Crenigomphus kavangoensis

Crenigomphus kavangoensis, one of the gomphid highlights of our recent trip to Namibia with Odonatours.

Paragomphus cataractae

The stunning Paragomphus cataractae at the rapids on the Zambezi near Katima Mulilio.

Aethiothemis solitaria

One of the highlights of our day at Popa Falls (Namibia) was a scattering of this nice libellulid, Aethiothemis solitaria.

paragomphus sabicus

The awesome Paragomphus sabicus seen on a recent visit to Rundu in Namibia.

Crenigomphus cornutus

It took four visits to the Zambezi rapids near Katima Mulilo in NE Namibia to finally connect with Crenigomphus cornutus on our recent trip to the country.

Lestinogomphus angustus

My recent tour to Namibia was all about gomphids, not many species but some very special species encountered. Lestinogomphus (angustus) was a new genus for me at Rundu.

Odonata - Namibia

Managed to record 18 species of dragonflies on the recent trip to Namibia, including several new species for the trip. Best of the new stuff was Pseudagrion massaicum (common at von Bach Dam this year) and Zygonyx torridus (two at von Bach Dam). Who knows what I could have found at von Bach if I had not been attacked by wasps whilst trying to catch the latter species!

Orthetrum trinacria (Etosha) - a dragonfly specialist, chomping on a hapless Diplacodes lefebvrii at Namutoni.

Ceriagrion glabrum - Mokuti Lodge (Etosha).

Pseudagrion massaicum - a tick for me at von Bach Dam this year.

The widespread Urothemis edwardsii at von Bach Dam.

Rhyothemis semihyalina - seen at three locations this year.

Owls of the Namib

The most frequently encountered owl is always pearl-spotted owlet Glaucidium perlatum, photographed here at Okaukuejo (Etosha).

Namibia always produces a handful of owls with little effort. Besides the species pictured here we also watched Verreaux's eagle-owl (Bubo lacteus) catching rodents under the spotlights at the Okaukuejo waterhole. An African marsh owl (Asio capensis) at the same spot on one night was my first sub-Saharan individual and barn owl (Tyto alba) showed here too. Spotted eagle-owl (Bubo africanus) eluded us yet again.

Halali (Etosha) is the spot for roosting owls, the security guys there can put you onto roosting birds like this southern white-faced owl Ptilopsus granti.

Another easy Halali bird is this male African scops-owl (Otus senegalensis), always found roosting close to the nest tree.

Coursers

I love waders, I guess as a result of growing up in Norfolk. One of the great things about Namibia is the three common courser species found at Etosha.

Temminck's courser - this was a bogey bird for me for a long time but surrenders every year these days.

Burchell's courser - scarce this year (after early rains), we saw just three.

Double-banded courser - a superb bird.

One day I will get a bronze-winged...

Namibia - summary

The mammal highlight for me was this fantastic male cheetah, caught making its way to a bit of shade mid-morning. Career-best views for me of a species that had eluded me until last year.

Mammals always dominate proceedings in Africa - and we were pleased with our haul that included this superb leopard just three metres from the car. I have yet to miss leopard on this trip...

A great trip with a lovely group of enthusiastic people, they found a lot of stuff themselves and stuck it out through the constant demands for pre-dawn breakfasts, early morning sessions and night work. We deserved everything we saw basically and did very well. The trip started badly for me though on the first full day when I was stung by two evil vespertid wasp and had a full-body attack of urticaria (no photos, too ugly). Itchy as all hell for two days, no sleep and opened up my stitches too! Nice! All part of the job though and I will certainly check for wasp nests when I duck under road bridges in future.

Early rains had produced a crop of flowering plants that we normally do not see and Palearctic migrants were in early as a result too. Birdwise it was rather an odd trip, we missed a lot of small passerines that we normally see (just over-looked in the mayhem I guess), but we got a handful of species that were Namibia ticks for me. No lifers as usual but I am not grumbling. Will post more photos soon from the Namibia trip.

He's off again (Namibia)

Another October, another trip to Namibia...

Etosha rocks!

Slightly vulgar bataleur!

I am three-in-two for leopard on this trip and eager to maintain form.

Puff-adder - a slightly disturbing addition to the interior of this outdoor khazi at Etosha.

The dainty klippspringer - aaahh!

I have seen the light!

Anyone who has spent any time with me in the tropics knows that I am addicted to night spotting. I just love getting out at night and poking around for frogs, reptiles, mammals and birds. The search for the perfect spotlight has taken me from my trusty 4 D-cell Maglite, through a bulky dive torch and onto to 6 volt and 12 volt spotlights with heavy batteries and connecting wires. With the exception of the Maglite all have been prone to wear-and-tear and the number of battery chargers I have gone through in countries with irregular currents beggars belief. Well all that seems to be over now, I have gone tactical... With both my spotlights out of action yet again I was contemplating spending £130 on a new 12v kit at Clulite where I have shopped in the past but then I started looking around at LED stuff and this made a lot more sense.

The LED Lenser X21 - oh my god! It is awesome, superlatives do not exist to describe this bit of kit. I just hope it is robust. Took it for a spin tonight and it rocks. Nice clean white light, good spot beam and a wide beam that is really going to make frogging a lot easier in the future. Pricey though. Chuck the name in google for a laugh at the macho hard-sell and check out 'you-tube' and online forums for a murky (or perhaps well-lit) world of well-informed torch geeks. I bought mail order from Doc at GlowGadgets, great personal service from a guy who only sells the best gear on the market.

Bought a LED Lenser P14 too for back-up, smaller (4 AA) but incredible. If you are short of space or weight just pack this. For close tape-playback work in forests this will be more than enough.

Just a few pretty things seen at night in the last 12 months...

Spotted stream frog Rana picturata (Borneo) - easily one of the most photogenic frogs in Borneo.

The sluggish common mock viper Psammodynastes pulverulentus (Borneo)

Brown wood-owl Strix leptogrammica (Borneo)

Common genet Genetta genetta (Namibia)

Beast of the decade Nomination No. 1

It will not just be birds here on the blog. I am very interested in other Orders too, especially herps and dragonflies. I recently visited Namibia and dragged everyone out in the middle of the night to search the large sand dunes near Walvis Bay for this little stunner. It was cold and windy but worth the effort when we found our target. The web-footed gecko Palmatogecko rangei is designed to move around on shifting sand and lacks adhesive scansors on the toes. It is a good contender for beast of the decade and easily wins Beast of 2008.