Hornbill Bingo
Cape Town, South Africa
November 29, 2013
We have a flight at 10:30 this morning, so we are unable to do a full morning safari. Abram is taking the Americans to Etosha all day, so Leon has offered to take us on a short drive. So, we left camp at 6:30.
We drove for a long time before we saw any animals, we finally saw one lonely Blue Widebeest shuffling along a road, that's not a gnu animal (*wink*)!
Leon showed us a large skeleton and horns of a full-grown male Kudu. It was massive! Nearby was an equally massive, well, maybe not, but it was huge, millipede. He said that his mom used to dry out dead millipedes and mash them into a paste to form medicine for the eyes of their livestock Dik-Dik.
We saw a few birds - a juvenile PCG, Guinea Fowl and some White Browed Sparrow Weavers building their nest. One really beautiful bird that we saw with a yellow neck, a black Zorro mask and blue and green feathers was a White Tailed Bee-Eater.
Most of the morning was calm, cool and fragrant after last night's rain. Along one green stretch with some bushes and trees we watched a beautiful steenbok leaping and running at full speed, weaving in and out of the trees. It was the only sound and movement other than our vehicle, since the cicadas have not started singing yet.
We headed down a path toward a watering hole. Along the path we could see the footprints and marked territory of a white male rhino. Further down the path we saw lion footprints too. Sadly, we did not spot either of those animals this morning Lion Tracks!. We did almost get stuck in the mud though; it took Leon three attempts to get us out of the deep muddy ruts!
Leon stopped along a golden dusty patch and pointed to something. It took us a few moments to spot the pair of ground squirrels. They stay near their burrows and can quickly dive into an entrance when being hunted by a jackal. They easily confuse the dim-witted jackal by escaping from another entrance while he patiently waits by the spot where he last saw them.
Just as we returned to the main road and were heading back to camp a female Damara Dik-dik strolled in front of the vehicle and calmly sauntered along the road among the bushes and trees. The Dik-dik is the smallest of the antelope family, weighing up to 5 kilos. She was so beautiful and delicate looking. We really enjoying watching her wind her way around having some nibbles here and there Darma HornBill - Bingo!. While we were watching her, a warty shot across the road up ahead of a Yellow Billed Hornbill and us flew overhead.
As we turned toward camp we saw another Hornbill, a new one, the Damara Hornbill. It looks very similar to the Red Billed Hornbill, but it has a black eye (vs yellow) and its neck is pure white. In the same treetops we could see and hear the Goway Bird. I guess he is trying to tell us that it is time for us to go!
Further up this road, to the right we could see two Black or Verreaux's Eagles perched high atop a rocky cliff.
In the last stretch back to the camp one last time we saw a Wildebeest sprinting across the plain. It appears that the Waterbuck startled him.
Back at camp we were able to see two zebras at the watering hole and a tree squirrel on our route back to our tented room Zebra Says Bye!.
I admired our rocky and tree lined walk back to the parking lot. I really like the Sterculia Africana tree. It has a smooth light bark and a wide top with small green leaves. Festus and Rosalia gave us a very warm and heartfelt sendoff. We are sad to be saying good-bye to Namibia today. We have seen some amazing and beautiful people, wildlife and scenery here!
As Leon was taking us to the airstrip we saw a flash of red from a woodpecker and then an African Hornbill. Bingo! This completes our set of Hornbills! We have now seen all five species - Red Billed, Damara, Yellow Billed, Montero, and of course the African Grey Hornbill.
As we taxied in the Cessna Caravan, I struggled, as always to put an earplug in. I think my left ear channel is really small because I can never get a plug in Our Room at the Taj. Bill tried a couple of times to assist me, but when he said "*silence*", I replied, "I can still hear you!". After some eye rolling and a couple more rounds of this, he tried one more time. This time it was successful! He told me that he put it in backwards, the larger end in first. How odd... maybe my ear channel is massive!?
We saw two mountains from the air. They have a local native language name that means buttocks, but they actually look like boobies. hehehehe!
We had four hours to spend at Windhoek or more specifically, WDH airport. We went to the lounge, had lunch and then checked in a few hours later.
