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The beauty of Namibia's Sossuvlei, home to the world's tallest dunes. (Photo by participant Daphne Gemmill)

As we touched down in Windhoek for our 2014 Namibia and Botswana tour, we knew things would be different. Instead of a barren semi-arid landscape, we headed towards town with four-foot-high grass all along the roadside. There were similar scenes throughout much of the tour, and far more actual rainfall than we've ever had before. So, how did this effect the birding? Well, as on all trips you always miss a few, but we more than made up for that with an exceptional number of African birds being in their finest breeding plumage. A few nomadic desert birds were missing, but the numbers of woodland species and especially the cuckoos were higher than ever before.

During our first afternoon in Windhoek the Red Bishops were truly impressive, showing their striking red and black plumage against the deep green reeds of the local sewage works. Yes, like it or not, this is always a good place to begin, producing a nice selection of waterbirds (including our first Hamerkop), and a variety of other mainly bush birds, including Gray Go-away-bird, a stunning Dideric Cuckoo, the rather locally distributed Bradfield's Swift, White-backed Mousebird, Swallow-tailed Bee-eater, Pied Barbet, Pearl-breasted Swallow, Black-chested Prinia, Mariqua Sunbird, and Blue-breasted Cordonbleu.

After a night in Windhoek, we then headed to the Sossusvlei and Namib Naukluft Desert area, where the world's highest sand dunes stood not above the usual stark gravel plains, but over a far-reaching sea of grass. Despite the unusual conditions, many of the arid-country birds showed well, and all of us got great views of the endemic Dune Lark. Other highlights in this area were Ostrich, Secretary-bird, numerous Pale Chanting-Goshawks, Ludwig's, Rueppell's, and White-quilled bustards, Double-banded Courser, Namaqua Sandgrouse, Rufous-crowned Roller, Pririt Batis, Crimson-breasted Gonolek, Karoo Long-billed Lark, Tractrac Chat, Mountain Wheatear, Pale-winged Starling, and flocks of Social Weavers (at their massive haystack nests). We were now also seeing our first mammals, with thirteen Bat-eared Foxes feeding on termites in the daytime a particular treat, but also Yellow Mongoose, Mountain Zebra, and hundreds of Gemsbok and Springbok attracted here by the unusual abundance of grass.

Our next stop was at the coast in the Walvis Bay and Swakopmund area. Here, during a fabulous first afternoon we enjoyed uncountable thousands of flamingos, cormorants, and migrant shorebirds -- many only a few meters away. Three hundred and fifty Pied Avocets closely packed together were particularly impressive, but so were about 70 Chestnut-banded Plovers, and thousands of Curlew Sandpipers -- many showing signs of breeding plumage, as did the Black-bellied Plovers and Ruddy Turnstones. Another highlight was the very localized Damara Tern, but for most of us, best of all was just the sheer number of birds.

We then headed inland to a new area for our tour, a series of rugged ridges and acacia bush near Usakos. Our main target was one of the hardest endemics -- Herero Chat -- and we were all lucky enough to see at least one (of two) early on our first morning. We then spent two nights at a lovely tented camp in the nearby Erongo Mountains where in the surrounding granite hills, woodland, and acacia-lined dry river beds we added Hartlaub's Francolin, African, Black, and Pied cuckoos, Pearl-spotted Owlet, Freckled Nightjar, Violet Woodhoopoe, Monteiro's, Damara Red-billed and African Gray hornbills, Rosy-faced Lovebird (dozens at our lodge feeder) Rueppell's Parrot (becoming increasingly uncommon), White-tailed Shrike (just striking), Carp's Tit, Rockrunner (one of the most interesting near-endemics), and the handsome Short-toed Rock-Thrush. We added a few mammals to our list too, with Kirk's Dikdik (the cutest), Dassie Rat (the strangest), Roxy Hyrax (the most numerous), but most unexpected of all was a mother and young Leopard, sitting right along the main highway near Kalkfeld!

Continuing still further north we then enjoyed three days in the Etosha area where, unfortunately, because of an abundance of food, many mammals had dispersed. However, we still managed to find a mother Cheetah together with her half-grown young one, an African Wild Cat, two Black Rhino, three White Rhino, Common Giraffe, scattered herds of Burchell's Zebra, Hartebeest and Blue Wildebeest, and thousands of Springbok.

The birding highlights included Red-billed and Swainson's francolins, a large flock of Abdim's Storks, three species of vultures, Bateleur, Tawny Eagle, the huge Kori Bustard, Temminck's Courser, Lilac-breasted Roller, Southern Yellow-billed Hornbill, Spike-heeled, Sabota, Pink-billed and Dusky larks,

Desert Cisticola, Bare-cheeked Babbler, Violet-eared Waxbill, and Eastern Paradise-Whydah.

A third drive, still further north, took us the Okavango River, which in this area acts as the Angola-Namibia border. As it's a very different habitat we were immediately seeing new birds, with just a few of the most memorable ones being African Pygmy-goose, African Openbill, Rufous-bellied Heron, African Jacana, Coppery-tailed Coucal, Woodland and Giant kingfishers, Bennett's Woodpecker, Gabon Boubou, Magpie Shrike, Hartlaub's Babbler, and Red-billed Oxpecker.

It was then time for us to head east and south into Botswana and the Panhandle of the Okavango Delta. Along the way we passed through the Mahango reserve, where Goliath Heron, Martial Eagle, and Southern Carmine Bee-eater were just three of the highlights before we took a boat downriver to the rather isolated Xaro Lodge. During two nights here we saw many new birds right around the camp, However, our main target -- in fact for some of us, the main target of the whole trip -- was the magnificent Pel's Fishing-Owl, and we all had fabulous day time views!

The final part of our tour was to take a charter plane deep in to the delta for a three-night stay at the renowned Stanley's Camp. Here we took daily drives in a specially adapted Toyota Landcruiser, traversing water channels as we passed from one sandy island to another. Running clear water, beautiful palms, stands of mopane trees, and a big sky are what make this area so special. But of course there's also the wildlife, and it was just fabulous to be out there watching Saddle-billed Stork, Dwarf Bittern, almost-endemic Slaty Egrets, almost-tame African Fish-Eagles, Wattled Cranes, a large flock of Common Pratincoles, Double-banded Sandgrouse, African Barred Owlet, Southern Ground-Hornbill, Dickinson's Kestrel, White Helmetshrike, Meve's and Burchell's glossy-starlings, and Yellow-billed Oxpecker. Our mammal experiences included a close Common Genet (spot-lit after dark), a Spotted Hyaena (right at our camp), a resting Leopard (lounging in a tree), five Lions (including a big maned male), five close big bull Elephants (remember the mock charge), plus all the other creatures that make this such a memorable place -- Zebra, Warthog, Giraffe, Bushbuck, Reedbuck, Topi, Wildebeest, and Impala, to mention but a few.

Enjoy a review of our sightings below!

--Terry

KEYS FOR THIS LIST
One of the following keys may be shown in brackets for individual species as appropriate: * = heard only, I = introduced, E = endemic, N = nesting, a = austral migrant, b = boreal migrant

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS

The following reptiles were seen on the tour:

Namibian Rock Agama; about 40 in the Erongo Mountains.

Tropical House Gecko; widespread in small numbers.

Water Monitor; 1 at Mahango.

Nile Crocodile; 2 at Xaro (included one really close huge one), and 1 near Stanley's Camp.

Mozambique Spitting Cobra; some of the group saw 1 at Stanley's Camp.

Totals for the tour: 331 bird taxa and 39 mammal taxa