This is part three out of a now many part posting series about our safari in Botswana and our stay in Zimbabwe and Zambia, along with our safari in South Africa and our stay in Cape Town. The photos shown here are exclusively from Botswana.
This is a Greater Kestrel. It is related to the American Kestrel which we see commonly in the U.S. This is the second falcon species for us to have seen on this trip: The first one was a Eurasian Kestrel at the London Heathrow Airport.
Some of you may have seen the Lilac-breasted Roller of the first post. This is a Purple Roller, much rarer than the Lilac-breasted. This is the first of two we have seen.
Inside the Nxai Pan we came across this incredible watering hole. This photo only partially encompasses the scene: the hole was attended by Gray-backed Sparrow-larks, Ostriches, Bateleurs, Kudu, Springbok, Impala, Zebra, both oxpeckers, and Wildebeest, providing an incredible view.
In the center of this photo you can see a Bateleur, a type of colorful snake eagle, that we saw many of in the air. This is the only one we have seen perched. The word Bateleur means “tightrope walker” in French, referring to the rocking motion of the bird in flight.
This is an adult male kudu. You can see the incredibly long curly horns that are the indicator of the age: a young male would have much shorter horns.
Also at the watering hole we found this “unicorn”. Despite the disadvantage, this impala seemed to dominate over the others, a sign of obvious notoriety.
This is an adult male Kori Bustard, the heaviest flying bird in the world. We actually saw many of these, and our guide Kabelo had done his PhD dissertation on the Kori Bustard.
One of the most common raptors that we saw was this Southern Pale Chanting Goshawk, a bird that I think (and I may be wrong) holds the distinction of having the most words in its name without any hyphens.
This Steenbok is one of Cedar’s favorite animals. Unlike many others we saw, this one stayed lying down in the shade as we drove up to it, allowing a great photo.
This was my first Southern Red-billed Hornbill ever, and it stayed perched for a while, allowing me to get good pictures.
Red-billed Francolins, shown here, and Crested Francolins immediately became our alarm clock, bursting out every morning in an incredibly loud series of harsh calls.
These were some of our first elephants, and posed at this watering hole (actually an isolated puddle that is supposed to be a river) perfectly for us.
As can be clearly seen in this picture, the elephant on the left had some of the largest tusks we saw on both of our safaris.
We saw this snake on a hike at the Tsodilo Hills, in the process of swallowing a lizard. The snake was alive, because we saw it blink, and the lizard was alive, because we saw it move a foot. When the snake presumably finishes swallowing the lizard, you will probably be able to see the lizard inside the snake!
Due to the current drought in Botswana, a group of hippos and crocodiles have been trapped in an isolated pool of water in the town of Maun. We saw them (along with a Black Crake, Golden-tailed Woodpecker, African Fish Eagle, and Marabou Stork), and I was able to get good pictures.
On our first game drive in Moremi Game Reserve, we amazingly spotted this pair of Honey Badgers! The photo is not perfectly focused, but they left soon after, so I am glad I got it. Here is a link to a video (that has some inappropriate language) about how tough the honey badger is:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4r7wHMg5Yjg
This is a Red Hartebeest, an animal that we proved to come by infrequently, but in Moremi we passed a herd of them, allowing this photo.
At a watering hole in Moremi we observed a large herd of elephants with several babies, and this pride of lions!
The lions were well concealed, and soon after we arrived a group of impala and kudu came up to drink. This female tried to catch the kudu, but was unsuccessful.
On her way back from the hunt, this female passed us in our car several feet away! We could have touched her if we wanted to, which, of course, we did not.
Near the end of our second Moremi game drive we spotted a troupe of baboons, each sitting in a pile of elephant dung, and eating the grass that the dung was composed of!
