DOCSLIB.ORG

Botswana with South Africa Western Cape Ext 2017 Field List.Xlsx

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Botswana with South Africa Western Cape Ext 2017 Field List.Xlsx BOTSWANA FROM DESERT TO DELTA April 11–22, 2017 SOUTH AFRICA: WESTERN CAPE EXTENSION April 21–27, 2017 Pel’s Fishing-Owl © Geoff Lockwood LEADER: GEOFF LOCKWOOD LIST COMPILED BY: GEOFF LOCKWOOD VICTOR EMANUEL NATURE TOURS, INC. 2525 WALLINGWOOD DRIVE, SUITE 1003 AUSTIN, TEXAS 78746 WWW.VENTBIRD.COM ITINERARY Botswana: From Desert to Delta April 12 Flight from Johannesburg to Maun, small plane charter to the Central Kalahari Game Reserve. April 13 Early morning game drive; birding around camp; afternoon game drive – Kalahari Plains camp. April 14 Early morning game drive; birding around camp; afternoon game drive – Kalahari Plains camp. April 15 Early morning game drive; flight to Maun and onwards to Vumbura; game drive and boat trip to Little Vumbura camp, Okavango Delta. April 16 Early morning game drive; birding around camp; afternoon game drive – Little Vumbura camp. April 17 Early morning game drive; birding around camp; afternoon game drive – Little Vumbura camp. April 18 Early breakfast, long game drive to the airstrip; flight to Jao airstrip and drive/ boat trip to Jacana Camp, Okavango Delta. April 19 Early morning boat trip/game drive on the Jao concession; birding around camp; afternoon mekoro (dug-out canoe) trip on the Jacana Camp lagoon. April 20 Early morning boat trip; birding around camp; afternoon boat trip – Jacana Camp. April 21 Early birding around camp; breakfast; boat trip/ game drive to the airstrip; charter flight to Maun and then onward to Cape Town for the Western Cape post-tour extension. Western Cape post-tour extension April 21 Evening arrival in Cape Town, drive to the Alphen Hotel in Constantia. April 22 Cape Peninsular – Constantia Neck, Hout Bay, Chapman’s Peak Drive, Cape Point and Boulders Penguin Colony. April 23 Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens (am) and False Bay Wetland Park/ Strandfontein (pm). April 24 West Coast National Park and Langebaan Lagoon. April 25 False Bay – Rooi Els, Stoney Point Penguin Reserve, Harold Porter Botanical Gardens, Reveirsonderend (Overberg), return to Cape Town via Sir Lowry’s Pass April 26 Morning at the hotel, transfer to Cape Town International for flight to Johannesburg and flights home. BOTSWANA: FROM DESERT TO DELTA April 11 –22, 2017 By Geoff Lockwood The three camps used on this itinerary were specifically chosen to provide an insight into the spectacular variety of habitats and wildlife that Botswana offers. Each offered a different facet of this amazing country — from the semi-desert of the Central Kalahari Game Reserve to the mixed woodland, floodplains, and seasonal channels in the Vumbura Concession. We wrapped up the tour in the Jao Concession, located in the northwest of the permanently flowing section of the Okavango Delta system. Our stay in the Kalahari Plains camp in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve produced wonderful sightings of a variety of larks, pipits, and cisticolas, along with great sightings of a variety of raptors —Secretary-birds, Pale Chanting Goshawks, Tawny Eagles, Lanner Falcon, Greater Kestrel, and both White-backed and Lappet-faced vultures. Birding color came in the form of the striking Crimson-breasted Shrike (or Gonolek), plus a succession of brightly-colored small finches, waxbills, and whydahs. Our first night in camp brought incredible views of a pair of Barn Owls almost touching us as they flew around outside the dining area. However, the mammals, and particularly the carnivores, made for the most memorable viewing during our stay! Who will forget sitting quietly next to a coalition of three young male Cheetahs lolling in the grass? . or the incredible, vehicle-vibrating power of a pride of 11 Lions roaring right next to our vehicle? Sightings of smaller, less common predators were also a highlight, with an African Wild Cat facing down three Black-backed Jackals, followed only minutes later by a stunning Caracal (or lynx) standing