It appears that the weather’s April Fools’ prank will be arriving a day late this year, if we do get any of the snow forecast for today. In any case, it’s dark and precipitating now, which is expected to continue all day long, so this is my big chance to get some more Africa pictures out of the queue.
I left off with pictures from our stay at the Tongole Lodge in the Nkotakhota Wildlife Reserve, so let’s continue there, and next up are this pair of tiny and brightly-colored half-collared kingfishers (Alcedo semitorquata) on the far bank of a small tributary flowing into the Bua River. They average just 7.1 inches in length while the belted kingfishers we see in Estabrook are nearly twice as long at 11-14 inches.
The bird I saw most frequently was the common bulbul, which I also saw in Lilongwe, so not nearly as exotic, but they sure do strike handsome poses.
Near the end of our stay, we all piled into the lodge’s old Toyota Landcruiser to go looking for the elephants that left their calling cards all over the dirt roads. We never did spot any, but when we drove the length of an abandoned airstrip, we did find this flock of about eight helmeted guineafowl (Numida meleagris).
We were not allowed to exit the vehicle, of course, so here’s the best closeup I could manage from my seat.
Back at the lodge, I could hardly believe my eyes when I spotted this quintet of hornbills in the tall trees across the river.
They were far beyond the useful range of my camera, but you can still make out the shape of their bills in this over-zoomed section. That makes them trumpeter hornbills (Bycanistes bucinator), and the few times I heard them call made me think that they were aptly named.
Another amazing sight I saw across the river was this mutable sun squirrel (Heliosciurus mutabilis) with a long, ringed tail.
On the last morning, as we were all packing up to head to our next location, a small troupe of vervet monkeys, like the ones we saw in Dzalanyama, came to see us off.
Since we were so close to the equator, you shouldn’t be surprise that we had lizards, and this one is either a rainbow skink (Trachylepis margaritifera) or its close cousin with an overlapping range, the African five-lined skink (Trachylepis quinquetaeniata)
Finally, I saw just one amphibian on the entire trip, and it was this small and brightly colored toad, whom I am not having any luck identifying further.
Okay, time to wrap this up, but not before I show you this darling little butterfly, which I believe is a spangled skipper (Dotta stellata).
Signs of Life in Estabrook Park 