Signs of Life in Estabrook Park

What a difference a couple weeks can make…

The influx of migrating warblers, which was merely a trickle in Estabrook Park by the end of April, is now a flood. The bushes and trees were just crawling with them in spots, and I counted 18 species. I sure hope I get a nice sunny day to take pictures of them before they move on, but today was not that day. The breeze was stiff and the clouds were thick, but at least the rain never materialized.

Sunrise is nice and early now, so even with the cloud cover I was able to get into the park just after 5:30am, and the action was already well underway. I could hear warblers singing even before I crossed the Oak Leaf Trail. The only trick was laying eyes on them, and the breeze helped a bit by pushing the available bugs closer to the ground.

Here’s a gorgeous male bay-breasted warbler searching for insects to gobble up, right at eye level.

And here’s a male chestnut sided multitasking right beside the paved path along the crest of the bluff. Even though he was flitting about as much as any other warbler I saw this morning, that barely added some pauses to his song.

I hear that the pond was quite active during the wildlife walk yesterday, but it was a chance to take a breather this morning and see some bigger and slower birds. The pair of geese are still there, along with a pair of mallards and at least one green heron, but the big surprise was finding this lone female blue-winged teal. I don’t know how long she’s been there, but she has certainly gotten the hang of life on the pond. As I picked up some left-over fishing tackle on the west lawn, she came right over with the pair of mallards and started to preen. I have not seen that level of comfort with people from a teal before.

Other warblers along the bluff this morning include yellows, black-throated greens, magnolias, Blackburnians, redstarts, and common yellowthroats, to name a few, but the best looks I managed to get today were of this blackpoll, …

and this, ever reliable, palm warbler.

Since I have room for one more picture, here’s a stunning Black-collared Barbet (Lybius torquatus) from the Korsman Bird Sanctuary, who was no more interested in sitting for a picture than the Crested Barbet had been the morning before. Maybe that’s why they’re called “bar bets”. Almost no one ever sees one, so it’s likely that someone at a bar would take the bet that you haven’t seen one either because such an unusual looking bird can’t possibly be real. It’d be like stealing free drinks from a baby.

I see that the wind should die down a bit by tomorrow, but the clouds are scheduled to stick around, so it won’t be the morning I’m dreaming about, but maybe it will be just good enough. Time will tell.

Back home again…

Anne, Deb, and I all made it home safely today, I am happy to say, but I haven’t made it back to Estabrook Park just yet. Instead, here are a few more pictures of the amazing wildlife we got to see in Namibia.

Along with the Violet-eared Waxbill that I already showed you, there was also a more-numerous Black-faced Waxbill (Brunhilda erythronotos) feasting on seeds of the tall grasses that grow on the grounds of the Trans Kalahari Inn.

In addition to the Yellow Mongoose at Etosha National Park that I already showed you, we saw a whole family of these Banded Mongooses (Mungos mungo), and here’s a curious youngster checking me out while Mom was all business.

Besides the Kori Bustard that I already showed you at Pilanesberg National Park, we saw quite a few of these White-quilled Bustard (Afrotis afraoides) there and at Etosha.

Finally, on top of the impalas that we saw in both parks, here’s a much larger gemsbok (Oryx gazella), or South African oryx that was all by its lonesome in Etosha.

I see that it is forecast to be a little breezy tomorrow morning, but there’s not much chance of rain, so there is a good possibility that I’ll get into Estabrook at some point, and if I see anything, I’ll let you know.

South Africa says “Sala kahle!”

I had a few nice pictures from Namibia all lined up for today, but our outing to the fabulous Korsman Bird Sanctuary this morning went so well, I’ll save those others for another day. I don’t have a lot of time left to use the hotel wifi, so here are just a couple to whet your appetite.

As you might hope for a “bird sanctuary” in the middle of suburban housing, the space is well fenced off, to keep people and their pets out. That also means there is quite a bit of tall grasses and reads, which appears to be perfect habitat for the Levaillant’s Cisticola (Cisticola tinniens), of which there were plenty. At first, they were a little shy, but as the morning warmed up or they got used to our faces pressed against the fence, they started to come out and go about their day, and here’s one of the little cuties between verses of his song.

There are plenty of other pictures that I will eventually show you, but one of the prettiest has got to be this African Swamphen (Porphyrio madagascariensis). I’ve never seen one before, so it was especially kind to give me a perfect look in warm morning sunlight. Aren’t those colors just stupendous?!?!

Okay, now I’ve gotta jump in the shower, get my stuff packed up, and hustle down to the airport shuttle before Anne and Deb leave me behind.

Back in Joburg again…

We did indeed make it back to Johannesburg late yesterday afternoon, and we did get out to look around this morning, but before I start showing you those sights, let me continue chipping away at the backlog I left when I started showing you sights from Namibia.