up out of the grass next to our vehicle before bounding gracefully away, making for special sightings of two small felids in a few minutes! A family of delightful Bat-eared Foxes industriously digging for beetles in the track in front of our vehicle provided yet another indelible memory of our stay. On our last night, we were treated to a spectacular thunderstorm, with lightning and crashes of thunder continuing long after we had retired to bed. Unfortunately, the strong winds had forced opened the canvas screen above the desk where I had been charging the phone I use for bird calls, thoroughly soaking the instrument —and leaving us without this useful aid for the rest of the main tour! Our flight to our next camp was via Maun and, with a fairly long wait until our onward flight to Vumbura, we were taken across the road to the Wilderness Safaris offices where we enjoyed the equivalent of “First Class Lounge” treatment. Relaxing in air-conditioned comfort and enjoying an ice-cold beer until it was time for our flight to Vumbura certainly was an unexpected pleasure! Our transfer from the air field to camp took the form of a slow game drive over flooded tracks through patches of woodland surrounded by grassy clearings, thickets, and open floodplains. It brought a variety of brightly- colored kingfishers and bee-eaters, as well as our first stunningly beautiful Lilac-breasted Roller! A short boat trip brought us to Little Vumbura camp —our home for the next 3 nights. Over the next two days we explored the mosaic of wetland and dry-land habitats in the concession, recording both new bird and mammal species. Highlights were amazing sightings of two different Leopards on game drives; the first was a mature, well-fed female that we found draped along a branch of a large Jackalberry tree. The remains of her kill —a Red Lechwe —were hidden in a bush below, but something in the grass nearby caught her attention…and she “flowed down out of the tree, moving like poured honey” and walked past only yards from our vehicle. She appeared to be stalking something, so our guide moved the vehicle to opposite where she had disappeared into the long grass. After stopping, we suddenly spotted her target, a young Common Reedbuck, lying hidden in the grass… right next to our vehicle! Tensions grew as we tracked the Leopard through the grass but, fortunately for the Reedbuck, our vehicle was parked upwind from the Leopard and was masking the scent of her intended prey. Confused, the Leopard sat up out of the grass —looking in the wrong direction —and the antelope bolted! On the game drive that evening we encountered her daughter sitting in the fork of a small tree and scanning the surrounding area for threats, or prey. As we watched, she came down and walked past less than 10 yards from the vehicle. We turned and followed, watching as she scent-sprayed bushes and clumps of grass on her route! Sightings of these gorgeous cats are always special, but we had been treated to a unique insight into their behavior on this tour! The Vumbura concession is one of the best places in the Delta to find the majestic Sable Antelope, and our sighting of a small herd of these striking rust-black and white bovids with their long, curving scimitar-shaped horns provided yet another mammal highlight of the tour. Birding was also great, with sightings of Wattled Cranes and Woolly-necked, Saddle-billed, and Marabou storks, as well as a variety of bush and water birds. A sighting of juvenile Lesser Moorhens and a juvenile Dwarf Bittern feeding together in a small rain-filled depression was an unexpected bonus, while a party of three Southern Ground Hornbills encountered on our way to the airstrip added to the growing list of birds seen. Perhaps the birding highlight —in terms of noise, behaviour, and colour —was provided by a group of three Lilac-breasted Rollers interacting and performing their amazing stall-climbs and rocking display flights while we were having morning tea. Our short flight to the Jao concession Jacana Camp gave us an aerial view of the permanent delta and the habitats we would be exploring during