Thursday, Nov.16  Camp Manze in Selous

We are up for breakfast at 7. Sit and chat with Sean and Millie. They have tons of stories as they have lived in Africa all of their lives and have worked in camps for 20 yrs or so.

We have a boat safari this morning so leaving at 8 am. Of course we see all of the birds as we did in our afternoon safari plus others. The birds and animals behave differently as it morning instead of late afternoon. Most are fishing or hunting or eating, or drinking. There are Scracco Heron, a Goliath Heron on a dead tree, lots of Pied Fisher Kings all together, many more that the last time. It also seems like some of the birds are in the process of building nests. We see them with large branches in their beaks. The Yellow Weavers are very busy going back and forth to their nest probably feeding the little ones. Saw a beautiful Malachite King Fisher, and a Grey-Headed King Fisher. This one is also very pretty. We saw the juvenile first and then the mother came to give it a nice grass hopper for breakfast. There was a Black-Crowned Night Heron, a Black Egret beside a White one, a Sacred Ibis, etc. 

Pied King Fisher

Black-Headed Weaver

Black Egret

  

Big Crocodile entering the water

Black-Crowned Night Heron

Many Egrets and Ibis

A Goliath Heron

Flying Goliath Heron

Pied King Fisher

  

A Grey Heron

A Black-Winger Stilt

Pied King Fishers

Malachite King Fisher

Yellow Weaver

   

Black-Headed Weaver

White and Black Egrets on branch

Egrets and Ibis

There are hundreds of Pink-Breasted Pelicans all along both sides of the shore line. Then we spot an elephant walking toward the water going to drink. It is followed by a second elephant. They walk in deeper, soak a bit then continue on to the other side. The water is very shallow in this part of the river so we go as far as possible to get good photos. In doing so, we get stuck and our guide has to roll up his pants and go in to push us. Andre helps by using the pole to push. There are crocodiles in there so he is cautious.
We get more pictures of the Egrets, the Storks, the Eagles, etc.. We are then off to see the Hippos and the Cape Buffalo. The Hippos are playing and some are even mating, again. It’s amazing to see them run in the water. They cannot swim so they must touch bottom to move. Luckily for them the water level in the river is low.

Pelicans, Yellow-Billed Stork (trying to catch a fish)

Elephants crossing the river

Water Buffalo

Giant King Fisher

Ajoub, our guide. Getting into the water, with the crocs..

André helping to push out of the shallow water with Ajoub pushing

Hippo getting out of the water

Lots happening here

They often hang out in groups and move around

Water Buffalo

Buffalo in cooling off

We are headed back and in passing we see a White-Headed Bee Eater, a Juvenile Grey-Headed King Fisher and the adult G-H King Fisher who is feeding the young one a grass hopper. It was another great ride on the river. So many birds, it’s unreal.

Adult Grey-Headed King Fisher having given her youngster a grass hopper for breakfast.

 Juvenile is swallowing the insect

We go for our late day Jeep Safari and not far from the camp, toward the river, we see 16 elephants and 2 Saddle-Billed Storks (rare to see).

Herd near camp

Two Saddle-Billed Storks near camp (rare to see)

We continue on and we see a group of Northern Carmine Bee Eaters. They are very colourful. We stop at a huge Termite mound. Zach gives us a lesson on how and why they build, how old it is, etc. Very interesting. We then drive about 15-20 minutes in Impala land. These are the most common species of animal that we see. Our destination is to see 4 lions, one mama, 2 daughters, and 1 son. They are lying under a tree sleeping. After watching them for 7-10 minutes they start to wake up. Eventually the mother gets up and starts heading toward the water to drink. The others follow. The sun is going down so we get pretty good shots. At one point they are all drinking at the same time. We are lucky as this is the second time that we have witnessed this scene. It’s 6:30 and time to head back to the camp. There are no safaris after dark. It is illegal. 

Northern Carmine Bee Eaters (migrant birds)

Carmine Bee Eaters in flight

Biggest Termite Hill (mountain we've seen)

Lions flaked out in heat of day

Sleeping soundly

Mama wakes up

Lion passes very near jeep (not ours)

mama drinks first

Another joins her

Now they are three

A fourth got thirsty as well.

Sunset while watching the lions

Again clean up and return for predinner drinks at 7:30. There is a couple from Germany, a couple from Switzerland, a guy from Belgium working in Zanzibar, and two guys from Germany. There’s English, French, German, and Swahili being spoken. It’s pretty cool. We leave around 9:15 to return to the tent. Pretty uneventful night. The birds are always chirping away starting around 5-5:30 so wake up is early, hence the early bedtime.