This first handsome creature is a Blacksmith Lapwing (Vanellus armatus) that we saw at the fabulous Pilanesberg National Park. Although you may be tempted to assume that “blacksmith” is a reference to its white, black, and grey color scheme, as I was, I read that it is instead a reference to the “loud ringing “tink-tink-tink” call is uttered in series, like a blacksmith hammering on an anvil.”

I’ve been able to show you this next bird, a Helmeted Guineafowl (Numida meleagris), once before, from the Tongole Lodge in the Nkotakhota Wildlife Reserve in Malawi, but the ones here seem a little more use to people ogling their amazing appearance.

Back at the Holiday Inn, we did see one of these this morning, a Fiscal Flycatcher (Sigelus silens), but this particular one from our previous visit let me take a much nicer portrait.

Similarly, we saw a couple of these Hadada Ibises (Bostrychia hagedash) this morning, but this one, digging worms out of the lawn in front of the O. R. Tambo International Airport terminal, let me have a better look.

Finally, the most amazing new sight this morning had to be this Crested Barbet (Trachyphonus vaillantii). It’s my first barbet ever, and now that we’re acquainted, I hope it won’t be my last.

We start our flight home tomorrow, but it doesn’t leave until later in the day, so we’ve made plans to visit a nearby bird sanctuary early in the morning. Wish us luck!

But wait, there’s more…

When I wrote you last evening, I figured I’d get one more chance to stroll around the grounds of the Trans Kalahari Inn, before we headed off for the airport, but I also figured I’d seen most of what there was to see. It would appear that I was mistaken on the latter.

Almost as soon as Deb and I set out this morning we spotted this beauty perched high on an agave stalk. I figured it was yet another lilac-breasted roller, but upon closer inspection, it turns out to be my very first purple roller (Coracias naevius). Sweet!

I had actually seen this next little cutie the first time we stayed at the inn, but the picture wasn’t great, so it sure was a treat to get a second chance at a black-chested prinia (Prinia flavicans) portrait.

This was the first bird we saw when we drove into the place last time, a groundscraper thrush (Turdus litsitsirupa), so it was nice for it to reappear in time for our final departure.

After the way I gushed about the male Marico sunbird I showed you yesterday, is it any wonder that a female would show up today seeking equal time? She doesn’t have the high gloss that he does, for sure, but she’s still quite a pretty bird, don’t you think?

Finally, and now that the precedent of “equal time” has been established, here’s a male pririt batis. As with the belted kingfishers in Estabrook Park, it is the female of the species that wears the extra color on her breast.

Anne’s got some adventures lined up for us here in Johanesburg tomorrow, but I have a hope of strolling around the hotel grounds again before the festivities begin. If we find anything, I’ll be sure to let you know.

A fine Namibian sendoff…

We drove back to the Trans Kalahari Inn today from Omaruru, but before we got on the road this morning, Deb and I spent a couple of hours walking the dry Omaruru River bed, and we didn’t see much. Compared to the rest of this trip, it was a bit surprising, but I guess every outing can’t be a homerun.

Anyway, we’ve suspected that we’ve been catching glimpses of this bird for nearly the whole trip. It’s a red-billed spurfowl, and they are fast runners, despite their plump appearance. Yesterday near the Amieb Guesthouse, this individual relented and let us get a good look at it. Yup, it really is a red-billed spurfowl (Pternistis adspersus), and they don’t have a very big geographic distribution, but at least they seemed plentiful in the northwest corner of Namibia that we’ve seen.

Another fun sight at the Amieb Guesthouse was this black-faced impala (Aepyceros melampus ssp. petersi) and her calf. Deb picked up a fun pictorial bingo card of wildlife from the gift shop at Etosha National Park, and it took us until yesterday to check these off, but better late than never, right?

On the drive today, I started seeing large raptors standing atop the utility poles beside the road, and after the second one went by, I gave my passengers notice that I was going to stop for the third one, which I figured we would never see because I had just jinxed it. We must have stepped in something on our walk this morning because we hadn’t gone another 10 or 15 minutes before this beauty came into view and I hit the brakes. Happily, that didn’t spook the bird and I was able to get my first picture of a pale chanting-goshawk (Melierax canorus). Woo hoo!

After a short stop to check out downtown Windhoek, which felt like any small city, we arrived at the Trans Kalahari Inn in plenty of time for me to walk around and see if there might be anyone new since our last visit. We did catch a glimpse of this beauty, a violet-eared waxbill (Granatina granatina) last time, but I couldn’t get a picture good enough that I wouldn’t be embarrassed to show you, so thank goodness I had a second chance.