our stay. Most of our travel around Jacana Camp was either by boat, or in mekoro —the dug-out canoes traditionally used by locals to move about in the swamps. This proved to be a quintessential “Delta experience”—gliding quietly through the water with just the rustling-murmur of the bow wave…and getting close-up views of jewel-like Angolan and Long Reed frogs. Our mekoro trip also provided great, close views of a tiny and beautifully marked Lesser Jacana, and distant views of a Pel’s Fishing-Owl —flushed by a herd of elephants feeding around her nest tree! Other birding highlights included awesome extended scope-viewing of a pair of majestic Martial Eagles mating, and then working on their nest; numerous sightings of Dickenson’s Kestrels; several close-up views of Slaty Egrets; and some breathtaking, full-frame scope views of yet another Pel’s Fishing-Owl that allowed repeat views for the whole group —one of the best sightings ever of this Okavango icon! WESTERN CAPE EXTENSION April 21 –27, 2017 Our extension to the Western Cape seemed to have been blessed, as the places we visited either experienced gale-force winds the day before, or the day after our visit, this while we experienced near-perfect birding conditions. On our first full day in the Cape we drove around the Peninsular, starting in Hout Bay and then heading around via the scenic Chapman’s Peak drive to Cape Point. Birding was great, with amazing views of Cape Siskin, Jackal Buzzard, and Cape Sugarbird just the start of a series of endemics.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Effects of Habitat Disturbance on Distribution and Abundance Of
    EFFECTS OF HABITAT DISTURBANCE ON DISTRIBUTION AND ABUNDANCE OF PAPYRUS ENDEMIC BIRDS IN SIO PORT SWAMP, WESTERN KENYA By Stellah Nekesa Wanyonyi (B.Ed Science, Nairobi) (Reg. No. I56/80824/2012) A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Award of the Degree of Master of Science (Biology of Conservation) in the School of Biological Sciences, UNIVERSITY OF NAIROBI May 2015 i DECLARATION I declare that this thesis is my original work and has not been submitted for examination in any other University for the award of a degree. ________________________________ _______________________ Stellah Nekesa Wanyonyi Date (Reg. No. I56/80824/2012) SUPERVISORS This thesis has been submitted for examination with our approval as the university supervisors. ________________________________ _______________________ Dr. Evans Mwangi Date School of Biological Sciences, University of Nairobi ________________________________ _______________________ Prof. Nathan Gichuki Date School of Biological Sciences, University of Nairobi ii DEDICATION This thesis is dedicated to my family and the community in Sio Port swamp. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I wish to sincerely thank my supervisors; Dr. Evans Mwangi, Prof. Nathan Gichuki and Prof. Agnes Muthumbi for their effort and time to share knowledge with me. I would also like to thank the following: Mr. Martin Odino from National Museums of Kenya for working as my research assistant throughout the research period; Mr. Mutiso the plant identification specialist at the University of Nairobi Herbarium for assisting in the identification of plant specimens collected from Sio Port Swamp; Mr. Elisha Were for offering a camping site and taking me around the swamp in a canoe; Sio Port Community at large for their warm welcome.
    [Show full text]
  • Bird Checklists of the World Country Or Region: Ghana
    Avibase Page 1of 24 Col Location Date Start time Duration Distance Avibase - Bird Checklists of the World 1 Country or region: Ghana 2 Number of species: 773 3 Number of endemics: 0 4 Number of breeding endemics: 0 5 Number of globally threatened species: 26 6 Number of extinct species: 0 7 Number of introduced species: 1 8 Date last reviewed: 2019-11-10 9 10 Recommended citation: Lepage, D. 2021. Checklist of the birds of Ghana. Avibase, the world bird database. Retrieved from .https://avibase.bsc-eoc.org/checklist.jsp?lang=EN&region=gh [26/09/2021]. Make your observations count! Submit your data to ebird.
