Simon Thomsett

Simon and I were joined by Rob Davies for the Kalahari leg of the expedition. Rob is a raptor expert who knows Simon from way back. He lives in Wales now with his wife and young child and is working on a field guide to African Birds of Prey with Bill Clark. He sent us a small computer system called a PDA to log our data in a few months ago and we had been talking about meeting up in the Kalahari ever since. As it turned out, he arranged the whole 10-day Kalahari trip for us, making all the bookings, and it was lucky he did as the place was fully booked when we got there.

We spent the first few days with Anne Rasa, a renowned small-mammal biologist. She was looking after a young rescued meerkat called Fizzle. I got quite attached to Fizzle over those few days. Meerkats are incredibly social creatures and Fizzle was always either running around on high energy or curling up with you. Anne took us for a walk along the dunes, telling us about the Kalahari’s plants and animals, imparting knowledge on everything down to the smallest insect. It was fascinating and having Fizzle with us, digging up insects along the way, added to the fun.

Anne talking to the group

Fizzle digging up insects

In the afternoon, we all went for a small drive around Anne’s property. Rob, Fizzle and two other guests went in the car with Anne, and Simon and I followed in the Range Rover behind. We stopped a few times and all got out of the car to examine something, or check a Social Weaver nest for Pygmy Falcons. After the second stop, Fizzle decided to come in the car with Simon and me. I found myself wishing he could join us on the expedition. Not only is he good company, but he picks out raptors miles away, long before any of us see them! (Please note that Fizzle was rescued from a family who had taken him as a pet and could no longer handle him. Wild animals should not be kept as pets. The demand for wild pets has been the cause of much animal cruelty and drives wild populations towards extinction).

Fizzle in the car

The Kgalagadi Tranfrontier Park is an altered ecosystem. Along the two mostly dry riverbeds, people have put in regularly spaced waterholes. This means that wildlife that used to have to migrate to find water now stays put all year round. It also means that there is lots of water for small birds to come down and drink. This makes things interesting for us, because with the small birds drinking come the falcons and goshawks looking to make a meal of the small birds. Rob had spent time here with Andrew Jenkins, falcon expert, and they found that the different small bird species such as Turtle Doves, Namaqua Doves, Sandgrouse and Red-headed Sparrows come down at different times of day, creating peaks of activity. The raptors have obviously figured out these peaks as they descend when the waterholes are at their busiest.

A female Lanner Falcon tucks into her meal while the smaller male sits by, hoping for his share

So we spent much of our days in the Kalahari driving from one waterhole to the next in time for each peak. Rob and I waved our cameras around, trying desperately to get photos of a falcon catching a dove. But it happens so fast!

On day three in Etosha, we started driving towards our next campsite. We spotted four lionesses on the horizon, in front of the pan. We tried to get ourselves closer to the lions but were distracted by a pair of Red-necked Falcons sitting in a tree. They moved from one waterhole to another and we followed. Soon we were surrounded by tourists looking at the lions, but we stayed around and saw some Greater Kestrels and a Lanner Falcon. Some zebras came to drink and we thought the lions might ambush them but the zebras were long gone by the time the lions started to move. Unfortunately, the four lionesses, followed by 10 cubs, walked to another waterhole which was inaccessible to us.

Further on, we started seeing more and more zebras along the road until we arrived at a waterhole which was covered in hundreds of zebras, oryxes, ostriches and jackals. It was beautiful! We stayed there for the rest of the day, watching as zebras walked or galloped towards and away from the waterhole in huge numbers.

Busy waterhole

That night, I woke up several times to chaotic wildlife sounds but slipped back into sleep. In the morning, Simon said he heard lions kill a zebra during the night, so we went to find the waterhole that is right next to the campsite to investigate. And sure enough, a pride of lions was picking at the carcass of a zebra not too far from the waterhole. There were lots of other tourists around and we didn’t have long left before we had to be out of the park, so we drove back towards the area that had been covered in wildlife the evening before.

We were stopped looking at a Pale Chanting Goshawk when Simon saw an African Wild Cat run across the road. So we approached and drew up next to it. It stayed sitting in the long grass, eating a mouse, looking to all intents and purposes like a domestic cat. It then walked out of the grass and sat next to the car looking straight up at us. They are usually quite shy, so it was surprising to see this one so tame. Quite easy to see how it is the ancestor of the domestic cat!

