SUMMER BIRDING TRIP: Day Five: Chobe to Moremi

Once more the day began early, as we ate a quick breakfast before boarding our boat. We cruised up the Chobe River, scanning the banks and surrounding floodplains for wildlife. A wide variety of birds were present. White-crowned lapwings, blacksmith lapwings, African jacanas and three-banded plovers stalked the river's banks, while squacco and purple herons waited patiently for prey to swim by. Vegetation overlooking the river held a distant white-fronted bee-eater, as well as several red-eyed doves and many red-billed quelea. African fish eagles and yellow-billed kites soared over the river. Groups of impala and Chacma baboons fled to the river's banks to escape some unknown predator. When we travelled near the floodplains of the river, many Nile crocodiles and some distant puku were visible, along with spur-winged geese, African sacred ibis, various egrets and Egyptian geese. A few hippo were swimming in the river's shallower areas, with red-billed oxpeckers perched on their backs. Most importantly, on the return leg of the journey 2 giant kingfishers were seen fishing the river from its banks.

The Chobe River is the only place in southern Africa where puku are common

A few ducklings accompanied this spur-winged goose as it strode along the bank

The squacco heron is closely related to Asia's pond-herons

Red-billed oxpeckers pick ticks off their hosts, but also drink their blood

As its name suggests, the giant kingfisher is the world's largest kingfisher

Yellow-billed kites can be told apart from black kites by their yellow bills

The Egyptian goose has been introduced to Florida and Germany

Several Nile crocodiles were sunning themselves in the floodplains

The African sacred ibis was once conspecific with the Australian white ibis

This beautiful African fish eagle landed to eat from a carcass

Large amounts of impala dotted the banks of the river

After returning from the cruise, we packed our bags and left the lodge for Kasane Airport. On the way, we saw several Jameson's firefinches, a lizard buzzard, a fork-tailed drongo, many lilac-breasted rollers and a brown snake-eagle, most of which we stopped for. We also spotted a small flap-necked chameleon trying to cross the road.

The black throat-stripe of the lizard buzzard makes it easy to identify

The lilac-breasted roller is easily one of Africa's most beautiful birds

As its name suggests, the brown snake-eagle feeds mainly on snakes

The fork-tailed drongo is Botswana's only resident species of drongo

This young flap-necked chameleon was getting paler as we looked at it

We flew to Moremi Game Lodge via light aircraft. On the flight, I saw several crowned plovers along the airstrip. Many African elephants were visible while we were in the air.
When we got to the lodge, after eating and being shown to our rooms I looked around for birds. A small flock of yellow-breasted apalis, collared sunbirds and long-tailed crombecs was immediately visible, however they were far too quick for me to photograph. A terrestrial brownbul was foraging in the undergrowth. Woodland kingfishers, crested and black-collared barbets, and red-eyed doves, along with both black-collared and crested barbets, were common. A lone Burchell's starling was singing loudly from the cover of a bush. 2 African green pigeons were hiding in a nearby tree. Finally, the reeds around a small pond held nesting Holub's golden weavers. We were introduced to our guide, Letz, who would be taking us on all of our game drives and other trips.

Like most sunbirds, the collared sunbird feeds primarily on nectar

Male Holub's golden weavers attract a mate by building a nest for them

Red-eyed doves are common throughout Botswana

The call of the Woodland kingfisher is said to foretell rain

As its name suggests, the terrestrial brownbul is rarely seen high in the canopy

The black-collared barbet has a rare yellow-headed morph

African green pigeons feed mainly on fruits such as figs

Burchell's starlings were extremely common in Moremi Game Reserve

The crested barbet isn't related to Asia's barbets, being in a separate family

Ring-necked doves look similar to Eurasia's collared doves, but are much smaller

In the afternoon we went on a game drive through the reserve. With Letz's skilled guiding, we saw a wide variety of birds and animals which we would have missed. A young female leopard put on quite a show for us as it approached a group of impala, waiting patiently next to our jeep. Near a small lake, wattled cranes, marabou storks, various egrets and several red lechwe were seen. We saw a pair of lions feeding on the corpse of a baby hippo that they'd dragged into some shrubs, the male eating everything and the female left to go hungry. Some plains zebra grazed in the shade of a tree. An area of grassland held a herd of tsessebe. A variety of other birds such as Burchell's starling, Meyer's starling, white-backed and hooded vultures, tawny eagle, lilac-breasted and broad-billed rollers, among many others, were visible. Most importantly, we got crippling views of a pair of Southern ground hornbills walking across the road and disappearing into the grassland. Letz's expert guiding and eagle eyes were extremely useful and the safari was a huge success.

