Shashe Farm 2010, Moons & Kingfishers

Shashe Farm is located in the far-east of Botswana, located in the Tuli Block area. This area mainly consists of privately owned farms, but the eastern part is also known as the Tuli Game Reserve. This area is trapped between the Shashe and Limpopo river bordering Zimbabwe, making it a unique piece of bushveld. Sadly though, since poverty is bad and worsened under the Mugabe regime, poaching is increasingly an issue. This, and the general tranquility of the region, make game quite hard to approach. We were invited to join a week’s stay at the farm and we were in a group of 12, to enjoy the festivities to say goodbye to 2009 and welcome 2010. The farm is located in the remotest part of the Mashatu Game reserve, where electricity and other related luxuries are not present: water was and is pumped from a bore-hole.

The trip to the farm posed a few obstacles. One of them was foreseen, the Limpopo River was full, so a detour needed to be planned to get across to Botswana. Unforeseen was the crippled landcruiser upon arrival at the docking station. The dashboard panel was dismounted, the battery was flat and the braking system was dis-functional. We managed to get the engine running, but the brakes needed to be sorted out later.

First Duties

Break fixing

The second most important duty was to ‘dress’ the landcruiser. So far the cruiser had been driving without the usual signs of a nature reserve: door-stickers to indicate the origin of the vehicle. I ‘guessed’ the size of the doors and the stickers I ordered were sort of in specs.

Dressing a Cruiser

It looks goooood.

All of Us

As we were with 12 and a single open landcruiser, I opted to stay in camp during the mornings. I setup my portable hide a few steps outside the main camp. A small man-made waterhole with some nice bush around provided for a nice location to photograph the small birds visiting the area. The main visitors were redbilled quelea, making a lot of noise and attracting other birds as well to the waterhole. Quelea have a particular way of approaching the water, in a kind of social way: they line up. The front row takes a mouthful of water and leaves, the next row of birds moves in to take its turn. If all goes to plan and undisturbed it looks like a circular motion, where everyone gets a turn to take some water in a very and amazingly orderly fashion.

A Pair of Quelea

Click on the following link to hear its call. Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Now we get to the «Moons & Kingfishers» bit. On new year’s eve and on a few other moments as we toured through the region, we had very nice interactions with the moon. Full moon was coming again, the second time in the month of December, aka a «Blue Moon». The first time, moon was up late in the afternoon, as the sun was just disappearing over the horizon. As we were watching the clarity of the moon through our binoculars and lenses, we suddenly saw a large group of Black Storks passing through the front of the moon, providing a very exciting effect next to the moon.

Stork Moon

Click on the image for a larger version

That same evening at camp we set up the tripods and telescopes again to get nice images of the very bright moon. Ian took a portable loaded with Stellarium, a very user friendly program to view the stellar configuration of the sky at any location on earth. Fun ! Full moon was indeed predicted.

Nearly Full Moon

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The next day full moon was official and I took two more images: one early in the evening as it still colored orange and one later at night. At first I through we had a wining moon again, until we realised this was a partial moon eclipse !

Full Moon Rising

Full Moon Partial Eclipse

The reason for second part of the blog title «Kingfishers» was of course the presence and find of the many Kingfishers in the region. Although there are many more, we saw Woodland, Pygmy, Grey-Headed and Brown-Hooded Kingfishers. Listed here below, including the individual calls.

Woodland Kingfisher

Probably the most well-known king fisher of the region. A summer visitor with a very distinctive and lovely bushcall. Click on the following link to hear its call. Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Brown-Hooded Kingfisher

A resident kingfisher, calling closely to how a Woodland Kingfisher sounds. Unfortunately my flash didn’t fire, so the shadows are not very nicely lit. Click on the following link to hear its call. Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Grey-Headed Kingfisher

A scarce summer visitor, calling closely but slower to how a Brown-Hooded Kingfisher sounds. Click on the following link to hear its call. Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

African Pygmy Kingfisher

A non-aquatic summer visiting woodland and savanna Kingfisher. Click on the following link to hear its call. Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Finally a section dedicated to what I did mostly during our stay in Shashe: hiding in a bird-hide. Since this farm doesn’t fall under the more restrictive rules of a ‘regular’ game farm, wandering around camp and beyond is not an issue. Of course one is in the bush, so a higher state of alert is necessary.

Bird Hiding

Most time I spent near a waterhole, where with the help of a few branches I set up perches for the birds to land on. Most of the time, the waterhole was frequented by Redbilled Quelea, but due to their presence they attracted a lot of other birds, who lost their fear for this strange structure (the hide). Once in a while, the wind would increase in strength and would rattle the hide and all birds would take flight. A few minutes and they would be back. Her a small selection of birds that frequented the water hole:

Jameson’s Firefinch

A thornfeld common resident. Click on the following link to hear its call. Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Black-Faced Waxbill

A dry thornfeld common resident. Click on the following link to hear its call. Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Blue Waxbill

A resident to thornfeld, suburbia and woodland. In this image you see male (top) and female. Click on the following link to hear its call. Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

White-Winged Widowbird

A grassland and gregarious resident. Click on the following link to hear its call. Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Paradise Flycatcher (female)

Coastal and riverine forrests: summer visitor. Click on the following link to hear its call. Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

More images can be found on Shashe 2010 Photo Gallery.