African Wild Cat

And just a few metres down the road, we stopped to watch a Greater Kestrel eating a small bird. A little further and we stopped to watched two lions feeding on a zebra. As we looked through our binoculars, we could see other lions with cubs feeding on a different zebra further back. It was all action! Over a dozen jackals were sniffing around, trying to get close to the food. We were surprised not to see one single vulture in the sky with so much food around for them. We concluded that there must not be many vultures around, perhaps because of the lack of trees to nest and roost in.

What we didn’t consider is that the vultures here are just lazier than the ones we are used to: late-risers. We drove for a while and suddenly started seeing lots of Lappet-faced Vultures becoming active, and next the White-backed Vultures until we could see lots of vultures in the sky. We returned to the two carcasses and sure enough, they were descending on the zebra that the two lions had just abandoned. The jackals fought off the first few vultures but soon there were so many that they had to give up and leave the vultures to it. At one point, we managed to count about 150 vultures but I’m sure there were many more.

Jackal fighting off a vulture

We are disappointed at having to leave but we have something to look forward to. We are off to the coast to look at large seal colonies, and hopefully some Ospreys too.

On our second day in Etosha, I told Simon the pressure was on for him to find me exciting wildlife for my birthday. He spotted a distant lion but that didn’t cut it. We sat by a waterhole and watched a Kudu and zebras. As we drove away from the waterhole, I noticed a small falcon landing in a tree. We got nearer and Simon identified it as a Western Red-footed Falcon, my first! We spent quite some time watching it as it ate and preened. A Lappet-faced Vulture flew over me and I photographed it, only noticing later when I looked at the picture that the vulture had rings on its legs.

Ringed Lappet-faced Vulture

Not much further, we stopped to scan the area and there, right next to the road, was a lion. Our excitement quickly turned to sadness when we noticed how weak it was. It was about 18 months old and must either have lost its pride or been kicked-out. We asked a lady driving a tour-bus to call someone to come and help but nobody showed up so we went back to camp and pushed and pushed until the rangers were called. We then returned to the site and saw the lion, which we now saw was a female, struggling to walk towards some shade. We stayed until some rangers arrived and showed them where the lion had gone. They asked us not to stay around as they might do something unpleasant. We said we could handle it but wanted to stay and they said we had to leave, “policy,” as we might report things to the newspapers. We didn’t feel very hopeful that they would try to help the lion.

Weak lion cub

We drove a few hundred metres away and watched through binoculars. The rangers drove up to the tree, around it, then drove a little distance away. We couldn’t figure our what they were doing until we saw them get out of the car and heave a carcass into the back of their truck. At first we thought they had shot the lion, but then figured it was a Springbok as they returned to the tree where the lion was and pushed out the carcass. The rangers then drove towards us and told us that the lion was eating and seemed OK. (I know that in theory, the natural world is harsh and we shouldn’t interfere – but considering the devastating effects we have on lion populations across their range, I don’t think it’s too much to save a lion when we can.)

As we drove past some long grass, we noticed some drongos and kestrels dive-bombing something in the grass. It was an African Wild Cat, another first for the day! But I just got a glimpse of it as it ran away. Not a bad birthday!

We finally left Maun after some work on the car and were heading towards the Okavango panhandle when the car gave up again. It seemed the problem hadn’t been resolved. We push-started several times but it started getting dark so we headed for a camp site that was a few km off the main road. But we only made it a few hundred metres before the floods stopped us from getting any further. A couple of innovative guys were there, cashing in on the tourists who could go no further. We parked on a hill so that we could start in the morning.

One of the guys there had his Mokoro (canoe) and offered to take us for a ride in the morning, for a fee. We concluded that we might as well see all these floodplains, so, early in the morning we went out and watched as the sun rose over the Okavango. As the area is a cattle area, we didn’t see much in the way of wildlife except a Verreaux’s Eagle Owl and a Fish Eagle. But it sure was pretty. On our return to mainland, we tried push-starting and pull-starting the car but to no avail. So we borrowed a battery from another car to start the Range Rover, returned the battery and were on our way. A couple of push starts later and we arrived at the campsite we had been aiming for the day before. There we spent the afternoon charging up the car batteries so that we could at least push as far as Rundu, across the border in Namibia, where we could find a mechanic.

