The 06:00 sunrise was preceded by a melodious chorus of aquatic birds greeting the morning in the dense reeds adjacent to the riverbank where the Pangolin Voyager had been tied up for the night.
At 06:30 we had an early breakfast of cereals, fruit and yoghurt complemented by tea and fruit juices. At 07:15 we headed off up the Chobe River in search of photographic subjects with birdlife being our special focus.
We’d barely left the houseboat when we encountered several hippos wallowing and semi-submerged in the river close by. The hippos tend to leave the river at night and graze on the riverbank. They then return to the water during the day to gain protection from the sun as they are prone to sunburn and related ailments.
Hippopotamus
The riverbank with its reeds, low acacia trees and muddy inlets provides a marvellous opportunity for seeing a diversity of bird life and this morning’s trip was no exception.
During our two and a half hours of typically slow and quiet movement along the embankment we sighted around forty different species of birds. These included several different egrets and herons including the spectacular goliath heron. This elegant bird is the largest of the herons and has a chestnut head and neck with greyish purple underparts.
African stone chat
Malachite kingfisher
Blue-cheek bee-eater
Red bishop
White egret
Goliath heron
Cormorants and darters were commonly encountered and we managed to approach these with comparative ease.
African darter
Pied wagtail
The number of bee-eaters seen was impressive with five different species encountered during the morning’s search. These birds all possess beautiful plumage with emerald greens, sky blues, golden yellows and carmine colours encountered across the five species. These birds are aerial insectivores and possess long decurved bills. They tend to perch on a reed and then fly off to catch an insect and then return to the same reed from which it departed.
Other species seen included lapwings (very closely related to our plovers). The three banded lapwing was a special sighting and we managed to get very close to it without it being fearful of our presence.
White-crowned lapwing
Blacksmith lapwing
White-fronted plover
Common ringed plover
Three-banded plover
Wood sandpiper
Of all the birds seen this morning, the southern red bishop was arguably the most colourful and also one of the shyest! The male is a stunning red with a black forecrown and chest. We had difficulty getting close to the delightful birds without reeds impeding our view and they are now set as a challenge to photograph in the next day or so.
We watched a pair of fish eagles guarding their territory from another potentially invading fish eagle. We managed to approach them as they perched on a dead tree on the riverbank. They seemed pre-occupied with the invader and we were presumably not seen as a threat. One of the fish eagles took flight from the tree momentarily and grasped a small fish in its talons quite close to our boat; exciting!
African fish eagles
African fish eagle
African fish eagle
African fish eagle
Sandpipers, hornbills, wagtails, jacanas, geese, storks and thick-knees were photographed during our sortie.
Kingfishers are another favourite bird family for us and we encountered both the malachite and pied kingfishers during the morning session. These strikingly patterned and coloured aquatic birds are noted for their dagger-like bills and short legs. The malachite kingfisher is a delight to behold having a turquoise back and crown together with an orange chest and bill. The juveniles have a black bill changing to red/orange on reaching maturity. They are relatively common but always cause excitement when encountered.
Apart from birds, we saw numerous hippopotamuses and in some herds there were tiny calves making the parents particularly wary of visiting boats so we kept away.
Hippopotamus
Hippopotamus
The only antelope sighted were impalas and pokus. Crocodiles were commonly seen in shallow waters or sleeping on the shore. One monitor lizard was also encountered but as it was partly hidden, no good shots were possible.
Crocodile
Crocodile
Just before returning to the riverboat we diverted to the Botswanan side of the river where a herd of thirty or so elephants had come to the water’s edge to drink and bathe. A group of about ten young male elephants of approximately twelve years of age were frolicking and cavorting within a short distance of us.
Elephants
Elephants
At 11:00 we returned to the houseboat for brunch and coffee after a highly entertaining and productive morning.
Brunch
We had free time until 16:00 so this gave us an opportunity to catch up on down-loading photos and doing back-ups as well as filling in the diary.
During this time the we moved some 15 km to a location on a tributary of the Chobe in a narrower channel with swampy flats on either side and thick reed beds and attractive papyrus plants aplenty.
In the late afternoon we were taken in the photographic boat for a long journey in amongst the myriad of waterways that make up this flood plain.
Corinne, Jak, Rae & Malcolm on Pangolin photo boat
Current at the confluence of the Zambezie and Chobe Rivers
The birdlife that we hadn’t seen before included squacco, green backed and black headed herons. We also viewed several marsh harriers and a coppery tailed coucal. The three species of egrets common to this area were also seen and photographed during the afternoon session.
Squacco heron
Allen's Gallinule
Little egret
Although we’d sighted them before, we saw a significant number of jacanas on the lily pad area including an encounter with two mating! These bronzy coloured birds walk and run across the water surface using the lily pads as steps. This ability to apparently “walk on water” has resulted in the jacana being referred to as the Jesus bird!
African jacanas
African jacana on water lillies
Dark-capped bulbul
Pied and malachite kingfishers were fairly common sightings and we managed to get some close shots of these spectacular fish hunters. In the distance along the far riverbank we sighted a procession of the not so rare “ever-spotted Landrovers”.
Pied kingfisher
Malachite kingfisher
Village
A deep red sunset gave us an opportunity to play with ISO and exposure settings to get the right effect.
Sunset
Pangolin Voyager at sunset
We returned to the houseboat and as the temperature had been in the mid to high thirties for much of the day, we were grateful for cool showers and some refreshing drinks before dinner.
As our intention is to head out earlier tomorrow at just after dawn we felt that an early night was desirable.
Another great day on the Chobe; this is undoubtedly an ornithologist’s heaven.