Pel’s Fishing Owl, Botswana

We were incredibly excited to see a pair of Pel’s Fishing Owl today on an early morning bird watching boat trip on the Okavango river. We weren’t looking for them specifically but were hopeful. They were on some huge, old trees overlooking the river. Our son was particularly excited as he had never seen an owl before. What an incredible one to start with.

We saw an incredible number of birds during the two hours of the trip but the other highlights were watching Bee eaters coming out of their sand holes as the temperature warmed up, watching an African Fish eagle and seeing Skimmer terns on a sand bank and seeing kingfishers close up. The Barbel fish (catfish) were starting their ‘run’ and we could hear them crashing through the reeds and water as well as watch the birds that were attracted to that area looking for fish. We also saw crocodiles on a bank and a cormorant swimming with his head out of the water.

We spent most of the rest of the day relaxing at the campsite or the main lodge then decided to go back out on the water for an hour late afternoon. First stop was the sand bank with the Skimmer terns again and we watched them flying and feeding. It is very hard to get photos from a boat on a fast moving river but I was pleased with the results despite not getting a feeding shot. The Skimmer terns have a much longer lower beak designed for feeding so they can scoop the fish on the surface of the water. We also saw many birds including the African Fish eagle again as well as crocodiles and a hippo. Back at camp we had an early dinner then sat around the campfire for the evening. It seems very strange having such short days. The sun comes up around 6 and goes down again around 6, depending on how far north we’ve driven.