First day without having to drive anywhere as we are staying two nights at Nata Lodge. Three of us went for a bird walk at 6:45am before breakfast, one worked and two went for a run. The sun hadn’t fully risen and it was a bit chilly still and so not too many birds on the walk. Breakfast at 7:30am in the lodge. Nice array of continental and then the option of a full english as well but no sausage or other meat except bacon. It was the same last night – only meat choices were chicken and pork ribs. Clearly Foot & Mouth is making a big impact around here.
After breakfast we did another short bird walk and now the birds were out in force. Just standing in one spot we could see multiple birds and it was hard to know where to look and who was pointing out what. Some repeats from earlier sightings but also some new ones for the list. We then headed out to the Nata Bird Sanctuary which is about 15-20 kms south of where we are staying. It is on the Makgadikgadi Pans. We had read that the water is so high at the moment because of the heavy rains this year that the birds (particularly the flamingos) aren’t here. When we were registering at the gate the lady informed of us of the same thing and said you’re only going to the see odd bird and some wildebeest on the pan. Our expectations were duly set at a low level and we started to make our way to the viewing deck which looks over Sowa Pan.
What a beautiful landscape and scenery. You are driving on the pan and I can imagine in the rainy season it would be incredibly difficult as you would be driving on mud. But it was generally drive and besides being bumpy, it was a relatively easy drive for our high clearance vehicles. It is so amazing just seeing the wildebeest and the occasional zebra on the pan just sticking out from the white sand.
By the time we got to the viewing deck, we had already seen quite a few birds including a lifer for some of the group (Double Banded Courser). At the viewing deck, the birds to be seen were plentiful. I erected the birding scope and in the distance we could see flamingos though it was impossible to identify which type. We could also see pelicans and numerous different storks. While we were on the viewing deck (we had our mid-morning coffee), we also had a number of birds fly past and added to the list. In all we added 17 different species just on the pan today. Currently I am on 119 birds for the trip (everyone is on slightly different totals depending on who saw what at what point). Many of the group saw multiple lifers today including Double Banded Courser (mentioned above), Desert Cisticola and Senegal Coucal (which we saw back at the lodge).
We did some of the side roads onto the pan and then around 1pm we headed back to the lodge for the balance of the day. Everyone sat on their decks just enjoying the weather and watching the birds for an hour or so after we got back. Some read, some slept, some did some work in the afternoon. Late afternoon H went for a walk to get her steps in and then messaged to say she had seen the coucal. By the time we got there it had flown off. We then did a purposeful ‘birding’ walk at 5pm and fortunately we all managed to see it. Drinks followed by dinner and then off to bed.
Everyone enjoyed the relaxing, no pressure driving and being able to sleep in the same place two nights running. It feels like the start of the holiday. It just took us 4 days to reach here. Tomorrow we head north again to the very top of Botswana but not too long a drive.
Until then …
P, H, B (for spotting the courser and saying it was a courser), O, S (for telling B it wasn’t a courser) & A (for calling a kite a shrike .. he is at least now succumbed and is listing birds now too)