Finally, I may have caught a glimpse of this masterpiece last time, but it was just a black silhouette against the morning sky, so I can’t be sure. Anyway, I did get a good look this time, and this one turns out to be a Marico Sunbird (Cinnyris mariquensis). What a way to wrap up our visit to Namibia, eh?

Tomorrow, we drive back to the nearby airport, drop off the rental car, see how much we owe for the windshield and tire, and fly back to Joburg. Keep your fingers crossed.

Namibia is for the birds, but in a good way…

We drove from Swakopmund to Omaruru today, in the Erongo Region of central Namibia. It was real foggy in the morning when we left, so we didn’t get a chance to take one more look for wildlife at the Swakop River. The good news, however, is just as we were heading home last evening this little darling hovered right over us long enough that even I could get a nice picture. It’s a rock kestrel (Falco rupicolus), and it’s only found in Africa south of the equator.

On the way to Omaruru today, Anne wanted to stop at the Ameib Guesthouse, which is situated in the Erongo Mountain Nature Sanctuary. We saw a nice group of giraffes along the road as we drove in, and a huge troupe of baboons traveled past on the way to a watering hole, but in my opinion, the birds really stole the show today.

This first gorgeous creature is a rosy-faced lovebird (Agapornis roseicollis). Although they can be found in Phoenix, Arizona and on Maui in Hawaii, they are native to southwestern Africa.

We also met this cutie on the drive in, as it was foraging right on the edge of the road. It’s a double-banded sandgrouse (Pterocles bicinctus) and the first sandgrouse I’ve ever seen, let alone even heard of.

This masterpiece is a swallow-tailed bee-eater (Merops hirundineus) and only the third bee-eater we’ve seen, after the Madagascar bee-eater in Comoros and the blue-cheeked bee-eater in Jordan.

Finally, Deb found us our first woodpecker of the trip. This beauty is a bearded woodpecker (Chloropicus namaquus), and it “is one of the largest woodpeckers in Africa growing to a length of about 25 cm (10 in),” so I guess that made it easier for Deb to find, right?

Tomorrow we’ll look around here, which is right beside the Omaruru River, and then drive back to Windhoek to stay at the Trans Kalahari Inn for one more night. If we find anything pretty or interesting, I’ll be sure to let you know.

A Namibian sampler…

It was another stellar day here in Namibia, and my sister joined me this morning on my search for wildlife near the mouth of the Swakop River, as Anne enjoyed herself a little down time.

This first bird looks sort of like the young great blue herons we often see in Estabrook Park and the grey herons I used to show you in South Holland, but its color scheme is more rufous than blue or grey. Well, that’s because this is the very first purple heron (Ardea purpurea) I’ve ever laid eyes on, and believe me when I say that’s not for lack of trying. Ever since I learned that I could see one in South Holland, I’ve been searching for them, but always came up empty, until today. The whipped cream on top is that I got a few pictures that are not bad, despite it doing its best to stay between me and the sun. The cherry on top is that it is considered “rare” for this location and date. Ha!

As Deb and I strolled back to our lodging in town, I noticed something flitting around a flower on the grounds of some other hotel. If this little cutie looks familiar, that’s because it’s another white-eye, like the one we just saw in Joburg, but this one has “peach-colored underparts”, instead of “gray or green underparts”, and so is an Orange River white-eye (Zosterops pallidus). Sweet!

Now for a little more catching up on the wildlife we got to see in Etosha National Park. This little darling is a yellow mongoose (Cynictis penicillata) that we saw on our first day there.

Here it is again getting a good look around.

Finally, our big activity for today was hiking up Dune 7, which is supposed to be the highest Dune in Namibia and one of the top 10 highest dunes in the world. In any case, the view from the top was fantastic, and it included this little rascal, a shovel-snouted lizard (Meroles anchietae) “also known commonly as Anchieta’s desert lizard, Anchieta’s dune lizard and the Namib sand-diver.” Here it is holding its tail and tootsie toes off the hot sand for a moment.

Lastly, we start our journey back towards Joburg tomorrow, but it’s gonna take us a couple of days, so we expect the amazing new sights to continue for a while.

More Etosha and some Walvis Bay…

It was another fine day in Namibia, and the only driving on the schedule today was just 30 minutes on a paved road down the coast from Swakopmund to Walvis Bay to see its famous lagoon and surrounding wetlands, which “are one of the most important coastal wetlands of southern Africa.”

Before we get to that, however, let me show you a couple more sights from Etosha National Park before I forget about them. This first one came pretty early on Saturday as we were driving ourselves through the park. I was just driving along and trying to stay out of the ruts when suddenly both Anne and Deb shouted at the same time, “Stop, Stop, Stop!” I slammed on the brakes, and once the car had skidded to a stop, I slowly backed it up to find this magnificent creature right at eye-level and just 20 feet off the road. It looks quite similar to the great horned owls, of which we’ve seen a lot in Estabrook Park, but this is our very first spotted eagle-owl (Bubo africanus).

