Archive for July, 2010
Omandumba – touching the silence
July 28th, 2010 | 
Author: 
Posted in Geologists would tell you that the Erongo Mountains are rich with minerals and gemstones like aquamarine, schorl, jeremejevite, quartz, fluorite and garnets (amongst others), but I have news for you, these mesmerizing mountains are full of magnetic rocks. They must be magnetic because they are so awesome they draw us back to them time and again. We have visited the Erongo region often during our stay in Namibia and for the sheer beauty and majesty of the dramatic granite boulders, valleys and incredible landscapes it cannot be beaten.
Our latest weekend getaway was to the farm ‘Omandumba’ in the Erongo Mountain Nature Conservancy. The Conservancy lies in a flat basin surrounded by the imposing walls of the remnants of an enormous volcano that collapsed millions of years ago. The name ‘Omandumba’ means ‘place of bitter bushes’ which obviously doesn’t deter the animals, because the farm abounds with wildlife and birds.
The appeal to us, of this particular farm, is its remote bush campsite, where we were the only campers and had the entire area to ourselves. What price can one put on solitude like that – not another human being around, just us, the wild animals and the soothing presence of the silent looming boulders. At night the silence enveloped us and we often just sat quietly straining to hear something – anything, even if it was just a cricket, but there was nothing.
Our walks were very productive as we found a waterhole in the rocks where we positioned ourselves for hours to photograph the birds that came to drink.
Admittedly there wasn’t a very large variety, it being winter, but the ones that came were very colourful and varied (acacia pied barbets, grey go-way birds, red-headed finches, waxbills – both violet-eared and common, bulbuls, larks, buntings, rosy-faced lovebirds, doves and canaries to name a few). We even had the pleasure of an enormous black-chested snake eagle. On a previous visit we saw the resident pair of Verreaux’s eagles and caught a glimpse of their chick in a nest high up on a cliff.
Animals we saw included kudu, warthogs, Damara dik-diks, baboons and the usual dassies that live on the rocks.
Our special treat was a black mongoose that we saw for a few seconds. We were saddened to hear that leopards had been preying on the farmer’s cattle and had to be hunted down. It’s awful to imagine these magnificent animals being shot for being a nuisance.
The mountains were once home to the San Bushmen and there is a good collection of their rock art on one of the walks. We didn’t linger too long there as the overhanging rocks were covered in hornet’s nests and we didn’t fancy being casualties of their nasty stings! Folks who would like to learn more about the Bushmen can visit a living museum in the area and meet with a local community of them, who demonstrate their survival skills and way of life.
One has to be totally self-sufficient at this campsite as there is nothing but bush. There are a couple of long-drop toilets (for the very brave), but no showers or water. This is part of the charm of the place though and it is a privilege to be in such pristine untouched surroundings.
Tags: 
Bird of the week – Week 30 : African hawk-eagle
We returned to our townhouse in Windhoek one Sunday morning and noticed two African hawk-eagles perched on a cliff that overlooks the dry riverbed nearby. We were quite lucky to see them, for in spite of their size they are quite inconspicuous when perched. I collected my camera and had time for just one shot of the birds at rest before they took to the sky, circled once, allowing me a few more hasty photographs, and were gone. It was a rare treat, for we had not seen them before in this area, and we have not seen them since.
As eagles go, the African hawk-eagle is not particularly large with a length of about 65 cm, but with a wingspan approaching one-and-half metres it is not exactly small. So, medium-sized then, for an eagle. The upper parts are dark, almost black, and the under parts are white heavily streaked with black; from below the under wing coverts are seen to be black with white spots; the under wing flight feathers are white and have a broad black trailing edge. The feathers on the legs are plain white; the iris is yellow; the bill black; and the legs are greenish-yellow. Sexes are similar, with the female being larger than the male.
It is regarded as uncommon to fairly common and is distributed through a large part of Africa, from south of the Sahara to south of the Tropic of Capricorn, preferring open woodland and hilly country and avoiding dense evergreen forests.
