Africa is for the Birds

Lake Kariba, Zimbabwe, October 31, 2012

Nancy on houseboat, writing this update

Becky and I are sitting on a house boat on Lake Kariba, the largest human-made lake in Africa The river that goes over Victoria Falls upstream was dammed here 5 decades ago to create hydroelectric power. Our group is on a 2-day cruise, a good respite from the intense highway and safari driving of our first 9 days in Zimbabwe, and a chance to write.

                                                     




There's a hippopotamus on shore, a rare sighting since they usually emerge from the water to feed only at night. The boat captain says that on a previous trip, he saw several lions on the shore feasting on a hippo they had just killed.




In front of us a dozen elephants deftly twist grass out of the ground and pop it into their mouths.

African elephants on Lake Kariba, Zimbabwe

 

lilac-breasted roller

These wild creatures take our breath away. So do the birds. They are all new to us,. Lilac-breasted rollers appear everywhere we went in Zimbabwe. A cozy pair of cinnamon-colored broad-billed rollers perch in front of our room at Chilo Gorge Safari Lodge. A southern ground-hornbill jumps up on a rock and displays its red throat and blue throat patch. A yellow-billed stork's scarlet face and bright pink legs are reflected in the water.

 

           At the elegant colonial Stanley and Livingstone Hotel near Victoria Falls, we wander through lush gardens, watching hundreds of southern masked weavers build nests from palm and papyrus fibers, weaving an entrance tube at the bottom of each structure.

Southern masked weaver entering its nest from the bottom

Becky's favorite bird so far is the long-tailed carmine bee-eater, spotted this morning from the houseboat. Africa is famous for its bee-eaters, and this is the first one we have seen.
 

Carmine bee-eater

One bird does something odd. From its perch on a branch over the lake, this long-necked cormorant-type bird spreads its wings and jumps webbed feet first into the lake! "What is that?" I ask our guide.



Another African darter (or "snakebird")

African darter

"That one is the African dah-tah." Becky writes it down in our notebook. African dah-tah. No stranger than the boubous, bulbuls, hamerkops, and tit-babblers we've already seen in Zimbabwe.

Back on the houseboat, as the sun sets flaming orange over Lake Kariba, we check our Birds of Southern Africa. Ahhh . . . African Darter! We should have guessed at our guide's British-Zimbabwean accent. After all, that isn't the fest bed (first bird) we've seen on the chahhed (charred) remains of a bent (burned) tree!