This is gonna have to be quick, because it’s been a long day, it’s already late, and I am beat. As I mentioned yesterday, Anne booked us a safari for today at the fabulous Pilanesberg National Park, and it’s gonna take me days to sort through all the pictures I took, so here’s a tiny sample to give you just a taste of the place.
We saw both red-billed and yellow-billed hornbills, and this southern red-billed hornbill (Tockus rufirostris) let me have the nicer picture.
Mammals were pretty well represented there, and here’s one of several impala (Aepyceros melampus) we saw.
With all those mammals, I would have been surprised if we didn’t see any oxpeckers, and here’s one of the red-billed variety (Buphagus erythroryncha).
And, in case you don’t recognize the pattern on that “ox”, here’s a look at her face.
Finally, there were a lot of landfowl, including guinea fowl, spurfowl, and a francolin, but the one that impressed me the most was this kori bustard (Ardeotis kori), “the largest flying bird native to Africa.” The average weight of 20 males sampled in Namibia was 25 lb. “Yikes!”
Tomorrow’s another travel day, already, but I have a hope of finally getting to check out the hotel grounds before we head out in the morning. If I even have a fraction of the luck I had today, I won’t need you to wish me any.
Signs of Life in Estabrook Park 