other.

Yes, breakfast was scheduled for 8 o’clock, but they hadn’t told us it was to be on a boat cruising along the river! What a lovely surprise!

This was the double-decker boat, and it was great to be able to go to the top deck to observe the wildlife along the way after we had finished eating.

Egyptian geese

Darter

Nile crocodile

Water thick-knee. (Strictly, it’s the ankles which are thick, not the knees.)

Hippo head

Meves’s (aka long-tailed) starlings

Bushbuck

Buffalos, with cattle egret, and, I suspect, an oxpecker

After this, it was time to pack and move on from the Mahangu Lodge eastwards along the Caprivi Strip. We travelled on a main road which bisects the Caprivi Game Park, and saw some interesting wildlife on the way.

Waterbuck

Reedbuck

We stopped for lunch at a lodge overlooking the Kwandu River.

African Openbill (stork family)

The first domestic cat I had seen since leaving home. Even I, felinophile, am not convinced they have their place in the middle of so much wildlife.

We resumed our journey.

Weaver birds’ nests. There are many kinds of weavers, and many kinds of weavers’ nests.

Yup, another grey Go-away-bird

Levaillant’s cuckoo

Meat-sellers, through a rather grimy lens

In due course (we did 340 kilometres that day, temperature 36°C max) we arrived at Zambezi Lodge, on the Zambezi River. Opposite was Zambia.

From my room

As night fell

Namibia/Botswana/Zambia 13

Tags

African harrier hawk, Botswana, Caprivi Strip, Cattle egret, Darter, Drotsky's Lodge, dung beetle, Fan-tailed widowbird, Glossy ibis, Gymnogene, jacana, Lesser striped swallow, Little bee-eater, Long-toed lapwing, Mahangu Safari Lodge, Namibia, Okavango Delta, osprey, Papyrus, Pel's Fishing Owl, Red bishop, Red-billed spurfowl, Red-shouldered widowbird, saddle-billed stork, Scarlet-breasted sunbird, White-fronted Bee-eater

Sunday, 3rd March. Botswana at last, but only for a day trip for now. But first, breakfast. We always ate outdoors at Mahangu Lodge, for the three days. We did wonder where we would eat were it to rain, as we couldn’t see anything like a dining room, but the situation didn’t arise.

We set off to drive the short distance to the Botswana border to the south of the Caprivi Strip.

Lesser striped swallow

It was not long before we reached the border and went through emigration and immigration controls.

Never miss a chance to observe wildlife.

Scarlet-breasted sunbird

Everyone stood around taking photos while this hardworking dung beetle made its way over to a kerb, an impossible obstacle. With reassurance from leader Neil that it could do me no harm, I picked the beetle up and placed it where it appeared to be heading, then carefully placed its dung ball by its ‘nose’.

We moved on, into Botswana. We had just one purpose in making a day trip into a different country, which was to see a particular bird, very rare.

In due course we arrived at Drotsky’s Lodge, where we would in due course have lunch, but first we were to take a trip from there on the swamps of the neck of the Okavango Delta. The 17 of us were on two open boats, seated one person each side of a narrow gangway, with no shelter from the sun. We had been well-warned to protect ourselves as much as possible, and for me the breeze from the movement made the experience quite pleasant.

Some, by now, familiar and some less familiar birds.

White-fronted bee-eater

Little bee-eaters

African jacana

Cattle egret

Long-toed lapwings

Fan-tailed widowbird aka red-shouldered widowbird

Glossy ibis

Papyrus and a convolvulus

Gymnogene aka African harrier hawk

After a while we saw the very bird we had hoped for, a Pel’s Fishing Owl, way up in a tree by the bank of a river we were travelling on. It’s a large bird, and the colour of a ginger cat! To quote from my bird book, ‘… cinnamon underparts and rufous-brown upperparts …… Strictly nocturnal; spends the day perched in the dense foliage of a large tree ….. When flushed, flies a short distance and resettles in another tree, from where it watches the intruder.’ Which is exactly what it did while we watched it.

Having admired the magnificent bird, we meandered back along the channel, in and out of another one, and went back to the lodge for lunch.

Saddle-billed stork…

… flying off

Red bishop

Osprey

Darter

White-fronted bee-eater

I saw this in the grounds of the lodge.

Red-billed spurfowl

After lunch, retracing our route, we went back though emigration (Botswana) and immigration (Namibia) controls.

And I was pleased to see elephant on the opposite bank from Mahangu Lodge, where we were to spend our third and last night there.

