Africa Wild

Thanks for the comments Alf, RP, Lis & Nan.

The Alaska cap kept me cool RP.

I'll try and explain this in a way you might understand - the flat pics are lots of normal sized pics sellotaped together, but they won't fit on the page here if I post them the size you want them at.

Moving on a bit (I know, I said I'd go back, but I've changed my mind and we will come back to earlier on later on after I've gone on a bit about moving on.) we saw some.........

Getting lost in Botswana with all this back and ahead

Stay with me here Lis, you'll need to keep up for your forthcoming trip.

African skimmers are one of those iconic birds that I've always wanted to see. After a flock of seven had flown along the river the previous evening, I was anticipating seeing them a bit closer.

These birds are intra-Africa migrants. They come to the Chobe River in the dry season when there are plenty of sand-bars for them to roost and as they prefer shallower water, use the river to hunt for fish. They are specialised feeders, having a longer lower mandible which they "trawl" along the surface as they fly, snapping their heads back and closing the upper mandible when they sense a fish.

We caught up with a total of eight birds along the sandbanks here and marvelled at their long-winged buoyant flight. They spend most of the daytime on the sandbanks and only start to fish in the late afternoon when the sun begins to set.

Photos showing the elongated lower mandible which is up to 30mm longer than the upper.







The birds were becoming active and started to fly around the sandbanks.





They then began to chase each other in an excited fashion. I'm unsure if this was an aggressive display or part of courtship.



But then we were treated to several fly pasts by the pair that were on the closest sand bank. They flashed by our boat giving us amazing views of their flying skills.







I was ecstatic at this stage and watched fascinated as the birds went about their activities. What amazing birds these are.

Those last three photos are great!

yes... very interesting bird

Great pics with the sun playing with the transparency of the bills and the feathers. They are not beautiful birds, but perfectly developed for their kind of life

Not sure why anyone would call you mad if you get all fizzy about that sighting
Totally grande, methinks! And once again some splendid pix

weird looking birds

Dewi wrote:
I'll try and explain this in a way you might understand

leachy also talks to me like that...curious...

But now I understand!

Funny-looking birds those...are they related to seabirds?

How "explosive" was this excitement exactly?