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Billed Hornbills, Bradfield’s Hornbill and a number of Pearl-spotted Owlets. Every evening elephant walked freely in front of the chalets and drank at the waterhole to the delight of the many tourists watching from the viewing deck. Alas, the time came for us to head back home and we drove down through Nata and Francistown and crossed into South Africa at Martin’s Drift. We did, however, manage to spot another Botswana special 62 km north of Francistown where we all saw the Boulder Chat, which has a very small range in Botswana. Botswana is a land of contrasting beauty, with vast areas being sparsely populated dry and dusty semi-desert, and then with oases of lush vegetation and abundant water supporting a magnificent diversity of people and wildlife. Sue and Anthony enjoying the river cruise Sunset over the Delta 20 | <strong>Bokmakierie</strong> December 2016 No 247
Polokwane Nature Reserve: WBC Trip 16th – 18th September 2016 Text and Photos by Lesley Cornish Much to my shame I had never heard of this reserve, and with so many friends going, I thought we should go too. So I booked a day’s leave, went to Wits, gave two lectures (well, 10.00am is a bit blatant to bunk, even on a Friday) and set off via the CSIR to collect samples for a student (the samples then were trapped at Wits because it was closed since the students were demonstrating - not my students – they are MUCH better behaved). Once in Polokwane, we go lost trying to find the place, so did a few other people. When we were ‘un-lost’ we were not allowed in, but luckily Lauraine had just arrived, so she could vouch for us and we were let in. That night, we were gently lulled to sleep by Fiery-necked Nightjars, and then rudely awakened by the peafowls calling, several times over. The next day, there was a long convoy at the gate for 6.00am for us to go into the park. Our target bird was Shelley’s Francolin, but it was not complying. However, we saw Marabou Storks by the pan, had lovely views of Short-clawed Lark doing its display: fly and call, then fold wings and plunge earthwards. We had a long debate about a pale-looking hornbill-shaped-thingy in a tree, Marabou Storks and Selwyn told me to a photo which revealed it to be a Spar bag (a lifer?). We drove around the reserve and saw a lot of dust, as well as Ant-eating Chats, Crimson-breasted Shrikes, Lesser Honeyguide, Long-billed Crombec, Yellow-bellied and Burnt-necked Eremomelas (three of the latter chasing Short-clawed Lark <strong>Bokmakierie</strong> December 2016 No 247 | 21
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Page 5 and 6: Durban Pelagic - October 2016 Text
Page 7 and 8: came in later (although not so clos
Page 9 and 10: In this way aspects of the life his
Page 11 and 12: CONCLUSION Catching birds with mist
Page 13 and 14: Diana has been placed on a farm wit
Page 15 and 16: Bubo The Eagle Owl By Alf Craul Eye
Page 17 and 18: The waters stretched as far as one
Page 19: this land in exchange for the islan
Page 23 and 24: It got quite chilly and rained that
Page 25 and 26: Darrel at work friend of the Courta
Page 27 and 28: A message from John Freer: Darrel P
Page 29 and 30: Bushbuck of the river when a lovely
Page 31 and 32: One such report involved 200 dead C
Page 33 and 34: Since leaving the Malayan Federatio
Page 35 and 36: The QM2 sailed overnight to Langkaw
Page 37 and 38: given a warm round of applause by t
Page 39 and 40: Rock Kestrel I was standing still l
Page 41 and 42: The new study confirms the suspicio
Page 43 and 44: Rarities and Unusual Sightings Repo
Page 45 and 46: 2540_2810 on 20 Aug 2016; the recor
Page 47: 2016 Calendar Competition Entries L

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