Atlasville, 3 January 2009
Just back from an amazing 5-night stay at Kwando Safari’s Lebala Camp in the Kwando concession of northern Botswana in the Linyanti marshes area next to the border with the Caprivi Strip of Namibia.
I added 7 lifers to my southern Africa list, Red-headed Quelea, Rufous-bellied Heron, Southern Brown-throated Weaver, Chirping Cisticola, Hartlaub’s Babbler, African Crake and Dickinson’s Kestrel, the first 5 without even leaving Lebala camp! Other regional specials seen during the trip were Slaty Egret, Swamp Boubou, Senegal Coucal, Black Coucal, Red-billed Spurfowl, Burchell’s Sandgrouse and Collared Pratincole.
Day 1 began with a scheduled mid-morning flight for my wife and me, from Johannesburg to Maun in Botswana, gateway to the Okavango Delta and that part of Botswana bordering Namibia’s Caprivi Strip. After only a 1-hour wait we transferred to a small 8-seater single-engine aircraft operated by Moremi Air for the charter flight to the landing strip at Lebala. The flight lasted 85 minutes, including dropping off other passengers at the Kwara and Shinde landing strips. From Maun to Kwara our flight took us over the eastern part of the Okavango Delta, which will only reach maximum flooding levels in the winter months. Closer to Lebala the landscape changed. Although still remarkably flat there was now much more grassland to be seen, but since this is part of the greater Okavango drainage basin seasonal flooding does occur here too. (P.S. This photo shows a now disused landing strip. A search for the photo’s co-ordinates on Google Earth shows that at some point since 2008 the strip must have been flooded and become unusable. Nature has now largely reclaimed it.)
We arrived at the Lebala airstrip just after 2 pm and transferred to our dedicated game viewing vehicle for the short drive of just over 3 km to Lebala Camp. I had pre-arranged a dedicated vehicle with our own spotter and driver/guide as I know from painful previous experience that keen birdwatchers do not mix well with those who are there mainly to see the Big Five. Although only 3 km to the lodge we still managed to see a herd of Blue Wildebeest and I got my bird photography off to a start with a male Southern Red-Billed Hornbill while still at the airfield.
As our schedule called for 2 game drives each day, except for the final morning, we were shown straight to our ‘tent’ to unpack and freshen up, then it was back to our vehicle for a late afternoon drive. I added my first lifer of the trip on the way from our tent to the vehicle with this Southern Brown-throated Weaver hopping around on one of the boardwalks, one of two weaver species present with Holub’s Golden Weaver.
The drive took us on an anti-clockwise 31 km circular route to the north-west of the camp reaching a furthest point of 11 km almost due NW from the camp. On the outward leg we hugged the fringes of the marshland picking up the first of many Yellow-billed Stork, Black Heron, Squacco Heron, Water Thick-knee, Knob-billed Duck, Wood Sandpiper, Egyptian Goose, Hadada Ibis and Little Egret. Not too far from camp we had a male Southern Reedbuck on the alert watching our every move. At one flooded pan we came across a hippo carcass, not too long dead as the scavengers had made little impression on it yet, although White-backed Vulture, Marabou Stork and Spotted Hyena were already in attendance. We will return here on Day 4 and you will see what a difference 3 days of scavenging makes. In addition to the White-backed Vultures other raptors added were Hooded Vulture, Yellow-billed Kite, African Hawk-Eagle and a juvenile Bateleur. On the inward leg further west in the flat sandy grasslands we picked up species such as Pearl-spotted Owlet, Lilac-breasted Roller, Red-backed Shrike, Swainson’s Spurfowl, Green Wood Hoopoe, Magpie Shrike and Greater Blue-eared Starling. The pace of the drive was leisurely and had been deliberately timed so that we would experience our first Lebala sunset before getting back to the camp. At this time of year sunset is a few minutes after 7 pm and it is only completely dark at around 8pm. These photos were taken just a few kilometres from the camp.
The second drive of the day was a short night drive after our dinner to see what nocturnal species we might discover. It proved quite successful with two owl species, African Wood Owl and Southern White-faced Owl. Non-avian species that gave photo opportunities were Giant African Bullfrog, Flap-necked Chameleon and South African Springhare.
