Birding at Thonga

Luckily for us, Thonga employs Maxwell, who is a self-taught, enthusiastic and fun birder.  He seems to enjoy having guests here who share in his passion for birding, and we enjoy his easygoing style of birding which is like ours.  We have been out birding twice with Maxwell.  On Tuesday evening he took us for a drive to get our first look at Lake Sibaya, stopping for any birds we wanted to see along the way.  Once at the lake, he knew right where to take us and we had a blast watching a family of hippos in the lake.  The lake is huge and so are the hippos!  Fortunately the one crocodile there was not as huge as I expected, so I didn’t mind when Mike decided (as usual) to get just a little closer for a better picture.  It’s quite funny to see the hippo tracks in the hardened sand and mud around the lake.  The hippos were a treat, but oddly both Mike and I agreed that it was still more interesting to see new birds.  Perhaps this is from seeing hippos on TV or in a zoo or whatever; we’re not sure, but there is something about the lure of the birds that keeps us on the lookout.

Just one of the bird highlights from our next morning birding adventure with Maxwell was an African Paradise Flycatcher, a very colorful and somewhat elusive bird.  Just as we were driving away, our guide Maxwell noticed it flew into view again.  I think he has eyes in the back of his head to have noticed this – and we’re lucky he did.