July 13, 2015: Kruger National Park, South Africa 鈥 Today I saw: Elephants, zebras, giraffes, hippos, rhinos, a young lion, crocodiles, jackals, hyenas, warthogs, buffalo, wildebeest, impala, waterbuck, steenbok, bushbuck, kudu, baboons, vervet monkeys, bush babies, two kinds of mongoose, a honey badger, squirrels, a hare, a type of large rat, a genet, and a civet. It was a good day!
At Kruger, you鈥檙e not allowed to exit your car lest a lion suddenly leap from the bushes, so tourists drive slowly along the park鈥檚 roads, circling like vultures. When someone stops, everyone else stops to see what they鈥檙e looking at. Our group adopted this strategy several times today with good results: We stopped next to a couple of cars and a lion walked out of the bushes, then we stopped again at a cluster of vehicles where, it turned out, a large carcass was buried in vultures, hyenas, and jackals like something from a nature documentary. Another passer-by gave us helpful directions on where to find some lounging white rhinos.
This works both ways, of course. Each time we stopped to check something out, cars would seemingly appear from thin air and stack up behind us. At one point I turned around and there were eight vehicles stopped, everyone peering into the bushes to see what might be lurking there鈥攊f only they knew we were looking at a woodpecker, not a lion or a rhino! Martha told us a funny story about how she once pulled to the side of the road in Yellowstone to make a phone call and looked up to find a dozen cars parked alongside. We started flashing our bird field guides out the windows; when people realized we were birdwatching, they鈥檇 generally smile, nod, and keep right on moving. I saw one vehicle with a 鈥淏IRDWATCHING PLEASE PASS鈥 bumper sticker. A tip of the hat for that idea.
Today is one of those days when I am glad to be a birder. Yes, we saw lots of the classic safari creatures, but so did everyone else. On top of those, we also found a hundred species of fantastic birds! If you seek the obvious stuff, you鈥檒l find it鈥攂ut if you look for the subtler things, too, you鈥檒l see a lot more. Some of the birds here are spectacular: Southern Ground-Hornbills, Lilac-breasted Rollers, Kori Bustards, Crested Barbets鈥 and can you say 鈥淕reater Blue-eared Glossy-Starling鈥 five times fast?
I passed the 3,500 mark early this morning with a Gray Go-away-bird, so named because its irritated catcall sounds like 鈥淕o 鈥way!鈥 A friend later texted me that she has set the Gray Go-away-bird鈥檚 call as her cell phone鈥檚 ring tone for her boss. A tip of the hat for that idea, too.
New birds today: 57
Year list: 3555
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