Our second stop in the delta was Chief’s Island, one of the camps located in an area also known as the Mombo concession. Known for its legendary herds of animals, we visited in the quiet period between winter and rainy season, so were not so lucky.
| Lilacbreasted Roller |
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| Let me start with showing the Botswana national bird first, as an homage to the beauty of this place. |
At our hut I sat to ‘kill’ the midday hours and was closely inspected by this small fellow. Very small and quick moving, I could hardly get him within the minimum focussing distance.
| Greybacked Camaroptera |
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| This image is a composition of two consecutive images, where the head of image two was placed on the body of image one. This was entirely done using photshop, with a series of quick masks. |
The remainder of the afternoon I went into a mokoro and inspected the reed field in front of the main viewing deck. Not expecting much, I was surprised by the special encounter with the painted reed frogs. Very small frogs, of around 2cm, that color white during daylight and turn darker and more patterned in low light conditions.
| Painted Reed Frogs |
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| In this image you can see a slight difference in coloration, it depends per animal. |
Not expecting much from the mokoro trip, I was happy I did it: also the small animals are worth the visit.
| Jumping Reed Frog |
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| Most of the day they sit still, feet tucked in, waiting for the evening, when they get active. But once in a while, one shows its underparts and then the red feet become visible. |
| Reedfrog |
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The afternoon drive brought not much in terms of game and also the birds seemed to know we were coming. A nice scene though was provided by these oxpeckers, sitting on the back of a wildebeest.
| Redbilled Oxpecker |
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| Male Lion, Yawning his head off |
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| Highlight of this first day in Chief’s was a couple of male lions laying to rest in the grass. Once in a while a head would come up from out the grass and a big yawn was given to us. |
The next couple of days we basically enjoyed the birdlife, as the large herds of animals were simply not around. A few of the birdsightings from those short rides.
| Longtailed Starling |
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| Copperytailed Coucal |
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| Hooded Vulture |
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| Yellowbilled Kite |
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A special encounter we experienced one morning as we drove out of camp. A tree had just been demolished by an elephant, through which a bee-nest was exposed on the inner side of the tree. As we passed, a Lesser Honeyguide was feeding on the remaining larvae: the colony was gone though. We wondered if the honeyguide would have guided the elephant …. !!
| Lesser Honeyguide |
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On the same drive we passed a large baboon group. The leader of the group choose a high termite mount as his lookout point to watch over his group.
| Baboon Sentry |
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The afternoon drive presented us with two birds, both hunting for their respective insects: the bee-eater went for a locust.
| Swallowtailed Bee-eater |
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The yellowbilled oxpeckers went for ticks on a warthog’s back.
| Yellowbilled Oxpeckers |
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See for additional images also: Sable Ranch & Botswana Gallery