Zambia is supposed to be the place to see Blue Quail, but after leaving Mutinondo, where we walked in as many grasslands as possible, we were still dipping Blue Quail. We then stopped in as many grasslands as possible (read: at least 10) along random stretches of highway while driving to our next destination and were still dipping blue quail. Despite all of the time walking through what appeared to be perfect habitat and still not seeing a single quail, we started to wonder what was going on. Seeing small, rather secretive, ground-dwelling birds can be hard, but with due diligence one should be rewarded and that did not seem to be happening for us! Zambia seemed to be a little too we and perhaps with the excess water, the quails had relocated to better areas!
Our next destination was Kasanka National Park, a park popular in recent years due to the extraordinary spectacle of millions of Straw-colored Fruit Bats migrating through the area. I’ve heard that it is simply amazing to see a twilight sky blacked out with bats as they come out to feed. This event is something I was sad to be missing, but we simply were outside of the migration period. I suppose the bright side is that we had the park to ourselves, as no one really visits Kasanka during the off-season due to the hefty price tag (10USD per person per day and 20USD vehicle entry fee per day, not including camping fees.)
We arrived in the general area just before dark and started searching for more grasslands and dambos to walk through because clearly we hadn’t walked through enough already. We opted to take the road towards the David Livingstone Memorial, a monument erected at the location in which he died to honor the great Scottish pioneer who travelled Africa and worked to abolish slavery in the late 19th-century. We didn’t actually visit the memorial since it was still an hour’s drive away, but it was at least interesting to know that this is where the famous explorer died of malaria and dysentery. (Many places in Africa and throughout the world are named after Livingstone for his discoveries and accomplishments. He is one of the most popular British heroes of his time.)
Fortunately it was along this road that we found what looked like the perfect, moist, shallow grassland to walk located behind a small house. We decided to ask the owner of the house for permission to walk the field and Derrick was more than happy to grant us access. This field really looked perfect for quails but ended up being wetter than expected. While trampling around the grass, Ross heard an unfamiliar sound which he thought might have been a Striped Crake. We quickly turned our attention to searching for crakes and a few minutes later flushed our target, Striped Crake! We had actually dipped this bird in Zimbabwe so it was fantastic to bump into one here! Derrick, the owner of the house, allowed us to camp outside of his home which saved us from paying any expensive camp fees and allowed us to enter Kasanka NP early, since his home was only a short drive from the gate.
Kasanka was nice but unfortunately due to the closure of Fibwe Hide overlooking the marsh, we missed out on seeing Sitatunga, a secretive marshland ungulate which is common in the park in the early mornings and late evenings. The access road was, however, exceptionally birdy and we found Black-backed Barbet, our number one target, quite easily. Ross’s Turaco, Purple-throated Cuckooshrike, Yellow-throated Leaflove and Black-necked Eremomela added to the fun. We didn’t spend a full day at Kasanka, but it was definitely a success and a great place to spend a few hours birding.
With so much driving to do, we decided to get going. We didn’t have any other targets and we had some ground to cover. We were headed to the town of Nchelenge on the DRC border in search for a very rarely recorded species! Stay tuned.