Central Namibia birding, Sep 2017

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• List of birds

It was the Heritage day long weekend and we decided to take an extra two days' leave and try pick up some lifers in central Namibia. It wasn't easy getting accommodation in the Erongo region with the two best situated places (Mara camp and Erongo Wilderness lodge) both fully booked and several other places either also booked, too expensive or not responding at all. Eventually we found a guest farm (Otjohotozu) about 18kms from Omaruru that could accommodate us for two nights, a bed and breakfast in Uis and an expensive guest farm in the south western corner of the Erongo mountains for our last night.

Marico flycatcher

On Friday afternoon after work, we drove to the airport and checked in. Long weekend also meant long queues but we were there in plenty of time and were still able to relax and have a bite in the lounge (having a Priority Pass is becoming a major advantage). We're not fans of South African Airways at all but at least our flight was on time and we landed in Windhoek just before 21:30. I've arranged for a shuttle to take us to Etango Guest Farm across the road from the airport where Robert met us with dinner and a nice air-conditioned room.

Damara red-billed hornbill

Saturday
At 04:30 on Saturday morning we were up and ready to leave by 5am. Robert drove us the short distance to the airport where we were supposed to pick up a rental car from Thrifty. However, despite prior email and verbal confirmations that they open at 04:30 and will have our car ready for us, everything was shut up when we arrived. We waited about ten minutes and then phoned an after-hours number pinned up on the door. A sleepy voice answered and promised to phone the person responsible for the day's shift. Fifteen minutes later the other rental agencies started to open, until only Thrifty's doors remained shut. With my blood starting to boil, an agent eventually showed up, over an hour late. He wasn't really apologetic but did actually give us an upgrade to a brand new Nissan X-trail. We left the airport around 06:15 with sky in the east starting to brighten. The X-trail was a great pleasure to drive and we started to relax and get excited about the trip. Windhoek was still quiet so early on a Saturday morning but north of Windhoek, almost all the way to Okahandja, there were extensive roadworks ongoing - luckily it didn't impede us much. Taking a shortcut on a dirt road, we reached Omaruru around 09:30, did some shopping for food and then birded a bit in town.

Red-crested korhaan

We stopped for a noisy flock of Rosy-faced lovebirds and also picked up Pied crow, African red-eyed bulbul, Blue waxbill, Yellow canary and African palm swift. On the D2315 towards the Erongo mountains we saw Kalahari scrub robin, Marico flycatcher, Red-billed quelea, Green-winged pytilia, Red-headed finch and Namaqua dove. We were atlassing the whole way and noted that we'd almost completed a full two hours birding in the pentad just south of Omaruru - it would've been nice to complete a full protocol card so just before the pentad border we turned around and looked for a semi-shady area to park for lunch. What a fortuitous decision! A large acacia next to the road offered the slightest bit of shade extending onto the road and just after we stopped a bunch of hornbills hopped and flew into view under the tree. We immediately noticed they had red bills and whipping up the binoculars, confirmed the white cheeks unique to Damara red-billed hornbills - our first lifer for the trip!

White-tailed shrike

Swallow-tailed bee-eater

With lunch finished we continued birding along the D2315 and added Red-crested korhaan, Red-billed spurfowl, Black-chested prinia, Cape and Pale-winged starlings, Pririt batis and the strange-looking White-tailed shrike. Soon we entered the Erongo Mountain Conservancy and reached our accommodation, Otjohotozu Guest Farm where a very welcoming Andreas greeted us. We were early but as they have just finished cleaning, we were allowed to check in and take a short break before driving off again. About 10kms further down the D2315, a smaller track headed south into the Erongo mountains. It wasn't a technically difficult road but corrugation was pretty rough in places which made driving somewhat unpleasant. Despite this and the afternoon heat (42 degrees C), the birding was still good and we picked up Violet-eared waxbill, Grey-backed camaroptera, Brubru, Purple roller, more White-tailed shrikes, Monteiro's hornbill and Southern yellow-billed hornbills. By late afternoon we returned and with the Otjohotozu gate just 50m from us, heard the screeching of parrots close-by. Perched on top of a bare tree, just 10m from us was a small flock of Rüppell's parrots! Lifer number two!

