Hornbills continued

Hornbills Are Out

If you read my previous blogs you will know that I was keeping track of the Yellow-billed Hornbills that were nesting near the dining hall (fondly known as the Hot Spot) here at CCF.

I watched as the male fed the female for the first three weeks that I was here. Then the mudded in hole in the nest box became slowly bigger over the course of two or three days. I did not see the female emerge but suddenly there were two hornbills flying around and the hole in the nest box got smaller again. The adult birds filled the hole back in except for a small slit through which they shoved caterpillars and other insects. Standing near the nest box one could hear the young bird(s) inside begging for food. This went on for another three weeks or so then once again the hole in the mud started growing. Soon I could see small glimpses of a beak in the hole. The hole was enlarged over the course of many days. The parents began sitting on branches of the snag and calling out to the young in the box. It is actually a rather long drop out of the box to the ground so the best course of action for a young bird would be to launch itself into flight when leaving the nest. No hopping about on nearby branches for these birds.

I watched the nest box as much as possible hoping to see the chick or chicks emerge. No such luck. We have however seen a chick in the trees nearby. It seems that only one chick fledged. The chicks can be distinguished from the adults by the color of their beak. Young chicks have a brown beak which begins to change to yellow shortly after they fledge.

While I did not capture the moment of nest departure I did capture photos of the chick as it began to look out onto the big world beyond its small nest box. I also watched an adult hornbill catch a caterpillar and proceed to wack it against a log before taking it to the nest box. 

Game Counts

Game Counts Night and Day

Since Jim’s arrival in Namibia I have found myself busier and less inclined to update the Blog even though there is always so much to share.

Jim came to CCF about a month ago, around the time of the monthly game counts. I love this monthly event.  It consists of five days of driving specific routes around the reserve and counting targeted species. Day one is the count for “Circuit B3”. It is a long count that takes about 3 or 4 hours to complete depending on what is seen. Day two is also Circuit B but it is a night drive. The next three days are counts on the main reserve conducted on the same three roads each day.  Different people at CCF are assigned to participate in the counts.  Jim and I were lucky enough to go on the night count and all three of the following day counts.

Night counts and night drives are done with the use of using spotlights held out each side of the truck. The spot-lighters move the lights back and forth scanning for eye shine or movement. When something is seen you shout out to the driver to stop and then everyone tries to figure out what is out there in the darkness.

We were about 5 km into our drive when Jim spotted two pairs of eyes and had our driver stop the truck. We all looked carefully trying to figure out what was out there in the bushes. It seemed cat-like but we could not be sure. Then of course they moved and we lost sight of them. I suggested we inch forward with the truck, keeping the spotlight focused on the area and just maybe we could find where they had moved. We moved forward 4 or 5 meters and saw a pair of eyes again. This time we could all see it was a cat. Serval! This is a medium sized cat that is rarely seen. Richard, our driver and the coordinator of the game counts had never seen a serval. We all got good looks at it before it turned and moved deeper into the brush. Servals frequently prey on birds and are known to leap into the air to take birds in flight.

The excitement of spotting the serval kept us all motivated to continue scanning and searching over the next hour when we saw limited numbers of animals. As we moved to the more open areas the game picked up and we saw Oryx, red hartebeest and springbok. Oryx are usually found in the greatest numbers during the counts. We often encounter groups of 40 to 60 animals at night.

Two weeks or so after the game counts we went on another night drive around the reserve with some friends.  Highlights included having a great look at a genet in a tree. Genets are small carnivores that remind me of a raccoon or ring tailed cat. They spend most of their time in the trees and are excellent climbers. We also spotted two different species of owls, the tiny Pearl Spotted owlet which is much like our pygmy owl and the larger Southern White Faced owl which can be identified in part by its huge orange eyes.

Game counts will be starting again on Sunday. This time Sadie is also here to participate and I will be driving one of the vehicles on some of the counts.  

Camera Traps are one of the other ways CCF has for monitoring the wildlife species and numbers found here. Check out the photos from some of our camera traps.

 Game Counts Night and Day

Since Jim’s arrival in Namibia I have found myself busier and less inclined to update the Blog even though there is always so much to share.

Jim came to CCF about a month ago, around the time of the monthly game counts. I love this monthly event.  It consists of five days of driving specific routes around the reserve and counting targeted species. Day one is the count for “Circuit B3”. It is a long count that takes about 3 or 4 hours to complete depending on what is seen. Day two is also Circuit B but it is a night drive. The next three days are counts on the main reserve conducted on the same three roads each day.  Different people at CCF are assigned to participate in the counts.  Jim and I were lucky enough to go on the night count and all three of the following day counts.

Night counts and night drives are done with the use of using spotlights held out each side of the truck. The spot-lighters move the lights back and forth scanning for eye shine or movement. When something is seen you shout out to the driver to stop and then everyone tries to figure out what is out there in the darkness.

We were about 5 km into our drive when Jim spotted two pairs of eyes and had our driver stop the truck. We all looked carefully trying to figure out what was out there in the bushes. It seemed cat-like but we could not be sure. Then of course they moved and we lost sight of them. I suggested we inch forward with the truck, keeping the spotlight focused on the area and just maybe we could find where they had moved. We moved forward 4 or 5 meters and saw a pair of eyes again. This time we could all see it was a cat. Serval! This is a medium sized cat that is rarely seen. Richard, our driver and the coordinator of the game counts had never seen a serval. We all got good looks at it before it turned and moved deeper into the brush. Servals frequently prey on birds and are known to leap into the air to take birds in flight.

The excitement of spotting the serval kept us all motivated to continue scanning and searching over the next hour when we saw limited numbers of animals. As we moved to the more open areas the game picked up and we saw Oryx, red hartebeest and springbok. Oryx are usually found in the greatest numbers during the counts. We often encounter groups of 40 to 60 animals at night.

Two weeks or so after the game counts we went on another night drive around the reserve with some friends.  Highlights included having a great look at a genet in a tree. Genets are small carnivores that remind me of a raccoon or ring tailed cat. They spend most of their time in the trees and are excellent climbers. We also spotted two different species of owls, the tiny Pearl Spotted owlet which is much like our pygmy owl and the larger Southern White Faced owl which can be identified in part by its huge orange eyes.

Game counts will be starting again on Sunday. This time Sadie is also here to participate and I will be driving one of the vehicles on some of the counts.  

Camera Traps are one of the other ways CCF has for monitoring the wildlife species and numbers found here. Check out the photos from some of our camera traps.