Hello Tweeters,

The last place we visited on our 3-country tour of southern
Africa last month was Zimbabwe. We spent one day in Victoria Falls. We
reached this very touristy city by driving from Katima Mulilo in Namibia
across the border into Botswana, where we had lunch at Kasane-a birdy spot,
and continued on across the border into Zimbabwe, and on to Victoria Falls,
a few miles from the border. We had one full action-packed day in Victoria
Falls, starting with a riverboat cruise, including breakfast, on the Zambezi
River, upstream from the falls. We saw many beautiful (and new) birds
there, including Finfoot, a bird high on my want list, and also Trumpeter
Hornbill and Red-headed Cisticola (you can't see too many cisticolas).

We stayed at the Victoria Falls Safari Lodge, where they feed the vultures
every day at 1 pm. The vultures are aware of this and begin to gather hours
ahead of time. The man feeding the vultures takes a big ice chest full of
meat scraps out to the feeding area and the vultures begin to inch toward
him. When he finishes putting out the meat, he turns and makes a run for
it. Bill also took a video of the feeding frenzy that ensued afterward.
The birds in the video are most White-backed Vultures, which, overall, are
endangered, as well as a few Hooded Vultures and Marabou Storks.

It rained off and on almost the whole time we were in Victoria Falls and the
Zambezi River was high, so the volume of water going of the fall was
incredible. Overall definitely worth a visit. If you are interested in any
of this, you are welcome to peruse the approximately 25 pictures in the
Flickr file by clicking on the link below.



https://www.flickr.com/photos/29258421 at N07/albums/72157694561437714



Happy birding, Charlotte Byers, Edmonds

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