Sabota lark

Rüppell's parrot

It was still in the thirties as the sun headed for the horizon but we decided to take a quick walk down to the Omaruru river bed in the hope of finding Violet wood-hoopoes or Bare-cheeked babblers. No such luck unfortunately but we did add Helmeted guineafowl and Southern pied babblers. Something else we noted were several holes in the river bed where animals had obviously dug for water. Amazingly, crystal clear water had filtered through and were visible in all but the shallowest holes, less than 50cm below the surface! Our dinner was a three-course meal with oryx goulash as the main. Our hosts were really nice people and joined us for dinner and very enjoyable conversation. Our early morning finally caught up with us though and just after 9pm we said goodnight and headed for bed.

Sunset at Otjohotozu guest farm

Sunday
Andreas told us the previous night of a rocky outcrop on the farm where we might go look for Rockrunner. We were of course also hoping for the scarce Hartlaub's spurfowl and it sounded like the habitat would be good for them too. It was just starting to get light when we walked out on a farm road in very pleasantly cool morning air. We soon reached the outcrop and scrambled to the top. I took out my PDA and played the Rockrunner call and lo and behold, twenty seconds later, we saw lifer number three! What a stunningly beautiful bird! It stood on some boulders about 30m from us, much like the rockjumpers in South Africa and had the most beautiful robin-like warble.

Rockrunner

Sunrise in the Erongo mountains

We spent ten minutes looking at the Rockrunner before exploring the rest of the outcrop, looking for Hartlaub's spurfowl. This was unsuccessful unfortunately and we returned to the farm house along the entrance road. Breakfast was simple, fresh and delicious and soon we were on our way again, heading out to the mountain road. It was already 30 degrees and we would again reach 42 before lunch time. On the mountain road the birding was reasonably good and most notably, we added our fourth lifer for the trip - Carp's tit.

Birding along the D2315

Bradfield's swift

Yellow-bellied eremomela

We decided to return to Otjohotozu for lunch so that we could at least have a cold drink with lunch. Andreas's family from Australia arrived just before us and were to stay for a few days. They were a jovial and extremely pleasant bunch but left us alone for lunch while they rested up.

Butterflies drinking from a leaking garden pond at Otjohotozu guest farm

Green-winged pytilia

Dragonfly perched on a metal heron in the garden pond

Familiar chat

After lunch we returned to the D2315 and birded it's full length past the San village and through magnificent granite cliffs where we added Rock kestrel, Black-chested snake-eagle and Verreaux's eagle. Once outside the Erongo conservancy, the habitat changed to short grass with much sparser trees and shrubs and the birding slowed down significantly too. With the sun lowering towards the western horizon we turned our backs to it and got home just after sunset. Dinner was a buffet set-up and conversation with our hosts and the Australians looked like it was never going to end. Luckily they were still suffering some jetlag and by 21:30 we were all drifting towards bed.

Double-banded sandgrouse

Damara dik-diks

Southern fiscal (subcoronatus subspecies)

Sabota lark

Monday
With the intention of trying for Hartlaub's spurfowl at some rocky hills on the mountain road, we were up by 5am and set out by 05:45. By 06:15 we were in position, climbed the boulders halfway to the top and sat down, listening carefully and playing the call now and then. But after an hour, we still hadn't heard anything near or far that could've been then spurfowl and gave up. Another stunning Rockrunner was a nice consolation though.

