Grootfontein
Today was planned as a rest day to sort out the final sites for birds I still want to see and to try for the Black-faced Babblers one last go.
I started the day walking around the grounds of Pondoki finding a lovely flock of Southern Pied Babblers. A flock of 30 Egyptian Geese also flew over heading north as if they were migrating.
The rest of the day was spent chilling out until it was deemed ‘cool’ enough to head 40km back up to Roy’s Camp for one last go of the Babblers. A police road block held me up for five minutes as the grumpy women deemed it my fault that the ‘ZA’ sticker on the rear windscreen was on show, and not the hire company. Anyway I was soon on my way again and into Roy’s Camp. Again the staff were very friendly and allowed me to walk all around the grounds. I felt semi-confident but after three laps of the camp I hadn’t had a sniff of a Babbler. I was close to giving up but in the distance I heard what I knew were Babblers. I got out of my weary state and sprinted around to the other side of the complex. I finally set eyes on the birds but neither of them were facing me meaning I couldn’t see their pale eyes. Therefore I charged into the scrub and long grass until I was nearly on top of them where they gave superb views for about ten minutes. A huge relief to have finally found them.
The drive back produced seven Red-Crested Korhaans as the sun started to set.
Egyptian Goose - 30
Crested Francolin - 2
Swainson’s Spurfowl - 3
Red-Crested Korhaan - 7
Southern Red-billed Hornbill - 6
Acacia Pied Barbet - 3
White-Crested Helmetshrike - 4
BLACK-FACED BABBLER - 8
SOUTHERN PIED BABBLER - 8
Chestnut-vented Warbler - 2
Red-billed Buffalo Weaver - 4
Golden-breasted Bunting - 15
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| Southern Pied Babbler at Pondoki |
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| Black-faced Babbler at Roy's Camp |
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The entrance to Roy's Camp -
no doubt the best site to see the Babbler
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