We saw several secretarybirds (Sagittarius serpentarius), but they tended to be out in the field a bit, and the air wiggling over the ground heated by the midday sun really made clear pictures hard, if not impossible, to get. This one, thankfully, found something closer to the road so that I was finally able to get a presentable picture.

This next beauty really needs no introduction, but here are the specifics, just in case. She is a female lion (Panthera leo), and we were lucky enough to be just the second vehicle to come across her resting in the shade maybe 50 feet from the road. As you might imagine, word soon spread that a lion was visible not far from the road, and we were glad to be gone before the crowds showed up. I will give Etosha credit, however, for very strictly enforcing both the “no driving off the roads” and “no getting out of cars” rules.

This stunner, a cape starling (Lamprotornis nitens), was right on the lawn outside the headquarters to grab a drink of water from the leaky irrigation system. Clever bird! I normally don’t crop out parts of birds, as you may have observed, but I was standing so close to this one, that my lens only captured the front half of it. I could have used one of the several other pictures I took, but this one was the crispest, by far, so here we are.

On to Walvis Bay, where the lagoon and wetlands did not disappoint. One of the highlights has to be the huge number of greater flamingos (Phoenicopterus roseus) feeding in the shallow water, but I thought it might be easier to get a sense of the numbers in this shot of them flying by. The image has plenty of resolution in reserve, so if you wanted to click on it so you could zoom in on flickr, it would be worth your while.

Finally, back in Swakopmund, we hiked to the south end of town to see where the Swakop River would empty into the Atlantic, if there was enough water in it. We saw a few nice sights yesterday, including Cape teals, and a three-banded plover, but the highlight of this afternoon was this handsome pair of South African shelducks (Tadorna cana). They are huge ducks, and when we first glimpsed them, I figured that he was an Egyptian goose, which we had seen up at Etosha, and my best guess for her, with that white head, was a hybrid with some white, domestic waterfowl. Thus, you can imagine my joy at discovering that both of my guesses were wrong and they were fine specimens of their very own species instead. Woo hoo!

Tomorrow, we’re scheduled to go check out “Dune 7”, which gets ranked among the top 10 highest sand dunes in the world, so that could be interesting.

Swakopmund to the rescue!

As I hope you have already surmised, the internet was out again yesterday, at the otherwise wonderful Mondjila Safari Camp. The good news is that we had two great days in the Etosha National Park, and then we drove southwest today to Swakopmund, on the Atlantic coast and the second largest city in Namibia, and the internet appears to be working just fine here.

The driving has been fascinating. We’ve been on gravel roads a lot, we got a flat in Etosha, just as we were hustling to get out of the park before they locked the gates at sunset, and we got a nice chip in the windshield as an oncoming truck barreled passed us on a gravel road today. We should definitely have sprung for the extra windshield and tire insurance they offered. Oh well.

Anyway, the wildlife continues to be amazing, and here’s a darling pririt batis, pririt puff-back flycatcher, or just pririt puffback (Batis pririt) that was just outside our cabin in Windhoek before we drove up to Etosha. I saw one there, too, but this picture is definitely the best of the bunch.

When we first arrived at the Mondjila Safari Camp, we were warned that driving could be tough in the park, and so we accepted the offered guided safari ride on fancy seats in the back of a pickup truck. We saw rhinos, giraffes, elephants, zebras, and wildebeests, of which I’m sure you’ve already seen plenty of pictures, but a favorite of mine was this black-backed jackal (Lupulella mesomelas) that Deb spotted as the guide drove right by.

One of the most common birds in the park, besides little brown birds pecking at seeds and gravel on the roads, were these gorgeous black-winged kites (Elanus caeruleus), of which we saw at least a dozen.

Back at the camp, as I tried for a repeat of the owlet encounter, I came across this tiny Anchieta’s agama or western rock agama (Agama anchietae), instead. I’d say its body was about the size of my middle finger, and it seemed sleepy. I had to time my shots for the moments when it opened its eye.

Finally, the most colorful sight in Etosha has to be the lilac-breasted roller (Coracias caudatus). I’ve had the good luck to show you one before, from Malawi, but it was pretty far away and backlit, so it’s hard to see all the colors, but the beauty below was posing right next to the road and in good light, so you can get a better sense of how amazing they are.

Lastly, I have a ton more to show you, but we had a long drive today, and I’ve gotta hit the sack. We’ll be here for a couple of nights, so I should be able to start chipping away at the backlog.