Talking Birds

Schalow's Turaco

The avifauna (birds of a particular region – it was a new word for me!) of Zambia is extensive. According to Wikipaedia, there are 779 varieties of bird species in Zambia! I joined Bird Watch Zambia after a tip off by a fellow Scot who said she’d gone on a really interesting bird walk one Sunday.  I thought this sounded like a great idea as I’m always keen to spend time out of the city, so signed up for my first official bird walk in Zambia.  What an amazing experience it turned out to be!

I turned up at the Bird Watch office a few minutes before the designated time of 7 am.  I thought I’d have to wait for a while as this seemed very early and generally people arrive late to things in Zambia!  However, my guide, Les, turned up at 06.59 and immediately said ‘Let’s Go!’  For the first time in Zambia, being early paid off as there was no way Les was going to wait for any stragglers!

It turned out that Les is a professional bird watcher and runs his own bird watching safari tour company.  I was the only person joining him on this day so had the privilege of accompanying an expert and my goodness did he spot and hear a lot of birds!  I felt very inexperienced and potentially a burden to him who was assigned the role of documenting all the findings, so I volunteered to write down all the names and quantity of the birds we spotted.  It felt good to be useful! 

We only travelled about 30 minutes from the centre of Lusaka to a quiet spot in the country called Mukamunya and immediately started to hear and spot so many birds – a total of 60 varieties to be precise in only 4 hours!  It was amazing how Les managed to hear the slightest sound and then we were able to spot each bird – some near and some at a distance.  Les had very powerful binoculars which helped! The highlights for me were the Maribou Storks and Hooded Vultures soaring high overhead, the Schalows Turaco and then seeing the Village Weavers and their beautiful cocoon like nests. 

Hooded Vulture

  

Maribou Stork

Apparently, a male Weaver bird who builds the nest can make up to 50 nests in one season and can tie knots with his beak making one of the most sophisticated nests in the bird world.  

Weaver Bird

I look forward to the next bird walk!

Yesterday I returned to the elephant orphanage at Lilayi and saw the wonderful work of Game Rangers International:

http://gamerangersinternational.org/

They rescue orphaned elephants and return them to the wild when they’re old and strong enough and ready to be accepted by a wild herd.  I walked around the small bush land with two Belgian friends for two hours or so and in that short time we were lucky enough to spot the following; Vervet monkeys, warthogs, three giraffes and various deer/antelope which I must research as not sure exactly what they were.  We also saw lots of wild Guinea Fowl who are very pretty.  

I love the wildlife in Africa!  Living in Lusaka it’s easy to forget that wildlife is all around and big mammals and exotic birds not too far away.  I spent last night with a fellow Scot who is working here – she was staying in a hostel with a leaking tank on the roof.  Whilst we supped on a glass of wine in the cool of the evening, we watched a frog taking a shower under the leak for about hour.  As I say, nature is all around! 

Next time, gender politics and/or religion maybe?!

Tizaonana!

Jenny

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