Popa Falls & Mahango. 29 December 2020 - 1 January 2021.
The Okavango Pan Handle, magical stuff. Due to Covid issues, not very practical to pop over the border for the short hop down to Shakawe for the near guaranteed Pel's Fishing Owls and White-backed Night Herons (done that before anyhow), but the Namibian side is pretty amazing too - a cocktail of habitats, centrefold the Mahango floodplains teaming with birds and large mammals, backed by adjacent open savanna also rich in wildlife, then topped off with thick acacia scrub pushing inland. A few kilometres up the road, Popa Falls adds yet more variety with semi-tropical riverine forest and easy access to the Okavango itself, here braided into a series of rapids tumbling over exposed rocks, these often dotted by Rock Pratincoles.
A very enjoyable four days here, camping at Popa Falls, travelling into Mahango each morning, some evenings too. All very relaxing, all very nice, generally concentrated on birds and mammals at the two ends of the day, butterflies in the middle part.
Popa Falls.
Though a moderately small slither of riverine forest, dotted by chalets and secluded campsites, Popa is a most pleasing experience - between campsites, African Paradise Flycatchers, Hartlaub's Babblers and Dark-eyed Bulbuls, while for the more leasure-orientated, the camp swimming pool and associated recliners made a perfect place to while away a midday hour, African Fish Eagles calling yonder, African Openbills drifting overhead, Hammerkop and Giant Kingfisher on the adjacent streams. Top of the billing however, as I grovelled around photographing the Common Dotted Border butterfly on a damp patch nearby, a call from Little One - slithering right under her sunbed, one gorgeous Anchieta's Python! Carefully removing it to nearby tangled undergrowth, managed a couple of photographs before it decided enough was enough, retreating into the greenery.
Just beyond, a small island with overgrown trails allowed a little more exploring - Terrestrial Brownbuls and Yellow-bellied Greenbul common, plus Thick-billed Weaver, Golden-tailed Woodpecker and both White-browed Robin-Chat and White-browed Scrub-Robin. A few butterflies too - 20 species, highlights Large Striped Swallowtail, at least ten Autumn Leaf Vagrants, one African Leopard (butterfly, not mammal), several Azure Hairstreaks and both Common and Tailed Meadow Blues. Quiet tracking also had one further reward - one cracking Cape Clawless Otter on the river bank. One Crocodile too, plus Pied Kingfishers and several Rock Pratincoles on boulders mid-channel. Come night, careful wanders in this area, rather alert for Hippos, failed to find any owls other than Barn Owl, but did see several Lesser Bushbabies and Gambian Equaletted Fruit Bats.
Mahango.
One of Namibia's true jewels, 25,000 hectares of paradise, meandering tracks along the western side of the Okavango River, broad floodplains lush and green, small vleis and open grasslands immediately adjacent, studded by acacia woodlands and scrub.
All nicely accessible to a standard 2WD car, trundled in daily, the mixed grassland and acacia savanna supporting herds of Common Impala and Plains Zebra, occasional Giraffe, Wildebeest and Kudu, plus assorted others including three Roan on one occasion and six Tsessebe, both new for the trip. Many birds in this mixed habitat too, ranks of Carmine Bee-eaters and Little Bee-eaters on dead trees and snags, Blue-cheeked Bee-eaters overhead, quite a number of Woodland Kingfishers, one Grey-headed Kingfisher, a superb Broad-billed Roller, flocks of Green Wood-Hoopoes, one European Golden Oriole, two flocks of Temminck's Coursers and a pair of Yellow-throated Sandgrouse. Abundant passerines too, four species of starling (Greater Blue-eared, Meve's Long-tailed, Burchell's and Violet-backed Starlings), Yellow-billed Oxpeckers on the game animals, assorted shrikes (migrant Red-backed Shrikes very common) and cuckoos (Black, Diederick and Jacobin Cuckoos), various swallows, a rich range of weavers and waxbills, plus a few more scarce birds too, not least a Dusky Lark, two Locustfinch and, a vagrant to southern African, one Northern Wheatear. Thicker wooded areas also added two Meyer's Parrots, Wood Pipit and three species of sunbird (Scarlet-chested, White-bellied and Amethyst Sunbird).
For all the riches of the savanna, it was however the Okavango floodplain that was the real attraction - allowed to depart vehicles, it was a joy indeed to settle beneath an ancient baobab and just take in the atmosphere - Vervet Monkeys in the trees above, expansive open wet meadows in front choc-a-bloc with Lechwe grazing in huge herds, groups of Buffalo ambling by, plus occasional lumbering Hippos taking time out from channels of the river and the obligatory Nile Crocodiles quietly cruising the waterways. And then there were the birds, plenty to occupy for a few days - a total of 12 Wattled Cranes, no less than ten species of heron (including Goliath Heron and Black Heron), a trio of storks (one Saddle-billed Stork, 25 African Openbills, seven Yellow-billed Storks), umpteen Spur-winged Geese and White-faced Whistling Ducks, plus smaller numbers of Pygmy Geese and Comb Ducks, and a good bunch of waders, these including abundant Long-toed Lapwings, one Collared Pratincole and three Water Thick-knees. In among these, plenty more too - Reed Cormorants and African Darters, Pied Kingfishers, African Jacanas on lily-filled channels and meadow, African Fish Eagles, both Senegal and Coppery-tailed Coucals and, in phagmites, Fan-tailed Widows.
Superb place all in all, recorded about 125 species of bird at this spot, plus 20 species of mammal. Quite happy with that.