    [Show full text]
  • Avibase Page 1Of 6
    Avibase Page 1of 6 Col Location Date Start time Duration Distance Avibase - Bird Checklists of the World 1 Country or region: Bwindi Impenetrable National Park 2 Number of species: 588 3 Number of endemics: 0 4 Number of breeding endemics: 0 5 Number of introduced species: 1 Recommended citation: Lepage, D. 2021. Checklist of the birds of Bwindi Impenetrable National Park. Avibase, the world bird database. Retrieved from .https://avibase.bsc- eoc.org/checklist.jsp?lang=EN&region=ug04uu01&list=howardmoore&format=2 [12/05/2021]. Make your observations count! Submit your data to ebird.org - Legend: [x] accidental [ex] extirpated [EX] extinct [EW] extinct in the wild [E] endemic [e] endemic (country/region) Egyptian Goose Tambourine Dove Black Cuckoo Hottentot Teal Namaqua Dove African Cuckoo African Black Duck Montane Nightjar African Crake Red-billed Teal Mottled Spinetailed Swift Black Crake Comb Duck Cassin's Spinetailed Swift White-spotted Flufftail Helmeted Guineafowl Scarce Swift Buff-spotted Flufftail Crested Guineafowl African Palm Swift Red-chested Flufftail Blue Quail Alpine Swift African Finfoot Scaly Francolin Mottled Swift Grey Crowned Crane Red-necked Spurfowl White-rumped Swift Great Blue Turaco Handsome Francolin Horus Swift Eastern Grey Plantain-eater Crested Francolin Little Swift Bare-faced Go-away-bird Ring-necked Francolin African Swift Ruwenzori Turaco Little Grebe Common Swift Black-billed Turaco Speckled Pigeon Blue-headed Coucal Ross's Turaco Afep Pigeon White-browed Coucal Marabou African Olive Pigeon African Black
    [Show full text]
  • Zambia and Zimbabwe 28 Ovember – 6 December 2009
    Zambia and Zimbabwe 28 ovember – 6 December 2009 Guide: Josh Engel A Tropical Birding Custom Tour All photos taken by the guide on this tour. The Smoke that Thunders: looking down one end of the mile-long Victoria Falls. ITRODUCTIO We began this tour by seeing one of Africa’s most beautiful and sought after birds: African Pitta . After that, the rest was just details. But not really, considering we tacked on 260 more birds and loads of great mammals. We saw Zambia’s only endemic bird, Chaplin’s Barbet , as well as a number of miombo and broad-leaf specialties, including Miombo Rock-Thrush, Racket-tailed Roller, Southern Hyliota, Miombo Pied Barbet, Miombo Glossy Starling, Bradfield’s Hornbill, Pennant-winged ightjar, and Three-banded Courser. With the onset of the rainy season just before the tour, the entire area was beautifully green and was inundated with migrants, so we were able to rack up a great list of cuckoos and other migrants, including incredible looks at a male Kurrichane Buttonquail . Yet the Zambezi had not begun to rise, so Rock Pratincole still populated the river’s rocks, African Skimmer its sandbars, and Lesser Jacana and Allen’s Gallinule its grassy margins. Mammals are always a highlight of any Africa tour: this trip’s undoubted star was a leopard , while a very cooperative serval was also superb. Victoria Falls was incredible, as usual. We had no problems in Zimbabwe whatsoever, and our lodge there on the shores of the Zambezi River was absolutely stunning. The weather was perfect throughout the tour, with clouds often keeping the temperature down and occasional rains keeping bird activity high.
    [Show full text]
  • ETHIOPIA: Birding the Roof of Africa; with Southern Extension a Tropical Birding Set Departure
    ETHIOPIA: Birding the Roof of Africa; with Southern Extension A Tropical Birding Set Departure February 7 – March 1, 2010 Guide: Ken Behrens All photos taken by Ken Behrens during this trip ORIENTATION I have chosen to use a different format for this trip report. First, comes a general introduction to Ethiopia. The text of this section is largely drawn from the recently published Birding Ethiopia, authored by Keith Barnes, Christian, Boix and I. For more information on the book, check out http://www.lynxeds.com/product/birding-ethiopia. After the country introduction comes a summary of the highlights of this tour. Next comes a day-by-day itinerary. Finally, there is an annotated bird list and a mammal list. ETHIOPIA INTRODUCTION Many people imagine Ethiopia as a flat, famine- ridden desert, but this is far from the case. Ethiopia is remarkably diverse, and unexpectedly lush. This is the ʻroof of Africaʼ, holding the continentʼs largest and most contiguous mountain ranges, and some of its tallest peaks. Cleaving the mountains is the Great Rift Valley, which is dotted with beautiful lakes. Towards the borders of the country lie stretches of dry scrub that are more like the desert most people imagine. But even in this arid savanna, diversity is high, and the desert explodes into verdure during the rainy season. The diversity of Ethiopiaʼs landscapes supports a parallel diversity of birds and other wildlife, and although birds are the focus of our tour, there is much more to the country. Ethiopia is the only country in Africa that was never systematically colonized, and Rueppell’s Robin-Chat, a bird of the Ethiopian mountains.
