Namibia 2023

 April 27th - final day Left our lovely hotel early to make our way back to near Windhoek and the flight home. The lovely guide found me a secretary bird on the roadside, but no photo as it was camera shy.  Our stop for the day was at Africat ( https://africat.org/ ) an organisation about which I was highly sceptical, in spite of having read up about it beforehand. The organisation is hosted on a private reserve, a long way up an unmade track: Nyala bull - not native to Namibia These three 'ambassadors' cannot be relocated into the wild - not entirely sure why - so are kept in a large enclosure. They cannot be fed live prey, but they are exercised on a cheetah run, about which I am, to put it mildly, ambiguous. They have been neutered, so can't breed and I am unambiguous in my approval of that. As far as I can ascertain, Africat is a force for good working with a number of conservation organisations in order to monitor and protect endangered wildlife.  For anyone who watc...

 All labelled with location as far as possible. They are in chronological order. The shots aren't arty - just records. Some birds - especially the secretary bird - were extremely unco-operative and do not figure in the pictorial record. There are some duplicates from different locations.  List of seen but unrecorded birds at the end - sorry, you'll just have to trust me on those! (L) lifer. If you find errors (Derek!) please let me know so that I can make corrections.  Pied crow - Soussusvlei. Arid desert/dunes. Assorted sparrows enjoying crumbs in Solitaire. Short toed rock thrush - Solitaire. Desert biome. (L) https://www.solitairenamibia.com/ Greater flamingoes: the Lagoon, Walvis Bay (L) Grey heron: the Lagoon, Walvis Bay Lesser flamingo: the Lagoon, Walvis Bay (L) Walvis Bay is on The Skeleton Coast which is washed by the Benguela current. Much of the moisture comes from morning fog, rolling in off the sea. It is also well known for its salt pans which the flamingoes...

 Up before dawn, donning several layers. 25km on the back of an open vehicle is chilly!! The hotel provided warm, wind proof ponchos. Much appreciated.  The gate opened at 7, but there was a bit of a queue. Still, there were compensations: Sunrise Etosha is home to The Big 4 - Cape buffalo are water dependent and unable to survive in the arid conditions here. Likewise there are no hippo or crocodiles. It has a large population of black/hook lipped rhino. Here are some of the Big 4 and some which are not. Small pride of 2 lionesses and 2 cubs Black backed jackal watching the lions from a distance 4 different lions More lions Thirsty black backed jackal Mother and foal plains zebra Intrusive Hartmann's zebra - the one with stripy socks. Handsome kudu bull Trees are important Waterhole Drinking giraffe Black faced impala ram Black faced impala ewes Big bull elephant. Breeding herd at a waterhole. You can't photograph being in the middle of a large herd - but we were. Cheetah - s...