The Okavango floods

Simon in a Mokoro

After a day in Rundu fixing the car, we went to Etosha National Park. What is usually a pan that fills with a few millimetres of water for a few days a year was an enormous lake where you couldn’t see the other side. We watched as a Giraffe did its gymnastic drinking. That night, we had just finished our meal and Simon was standing nearby when I noticed two Honey Badgers (Ratels) run past his legs. Simon noticed them too and we jumped for the cameras. We followed them as they went from one spot to another looking through the bins. It was quite a surprise!

Honey Badger under a truck

We set off from Maun for just a couple of days in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve. There is something magical about the name Kalahari and we had been advised to go there by a fellow raptor-enthusiast so we had high expectations. But it managed to exceed those expectations ten-fold. The first 40km consisted of mainly scrub which meant poor visibility. We didn’t see much in the way of wildlife. Then we got to Deception Valley and immediately were surrounded by Gemsboks and Springboks. We started to see Pale Chanting Goshawks perched at regular intervals on low trees. We went in search of a water source, knowing this would be our best bet of seeing wildlife. I’ll admit that I was very keen to find Wild Dogs, as I have yet to see any and Botswana is apparently the best place to see them. We drove around dry pans but had no luck finding water. We had arrived in the park quite late and before long had to go and set up camp.

Secretary Bird and the Kalahari’s full moon

In the morning, we renewed our search for water. We drove for a few hours until Simon spotted a Red-necked Falcon. A little further and I noticed a Gabar Goshawk dive-bombing a Lanner Falcon. From behind them a group of Sand Grouse flew up into the sky and Simon said “that’s a good sign for water.” And sure enough, there it was, the waterhole we had been looking for. It was surrounded on all sides by bushes so we found a gap that we could look through. Before long, the Lanner Falcon was diving down to the water, trying to catch doves. A young Gabar Goshawk flew in after some smaller birds, then another Gabar, and another. We counted eight at one point. A Red-necked Falcon came in and impressed us with the speed and determination with which it pursued birds around the waterhole. A pair of jackals came in to drink. Then our first kill of the day: a Gabar had caught something. Within seconds, a Lanner came down at such speed that we didn’t even see it until we saw it fly into the sky with a bird in its talons. So sooner had it gone than the Red-necked Falcon returned and this time was successful in catching something.

Jackal Drinking at waterhole

Gabar Goshawk

We had found our most productive raptor spot of the whole expedition and we had no intention of moving. We sat there and watched incessant raptor activity for the whole day. Secretary Birds came to drink, as did a White-backed Vulture. A Shikra flew in and made a fast kill. A couple of Pale Chanting Goshawks also made an appearance, though it was the many Gabar Goshawks that kept us entertained, constantly flying across the water from bush to bush, often catching something on the way, then chasing each other around trying to pirate the food from the successful hunter. We were very disappointed that we had to leave the next day but determined that we would return for a couple of hours in the morning before exiting the park. The following morning was just as exciting and we made our way back to Maun feeling very satisfied with our trip to the Kalahari.

Gabar Goshawk coming down to bathe

Most of the drive to Nxai Pan and Makgadikgadi Pans National Park was along a big main road and we were continually surprised at seeing elephants foraging by the roadside. Another surprise was driving up to a large Cobra sun-bathing in the middle of the road. It quickly disappeared into the undergrowth by the roadside. Numerous Bateleurs flew overhead and quite a few Martial Eagles were spotted too.

Elephants on the road

Cobra on the road

We got to Nxai Pan just after midday and drove for quite a while before coming out into the open pan that gives the park its name. On the way, we saw our first Gemsbok, the cousin of the more northern Oryx. We drove straight towards the main waterhole where two lions lazed in the shade of a bush. Nearby, we spotted our first Springbok, a southern African species of gazelle. We left the waterhole to explore the pan more thoroughly. We saw lots of Pale Chanting Goshawks and couldn’t help but compare them with their northern counterpart, the Eastern Chanting Goshawk. They seem quite a bit larger, and, as the name suggests, paler. We spotted a couple of cheetahs lying in the shade of some far off trees and watched three bull elephants splashing white-muddy water over themselves, turning themselves white in the process.

