Beasties

Beasties

I'll post every now and then recording the creatures I meet on my
travels. Where possible I'm gonna try n take pictures to prove it and
no I'll not include the Leopard cos I didn't actually see it. Bits of
animals, road kill or prints/poo don't count. Apologies to all
ornithologists, but I had to leave the birds of southern book in
England so am a little lost regarding most birds (though I can
recognise an Ostrich) in retrospect I probably could have carried it
and if I'd had chance today would probably have bought one in
Windhoek. I'll plan to try and rectify this in Maun. Meantime I'll do
my best to describe the birds I see any ornithologists out there
please help me out and suggest what you think they may have been.

I'll end these posts with a list of my five most wanted (but not
neccesarily most likely to be seen). Lions, Hippos, Crocs and Hyenas
will only be on this list on my rest day in the Okavango since I don't
really want to see them from my bike. This list will also change as I
ride through different habitats, for example I think Namibia is the
only place I'm likely to see a Gemsbok so that will drop off the list
once I get to Botswana whether i've seen one or not (to be honest I
think the Namib savannah was probably my best chance)

Noah/Elliotts, feel free to correct me if I start bullshi*ting

Feel free to suggest things I should be looking out for.

So... already seen,

Ostrich
Kudu
Klipspringer
Springbok
Bushy tailed mongoose (I think that's the right species any way)
A small light brown snake who sped off before I could catch it
Small Agama lizards
A medium sized lizard with a big head hiding in a cattle grid looking
terrified as I thundered over it.
A large black vulture
Baboons
Black legged stilt
A very pale coloured strling sized bird with faint Wheatear like eye
markings (the only creature I saw in the middle of the desert)
Some species of seagull in Swakupmond
Small brown lizards everywhere
Kori Bustard
Funny bird a bit like a dwarf Bustard that often walks by the road
Noisy green birds with crests and long tails in Windhoek
Blackbird like things with bright eyes and beautiful song in Windhoek.
Black birds with long forked tails in the mountains
Wharthogs from about 50km outside Windhoek onwards
Lots of cool beatles (Welwischia trees seemed to have a lot on them
for some reason)
Some very common doves which fly together in flocks at dawn and dusk.

Current most wanted;
- Gemsbok
- Meerkat (fyi, Meerkat Manor is filmed in the Kalahari)
- Those squirrels that stand up and look at you as you drive past in a
car, want to see what they make of a bike.
- Any big snake
- Cheetah