It seems that a lot of visitors do not know that stopping to watch these birds, can make the whole Kgalagadi experience much more interesting than just looking for animals.
By keeping an eye on this vulture, I was lucky and prepared to capture it when it decided it was time to take off. From the time we saw it near a waterhole to the time it set off was about one hour...
The Pygmy Falcon, being about 18 cm in length, can easily being missed while driving and looking for animals. This morning we were fortunate to spot about three of them at two different locations, actually hunting. Sitting on the branches, looking for prey, and then suddenly taking off. The car must be parked in such a way that one can manouver the camera into the air, and then one must be prepared to predict and wait for it to take off if you are keen to capture a "bird in flight" picture. On this occasion this picture was my best - I should go back to the Kgalagadi and try again next time!
One of the favourites for the keen photographers in the park, is the Lanner Falcon - they hunt from perches like these, other birds like doves, etc especially at waterholes. To catch these birds in action can be a fulltime affair because of their speed!
I worked a bit on the background of this picture to remove a manmade structure for pumping water to a waterhole in the park
This White-faced Scops Owl is a local resident of the Mata-Mata Campsite, which we found one evening when entering camp and seeing other people's interested in a tree!
...and just after stopping at our own campsite, my attention was directed to an unfamiliar sound in the tree above our campsite - just in time to capture this little Pearl Spotted Owl, also a local resident of the camp. It about 10-14cm in size.
Southern Yellow-billed Hornbill
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