    [Show full text]
  • Zambia and Namibia a Tropical Birding Custom Trip
    Zambia and Namibia A Tropical Birding Custom Trip October 31 to November 17, 2009 Guide: Ken Behrens All photos by Ken Behrens unless noted otherwise All Namibia and most Zambia photos taken during this trip INTRODUCTION Southern Africa offers a tremendous diversity of habitats, birds, and mammals, and this tour experienced nearly the full gamut: from the mushitus of northern Zambia, with their affinity to the great Congolese rainforests, to the bare dunes and gravel plains of the Namib desert. This was a custom tour with dual foci: a specific list of avian targets for Howard and good general mammal viewing for Diane. On both fronts, we were highly successful. We amassed a list of 479 birds, including a high proportion of Howard’s targets. Of course, this list could have been much higher, had the focus been general birding rather than target birding. ‘Mammaling’ was also fantastic, with 51 species seen. We enjoyed an incredible experience of one of the greatest gatherings of mammals on earth: a roost of straw-coloured fruit bats in Zambia that includes millions of individuals. In Namibia’s Etosha National Park, it was the end of the dry season, and any place with water had mammals in incredible concentrations. The undoubted highlight there was seeing lions 5 different times, including a pride with a freshly killed rhino and a female that chased and killed a southern oryx, then shared it with her pride. In Zambia, much of our birding was in miombo, a type of broadleaf woodland that occurs in a broad belt across south / central Africa, and that has a large set of specialty birds.
    [Show full text]
  • High Variation Reduces the Value of Feather Stable Isotope Ratios in Identifying New Wintering Areas for Aquatic Warblers Acrocephalus Paludicola in West Africa
    J. Avian Biol. 42: 342Á354, 2011 doi: 10.1111/j.1600-048X.2011.05252.x # 2011 The Authors. J. Avian Biol. # 2011 Nordic Society Oikos Subject Editor: Staffan Bensch. Received 11 June 2010, accepted 3 January 2011 High variation reduces the value of feather stable isotope ratios in identifying new wintering areas for aquatic warblers Acrocephalus paludicola in West Africa Steffen Oppel, Deborah J. Pain, Jeremy A. Lindsell, Lars Lachmann, Ibrahima Diop, Cosima Tegetmeyer, Paul F. Donald, Guy Anderson, Christopher G. R. Bowden, Franziska Tanneberger and Martin Flade S. Oppel ([email protected]), D. J. Pain, J. A. Lindsell, L. Lachman, P. F. Donald, G. Anderson and C. G. R. Bowden, Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, The Lodge, Sandy, Bedfordshire, SG19 2DL, UK. DJP also at: Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust, Slimbridge, Gloucestershire, GL2 7BT, UK. LL also at: Polish Society for the Protection of Birds (OTOP), Ul. Odrowaza 24, PL 05-270 Marki, Poland. Á I. Diop, Parc National des Oiseaux du Djoudj, SN BP80, St Louis, Senegal. Á C. Tegetmeyer, Inst. of Botany and Landscape Ecology, Univ. of Greifswald, Grimmer Str. 88, DE-17487 Greifswald, Germany. Á M. Flade, Brandenburg State Office for Environment, Dept Large Protected Areas and Regional Development, Tramper Chaussee 2, DE-16225 Eberswalde, Germany. Stable isotope analysis of feathers can be useful in the study of seasonal interactions and migratory connectivity in birds. For the PalaearcticÁAfrican migration system, however, the lack of isotope data from feathers of known origin in Africa renders the geographic assignment of birds captured on European breeding grounds to potential wintering areas problematic.