African hawk-eagles feed largely on birds, apparently favouring guinea fowl and francolins, which may explain their presence near our home as there are large numbers of both these species resident in the area. The are usually found in pairs and may hunt from their perch or may hunt while soaring or even capture prey at a watering spot.
They have quite a range of calls, including an almost musical “klu-klu-klu-klueee”. The hawk-eagle in monogamous and their nest is a platform of sticks about 1 m diameter, usually in the fork of a large tree. The female lays an average of 2 eggs, which are chalky-white with dull red markings, and which hatch after an incubation period of around 44 days. Only one chick is usually raised, as it is common for the first chick that is hatched to kill the younger one.
The scientific name for the African hawk-eagle is Hieraaetus spilogaster; Hieraaetus from the Greek for a hawk or falcon, and spilogaster from the Greek for a spot on the belly. This a hawk with a spotted belly, which is pretty apt, really.
Quiver me timbers!
Okay! I know that I’ve got the expression wrong and that it should be the famous phrase “Shiver me timbers” as exclaimed by Long John Silver, the pirate in Robert Louis Stevenson’s book Treasure Island, but I thought it was quite a fitting heading for my blog about quiver trees in Namibia.
Quiver trees are so unusual that they do cause one to call out in an exclamation of surprise and pleasure, so do forgive me for my moment of poetic license.
Actually, apart from my incorrect exclamation, there is another error in the paragraph above in that quiver trees are not really trees at all, but are members of the aloe family. Their scientific name is Aloe dichotoma Masson – dichotoma referring to their forked branches. This close up photo of the leaves dispels any doubt that they are aloe plants.
However, for the sake of this blog I will call them trees as that’s exactly what they look like. In Afrikaans they are known as “kokerbome” (koker meaning quiver and bome meaning trees). And they are known as quiver trees because the San Bushmen used to carve their arrow quivers from the soft, pulpy branches.
These remarkable trees are found in the dry and arid areas of Namibia and the Northern Cape of South Africa as they prefer rocky or hard terrain for their shallow root systems. They store water in their stems, leaves or roots to enable them to survive for months without rain. You can see from the various photos in this blog which of the trees has received the most water. Those that receive little or none are very ‘lean’, whilst the others are positively bloated!
The stems of quiver trees are decorated with golden brown flaky scales and beautiful vertical patterns which make them very photogenic.
Quiver trees can grow up to nine meters tall. They bear spiky yellow flowers during the winter months of June/July, but not before they are at least twenty years old. The trees produce a fine white powder that acts as a sunscreen by reflecting the harsh desert sunlight.
Seen standing alone in a vast barren landscape, they have an almost eerie appearance, but to me they represent the desert that I love so much. They are usually seen individually, dotted here and there on open plains or hillsides, but there are a couple of quiver tree forests that are well worth visiting. The famous quiver tree forest in Namibia is near Keetmanshoop down in the south of the country, and there is another beautiful one on the short-cut between the Onseepkans border post and Kakamas in the Northern Cape.
I’m not the only one who loves these trees – they are often home to sociable weavers that build enormous nests in their secure branches. So watch out for these fascinating trees on your next visit to Namibia – they definitely deserve a place on your list of things to see.
Bird of the week – Week 29 : Cattle egret
In a world in which the range of so many birds, animals, reptiles and other species is continually shrinking due to the pressure exerted by mankind’s need for more and more land, it is refreshing to find a bird that has so adapted to a life in association with domesticated animals that it has been able to rapidly expand its range in fairly recent times. That bird is the Cattle egret.
Although still well associated with the larger browsing wild animals such as zebra and wildebeest in game reserves and other protected areas, the Cattle egret has also established a firm relationship with domestic animals such as cattle and horses. As these domestic herds spread throughout the world, the Cattle egret extended its range to maintain the relationship.