By the way, if it seems that there are awful lot of birds in these posts, these are just a sample! We were given a list at the outset of 538 birds we might see, potentially, as they had been spotted on previous Naturetrek trips here in previous years. By the end of the two weeks, collectively we had seen or heard about 375 of them, and added two more to the list, one a lifetime first for leader Neil, a Red-throated twinspot. (I didn’t see it, so no chance of a photo. Indeed, I doubt if I saw half of the total myself, and I took photos of many, many fewer, concentrating mainly on the larger ones.)

Namibia/Botswana/Zambia 11

Tags

African fish-eagle, Baobab, Blue waxbill, Broad-billed roller, Burchell's glossy starling, Carmine bee-eater, Chacma baboon, Darter, dung beetle, grey hornbill, Jacobin cuckoo, Kalahari tented tortoise, kudu, Long-tailed starling, Mahango National Park, Mahangu Safari Lodge, Namibia, Nile crocodile, pearl-spotted owlet, purple-banded sunbird, Red lechwe, Red-billed spurfowl, roan antelope, Southern reedbuck, vervet monkey, warthog, Wattled crane

Saturday 2nd March. There was no wifi in our rooms at the Mahangu Lodge, only in the bar/dining area. And breakfast was not until 7 a.m. But I discovered that they served coffee from shortly after 6 a.m. there.

This morning, we went for a game drive in the Mahango Game Park. It was reasonably cool to begin with.

As I’ve said, there is elephant dung everywhere. Here are dung beetles making the most of the fact that a vehicle has already processed some.

Warthogs, youngster kneeling to feed.

Roan antelope

Warthog family

Seeing this just makes me long to be back there.

Kudu

Purple-banded sunbirds

Kalahari tented tortoise

Jacobin cuckoo

Pearl-spotted owlet

Grey hornbill

Our starling is beautiful when you really look at it. Africa’s starlings don’t need any study to show the same quality. Long-tailed starling.

Red-billed spurfowl

Burchell’s glossy starling

Broad-billed roller

Blue waxbill

Wattled cranes (‘uncommon resident’) – very far off

It was getting hot now. Paddling with these Southern reedbuck would have been very welcome!

Frustrating not to be able to capture the image of this vervet monkey more precisely, but…

… there were some of his companions across the way

African fish-eagle

Darters

Nile crocodile

Southern reedbuck

Red lechwe

Baobab tree

Chacma baboons

Carmine bee-eater

We had been out for four hours, and were ready for our lunch.

Namibia/Botswana/Zambia 10

Tags

African fish-eagle, Ayre's hawk eagle, Black-crowned night-heron, buffalo, Bushbuck, Darter, Egyptian goose, elephant, Great white egret, Grey go-away-bird, hippo, jacana, Little bee-eater, Little egret, Mahangu Safari Lodge, Malachite kingfisher, Namibia, Okavango River, Squacco heron, waterbuck, White-backed Night-heron, White-fronted Bee-eater

Friday 1st March, late afternoon cruise on the Okavango River, upstream from Mahangu Lodge. For the most part we hugged the opposite bank, which I think formed part of the national park.

As we move off, we look over to the lodge and its double-decker boat. We’re on the single decker one.

Waterbuck

Disappearing bushbuck

Malachite kingfisher, with prey

Great white egret

This very large elephant seemed extremely angry as he ripped up the grass. Anthropomorphism on my part, no doubt.

Little egret

Egyptian geese

African jacana

What a difference in light when I swing my camera to the opposite bank.

Squacco heron

Darter

White-fronted bee-eater

On the other bank, two go-away-birds

Ayre’s Hawk-eagle

Little bee-eater and White-fronted bee-eater

Little bee-eater

African jacana

Staring out at us, a juvenile Black-crowned night-heron

Buffalo

Bushbuck

African Fish-eagle

Malachite kingfisher

People were very excited to see this, an ‘uncommon resident’, a White-backed Night-heron.

The light was falling, and the boat hastened us back to the lodge. My camera had difficulty with the light level as I pointed it at these hippos, …

… and at my colleagues as they relaxed after a fascinating couple of hours. Time to look at photos rather than take them.