The Okavango Pan Handle, magical stuff. Due to Covid issues, not very practical to pop over the border for the short hop down to Shakawe for the near guaranteed Pel's Fishing Owls and White-backed Night Herons (done that before anyhow), but the Namibian side is pretty amazing too - a cocktail of habitats, centrefold the Mahango floodplains teaming with birds and large mammals, backed by adjacent open savanna also rich in wildlife, then topped off with thick acacia scrub pushing inland. A few kilometres up the road, Popa Falls adds yet more variety with semi-tropical riverine forest and easy access to the Okavango itself, here braided into a series of rapids tumbling over exposed rocks, these often dotted by Rock Pratincoles.
A very enjoyable four days here, camping at Popa Falls, travelling into Mahango each morning, some evenings too. All very relaxing, all very nice, generally concentrated on birds and mammals at the two ends of the day, butterflies in the middle part.
Popa Falls.
Though a moderately small slither of riverine forest, dotted by chalets and secluded campsites, Popa is a most pleasing experience - between campsites, African Paradise Flycatchers, Hartlaub's Babblers and Dark-eyed Bulbuls, while for the more leasure-orientated, the camp swimming pool and associated recliners made a perfect place to while away a midday hour, African Fish Eagles calling yonder, African Openbills drifting overhead, Hammerkop and Giant Kingfisher on the adjacent streams. Top of the billing however, as I grovelled around photographing the Common Dotted Border butterfly on a damp patch nearby, a call from Little One - slithering right under her sunbed, one gorgeous Anchieta's Python! Carefully removing it to nearby tangled undergrowth, managed a couple of photographs before it decided enough was enough, retreating into the greenery.
Just beyond, a small island with overgrown trails allowed a little more exploring - Terrestrial Brownbuls and Yellow-bellied Greenbul common, plus Thick-billed Weaver, Golden-tailed Woodpecker and both White-browed Robin-Chat and White-browed Scrub-Robin. A few butterflies too - 20 species, highlights Large Striped Swallowtail, at least ten Autumn Leaf Vagrants, one African Leopard (butterfly, not mammal), several Azure Hairstreaks and both Common and Tailed Meadow Blues. Quiet tracking also had one further reward - one cracking Cape Clawless Otter on the river bank. One Crocodile too, plus Pied Kingfishers and several Rock Pratincoles on boulders mid-channel. Come night, careful wanders in this area, rather alert for Hippos, failed to find any owls other than Barn Owl, but did see several Lesser Bushbabies and Gambian Equaletted Fruit Bats.
Mahango.
One of Namibia's true jewels, 25,000 hectares of paradise, meandering tracks along the western side of the Okavango River, broad floodplains lush and green, small vleis and open grasslands immediately adjacent, studded by acacia woodlands and scrub.
All nicely accessible to a standard 2WD car, trundled in daily, the mixed grassland and acacia savanna supporting herds of Common Impala and Plains Zebra, occasional Giraffe, Wildebeest and Kudu, plus assorted others including three Roan on one occasion and six Tsessebe, both new for the trip. Many birds in this mixed habitat too, ranks of Carmine Bee-eaters and Little Bee-eaters on dead trees and snags, Blue-cheeked Bee-eaters overhead, quite a number of Woodland Kingfishers, one Grey-headed Kingfisher, a superb Broad-billed Roller, flocks of Green Wood-Hoopoes, one European Golden Oriole, two flocks of Temminck's Coursers and a pair of Yellow-throated Sandgrouse. Abundant passerines too, four species of starling (Greater Blue-eared, Meve's Long-tailed, Burchell's and Violet-backed Starlings), Yellow-billed Oxpeckers on the game animals, assorted shrikes (migrant Red-backed Shrikes very common) and cuckoos (Black, Diederick and Jacobin Cuckoos), various swallows, a rich range of weavers and waxbills, plus a few more scarce birds too, not least a Dusky Lark, two Locustfinch and, a vagrant to southern African, one Northern Wheatear. Thicker wooded areas also added two Meyer's Parrots, Wood Pipit and three species of sunbird (Scarlet-chested, White-bellied and Amethyst Sunbird).
For all the riches of the savanna, it was however the Okavango floodplain that was the real attraction - allowed to depart vehicles, it was a joy indeed to settle beneath an ancient baobab and just take in the atmosphere - Vervet Monkeys in the trees above, expansive open wet meadows in front choc-a-bloc with Lechwe grazing in huge herds, groups of Buffalo ambling by, plus occasional lumbering Hippos taking time out from channels of the river and the obligatory Nile Crocodiles quietly cruising the waterways. And then there were the birds, plenty to occupy for a few days - a total of 12 Wattled Cranes, no less than ten species of heron (including Goliath Heron and Black Heron), a trio of storks (one Saddle-billed Stork, 25 African Openbills, seven Yellow-billed Storks), umpteen Spur-winged Geese and White-faced Whistling Ducks, plus smaller numbers of Pygmy Geese and Comb Ducks, and a good bunch of waders, these including abundant Long-toed Lapwings, one Collared Pratincole and three Water Thick-knees. In among these, plenty more too - Reed Cormorants and African Darters, Pied Kingfishers, African Jacanas on lily-filled channels and meadow, African Fish Eagles, both Senegal and Coppery-tailed Coucals and, in phagmites, Fan-tailed Widows.
Superb place all in all, recorded about 125 species of bird at this spot, plus 20 species of mammal. Quite happy with that.
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