Watching sunrise while listening for Hartlaub's spurfowl

We returned to the farm for another great breakfast but as we now had our sights set on Uis and Brandberg, we said our goodbyes and left immediately after. With the sun behind us and the air slightly cooler this morning, the birding along the D2315 was very pleasant. We cleaned up all the pentads to the junction with the D2306 and then turned north towards Okombahe and then west to Uis. The gravel roads to Uis were in a slightly worse condition than the D2315 (corrugation) but we still reached Uis just after noon and started birding north of the town on the road towards Xhorixas. Benguela long-billed lark was our target here and we knew that mid-day north of of Uis was the best time and place to look for them. The weather had turned a bit - it was still hot but at about 35 degrees, it was certainly better than the 42 of the past two days. A strong south easterly had also picked up and made birding a little more difficult. Just before the turn-off towards White Lady (the famous San paintings of Brandberg), Nicola spotted some birds and we parked, got out and started scanning. However, these first birds seen here turned out to be (very pale) Tractrac chats and also a Karoo chat perched on a bush. But a little further down the road Nicola again spotted something on the ground and when we got our bins on it, the long bill was unmistakable. It was our Benguela long-billed lark! Number five in the bag! It was a very handsome lark and we spent a good ten minutes observing and photographing it before moving on.

Benguela long-billed lark

Northern black korhaan

Just after turning onto the White Lady road, we pulled off for a late lunch and then continued west towards Brandberg. Birding was now very difficult - the habitat was sparsely covered gravel plains with the odd bushes few and far between. The sun was harsh and the wind strong and finding any birds at all seemed almost impossible. But they were still there - we picked up several groups of the beautiful Rüppell's korhaan, a small flock of Namaqua sandgrouse, a line Double-banded courser, several Sabota larks (the wester thick-billed race), a few more Benguela long-billed larks and also several groups of Stark's larks.

Approaching Tsisab gorge in Brandberg

Rüppell's korhaan

Karoo chat

Stark's lark

We reached the White Lady parking area around 4pm and discovered that much has changed in the twelve years since I've been here. There is now formal entrance office where you are obliged to hire a guide, whether you want to go to White Lady or not and you strictly have to adhere to the time frame of 8am to 5pm. A friendly chat with the lady in charge and one of the guides got us a concession of starting at 07:00 in the morning for some birding but when the guide admitted that Hartlaub's spurfowl will only be found about 500m higher up on the mountain and that Herero chats were not around, we decided it's not worth it (he would've charged about R500 for two hours of birding) and basically gave up on birding at Brandberg any further.

Benguela long-billed lark

With another night's accommodation back in the Erongos still to come, we decided to spend the night in Uis and leave very early the next morning to try and reach Erongo before sunrise. Back in Uis we phoned Ameib guesthouse and although the line was bad, the manager had no problem with us arriving around 6am. Confident of our plans we got some takeout from Brandberg Rest Camp and settled at our quite decent accommodation, Daureb Isib, perched on a hill.

