Southern Africa's Beautiful Birds

Gray go-away bird

Red necked hornbills

Bee Eater

Cormorant

Fish Eagle

Gray Heron

Ostrich family

Hawk

Red billed hornbull

Heron and Ibis

Social Weavers' nest

Lilac breasted roller

Stork and friends

The Okavango Delta

the Okavango Delta from our plane

We visited 3 camps in Botswana's Okavango Delta in order to see different ecosystems and check out the camps.

First was Kwara Camp, a "wet" camp since it is right in the middle of the Delta where rising water in the late fall and winter fills the shallow channels and countless lagoons, creating pockets of low islands that harbor the animals until the floods recede.  It takes several months after the full flourish of the rainy season for the Delta to fill up as rivers carry the water to the Delta, but there is a lot of water all the time.  During the flooded season, many of the roads are impassable (and they're nearly so all year round) and boats become a common conveyance.

Rivers of the Delta

All of Botswana is flat, as you can see flying from place to place.  So, the Delta's ponds, rivers and channels are also flat and shallow.  The islands where all the animals live during the winter are only a few yards higher than the water.  In this environment, even the large cats, which don't really like water, learn to swim as cubs so they can move from place to place.

A lagoon in the Delta

Kwara Camp is one of 2 small camps (the other is Little Kwara) in the 375,000 acre Kwara Concession, so there are only 3 vehicles at a time in any one part of the Concession and very few people.  The camps in total can house 26 guests.  Unlike East Africa or the Chobe National Park in the north of Botswana, where you will find as many as 30 vehicles around a lion or leopard, here you are in blissful peace with the animals and can watch them for as long as they'll tolerate your presence before running off into the bush.

The Kwara River in the late afternoon

Sunset over the Kwara River

The camp is in a wonderful location, with a superb staff and excellent game viewing, but the tents are small and need updating.  Because there are fewer animals here than in the grasslands, you don't see the immense numbers of animals you see in Kenya and Tanzania.  Nevertheless, we saw 2 prides of lions and a group of 3 large males, at least 150 elephants scattered over the concession, lots of antelope of many kinds and dozens of Southern Giraffes.  Our last night, we saw a Serval Cat, which is nocturnal, small and rarely seen.  And the birds are plentiful and beautiful.

The elusive Serval Cat

All night, we were surrounded by the sounds of lions roaring, hippos grunting and a wonderful little frog, nicknamed the Bell Frog, singing.  The frogs sing in several different notes, sounding like bells chiming.  Each note is for a different communication, from mating to warnings.  It is like listening to tiny bells tinkling in the dark.

Banyan tree at twilight

Water lily amidst the reeds

We arrived at the camp in time for an afternoon game drive and first went in search of a pride of 2 lionesses and 5 cubs that had killed a baby giraffe that morning.  The rest of the guests in the camp had all watched as the pride killed the giraffe, only a few days old, with its umbilical cord still attached.  I'm glad I wasn't there--a wildebeest or zebra I could stand, but a baby giraffe. . . .They said it was awful to watch.  Some cried.  The mother giraffe, who had gestated the baby for 15 months, was completely frantic and helpless as the lions surrounded her baby.  But, the lion cubs were only 3 months old and they had to eat to survive.  Life in the wild is not kind.

A quick sighting was a Honey Badger, a beautiful black and white animal that looks a bit like a large skunk without the foul smell and bushy tail.  They are also rare and our view was fleeting as he skittered under a dense bush and out of sight.

Tracking a Leopard on the Hunt

Leopard hunting

At Lebala Camp, a beautiful place, but where we saw few animals, we were very lucky to spend an afternoon tracking a leopard hunting.  He did not seem to mind our vehicle following along across the bush.  We followed him for several miles while he walked, stopped, sat up staring ahead, lay down to rest and generally proceeded slowly in search of prey.

We backed off and watched from a distance when he approached his prey, a male impala grazing peacefully.  Though the leopard was downwind of the impala, it didn't take the impala long to realize there was danger in the area.  He just didn't know where to look.  And he couldn't run because he didn't know where the danger was.  For nearly an hour, we watched the impala grazing, then standing at full alert, then moving carefully a short distance away.  Meanwhile, we couldn't see the leopard hiding in the tall grass, but he was moving ever closer to the impala.

Finally the impala wandered off, too far away for the leopard to get him.  The leopard moved off in the opposite direction.  Eventually we found him again, rolling in the grass, giving himself a bath, and playing.  The photos below are the leopard, not distraught over losing his dinner, but enjoying himself before he joined the hunt again.

Photo Gallery of Southern African Animals

Warthog family

Bushbuck

Gaping crocodile

Side-striped jackal

Black-backed jackals

Kudu

Male lion resting after a meal

Elephant family en route to water

Lioness in grass

Elephant at sunset

Frightened giraffes

A Hippo Outside Our Tent

Camps in the Okavango Delta are near water--rivers, channels, ponds or lakes--that are home to hippos.  These animals spend the day in the water, mostly submerged, popping up their heads or only their eyes and nose to check out what is going on and grab some oxygen before ducking below the surface again.  This keeps them cool during the day.

But at night, the huge animals have to eat, so they lumber at rather surprising speeds out of the murky water and head for grass.  We were able to hear the hippos snorting at night, but for two  nights, we got to hear this grinding machine enjoying a lengthy meal right outside our tent door (we had a lovely deck with several steps that did not interest the hippo at all).

The sound was quite striking, much like I imagine comes from one of those machines that rips up cars.  It was a loud, grinding noise, with some violent claps from his jaws snapping around the grass, as the hippo chomped and chewed the grass, followed by lusty belches.  I think the hippo's digestion is not terribly efficient.  I gave up sleep for a few hours, not by choice, to listen to his foraging.

The next morning, the area of tall grass off our deck was mowed beautifully for about 15 feet out into the marshy grassland in front of us.  Our visitor returned the following night since there was still plenty of food left to assuage his hunger.  But, I napped in between game drives, so no problem having interrupted sleep!