    [Show full text]
  • Species New to Cameroon and Other Interesting Bird Records
    46 Short Notes Malimbus 27 Ondřej Sedláček1, David Hořák1, Jiří Reif1 & Jan Riegert2 1Charles University, Faculty of Science, Dept Zoology, Viničná 7, CZ-128 44 Prague 2, Czech Republic. <[email protected]> 2University of South Bohemia, Faculty of Biological Sciences, Branišovská 31, CZ-370 05 České Budějovice, Czech Republic. Little Rush Warbler Bradypterus baboecala new to Plateau State, Nigeria On a field trip on 2 Oct 2004 to Panyam Fish Farm (9º25´N, 9º12´E), 70 km SSE of Jos, on the Jos Plateau in central Nigeria, a Little Rush Warbler Bradypterus baboecala was discovered, constituting a species new to Plateau State (Elgood et al. 1994, Urban et al. 1997, M. Hopkins pers. comm.). The site consists of a series of dikes containing fish ponds in a farmland landscape, the ponds being bordered of varying amounts of Typha, Phragmites and Cyperus reeds. At 7h30 the bird was heard singing while hidden in the reeds in one of the ponds. Since the song was unknown to the observers, recordings of songs and calls (Chappuis 2000) of species potentially present were played, resulting in responses from Greater Swamp Warbler Acrocephalus rufescens and Croaking Cisticola Cisticola natalensis. After a brief view of a medium-sized dark warbler, the song of Little Rush Warbler was played. It was identical to that of the bird singing in the reeds, which also responded to the playback, approaching to within 1 m. The song was distinctive: a loud series of identical, dry, single notes, accelerating and stopping abruptly. Wing-clapping was also heard, as in display flight (Urban et al.
    [Show full text]
  • List of References for Avian Distributional Database
    List of references for avian distributional database Aastrup,P. and Boertmann,D. (2009.) Biologiske beskyttelsesområder i nationalparkområdet, Nord- og Østgrønland. Faglig rapport fra DMU. Aarhus Universitet. Danmarks Miljøundersøgelser. Pp. 1-92. Accordi,I.A. and Barcellos,A. (2006). Composição da avifauna em oito áreas úmidas da Bacia Hidrográfica do Lago Guaíba, Rio Grande do Sul. Revista Brasileira de Ornitologia. 14:(2): 101-115. Accordi,I.A. (2002). New records of the Sickle-winged Nightjar, Eleothreptus anomalus (Caprimulgidae), from a Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil wetland. Ararajuba. 10:(2): 227-230. Acosta,J.C. and Murúa,F. (2001). Inventario de la avifauna del parque natural Ischigualasto, San Juan, Argentina. Nótulas Faunísticas. 3: 1-4. Adams,M.P., Cooper,J.H., and Collar,N.J. (2003). Extinct and endangered ('E&E') birds: a proposed list for collection catalogues. Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club. 123A: 338-354. Agnolin,F.L. (2009). Sobre en complejo Aratinga mitrata (Psittaciformes: Psittacidae) en el noroeste Argentino. Comentarios sistemáticos. Nótulas Faunísticas - Segunda Serie. 31: 1-5. Ahlström,P. and Mild,K. (2003.) Pipits & wagtails of Europe, Asia and North America. Identification and systematics. Christopher Helm. London, UK. Pp. 1-496. Akinpelu,A.I. (1994). Breeding seasons of three estrildid species in Ife-Ife, Nigeria. Malimbus. 16:(2): 94-99. Akinpelu,A.I. (1994). Moult and weight cycles in two species of Lonchura in Ife-Ife, Nigeria. Malimbus . 16:(2): 88-93. Aleixo,A. (1997). Composition of mixed-species bird flocks and abundance of flocking species in a semideciduous forest of southeastern Brazil. Ararajuba. 5:(1): 11-18.
    [Show full text]
  • Conservation and Ecology of Wetland Birds in Africa
    Conservation and ecology of wetland birds in Africa Submitted by Lynda Donaldson to the University of Exeter as a thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Biological Sciences, October 2017. This thesis is available for Library use on the understanding that it is copyright material and that no quotation from the thesis may be published without proper acknowledgement. I certify that all material in this thesis which is not my own work has been identified and that no material has previously been submitted and approved for the award of a degree by this or any other University. Signature: ………………………………………………………….. Abstract Conservation managers worldwide are increasingly faced with the challenges of managing and protecting fragmented landscapes, largely as a consequence of human activities. Over recent decades, ecological theory has made a significant contribution to the development of landscape-scale conservation and practice. However, recommendations accounting for what is practically achievable in the modern-day landscape are currently lacking, while criteria for conservation planning and prioritisation continue to neglect the role of habitat networks at the required spatial scale for the long-term persistence of biodiversity. In this thesis, I test and apply ideas surrounding the complexities of managing and conserving species in a landscape context, using a suite of bird species endemic to papyrus (Cyperus papyrus) swamps in East and Central Africa as a model system. In the face of large-scale habitat loss and degradation, practical measures that account for the fragmented nature of this system, the needs of multiple specialist species, and the reliance on this habitat by local people, are urgently required.
