A day trip to Lesotho!

My 140th country!

We met up with Drew in Zastron, it was a grueling 1,080 kms drive & on the 18th October we were up early & crossed the border into Lesotho! This was my 140th country! Delana & Drew had some work to do surveying a river. I went along to help, by carrying things & asking irritating questions!

The Makhaleng River.

Overgrazed & terrible water erosion.

This river is at 4,745 feet asl.

The work was for environmental flow requirements for the Lesotho Highlands Water Project. 

Drew, thinking about work!

Delana

Delana & Drew measuring 

river flow.

A beautiful looking river, but lots of slit

 due to constant erosion.

Egyptian Goose

African Spoonbill

Brown throated Martin

This species was common along the river,

 breeding in sandy banks.

Cape Robin

Familiar Chat

African Pipit

Common here. Mountain Pipit had yet to arrive

 on their breeding grounds.

Chestnut backed Finch-lark

Lazy Cisticola

Southern Grey headed Sparrow

Common on the hillsides & abandoned buildings

Male Red headed Finch

Flocks of up to 50 birds seen.

Bully Canary

Black throated Canary

Cinnamon breasted Rock Bunting

There were many old abandoned buildings,

 which suits this species just fine.

Enjoying a drink at Mohale's Hoek

 While they were working I did a bit of birding in the area but it was all very low key & we returned to Zastron (South Africa) late in the day. It was a very enjoyable day out though.

Photo Essay: Southern right Whale

Around 2,000 Southern right Whales spend from July to early December in shallow coastal waters off South Africa. They appear not to feed at all during this time, but display & mate & females give birth. There are also a lot of females with calves of varying ages present.

Spying!

Sometimes four animals can come together.

No one is quite sure what the purpose
 of spying actually is.

Tail sailing is particularly common. 
When they slap their tails on to the surface
 of the sea, one can hear it from up to 2 kms away.

Males also do a series of jumps sometimes nearly
 clear out of the water, in order to impress
 nearby females.

The power of these animals is truly amazing!

Due to protection the numbers are slowly increasing.

The southern hemisphere population is thought to be around 10,000 individuals & increasing around 7% annually.  The population that is in southern African waters appear to be slowly expanding northwards on both sides of the coast; regaining long lost ranges.

There appears to be little intermixing between the South African populations & other populations in South America & the Australian region.