Lawdon's in Botswana

We spent the day travelling through the Mahanga Reserve where we saw lots of birds but also lots of different mammals, including hippos.

The first parts of the morning were spent along the trail and by the Popa Falls before we made a short drive to Mahanga. We drove the 2WD track (barely in parts before entering Botswana and heading for Lawdons Camp.

Popa Falls

New or interesting birds around the camp were two Fish Eagle, Rock Pratincole on the rocks again, Emerald-spotted Wood-dove, Southern Carnine Bee-eater, a pair of colourful Black-collared Barbet, a pair of African Pied Wagtail, a dozen or so Hartlaub’s Babbler, a pair of Collared Sunbird and a party of Brown Firefinches.

A couple of unexpected birds were also seen. The first was a pair of what appeared to be Tropical Boubou. Popa is outside the range give by Sinclair but there seemed little doubt that this was what they were (the underparts were clearly a rich cream in colour) and a group of four Violet-backed Starlings were seen outside our accommodation.

Dragonflies

Mahanga

This reserve was excellent if a bit tough going in places. Despite being allowed to wander on foot we still did most of our birding from the comfort of the car. Waterbirds were in abundance and included Rufous-bellied Heron, Goliath Heron, Hamerkop, African Openbill along with Gabar Goshawk, Lizard Buzzard, Fish Eagle, Tawny Eagle and Martial Eagle. Black Crake was seen at the picnic spot and four Wattled Cranes were visible from the Giant Baobab. The plains also had White-faced Whistling-ducks, Long-toed Lapwing, African Skimmer, Coppery-tailed Coucal and Southern Carmine Bee-eater,

Mammals are an important feature of this reserve and we managed to see 16 Sable, numerous Red Lechwe, Southern Reedbuck, Waterbuck and Red Hartebeast, Several groups of Hippopotamus were among the pools and about ten Elephant were seen along with Water Buffalo.

Looking across from the “Giant Baobab” a Crocodile and a large Monitor Lizard were seen.

Dragonflies

We departed from Mahanga and headed south towards the border with Botswana. We had little problem passing through and were not charged anything to do so. At the Botswana post the staff were very friendly and seemed almost pleased to see us. Having negotiated the border we drove to Drotsky’s Camp although we ended up staying at Lawdons Camp next door. It was nearly dark when we arrived so we saw very little.

Lawdons Camp is very new (in fact not everything is finished off. The accommodation was excellent but the restaurant area was not finished so we taken by boat to Drotsky’s for breakfasts and evening meals which were very good.