An hour or so after leaving Maun we came across this swarm of Quelea (I know flock is the term, but swarm is far more appropriate).  The  Red-billed Quelea (Quelea quelea), a small finch-like bird, is the most numerous bird species in the world.  Some estimates put its numbers at 10,000,000,000 and in sub-Saharan Africa it is the locust in cute form.  They can be so numerous, that as gregarious birds, they break the branches of trees they rest on, and denude farmland to the economic horror of these African countries.  Later in our travels we will show you the hundreds of thousands on migration that we were privileged to see.



Soon after this, we arrived at Moremi, but frankly, we had begun to see a sharp increase in wildlife way before the boundary fences.  Botswana's game is truly not limited to the game reserves.



Our first close encounter with Giraffe, and .....



...... round the next corner a real close up!  This was with the shorter end of my 100-400mm !



One of the Jerry-cans had begun to leak a little, so rather than waste any, a quick top up to each vehicle, and we were on our way towards our first night's stop inside the game reserve. We needed to carry enough fuel to give us at least a 700 kilometers range, just to be safe.



But who could resist stopping to photograph Jenni's favourite animal, the pajama donkey.



Jenni was soon off to get close-ups, the old fashioned way, on foot.



Which bemused some of these well covered Zebra.  Obviously no shortage of grazing this year.



Even the ubiquitous Impala seemed to be more accessible and photogenic here!



But equally fascinated by us.



All this ............................  and we hadn't even reached our campsite at 3rd Bridge yet ...... but more on that tomorrow.



[Complete Safari and wildlife photo index]
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Permalink | Posted by: Ian at Thursday, September 9th, 2004 22:39:00 | Location: Moremi, Botswana | Category:  Botswana Safari 

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