Sunday, 22 September 2019

Mavunje

This is a fantastic place to
 stay for a few days.

View from our camp, across the floodplain.

Our camp.


This was in our bathroom!


Elephant feeding close to
 our tent in the night.


Meyer's Parrot


Quite common in & around the camp.


The localised Hartlaub's Babbler


Collared Sunbird

The next day we had a very long drive along the Caprivi Strip & arrived at Muhenje Campsite, which is a local community site jointly run by Dan Stephens & the local people. This proved to be an excellent place to stay with both a kitchen & dining room permanently set up. All we had to do was pitch our tent.


The sundowner spot in the distance.


The recently returned Yellow billed Kite.

A branch of the Kwando River 
just opposite our camp.

Looking back to our campsite.

Delana getting in sundowner mood!


Just what the doctor ordered!

Our campsite was on the edge of the flood plain we excellent views across to the Kwando Core Area. Birding was excellent from camp & we enjoyed our sundowners at the prescribed sundowner spot.


Mudumu N.P.




Crocodiles were common in the river.






Waterbuck


Impala




There is a good population of Roan in this park
 & we saw several in a short time.


Lilac breasted Roller


Jameson's Firefinch




We only covered a small portion of the park, 
but it proved to be a delightful place to visit.





On 27th we visited Mudumu National Park for a few hours. It proved to be a scenic park, with few visitors & we enjoyed our time here without seeing anything special. 


The Kwando River at this point is very narrow,
 making navigation difficult!

Not much room to go around!

Crocodiles were also common in the river.
Red Lechwe are common here.

A young one.

Common Reedbuck

From  small boat one gets a nice low angle, 
like on these Impalas.

Open billed Stork

c300 birds were seen on this 
section of the river.

Red winged Pratincole

This species breeds here.

Little Bee-eater

Banded Martin

Very common on the floodplains here.

Brown throated Martin


Wattled Crane


This is the closest I have ever been 
to this species.


Normally very wary.


Dancing.


What a great shot!
Photo courtesy & copyright protected by
Andreas Saladin.


Around 90 Elephants in several groups
 came to the river to drink.




These two were just testing each others strength.




We then rushed back for our boat trip with Dan along the Kwando River. This was an excellent outing with 3 Situtunga seen briefly. This was a new mammal for me but didn’t manage to obtain a photograph. The highlights of this trip were the pair of Wattled Cranes & the numerous Elephants coming down to the river to drink allowing exceptionally close views.


Some nice teak woodland habitat.




Sable


Overlooking the floodplain.




Red Lechwe were common on this floodplain.


Female.


White fronted Bee-eater


Long Lagoon


There is a superb high platform here
 which gives excellent views.




Several large herds of Elephants came down
 to drink in the afternoon.







On 28th September we spent the whole day in the Kwando Core Area South. Again this proved to be a very scenic spot & with few visitors, we felt we had the entire park to ourselves. We headed slowly south close to the river doing some scenic stops in the nicely situated hides overlooking the flood plain. The Long Lagoon area & Horseshoe were both excellent & memorable.

On the Namibian/Angolan border.




Immature Bateleur






Red Lechwe

Female Reedbuck

The next day we visited the Kwando Core Area North & managed a morning in the park without seeing another vehicle! It was wilderness at its very best with plenty of plains game including large herds of Red Lechwe. We drove up to the Angola border post & looked into one of the largest conservation areas in the whole of Africa. However, most of this zone is still not completely safe to travel because of the possibility of land mines still being present. It was tantalising though!

We then had to reluctantly leave Dan’s excellent camp & drive to Livingstone Camp arriving very late.


The view from our camp. Despite being fairly dry
 it was good for game.

One morning a small group of Elephants 
were feeding by our camp.


They were close!





Plain backed Pipit


Young, notice the difference in plumage.







c200 Red Lechwe were next to the river.

Females


Young Reedbuck





There were plenty of Hippos along the river.

This Hippo probably died of natural causes.