The Cattle egret is a stocky bird about 54 cm in length. Pure white when not breeding, they develop buff feathers on the head, back and neck when the breeding season arrives. Indeed, it is not just the buff feathers that identify the breeding birds; the iris changes from yellow to red; the bill from yellow to orange and the legs and feet from olive-brown to reddish. The sexes are similar, but the male is slightly larger and has longer buff plumes during the breeding season than the female
The Cattle egret’s diet consists mainly of grasshoppers, insects, frogs, lizards and small vertebrates that are disturbed by the large browsing animals with which it associates. Its alternative name of “Tick bird” derives from its habit of riding on these large mammals and picking ticks off them as they graze.
The birds are highly gregarious and nest colonially, usually near water and often in association with other wading birds such as herons, ibises and cormorants, making a nest that consists of a platform of sticks in a tree. The female lays a clutch of 2 to 4 pale blue or greenish-blue eggs that hatch after an incubation period of around 22 days.
The scientific binomial for the Cattle egret is Bubulcus ibis; Bubulcus being the Latin for a herdsman, or ploughman; and ibis being the Latin for an ibis, probably the Sacred ibis (Threskiornis aethiopicus) well known to the Egyptians.
Weekend at Erongo Wilderness Lodge
If you’re a regular reader you will know that we are avid campers and have camped all over Namibia. We considered ourselves extremely spoilt therefore when we were given a night at the luxurious Erongo Wilderness Lodge for my birthday (thanks again Mick). Not to be outdone by Mick, Rob chipped in for an extra night to make it a whole weekend treat!
Situated in the beautiful Erongo Mountains, this lodge stands proud as one of the leading lodges of Namibia. Guests stay in fabulous tents perched on the side of the mountain. Each tent has an en-suite open-air bathroom with all the mod-cons. The entire tent sits under a thatched roof and has its own wooden patio overlooking the valley and the magnificent views.
Just getting to there is an experience in itself. To self-drive one has to have a 4×4 as the road up the mountain is very rocky and cannot be negotiated in an ordinary car. Guests who don’t have 4×4’s are greeted at the gate and offered a lift up. The drive up to Reception is spectacular and before we reached the office, baboons and rock rabbits (dassies), that sit like sentinels on the rocks, had already called out their welcome.
After checking in we were offered a guided walk to the top of the mountain so that we could watch the sun going down. The views from the top were amazing and we were very amused by a lone chair perched on the highest point, that looked out over the vast expanse of land below. The dry Omaruru River could be seen cutting a swathe through the barren landscape. Our guide carried snacks and drinks for us to make the sunset even more memorable!
The open-air dining room overlooks a floodlit waterhole where animals come to drink. We also saw many nightjars and bats catching the insects that gathered around the floodlight. We were delighted when a porcupine ambled past the dining room on his way to the kitchen for a snack. This was the first time that we’d seen a porcupine in the wild as they are nocturnal creatures. In Namibia you have to carry a camera with you at all times otherwise you miss out on special moments like this
We were up at six the next morning to take a guided hike around the mountains. We specifically asked for a guide who was knowledgeable about birds and were very impressed by the young man who accompanied us. He identified a Verreaux’s Eagle flying overhead and took us on a long detour to find its nest perched on the side of a rocky cliff. When I mentioned the nightjars that we’d seen at the waterhole the night before, he offered to show us a pair that he said slept quite near our tent during the day. We notched up a ‘lifer’ with the Freckled Nightjars and were happy to be able to photograph them. Here local knowledge was essential for finding them, as they blended into the rocks so well.
I was fortunate enough to spot a rare and elusive black mongoose on a rocky plain. We also saw leopard footprints, a horned adder soaking up the sun and numerous birds. A common resident in the Erongo area is the White-tailed Shrike. I love these birds with their sweet little grey waistcoats!
As always, the weekend was very special. Whether we’re in a tent or a lodge, wherever we spend our weekends in Namibia they are certain to offer up many delights in the way of scenery, birds and nature. This weekend was no exception and we came away with many more memories of this awesome country.
