This was our standard Zambia (Shoebill) itinerary with a few slight changes, we also added a pre and post tour to Botswana and Zimbabwe respectively, as requested by the clients.
Some of the more interesting sightings included: Dickinson’s Kestrel, Red-necked Falcon, Augur Buzzard, Western Banded Snake-Eagle, Black-bellied Bustard, Shoebill, Wattled Crane, Allen’s Gallinule, Lesser Jacana, African Finfoot, African Barred Owlet, Greater Painted-Snipe, Gull-billed Tern, Yellow-throated Sandgrouse, Dusky Lark, Racket-tailed Roller, Half-collared Kingfisher, Ross’s Turaco, Black Coucal, Bohm’s Bee-eater, Chaplin’s Barbet, Miombo Pied Barbet, Black-backed Barbet, Black-cheeked Lovebird, Southern Ground Hornbill, Pale-billed Hornbill, Rufous-bellied Tit, Miombo Tit, Spotted Creeper, Bocage’s Akalat, Broad-tailed Warbler, Southern Hyliota, Yellow-bellied Hyliota, Black-necked Eremomela, Souza’s Shrike, Anchieta’s Sunbird, Green-headed Sunbird, Kasanga Masked Weaver, Bar-winged Weaver, Marsh Widowbird, Fawn-breasted Waxbill, Locust Finch.
Day 1:
The sun rose over a cool morning in Johannesburg as we met up for the start of what was to be an epic 22 day trip. After loading up the vehicles, we headed straight north away from the highveld, replacing the Glossy Ibis, Karoo Thrush and Rock Doves for a mix of birds from the drier north of the country such as Southern White-crowned Shrike, Natal Spurfowl, Red-billed Hornbill and the ever present, Black-shouldered Kite. Purple Rollers in particular were around in very large numbers, even compared to their cousins and perennial favorites, Lilac-breasted Rollers, and in amongst these we also managed to find a few good roadside birds such as Gabar Goshawk, Common Scimitarbill and even a confiding pair of Red-crested Korhaan. Today’s main aim was always going to be covering as much distance as possible in order to leave us with more time the next day, even so, a nice surprise just before breakfast was a beautiful African Hawk-Eagle perched alongside the road on a pylon. A pleasant breakfast as well as a nice hot cup of coffee was definitely what we all required, and afterwards we filled up (but not before watching both Scarlet-chested and White-bellied Sunbird a few meters in front of us) and headed straight for the South Africa/Botswana border post. This proved to be a relatively painless affair and in no time we crossed both sides, and after a quick lunch on the Botswana side, we headed off towards Francistown and our first night of the tour. The trip there was mostly uneventful as it passed through the Mopani belt that stretches across Africa and the only real stop of interest was for a few Cape Vultures at a colony quite a way off the road, however, the stop did also produce an extra few trip birds in the form of African Pipit, Desert Cisticola, Blue Waxbill, and a beautiful pair of Cut-throat Finch. Although it seemed that we would just about make it to our destination before dark, we managed to get stuck in a line of cars that most have been at least a kilometre long, and more significantly, took us about an hour and a half to get through. As it turned out though it was a check point to make sure people were not taking meat into the country as there was apparently an outbreak of Foot and Mouth disease in the area, and quite frustratingly, just as we reached the front of the line it seemed that the authorities felt it was time to go home and just waved us through at that point, this resulted in a fairly lengthy discussion as to the merrets of what I can only describe as a ‘twelve hours a day’ road-block! Eventually we reached Francistown, and after a dinner in town, we drove to our accommodation spot for a very well deserved rest.
For the full report (pdf file) including photos click here