Young Pale Chanting Goshawk

Elephants covering themselves in white mud

The next day we drove to the southern part of the park, the Makgadikgadi Pans. We drove first to the river, which isn’t flowing at the moment but consists of a few shallow pools. We noticed more than 40 vultures perched in trees staring down at one spot. We followed their gaze and found a lioness who had obviously stashed a kill in the bush she was lying under. Our campsite that night was a remote one on some hills in the middle of the park and we set off at first light, this time towards the famous pans. After watching some Mongooses trying to get warm in the first rays of the sun, we spotted a vulture sitting in a palm tree. We found this to be unusual and photographed it thinking it was a rarity. We were soon to find out that in this park, it was the norm. We came upon an area with quite a few palms and a huge portion of them had vultures sitting in them. As we watched them, the day got warmer and they took off to a spot a few hundred metres away where they landed on the ground. Our binoculars showed us that two male lions had made a kill over there but no road could get us close enough to get any more information.

White-backed Vulture in a palm tree

A small tortoise and a decent sized python entertained us on the way to the pans. We noticed that quite a few zebras seemed all walking in the same direction, away from the pans, towards the river about 70km away. We assumed this to be part of the zebra migration that takes place in this park around this time of year, when the pans dry up and the zebras go in search of permanent water sources. We later bumped into some people that confirmed the fact: the zebra migration had started that day! The pans were quite a sight … large expanses of white-grey soda-ash interspersed with grassy areas. A few animals remained but the bulk of them were on the move. Most fun were the ground squirrels that live in communities and stood all in a row watching us drive by. We saw very few raptors over the drier pans, just a few Greater Kestrels and one Black-shouldered Kite. Rather than the animals this time, it was the starkness and beauty of this landscape that drew our attention.

Migrating Zebras

Ground Squirrels

Makgadikgadi Pans

Our second day in Chobe we planned to drive towards the other end of the park, to the Savute area. It is a tough drive there, so we returned to town to refill on fuel and spent another night on the riverfront before starting to make our way to Savute the following morning. Our first interesting sighting of the morning was a pair of Tawny Eagles mating and nest-building. Not much further and we saw another honey badger.

Tawny Eagle carrying nesting material

We hadn’t yet left the riverfront when we stopped to photograph an Ovampo Sparrowhawk. As we watched it jump from branch to branch, I noticed a Martial Eagle about 400m high off the ground, stalling in midair before going into an impressive stoop. The Guinea Fowls noticed its approach and started alarming and running for cover. The Martial missed and went to sit on a nearby tree. No sooner had we approached the tree that she flew straight from her perch to some bushes just out of view. The Guinea Fowls started yelling again but this time it was no use. The Martial had got its talons on a young Guinea and flew to a tree to pluck and eat its prize. We watched for quite some time before we remembered that we had a tough drive ahead of us and we set off. Just as we were leaving the riverfront, we saw more than 40 vultures coming down fast to the ground. Unfortunately, what they were flying to wasn’t anywhere near the road so we could only guess at what died, and what might have killed it …

Martial Eagle carrying its kill: a young Guinea Fowl

We arrived in Savuti, the south-western part of Chobe NP, and were immediately struck by its potential for predators – large open areas with sporadic water holes. Zebras and Wildebeest, different races than those we were used to in East Africa, congregated at these water holes. I delighted in seeing a new species of very cute Mongoose. From the illustrations in the mammal guide, we think it could be a Selous Mongoose or a Yellow Mongoose (any carnivore specialists out there?). We also saw a different race of Topi, this one called the Tsessebe. Brown Snake Eagles and Black-shouldered Kites were our common raptors and we got very excited at seeing another Red-necked Falcon. We didn’t see any of the large ground predators, but there were plenty of signs that they were around. Large Bull elephants stood at regular intervals under tall trees, or bathed in mud puddles. Pleased with a great four days in Chobe, we returned to Kasane town where we fueled-up, ready for our next destination.

Mongoose (species ?)

