The Bird of all Birds

One of the main aims of our recent trip to Zambia was to see the Shoebill. In fact this has been on hubby’s bucket list and little did I know to what extremes I will have to go, to finally get a glimpse of this magnificent bird…and believe me, magnificent it is.

The ferry at the border post where heavy trucks as well as our vehicle went on

Traveling through Botswana, we entered through the Kazungula border post and on the ferry into Zambia; through Livingstone, Lusaka, further north and then turning north-east towards Lake Bangweulu. Here we stayed in a tented camp.

Our tented camp at Bangweulu

Zambia was experiencing a serious drought at the time, although it happened to be their dry season, but during the rainy months this area may be inaccessible or at best can be reached only by boat. It is one of the world’s great wetlands, in total 15,000 square kilometers, fed by seventeen principle rivers and drained by the Luapula River.

Sunset at the camp

We were fortunate to see a Shoebill that was rescued from the Lusaka Zoo. He is believed to be still young and there are chances that he may be healed sufficiently to return to the wild. At present he is resident in close proximity to Carl, a South African student, who is doing his PhD on researching this magnificent bird. He is unable to find his own food and therefore dependent on humans for survival. We were told he struggles to distinguish between a shoebill and humans.

The magnificent shoebill

Quite a privilege to see the shoebill as there are only about 500 in the world

We were able to get quite close to him but were warned that his beak has the ability to do serious damage should we come too close.  There is only one word to describe him...magnificent. His eyes caught my attention as he looks at you with years of wisdom and many years of history behind him. He could be from a prehistoric age.

After his meal he was too lazy to get up. Not even for a camera shoot!

There are different opinions what species he relates to. Some say it is the stork whereas others say he may have a closer genetic relationship with the pelican. His height was about 1.4 meters which is huge for a bird.

Wattled storks. Take note in the rainy season this would all be under water.

The next day we set off on an excursion to find the nest of a baby shoebill. It is important to note that this species of birds is on the endangered list and there are only about 500 left in the world to be found mostly in northern Zambia, DRC and Uganda. They breed once a season, have two babies and the second baby seldom survives. We were surprised when told that it would take most of the day to get to the nest.

Black lechwe all around us.

We started our journey and saw wattled storks - so many. Our next treat was to witness a herd of black Lechwe. There were about 75,000 of them. Later that evening at sunset we saw great numbers running through the water pan, moving to higher ground in order to get away from the hyenas that are hunting them at night.

Black lechwe making their way back the next morning from the higher ground to get away from the hyenas

We eventually parked the vehicle and set off walking, through the seasonal wetland which happened to be dry because of the drought. We were handed Wellington boots which at the time didn't make sense but later after we had met up with some fisherman who are employed to look after the bird's nests - a task they take very seriously, we reached the swamp. We struggled through that for what seemed to be forever and as we approached the nest we were told to be quiet and finally we saw the baby shoebill. We couldn't get too close but it was indeed an unique experience. 

The shoebill nest for which I slogged miles through a wetland

A sunrise to die for! Only in Africa.