350 : Kittlitz's Plover

Kittlitz's Plover - Charadrius pecaurius 

Yes there has been an almighty dearth of posting for the last few months. This whole project has just ground to a halt really. The main issue in my head is the way that the collection is now scattered across two sites. It would be a shame to let that throw me though so I am going to keep plugging away and catch up at least the photos that I have on the stocks.

November 2017 Jane and I took a ridiculous trip to the South Luanga National Park in Zambia. "Ridiculous" in that we went on our own minus the boys (who both now board in the UK) and that we went a little bit high end at a camp called Chinzombo - a Norman Carr camp. It was right at the very end of the season before the rains came and on some days there were only perhaps us and one other couple in a camp. We flew into Lusaka and had an overnight in a Raddison and then caught a much smaller plane up to the airport to be met by our guide for the drive in. One of this pinch me arrivals - we had booked up for 5 whole  nights at Chinzombo - plenty of time to unpack all of lenses books and coloring pencils and get into the rhythm of the camp - which could be simply explained as food, resting, pre-dinner cocktails and exciting safari drives.

The camp was situated on the river itself just opposite the park. Each day we would ferry across to the vehicles. We had a guide and vehicle to ourselves and were usually also accompanied by an armed guard as part of the program was walking safaris. It is very different to get down out of the vehicle on safari - the couple of times that we did it were very memorable. Ferry crossing and guard below.

I am reminded this is not Conde Naste but a birding blog. There was a single Kittlitz's Plover which seemed to frequent a riving crossing that we had to make a few times which gave us a short cut to see a pack of wild dogs. Tiny little plover - perhaps as small as a little stint. I am not actually sure that I managed a decent picture with the 400 m lens having found this weak shot on a collection of images from my mobile phone. It counts though - a small African plover to add to the collection.

Kittlitz's Plover, Charadrius pecaurius
South Luanga National Park, Zambia
November 2017