Thursday, April 28, 2016

On Safari....Beasts, Birds and other Beautiful Sights: Part 2 - The Birds

Part 2 - The Birds!



Our Safari was a bird-watchers dream!
Botswana is known for extensive bird life and although weren't specifically focusing on birds, we marked off almost 40 different new birds in our 'bird book' in just a couple of days

From large beauties to tiny beauties we were awed again and again at God's artistic handiwork in birds.

We didn't manage to get photographs of them all but here is a sample of what we did manage….

Red-winged Starling
- can you see the thin red stripes on his under-side

Southern Red-billed Hornbill


Blacksmith Lapwing
- these little guys were a-plenty but somehow quite difficult to get a clear photo


Pied Kingfisher


Kori Bustard
- strutting his way through the grass

Water Thick-knee 
(they remind me of two little wiry old men with hunchbacks!)

Malachite Kingfisher - a rare but most beautiful sight!


African Fish Eagle - the 'king of the beasts' of the Botswana bird world


A male and female pair of Fish Eagles - they mate for life and when one dies the other tends to grieve so much they die soon after


Egyptian Goose


Great Egret - epitome of elegance!


Brown Snake Eagle and Southern White Crowned Shrike sharing the perches on an old dead tree


Grey Heron




Southern Carmine Bee-Eater - we came across a huge dead tree with a flock of hundreds filling the branches




Yellow-billed Oxpecker - doing his good 'de-bugging' work on a giraffe


Red-billed Spurfowl


Village Indigobird



Although at Sowa Pan there were no Pelicans or Flamingoes to be seen due to the high water level since the rains were late, we did see spoonbills and a few other interesting birds.

Rufus naped Lark


Crowned lapwing at Sowa Pan



Pied Crow
- the last bird we photographed just outside our chalet at Nata Lodge.






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