At 3am we were up, packed quickly and set off. Knowing how common accidents with wildlife is when driving at night in Namibia, I was cautious on the dirt roads and we made it safely to the Erongos by 6am. However, driving up the access road to Ameib guesthouse, we reached a locked gate about 10kms from the mountains. It was 06:07. I tried to phone the manager but there was no signal. In the pre-dawn gloom I noted some huts close by and hooted and eventually two sleepy, disheveled guards came out. I told them about our arrangement with the manager (Martin Steppe) but they insisted that the gate only opens at 07:00 and that we cannot enter. I explained some more, tried to phone Martin again, but to no avail. We ended up spending an hour in the car, increasingly annoyed at missing an opportunity to look for Hartlaub's spurfowl (you have to be in place among the rocks even before dawn to try and locate them by their calls). Finally the guard came out just after 7am and opened the gate. It was now too late to try and rush for the rocky hills and we just slowly birded on the way in to the guesthouse. We reached the guesthouse just before 8am and walked in to reception to meet Martin Steppe. He was surprised to see us and when I told him that we had talked to him yesterday about arriving early, he claimed that the line was so bad that he never heard this part of the conversation (I asked three times the previous evening if it would be OK and heard him say it was not a problem three times). He then continued that Ameib is a private reserve so they strictly adhere to their gate times and that's it. Since we would've had to leave around 6am the next morning to make our flight back home, I asked if we can make an arrangement for that. We received an emphatic no. Wow. Severely annoyed, I told him that we will then cancel our reservation for that night (luckily we haven't paid yet) and go sleep in Windhoek because there's no way that we'll make our mid-day flight if we only left at 7am. Having seen the state of the accommodation and knowing that we were going to pay R2000 for a single night's stay, we thought it was actually for the better as this place was obviously a rip-off. Martin accepted this but then said we could still do a day visit and he seemed to think we would still have a chance of finding the spurfowl at the famous Bull's party rock formations. So we paid the R70 pp day visitor fee and drove towards Bull's party. Birding was good in between the granite mountains with Rosy-faced lovebirds, White-tailed shrikes, Lark-like buntings, Violet-cheeked and Black-faced waxbills, Crimson-breasted shrike, Barred wren-warbler, Common scimitarbill, Green-winged pytilia, Chestnut-vented tit-babbler, Black-throated canary and Swallow-tailed bee-eater. At Bull's party we walked out onto the boulder field that made this a landmark for the Erongo mountains and spent about half an hour calling and listening for the spurfowls. But there was nothing.

Bull's party

Hunting scene in Philip's cave

View from Philip's cave

We drove back towards another landmark - Philip's cave, famous for San paintings. The walk to the cave was up-and-down a bit but still very pleasant as it wasn't too hot yet. The paintings in the cave were still in pretty good condition and we could make out several elephants, hunters, women and even a little girl. The view from here was also spectacular and spending a night in the cave would've been good for the soul. The sun started heating up by the time we returned to the car and we decided to call it a day and a trip. Still feeling annoyed at the inflexibility and lack of hospitality of Ameib (in stark contrast to Otjohotozu on the other side), we had no guilt leaving the place after cancelling our accommodation. Nicola caught up on some sleep while I drove back to Windhoek which we reached in the early afternoon. Nicola phoned a couple of hotels while we were driving and found us a room at the Safari hotel near Eros airport. This was the same hotel I stayed in for a conference many years ago and I was a little worried (it wasn't too great), but it turned out OK for the one night. Later in the afternoon we drove back into town to get the rental car cleaned and picked up some takeaways for our last dinner in Namibia.

Our flight was at noon and since we now only had 40kms to drive from Windhoek, we slept "late" had a leisurely breakfast and packed up, leaving Windhoek close to 9am. After dropping the rental off we still had to wait a bit for the check-in counters to open but after check-in, security and immigration, we got into the Qatar Airways lounge where we could relax a bit before the flight. Amazingly the SAA flight was on time again and after an uneventful flight, we reached home just after 4pm.

It was another delightful trip to Namibia and we added five lifers to our Southern African list - not easy these days. The weather for the first two days very hot but a little more bearable for the last two days. Otjohotozu Guest Farm on the D2315 we would highly recommend as a base for a couple of days. Ameib Guest Farm in the south west is OK for a day visit but we would not recommend staying here at all. Our experience with Thrifty car rental at Windhoek airport went from bad to worse after we returned home. I discovered they had charged me almost ZAR600 on the day we returned and thought this might be an administration fee for a window chip that was noted when we returned the car. However, since another agent confirmed the chip was pre-existing, we should not have been charged. I contacted Thrifty to query the deduction and was informed that it was actually for distance we drove over our daily limit. This was even more curious since our contract clearly stated we had unlimited kilometres. I queried them again and this time they admitted that there was some glitch and that the incorrect daily allocation was loaded in the computer. They promised to refund me. Unfortunately, despite numerous follow-ups over the next several weeks, all I got was promises and excuses and decided to open a case at my bank. Now we'll have to wait and see, but Thrifty in Windhoek will most certainly not see us again.