    [Show full text]
  • Malawi Trip Report 2011
    Malawi Trip Report 2011 Stanley Bustard (Denham's) in Nyika National Park 1(30) Malawi Trip Report, 30 October - 12 November 2011 A birdwatching tour perfectly arranged by Birding Africa (http://www.birdingafrica.com). Participants: Joakim, Elisabeth, Adrian (15) and Nova (10) Djerf from Östhammar, Sweden. Areas visited: Dzalanyama, Viphya Plateau, Nyika NP, Lake Malawi, Zomba and Liwonde NP. Total number of bird species recorded: 319 Total number of mammal species recorded: 23 Top 10 birds (our experience): 1. Pennant-winged Nightjar 2. Stanley Bustard (Denham's) 3. Cholo Alethe 4. Bar-tailed Trogon 5. White-winged Apalis 6. Anchieta's Sunbird 7. Livingstone's Flycatcher 8. Thick-billed Cuckoo 9. Boehm's Bee-eater 10. White-starred Robin Important literature and sound recordings: ✓ Southern African Birdfinder (Callan Cohen, Claire Spottiswoode, Jonathan Rossouw) ✓ The Birds of Malawi (Francoise Dowsett-Lemaire, Robert J. Dowsett) ✓ Birds of Africa south of the Sahara (Ian Sinclair, Peter Ryan) ✓ Bradt Guide: Malawi (Philip Briggs) ✓ The Kingdon pocket guide to African Mammals (Jonathan Kingdon) ✓ Sounds of Zambian Wildlife (Robert Stjernstedt) General about the trip: This was, with two exceptions (Zomba and Liwonde), a self catering trip. Self catering in Malawi means you bring your own food to the accommodation but get it prepared by the always present local cook and (often) his one or two assistants. This worked perfectly well in every place we stayed. All meals were thoroughly prepared and tasted very good. None of us had any stomach problems at all in the whole trip and we ate everything we was served. We do recommend this arrangement when travelling in Malawi.
    [Show full text]
  • Namibia, Botswana & Zambia
    NAMIBIA, BOTSWANA & ZAMBIA AUGUST 12–29, 2017 NAMIBIA: WALVIS BAY PRE-TRIP AUGUST 9–13, 2017 African Barred Owlet © Geoff Lockwood LEADER : G EOFF LOCKWOOD COMPILED BY: GEOFF LOCKWOOD VICTOR EMANUEL NATURE TOURS , I NC . 2525 WALLINGWOOD DRIVE , S UITE 1003 AUSTIN , TEXAS 78746 WWW.VENTBIRD.COM Victor Emanuel Nature Tours ITINERARY Pre-tour August 10 Flight to Walvis Bay; Kuiseb Delta and drive to our hotel in Swakopmund August 11 Swakop River mouth; coastal drive and Walvis Bay and the Walvis Bay Salt Works August 12 Swakopmund Salt Works, Rossmund Golf Course & Swakop River valley August 13 Early morning walk in Swakopmund; flight to Huab Lodge for the start of the main tour Main Tour August 13 Afternoon drive to a water point in the hills August 14 Early morning walk downstream; birding around the lodge then a drive upstream along the river; afternoon drive along the river August 15 Birding around the Huab Conservancy August 16 Early birding around the lodge, travel to Okaukeujo Camp, Etosha via Kamanjab August 17 Early birding in camp; drive to Okondeka contact spring, Newbrowni waterhole and Gemsbokvlakte August 18 Drive eastwards through the park to Mushara Lodge via Rietfontein waterhole, Halali Camp, Goas waterhole and Namutoni Camp August 19 Mushara Lodge to Namutoni; drive to various waterholes around camp August 20 Namutoni and surrounds (Klein Namutoni waterhole and Dikdik drive; Klein Okeivi and Tsumcor waterholes) August 21 Namutoni to Mokuti Lodge; flight to Bagani airstrip in the Caprivi; drive through the Mahango Game
    [Show full text]