Day 2 Sightings

We've been busy the last couple of days (peak season at the Guest Farm). No time to breathe, no time to blog.

So I started wondering: which African country has the most bird species? I looked it up today: according to Africapedia, the DRC has 1148 bird species, which puts it top of the list. Namibia is at number 26, with 619 species. Not bad considering it's a desert country (thanks to the Caprivi Strip for adding a couple of non arid species!!).

So here is our second day's list. Of note here (meaning they're more unusual sightings for us) are number 21 and number 25: the Long-billed Crombec and Temmink's courser. We were having lunch in Okaukeujo, Etosha, right next to the waterhole when a bunch of Red-eyed Bulbuls showed up. Shortly after that the Crombec appeared, apparently (I assume) attracted by the noise the Bulbuls were making as they were feeding on insects in an Acacia tree.

(For interest's sake the E behind the species stands for Etosha NP, not endangered! )

17 July

1.       Tawny Eagle (E)

2.       Greater Kestrel (E)

3.       Kori Bustard (E)

4.       Fork-tailed Drongo (E)

5.       Marico flycatcher (E)

6.       Crowned Lapwing (E)

7.       African Grey Hornbill (E)

8.       Northern Black Korhaan (E)

9.       Martial Eagle (E)

10.   Red-headed Finch (E)

11.   White-backed Vulture (E)

12.   Bateleur (E)

13.   Egyptian Goose (E)

14.   Southern Pale Chanting Goshawk (E)

15.   Ground-scraper thrush (E)

16.   Sociable Weaver (E)

17.   Pied Crow (E)

18.   Blacksmith Plover (E)

19.   White-browed Sparrow-weaver (E)

20.   Southern masked weaver (E)

21.   Long-billed crombec (E)

22.   White-bellied sunbird (E)

23.   Rock martin (E)

24.   Double-banded courser (E)

25.   Temminks courser (E)

26.   Scaly-feathered finch (E)

27.   Lilac-breasted roller (E)

28.   Purple roller (E)

29.   Common fiscal (E)

Martial Eagle - Etosha NP

                                                                          Northern Black Korhaan - Etosha NP

Anyway, back to the current day! I was sitting at one of our cattle posts today, looking out for new species and taking some photos. There was one bird that drove me absolutely crazy. It kept calling and I kept looking, but I could not for the life of me see it. I had sort of decided on Green-winged Pytilia, but could not be certain. My Sasol app had the call, but it had some minor differences (could be a local dialect?). It didn't help that the windmill was groaning behind me and that about 200 doves were coming in to drink three meters away. Finally I decided to call it a day. Got down from the blind, clambered over the fence...and right in front of me in a thorn bush was a mother Green-winged Pytilia with three juveniles. So that's number 120 on our list!

 Unfortunately, I couldn't take a good photo, but here is one Rachel took a while back in our garden of a male...

And his female...

In addition, in Etosha I had a nice sighting of a group of 15 lions. 7 Females, 7 cubs and this guy. His two brothers were nowhere to be seen.

Well, that's all for now. Will try and post more regularly.

Cheers!

Danie

Day 1 Sightings

So I guess we should have started this bloggy thing on the 16th of July 2014. As it stands we started it tonight on the 26th of August.

 isabel. cute puppy (written by my daughter, who is sitting next to me and insisted on getting her chance at writing something!).

The history in short: My wife and I met in Etosha National Park in 2004. She was doing her PhD fieldwork on Giraffe behavioral ecology and I was a Game Ranch Management practical student. We had plenty of time alone in the bush waiting for giraffe to show up, or waiting for giraffe to actually do something other than stand and chew the cud, and that's where it started. We got hooked on birds. Casually at first; a bit more intensively recently.

So this year, for no apparent reason (not quite true, but more about that later), we decided to see how many different bird species we could see in one whole year.

For those of you who are not family or friends (hopefully there are some of you!), we are helping to manage a small guest farm that belongs to our family. We offer daily trips to Etosha and thus have the chance to do a lot of birding AND other more mammalian sightings.

We started on the 16th of July 2014. So even though it is more than a month late, here are our first day's sightings:

1.       Shaft-tailed Wydah (V)

2.       African red-eyed Bul-bul (V)

3.       Cape Turtle dove (V)

4.       Namaqua dove (V)

5.       Namaqua sandgrouse (E)

6.       Black Crow (E)

7.       Yellow-billed hornbill (E)

8.       Secretary bird (E)

9.       Ostrich (E)

10.  Glossy Starling (E)

11.   Acacia-pied Barbet (E)

These are, of course, old familiars. However as I am writing this my wife called ( she was in Etosha today) and told me they had the most amazing sighting of a cheetah mother with two cubs on a kill. What's amazing about it? Etosha=2.1 million hectares. Cheetah population? 80. Like the proverbial needle in a haystack. Jayyy!

In addition to this she had a good sighting of four Lionesses crossing the road in front of her, and a welcome sighting of an old elephant bull-nicknamed Old Wide Tooth- that we met back in 2004. Good to know the old boy is still alive and well. She also saw what she thought was a dark morph of a Wahlberg's eagle which is very possible as they appear in our area during August. We won't write that one down though, cause it was back-lit and thus no positive identification could be made. :(

Well, that's all for now. More from us later.

Regards,

Danie