For the next leg of our journey we left Swakopmund on 6 August and drove the 160 km to the Erongo Mountains, making a stop along the way to do some birding at Spitzkoppe, a remarkable geological feature that attracts many tourists.
The trails around the rocky outcrops of the Spitzkoppe provided some interesting birding, with highlights being Short-toed Rock Thrush, Marico Flycatcher and Sabota Lark. On the final leg of our drive to Erongo we visited a side road where the Namibian near-endemic Herero’s Chat had recently been seen. We were very fortunate in that hardly had we parked the car when the bird appeared close to the road giving us a very good photo opportunity.
On arriving at the Erongo Wild Lodge we found that we had a very comfortable luxury tent situated amongst the massive boulders surrounding the dining room and other facilities.
We had a full day (7 August) birding out of the Erongo Wild Lodge, starting with an early walk around the lodge followed after breakfast by a trip into the town of Omaruru to visit the Omaruru Restcamp. Our early morning session was very successful and we saw the southwestern specialities of Rockrunner and Carp’s Tit, plus the more common Black-fronted Bulbul, Barred Wren-warbler, Pied Barbet and Pale-winged Starling. O
At the Omaruru Restcamp in the centre of town we were very fortunate to have good views of Ruppell’s Parrot, which is only found in Namibia and southwest Angola. We also saw the Damara Red-billed Hornbill, Green-backed Camaroptera, Southern Pied-babbler and Scarlet-chested Sunbird. O
The area around the dining room drew in many birds, making meal times very interesting if a little distracting and requiring frequent visits to the windows to see new arrivals. The highlight was undoubtedly the many Rosy-faced Lovebirds around the lodge that were extremely photogenic. At dinner a Genet usually appeared in the dining room initiating a flurry of photographic activity. Also, after dinner one evening we were lucky enough to see a Freckled Nightjar perched on a pole close to the main lodge building. O
