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African Birdlife
|May - June 2017
In November we set offon a great ad-venture to Liuwa in remote western Zambia, just as the first summer rains were due. Liuwa is sandwiched between the Zambezi and Luanginga rivers in Barotseland. The soil is sandy and inundated with floodwaters and, if you time it right, it’s a birding paradise with seasonal pools of water and soil bursting with pink lilies. Collared Pratincoles flock in their thousands, while Wattled and Grey Crowned cranes decorate the grasslands. We knew we’d see some of the 45 000 wildebeest for which Liuwa is renowned, we expected to run into the packs of daytime-hunting hyaenas and we hoped to at least glimpse the last of Liuwa’s lions, Lady Liuwa.
What we did not expect to see was a protracted battle between the most unlikely of combatants, a Western Barn Owl Tyto alba and four Red-necked Falcons Falco chicquera.
This story is from the May - June 2017 edition of African Birdlife.
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