Birds Take Two and some Flora too!

Sometimes it becomes easy to focus on the large more famous animals of Africa--the big five and such. However, we have really enjoyed viewing and photographing the birds here. Our trip last week to the coast gave us an opportunity to capture more of the bird life here. Again, I reserve the right to misidentify!

I'll start with the flamingos.



They are really graceful flyers and this is really the only time you get to see the full extent of their colorization. The black against the deep pink and white is quite stunning.


This in an immature flamingo. They are brown. If you look closely, you can see that the bubbles around it are in circular patterns. This bird was turning around in circles, stomping its feet to bring up little critters from the mud. It was a fun little dance to watch and made me wonder how it keep from falling over dizzy.

Greater flamingo

There are two different types of flamingos--greater and lesser.

Lesser flamingos

We have previously posted some pelican pictures, but this group was too fun to pass up. They were sitting out on a sand bar just chillin. Their colors are quite amazing and different than I anticipated.

Cape Cormorants  These fly in long rows up and down the beach. Reminded me of geese.

White-breasted Cormorant

Bar-tailed Godwit

Grey Heron

Little Egret

Red-billed Teal

White-footed Plover

Pied Avocut

Ruddy Turnstone

Helmeted Guinea Fowl

Also commonly known as African chickens. They are pretty much all over the place.

Kelp Gull  These are large gulls and are also all over the place.

While driving out to Cape Cross, we stopped in the desert--and by desert, I mean desert!  It was very barren, but we did examine  the few plants that actually survive there. They are all succulents and grow in small mounds through the sand. They depend up the water they collect from the fog for survival.

Ink Bush The leaves of this plant have ridges like a reed to collect the moisture from the fog

Dollar Bush (I think)

Another succulent. Not sure what it is called. You can get an idea of how big the plant mounds are by comparing them to our shoes.

Nara Melone. This plant was not near the others, but is found throughout the desert. Animals depend on the melons for their water. It also has some pretty serious thorns. I know--I have stepped on one and it went through the sole of my sneaker.