Out Into the Bush (Just A Little)

After having our second breakfast at our usual place, Motsana, and seeing the sun come out, we decided to have a mini-safari. We decided to drive towards Moremi and stop when the roads got too bad. There were things to see even without actually getting into deep water or the game reserve itself.

One of the first non-bird animals we was was a group of zebra feeding in a field not too far from the road.

Not far from the zebra and in the same field was a lone wart hog. This was our first sighting of the beast in the wild in Botswana. Even from this distance, he's a scary critter.

We got some good views of the Little Bee Eater,

The Red Backed Shrike,

 and the Sharp Tailed Glossy Starling.

A fellow we've seen a lot in the yard is Burchell's Coucal and I finally got a reasonable photo of him.

Although I've posted shots of the Red-Billed Hornbill before, this image of him sitting high in the dead tree was compelling. I think it works even better in B&W.

One of the things we noticed as we drove along on the very bumpy, and in places, very wet, road was what appeared to be elephant droppings: large piles of material containing lots of shredded wood. Among the animal drawns to these rich resources are butterflies.

We eventually reached a place where we were tired (the road really beats you up) and apprehensive about the next really deep and wide puddle that more than filled the width of the road, and we turned around to head home. On the way back, when we'd come upon one of these dung heaps, the butterflies would all flutter up and surround the vehicle. It was really magical - like something out of a Disney movie.

At one spot, we stopped and I got out to photograph just a few of the amazing variety of butterflies that surrounded us.

It was a a sight to behold and one we'll never forget.