Namibia/Botswana/Zambia 8

Tags

Anchieta's dwarf python, black mamba, Black-croned Night-heron, Kaisosi River lodge, Namibia, Pied kingfisger, Red bishop, red-billed hornbill, Rundu, Striped mongoose, termite mound, weaver bird's nest

Thursday, 28th February. Before sunrise, all the others went off, after a coffee, for a bird-watching walk around the grounds of the Lodge. Being rather birded out, I allowed myself a few more minutes in bed, though still had had my breakfast pretty early, well before the others got back to have theirs. I filled in time by wandering round the grounds on my own in non-birdwatching mode, and then visiting the ‘Reptile Walk’ of the lodge, which had sadly seen better days.

The bar, where we had had our lunch on the two days we were there.

Trees often grow through termite mounds, apparently because of the greater fertility of the soil, and possibly their greater water content

I didn’t go looking for birds, but sometimes you just can’t avoid them. Red-billed hornbill, in still poor, early morning light.

Anchieta’s dwarf python. Quite big. actually

Black mamba. Not very big, but I’m glad there’s glass between me and it.

Later, as I went to join the vehicles to leave, this family of striped mongooses, very much at home in the grounds of the lodge, were taking advantage of the hose water.

We covered a lot of ground this day, 430 km/267 miles. It was pretty hot (35 degrees C max) , and thunderstorms threatened, never amounting to much though.

Weaver birds’ nests.

Even a refuelling stop is the opportunity for birdwatching.

Ooh, and here we are at a sewage works.

Fortunately, the problem with Jakes’s vehicle (a tyre I think) arose in a town, Tsumeb. Jakes explains it, Neil listens, and the mechanic mops his brow.

Namibia is rich in minerals.

Our lunch was taken at a Roy’s Rest Camp, whose proprietors have a wacky sense of humour!

Looks fairly normal to begin with, just a little run-down. (It gets good reviews though).

Just two examples among many of eccentricity.

The dining area seems normal, until you start noticing little curios. No pictures because I was eating…

… and then keen to get back to chat with this man. A Scot, who had lived in Australia for the last 40 years (though you’d think he’d never left Renfrewshire from his accent) who is travelling the world with just a 150 cc bike, (there in front of our right-hand vehicle), a mobile phone, and virtually no plans. Is nearly at the end of his years-long odyssey. Amazing fellow. I got this photo, with his permission, but didn’t like to ask his name.

Once we got going again, there was little time to stop for wildlife photographs, and I snatched such pictures of Namibian rural life as I could through the windows of the vehicle.

When we were nearly at our next destination, near Rundu, a dust storm arose as we went through the town. “Windows closed please!”

Shortly afterwards, we arrived at Kaisosi River Lodge on the Okavango River, with Angola on the other side.

Four rooms in this building. Mine was downstairs, in the nearer half, the river beyond.

From the riverside, No 3.

Just so peaceful after a long day’s journeying.

View from the ‘French’ window.

View from the verandah by the dining room.

But the dining room was not – yet – for us. After settling in, we went out to visit ….. a sewage works.

Homeward bound in the shower with firewood.

Black-crowned Night-herons

Red bishop. The first we had seen, but we were to see more.

Embroidery on my pillowcase. Pied kingfisher.

Namibia/Botswana/Zambia 5

Tags

black-backed jackal, Cattle egret, elephant, Etosha National Park, European bee-eater, flamingo, gemsbok, giraffe, greater flamingo, grey heron, honey badger, Impala, Kori bustard, leopard tortoise, lilac-breasted roller, Lion, Mokuti lodge, Namibia, Namutoni camp, northern black korhaan, oryx, Ostrich, Pale chanting goshawk, red-billed hornbill, red-necked falcon, Safariwise, Spotted hyena, Striped mongoose, swallow-tailed bee-eater, warthog, white rhino, Wildebeest, zebra

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?

Impala

Kori 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 hyena

At the roadside

European bee-eaters

Oryx. Answers also to the name Gemsbok

It’s not only giraffes who have to splay their legs to drink. So do impala

When 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 hornbill

Leopard tortoise

Red-necked falcons

Signs of the recent rain soon disappeared

Our first ostriches. We were to get better views in later days

Swallow-tailed bee-eater

Northern black korhaan (aka White-quilled bustard)

Adult warthog

But it was nowhere near these three little hoglets we saw later, running out of a culvert, no parent in sight

Pale chanting goshawk

Black-backed jackal

Wildebeest and cattle egrets

All 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.

