RAINY SEASON IN SONGO, ZIMBABWE: Spectacular Birds and More, Guest Post by Karen Minkowski

Elephants at Songo Conservancy site, Zimbabwe

My friend Karen Minkowski, a frequent contributor to The Intrepid Tourist and definitely an intrepid traveler, is currently in Africa, a place that she has visited often. She spent the month of February at the Songo Conservancy site, which is several hundred miles from Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe. She writes:

I had a great rainy season month in Songo, lots of new birds (among many I'd seen in November). Elephants were present; it's always astonishing to see these great creatures. Poaching levels have dropped in Songo since the International Anti-Poaching Foundation, which manages this conservancy, trained and is now deploying rangers (all young women - strong, motivated and committed) to patrol the huge area. A place worth protecting, for sure.

Here's the Songo landscape. (photo above) The water body is Lake Kariba. Look at those baby elephants!!

Rain falling on the distant floodplains. Songo is especially beautiful when it's green.

African grey hornbill.

Arrow-marked babbler parent feeding its young.

Black-winged kite.

One of my favorite birds, the collared palm thrush - I love the bedroom eyes!

This bull elephant came within 40 meters of the electric fence. Elephants look bigger when you see them on foot rather than from a vehicle.

Green wood-hoopoe, frequently seen poking around in the dead ends of tree limbs.

Jacobin's cuckoo.

Levaillant's cuckoo. Most if not all African cuckoos lay their eggs (very surreptitiously) in the nests of other species, who do the hard work of foraging for food for these cuckoo chicks.

The red and black birds are male southern red bishops. They're gathering with potential mates. Each male will form a harem with several females and build their nests in the reeds and grasses.

Tawny-flanked prinia, a feisty little bird.

This is a male Village Weaver constructing a nest that hopefully his potential mate will find suitable for raising their young. If she rejects it - by not lining the nest's interior -  and other females do the same, he'll build a new nest in hopes of pleasing someone!

The most common, and the noisiest of birds around our camp, the white-browed sparrow weaver. Like the weaver in the previous photo they build nests from grasses, but rather messy ones!

I'm leaving Songo very soon, but hope to return, for the birds and the elephants and for the lovely community of people here.

Click here to read about Karen’s visit to Songo in November 2022:  https://theintrepidtourist.blogspot.com/2023/01/songo-nature-conservancy-victoria-falls.html .

BEIJING ZOO and PEKING DUCK, Beijing, China (Day 5)

Red Panda, Beijing Zoo

The following is an excerpt from the diary of our trip to China July, 1995.  We were traveling with three friends, spending five days in Beijing and then three days in Xian.  China has changed greatly since our visit but many of the places we went to are still among the popular tourist spots.

Golden Monkey, Beijing Zoo

Beijing, Day 5:  Our last day in Beijing was a free day with no organized tours.  In the morning, Art and I took a taxi to the zoo.  The weather was hot but not unbearable.  The panda exhibit is the first inside the gate and required an extra fee.  The inside enclosures were filled with cut bamboo and one panda was eating.  The others were more active outside.  We also photographed a red panda, which circled around and round its enclosure before finally climbing a tree to sleep.  After leaving the pandas we searched for other Chinese animals and saw some cranes and golden monkeys.  The zoo is huge and we got somewhat lost because there weren’t many maps.  At the far end we found two polar bears play-fighting in the water.

Polar bears, Beijing Zoo

After the zoo we took a taxi to the Great Bell Temple to see the biggest bell in China.  You can read more about the bell in my post on 6/30/14.

Preparation of Peking Duck

That evening we went out for a Peking duck dinner at a restaurant recommended by the hotel.  The waitress convinced us that we needed two ducks (for five of us) but we would have been better off with just one because they were so greasy and rich that we ate too much and felt sick the next day.  The waiter brings the whole roast duck on a cart and then carves the pieces into piles on small plates.  You eat them with your hands, folding the duck pieces inside thin pancakes that have been swabbed in bean sauce. Afterwards we watched them prepare and cook the ducks and bought a few souvenirs, including a duck hat for Art.

Tiananmen Square at Night

We then walked back to our hotel via Tiananmen Square, where people were picnicking, talking, playing badminton and soccer, and flying kites.  (Badminton was obviously very popular in China. Every night on television we saw broadcasts of the international badminton championships which were being played that week.)  The moon, which had been a crescent earlier in the week, was growing fuller and small bats flew among the kites catching insects.  After a hot day, the relatively cool night air was refreshing.

My bird kite purchased in Beijing