This young leopard hid in the grass for a while, before slowly emerging

The little bee-eater is common in much of sub-Saharan Africa

The Southern ground hornbill is the world's largest hornbill species

Unlike most storks, the Marabou stork sometimes joins vultures at carcasses

The Okavango Delta is a stronghold for the Vulnerable wattled crane

Tired, this lioness licked her paws and yawned before rolling towards us

The pattern of stripes on a zebra is unique for each individual

The hooves of red lechwe allow them to walk on muddy ground

Tsessebe are extremely swift antelope, which only a cheetah could outrun

SUMMER BIRDING TRIP: Day Four: Chobe National Park

At around 8 am in the morning, we left Victoria Falls Game Lodge and were driven to the Botswana border. Here we went through the necessary formalities with a friendly immigration officer, who greeted us with a 'G'day mate!' when he saw our Australian passports. It took only a few minutes to fill out the necessary paperwork before heading onward. I was able to see several Cape glossy starlings and a collared palm-thrush around the immigration centre, however I didn't get any photos of them. The drive towards Chobe Game Lodge was filled with birds. In particular, many beautiful lilac-breasted rollers were visible. Once in the national park, we stopped the jeep to take photos of some impala. 

Impala males often break their antlers through these fights.

This impala was quite unafraid of our jeep, happily grazing just next to it.

After fighting, this male impala looked warily at us, making sure we weren't a threat.

Upon arriving at the lodge, we were told we had around 30 minutes to wait before our rooms would be ready. I walked around the lodge, looking for birds. A boardwalk on the banks of the Chobe River produced several pied kingfishers, a distant reed cormorant and wire-tailed swallow perched on a branch and a nearby African jacana, one of my target species. Shrubs below the boardwalk sheltered 2 swamp boubous, which flew off as soon as I neared them. Striped skinks and tree squirrels were common all over the lodge. The woodland surrounding the lodge was full of supposedly 'secretive' white-browed robin-chats, which were extremely tame and sometimes flew right up to us. Large trees around the pool held violet-backed starlings, African paradise flycatchers, go-away birds, bearded woodpeckers, yellow-bellied greenbuls, dark-capped bulbuls, ring-necked doves and red-eyed doves. Around the dock, a pair of African pied wagtails strode along a table on a boat. Best of all, a pair of rare Schalow's turacos were jumping between the branches of a tree directly behind the boardwalk.

The purple upperparts of this violet-backed starling show that it is a male

The Schalow's turaco was named after ornithologist Herman Schalow

The bearded woodpecker is one of many similar woodpeckers that inhabits Botswana

The African pied wagtail is Botswana's only black-and-white species of wagtail

African jacanas are also known as Jesus birds, as they can walk on floating lilies

Subspecies wahlbergi of the striped skink is common in northern Botswana

Tree squirrels were surprisingly terrestrial, given their name

The yellow-bellied greenbul belongs to an Africa-restricted group of bulbuls

The African paradise flycatcher has a tail more than double its body length

White-browed robin-chats were a common sight around the game lodge

After relaxing in our rooms and walking around the lodge, we left on a game drive. We'd originally planned to do a boat trip, but it began to rain so we had a guided game drive instead. This turned out to work in our favour as after the rain stopped a wide variety of birds and mammals were visible. We got great views of a small pride of lions, including one cub. Chacma baboons, vervet monkeys, kudu and impala were common throughout the park. At one large waterhole, we got amazing looks at hippo grazing the land above the water and fighting in the waterhole's depths. Chobe area specialties such as trumpeter hornbill and white-crowned lapwing were seen, along with more common birds like African stonechats, lilac-breasted rollers, Cape glossy starlings, greater blue-eared starlings, helmeted guineafowl, red-billed spurfowl, broad-billed rollers, swamp boubous, spotted dikkops and even a spotted flycatcher. Along the Chobe River's banks and on the edges of the many waterholes in the park were pied and grey-headed kingfishers, water dikkops, goliath and grey herons, various egrets, blacksmith plovers, African fish-eagles and African jacanas. All in all it was an extremely successful game drive.

The African stonechat was once considered conspecific with the European stonechat

The spotted dikkop is also known as the spotted thick-knee

The goliath heron is the world's largest heron, growing up to 150 centimetres tall

Hippo have extremely sun-sensitive skin and only leave the water when it isn't sunny

Hippo are extremely territorial, using their sharp teeth to fight against each other

Lions hunt during the evenings and night, spending most of the day resting

The Cape glossy starling is common in most of southern Africa

Kudu like damp places, and the rain before our drive brought out several herds of them

The blacksmith plover's call is said to sound like metal being hammered on an anvil

Helmeted guineafowl can be eaten, but take several hours to cook

The Chobe River is the white-crowned lapwing's stronghold in Botswana

Swamp boubous belong to an African group of birds known as the bushshrikes

Chacma baboons are quite troublesome animals, sometimes breaking into unlocked houses

The grey-headed kingfisher is a somewhat uncommon migrant to Botswana

Spotted flycatchers migrate all the way from Europe to southern Africa

Vervet monkeys are common in much of southern and eastern Africa

The greater blue-eared starling's blue ear coverts tell it apart from other species

The Chobe area is the only place in Botswana where trumpeter hornbills are common

The broad-billed roller migrates to southern Africa from further north in the continent

Though African fish-eagles mostly eat fish, in some areas they prey on flamingoes

Red-billed spurfowl were common in Chobe, but we didn't see any at Victoria Falls

The water dikkop's grey-brown wings distinguish it from the spotted dikkop