Zebras around a waterhole

Angry Cobra in Savuti

We spent a night on the Zambezi near Livingstone in southern Zambia. Countries to the north and west of Zambia had received more rain than usual for this time of year and a lot of the rain was carried by tributaries into the Zambezi. The owners of the lodge where we set up camp claimed they had never seen the water so high. The name of the lodge was Taita Falcon Lodge, so no guesses why we chose it. The rare Taita Falcon was once frequently seen there and Peregrine Falcons and Verreaux’s Eagles have nested there in the past. We sat overlooking the Zambezi running through its large gorge in the hope of seeing some of these raptors. Sadly, we just got a distance glimpse of a Peregrine and a Harrier Hawk flew beneath us down in the gorge. But what a view!

A slightly lopsided view of the Zambezi

We intended to cross the Zambezi by Ferry to get into Botswana. The amount of water in the Zambezi made this impossible and we had to make a 200km detour through Namibia. We had to cross several borders, each having its different hassle until we finally crossed from Namibia to Botswana at Ngoma. From there, we were excited to see that we could drive through Chobe National Park to get to Kasane where we planned to spend the night. It was the end of the day, so we couldn’t dawdle. On the 56km stretch through the park, we saw our first Sable Antelopes. It was quite a large herd grazing in the bush about 200m from the car. We also saw quite a few eagles and as we crossed the park boundary, an elephant. Outside the park, in Kasane town, we were amazed to see street lights and big main roads covered in elephant dung. We even saw a tree that had been knocked down by elephants in the middle of the parking lot of a shopping centre!

A 5 a.m. start the next day got us to the park at 5:30 a.m. and about 1km into the park we saw three hyenas, a mother and two youngsters. It was still dark and we slowed the car down to a stop and watched them. The mother was huge and she walked right up to my window and stared in at me. I edged a little away from the window and looked back at her.

Another kilometre or two and we got to the riverside. The Chobe River had more water in it than in living memory for most people in the area. Whole campsites were under water. It didn’t make our game drive along the riverfront any less interesting though! As it got a little lighter, we were lucky enough to see two Honey Badgers crossing the road. And as the day grew warmer, Bateleur Eagles and Vultures filled the sky and Martial Eagles could be seen perching on dead trees. We saw our first Lechwe, an endangered antelope that is adapted to wetlands. A couple of female lions hid their kill in some bushes. Huge herds of buffalo and elephants foraged by the river’s edge and played in the water. A Shikra descended upon an unsuspecting small bird and flew away with its catch. A Peregrine Falcon sat in a tree eating its kill. I also sighted my first African Hobby, distant though it was. All in our first day in Chobe NP!

Elephants playing in the water

Sunset over Chobe River

From Ruaha we went to Mbeya where we spent a night before crossing the border into Malawi. I really enjoyed Tanzania. It is a really beautiful country with vast forested mountain ranges. Traveling through Malawi was a last minute decision but it was worth the trip. We didn’t have much time to explore as we had just a few days to get to Zambia. As a result, we didn’t spend any time in parks and didn’t see much in the way of wildlife. Lake Malawi looks more like an ocean and the surrounding area has a very coastal feel about it. There is also what seems to be good raptor habitat: forested mountains with interspersed cliff. On our drive-through, we saw large groups of Amur Falcons and Eurasian Hobbies, presumably on their way north to Europe after spending the winter further south.

Lake Malawi

We crossed into Zambia and the rain followed us. We asked the GPS to direct us to South Luangwa National Park and we drove a bumpy three hours to the park. As we approached the gate, we saw vultures and Bateleur Eagles circling high up. We drove over a bridge and looked down to see two elephants playing in the water. It felt good to be back among wildlife! We found our campsite and went into the park early the next morning. It had rained all night and the park was very soggy. We got seriously stuck in mud at one point and had to winch the car out. We decided to stick to the main roads from then on. We saw lots of Pukus and storks and several Fish Eagles. Most surprising to us was how common Banded Snake Eagles seemed to be, having found them uncommon so far on our expedition. We also got our cat fix as we spotted lions lazing in some bushes and a little further on, a leopard sleeping in a tree.

Leopard

The rain continued through the following night and we decided against going into the park again. Simon did some maintenance on the car and then we went for a small drive around the area on the park boundary, again surprised by a Banded Snake Eagle trying to make itself as small as possible as it hid in a tree with a snake it had caught. Unfortunately, the weather didn’t lend itself to photography, so it wasn’t productive on that score. But it is a beautiful park and I hope I go back at some point, perhaps when it is not so flooded.