Namibia/Botswana/Zambia 3

Tags

black rhino, black-backed jackal, blacksmith lapwing, elephant, Etosha National Park, Etosha Pan, glossy starling, Halali camp, Hyena, Impala, kudu, laughing dove, Lion, marabou stork, Namibia, red hartebeest, rhino, Rock kestrel, Scops owl, secretary bird, Spotted hyena, Springbok, Striped mongoose, whydah, zebra

Monday, morning, 25th February. Here is a map of Etosha National Park. “>http://a href=”https://www.etoshanationalpark.org”><img src=”https://www.etoshanationalpark.org/media/Etosha-Map2.jpg” alt=”Etosha National Park Map” title=”Etosha National Park Map”/></a>

It’s huge. Etosha Pan itself is 75 miles/120 kilometres long. This is a dried up lake, the salt from which affects the land to its south. We had entered the NP by Anderson Gate, in the middle of the Park, and Halali Camp is a little over a third of the way along the Pan to the northwest of the Gate. The map shows the many waterholes.

After a very early breakfast, we went out for a ‘game’ drive. It was not quite as light as my camera made out to begin with.

Black-backed jackal

Our first lion, a female with a nasty but healing wound. She seems to have the remains of a kill.

Springbok and Striped Mongooses

Secretary bird, the last we were to see

Our first elephant, much further off than it appears from this maximum zoom photo

The Pan in the middle ground

Rock kestrel?. No, a lesser kestrel according to BL.

And then we heard a lion was on its way. Our leaders positioned the vehicles near the pool it was thought to be heading for.

What a handsome beast!

He roared for his females. It was loud! Nothing like the gentle huffing in the following video taken from a new spot we had moved to

He stopped, examined us …

… and then moved off. We did not see his females.

We continued on our way, and I’m starting to recognise a blacksmith lapwing.

What’s that venturing its head out of a (dried up of course) culvert?…

… A spotted hyena

Another black rhino – or rather two!

When we got back to Halali Camp, it was still relatively early, and we had a couple of hours off. The Camp had no free wifi, but our vehicles did, and I spent some time in one of them (as it was being driven to get fuel and then parked somewhere in the camp) catching up with vital home political news. (For those interested in such things, I learned that THAT vote, due already for the nth time on 27th February, was being put off again for two weeks.)

Before lunch, the group walked five minutes to the waterhole a few had visited the previous evening. En route we saw in the camp grounds, among other things, …

a Cape glossy starling (we were to see many varieties of beautiful starling in the two weeks),

and an African Scops owl, trying to sleep, a bit fed up with the attention. To quote from my bird book, ‘ … its cryptic colouring makes detection difficult. This camouflage is further enhanced by its habit of depressing its fathers to appear long and thin, raising its ear tufts and half-closing its eyes, creating the illusion of a tree stump.’

Once at the waterhole, where we were comfortably seated, we saw plenty of life.

Kudu and Marabou stork

Red-billed teal

Kudu

Laughing dove and Long-tailed paradise whydahs (?)

I think this is the male of a species of Paradise whydah in transition to breeding plumage, but I’m not sure

Impalas practising. Elephant dung gets everywhere.

Marabou stork

Long-tailed Paradise-Whydahs, male and female

The pool was not empty for long

Red hartebeest

And this I how the pool was when we left for our lunch.

It had been quite a morning!

Namibia/Botswana/Zambia 2

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.

African Paradise flycatcher, a small bird with (in the male) a very long tail.

Red-crested Korhaan (id. PM and BL)

Sociable Weaver nest. It’s huge, being the nest, as its name suggests, of many birds.

Pied crow

Common Wildebeest, aka Brindled Gnu

Blue cranes, in front of Springbok

Secretary bird, about the size of a (skinny) turkey – with long legs in breeches

Crowned lapwing

I was thrilled and surprised to see a black rhino (its name has nothing to do with its colour), given that I had only ever seen one before, and that at a great distance.

Spotted thick-knee, right by the side of the road, hoping its camouflage would protect it

Red (Leiwei) hartebeest

Secretary bird

Neil spotted this at the side of the road as we were driving along, and backed up for us to have a closer look. Another creature hoping its camouflage will protect it – a Scrub hare. It didn’t move for the five minutes we were beside it. Reminds me so much of Dürer’s 1502 painting.

A troop of Springbok crossed the road in front of us.

This Flap-neck Chamaeleon is green in the pictures you see in internet searches. But here it is crossing the road, so… It had a strange rocking movement, designed to put predators off. We were worried that it might be crushed on the road, but since vehicles were few and far between, this was unlikely.

Springbok almost as far as the eye can see.

Black-backed jackal

Our first giraffe, the Southern sub-species

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.