The 30th September dawned & saw us looking out over yet another wetland, but it was bone dry! It was an excellent camp site in a beautiful location. We had some time lazing around camp & visited Nkasa Rupara National Park. This was a great spot, with huge vistas & although dry, one could see what this place would be like in the wet season. We enjoyed our short time here immensely & vowed to return & spend several days here in the future.

Best birds:

White-browed Sparrow-Weaver; Groundscraper Thrush; Three-banded Plover; Plain-backed Pipit; Grey-headed Bushshrike; European Bee-eater; Red-billed Buffalo Weaver; Water Thick-knee; Swamp Nightjar; Golden-breasted Bunting; Black-throated Canary; White-bellied Sunbird; Red-billed Oxpecker; Long-billed Crombec; Black-headed Oriole; Southern White-crowned Shrike; Magpie Shrike; Black-crowned Tchagra; Retz's Helmet-Shrike; White-crested Helmet-Shrike; Golden-tailed Woodpecker; Brown-backed Honeybird; African Hoopoe; Giant Kingfisher; White-browed Coucal; Wood Sandpiper; African Snipe; Black-bellied Bustard; Wahlberg's Eagle; White-headed Vulture; Yellow-billed Egret; Purple Heron; Squacco Heron; Green-backed Heron; Black-crowned Night Heron; White-faced Whistling Duck; Helmeted Guineafowl; Chinspot Batis; Brubru; Black-backed Puffback; Shikra; Yellow-fronted Canary; Cape Wagtail; Blue Waxbill; Jameson's Firefinch; Fan-tailed Widowbird; Southern Masked Weaver; Southern Brown-throated Weaver; African Golden Weaver; Scaly-feathered Finch; Collared Sunbird; Marico Sunbird; Scarlet-chested Sunbird; African Stonechat; White-browed Robin-Chat; Yellow-billed Oxpecker; Burchell's Starling; Cape Glossy Starling; Wattled Starling; Hartlaub's Babbler; Grey-backed Camaroptera; Yellow-breasted Apalis; Tawny-flanked Prinia; Zitting Cisticola; Rattling Cisticola; African Reed Warbler; Greater Swamp Warbler; Willow Warbler; South African Cliff Swallow; Lesser Striped Swallow; Wire-tailed Swallow; Banded Martin; Brown-throated Martin; Grey-rumped Swallow; Yellow-bellied Greenbul; Dark-capped Bulbul; Pied Crow; Fork-tailed Drongo; Swamp Boubou; Orange-breasted Bushshrike; Crested Barbet; Black-collared Barbet; Southern Yellow-billed Hornbill; Southern Red-billed Hornbill; Bradfield's Hornbill; African Grey Hornbill; Green Wood-hoopoe; Southern Carmine Bee-eater; White-fronted Bee-eater; Little Bee-eater; Swallow-tailed Bee-eater; Pied Kingfisher; Striped Kingfisher; Lilac-breasted Roller; African Palm Swift; Square-tailed Nightjar; Fiery-necked Nightjar; Western Barn Owl; African Barred Owlet; Southern White-faced Owl; African Scops Owl; Senegal Coucal; Coppery-tailed Coucal; Grey Go-away-bird; Meyer's Parrot; African Green Pigeon; Emerald-spotted Wood Dove; Cape Turtle Dove; Double-banded Sandgrouse; Yellow-throated Sandgrouse; Collared Pratincole; Common Sandpiper; Common Greenshank; African Jacana; African Wattled Lapwing; Blacksmith Lapwing; Long-toed Lapwing; Wattled Crane; African Swamphen; Black Crake; Red-necked Falcon; Dark Chanting Goshawk; African Marsh Harrier; Bateleur; White-backed Vulture; African Fish Eagle; Yellow-billed Kite; Black-shouldered Kite; African Darter; Reed Cormorant; Great White Pelican; Hamerkop; Little Egret; Slaty Egret; Great Egret; Goliath Heron; Grey Heron; Western Cattle Egret; Rufous-bellied Heron; African Sacred Ibis; Hadeda Ibis; Marabou Stork; Saddle-billed Stork; African Openbill; Yellow-billed Stork; Egyptian Goose; Spur-winged Goose; Red-billed Spurfowl

(Something went wrong,list is not in taxonomic order)!