We left South Luangwa yesterday and drove part of the way to Lusaka and we completed the journey today. Things were pretty quiet until we happened upon a huge group of raptors flying high. We stopped to get a closer look and realised that the group consisted of over 90 Steppe Buzzards and a few migratory eagles as well. Last time Simon saw a migrating group of Steppe Buzzards that large was over 10 years ago! We are in Lusaka now, the capital of Zambia, and shall be moving southward soon.

Simon winching the car

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We got the car back from the garage and were almost ready to set off again. Our last day in Arusha was spent getting bits and pieces done, and we finally set off mid-afternoon. We drove for 100km along the Pare Mountains and saw five Lanner Falcons along the way and ended the day spectacularly. Darkness was falling and we were driving past a cliff area and I noticed Swallows all bunching together. I said “perfect place, perfect time, perfect prey for Taita Falcons.” I told Simon to stop and look behind him at the number of swifts that were moving past the back of the car. He turned and saw a Taita Falcon right among the swallows trying to catch them. I saw it briefly but was hurrying to get the camera out so didn’t get to watch it for long. By the time the camera was ready with flash, the falcon was gone. The Taita Falcon is a rare, crepuscular bird and seeing it hunting is quite special, so I was quite pleased with my detective skills. It was getting really dark now, so we turned off the main road into our camp for the night: Pangani River Camp. It was set by Pangani River and a large swamp, though we got there at nightfall and left early the next morning so we didn’t get to see too much of it.

Our plan was to head for Selous Game Reserve the next day. I was reading up on the place in the Lonely Planet when I noticed the huge amount of money it was going to cost us. We decided to change our plans at the last minute. The main road we were driving along went straight through a national park called Mikumi NP. We decided that this would make most sense for a one night stop before moving on to Iringa. As we got to the National Park, nothing much changed apart from a sign saying it was a park and a slightly lower speed limit. Fast traffic such as buses and trucks was still speeding down the highway. We wondered how a park could work with this huge road through it, but it wasn’t long before we started seeing elephants, impalas and plenty of other wildlife on either side of the road. We did, however, also see plenty of animals dead on the side of the road.

Once in the park, you drive for about 40km before you get to the gate where you pay to be able to drive around the park. We paid our fee, then passed through the gate and were immediately amazed by the amount of wildlife there was. It was the largest density of wildlife we had yet seen on entering a park. Huge herds of giraffes and impalas immediately caught our attention, as well as several herds of elephants and zebras. We hadn’t been driving 10 minutes when we came across a huge lioness lying right next to the road sign in the middle of the road! A few hundred metres away lay a big male lion lazing under a tree. We chose the park as a last minute “we’ve got nowhere else to go” place but it turned out to be incredible. As the day was already getting late, we had to make our way to the campsite near the main road. As we drove back, Simon spotted a Dickinson’s Kestrel, an important one for us.

Lioness by the road sign

We were a bit apprehensive about a campsite right by the main road, but we drove up to it to find a Martial Eagle perched in a high tree. During the course of the night, elephants and bushbucks came through camp and we were woken at 6 a.m. sharp by hundreds of birds calling in a large dawn chorus. Not such a bad campsite after all. We needed to cross the main road to get back to the main area of the park that was so successful for us the day before. About 100 metres before the main road, we came across four lions. We sat and watched them for a while and noticed Eurasian Hobbies fly by catching insects. Back through the main gate, we saw large amounts of wildlife again and some interesting raptor species as well. We saw a few more Dickinson’s Kestrels as well as two of the rare African Marsh Harriers. A highlight for me was seeing a Black-breasted Snake Eagle swoop down from the sky to catch a snake and fly off with it.

Black-breasted Snake Eagle with snake

We had to get out of the park with a few hours spare before nightfall to get to our next destination: Riverside Campsite just outside of Iringa. It was a four-hour drive through some beautiful mountainous, lush habitat with a big river running through. It didn’t look like East Africa at all, but more like I imagine Central and West Africa to be. Within these mountains is a park called Udzungwa Mountains National Park which we had to skip for now, but Simon may return to later. The Cassin’s Hawk-eagle, a West African forest species, has been seen in this park along with some other unusual wildlife for the area.

From Mikumi to Iringa – the view

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