After just one night in Lusaka, Zambia's capital, we headed to Chisamba, again for just one night. Before leaving Lusaka, we enjoyed beautiful views of some Peters's Epauletted Fruit Bats, hanging in their day roost in a tree right next to my little cabin. Once we arrived in the Chisamba area, it didn't take long to find one of our main targets of the trip - Chaplin's Barbet, which is one of only two birds endemic to Zambia. We saw a group of five birds, some adults and some juveniles. We actually did very well finding barbets on this trip; we saw 9 species in the barbet family, including 2 tinkerbirds. Barbets are in the same order as woodpeckers, honeyguides, toucans, jacamars, puffbirds. There are some amazing wetlands near Chisamba, and we saw hundreds or thousands of Marabou Storks, pelicans, White-faced Whistling Ducks, and many more. Saw a couple of Rufous-bellied Herons, which is quite shy and uncommon in many countries, but Zambia seems to be one of the best places to see them. And a little bit of good wildlife too (see photos).
After Chisamba, we went back to Lusaka and took a scheduled flight up to South Luangwa National Park. S Luangwa is truly one of my favorite parks in Africa. Not too crowded, at least when we were there, lots of "big game", and amazing birds, even if we didn't have any major targets (there were no species there that we couldn't also see in other places). I would say that it has to be one of the greatest and easiest places in the world to see leopards, one of my favorite cats. Animals like elephants congregate in large numbers along the river, or in the river like hippos and crocs. The river also attracts lots of waterfowl, as well as birds associated with water like Kingfishers, bee-eaters, and African Fish Eagles. Inland, among my favorite birds were beautiful and tiny Lilian's Lovebirds, and huge and sinister-looking Southern Ground Hornbills - we had wonderful looks at several of both species. At mid-day, we shared the hotel grounds with about 20 elephants!
Night drives in Luangwa are often spectacular. We did two, and had amazing sightings, of Common Genets, Four-toed Sengis (elephant shrews), and of course leopards! We also saw some wonderful birds, especially Three-banded Courser, and a pair of Pel's Fishing Owls!
After Chisamba, we went back to Lusaka and took a scheduled flight up to South Luangwa National Park. S Luangwa is truly one of my favorite parks in Africa. Not too crowded, at least when we were there, lots of "big game", and amazing birds, even if we didn't have any major targets (there were no species there that we couldn't also see in other places). I would say that it has to be one of the greatest and easiest places in the world to see leopards, one of my favorite cats. Animals like elephants congregate in large numbers along the river, or in the river like hippos and crocs. The river also attracts lots of waterfowl, as well as birds associated with water like Kingfishers, bee-eaters, and African Fish Eagles. Inland, among my favorite birds were beautiful and tiny Lilian's Lovebirds, and huge and sinister-looking Southern Ground Hornbills - we had wonderful looks at several of both species. At mid-day, we shared the hotel grounds with about 20 elephants!
Night drives in Luangwa are often spectacular. We did two, and had amazing sightings, of Common Genets, Four-toed Sengis (elephant shrews), and of course leopards! We also saw some wonderful birds, especially Three-banded Courser, and a pair of Pel's Fishing Owls!
