African Openbill Stork

The African openbill stork was kind of a nice surprise that I got when I got home and started looking at pictures. I was photographing grey herons and when I looked at my photos I found the openbill storks nearby them. 

This openbill stork is almost hidden behind the grey stork. 

It is a dark stork with glossy green, brown and purple on the mantle and breast. It has black legs, grey eyes and a large brown bill. It gets its name because even when the bill is closed there is a gap between the upper and lower beak. It is found in large parts of Sub Saharan Africa, except most of the south from mid-Namibia, mid-Botswana and extreme north South Africa down. 

These two openbills are background to this grey heron. 

As both birds take off, the openbill is a blur while the grey heron catches the focus. 

It primarily eats aquatic snails and freshwater mussels. 

A blow-up of the photo of the openbill in the background. 

Grey Heron

The grey heron, found in Europe, Asia and much of Africa, is ash-grey above, grey-white below and has some black on the flanks. Adults have a white head with a black supercilium (line) that terminates in the dangling crest, and bluish streaks on the front of the neck. It has a long, straight bill that is pinkish-yellow, a yellow iris and brown legs. 

Grey heron in the Okavanga Delta.

There are four subspecies. We saw the subspecies (Ardea cinerea cinerea, the nominate subspecies) found in Europe, Africa and Asia. Other subspecies are found in eastern Asia, Madagascar and the islands off Mauritania. 

This grey heron is flanked by two African openbill storks (the black birds). 

It is closely related to the North American great blue heron which is larger and has chestnut-brown flanks and thighs. 

We saw them several times on our trip, but my pictures are from the Okavanga Delta of Botswana, when we were traveling down a river on a boat. 

Mopane Worms

Before leaving for Africa I knew that we were going to The Boma in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe and that we would have an opportunity to try mopane worms. I did some research and found this wonderful article in the New York Daily News titled, "Worms! A look at Zimbabwe's favorite snack: mopane worms," an article from January 25, 2013. 

Mopane (say it "moh-paw-knee") worms are caterpillars of the emperor moth, and as described in the article, can be as long as a finger and as thick as a cigar. They get their name from feeding on leaves of the mopane tree. The worms are gathered and then squeezed and a disgusting green slime erupts emptying the caterpillar's entrails. The worms are then dried in the sun and eaten dry, or cooked and put in sauce. 

Earlier in the day we took a canoe trip down the Zambezi River and two of the other participants, a father and his 13 year old son, described being at The Boma the night before and getting certificates for eating mopane worms. We were primed for our visit later that evening. 

Note the worm-like figure on the sign. 

The Boma had both kinds and lots of signs highlighting them. The dried mopane worms were in a woven basket with a spoon strategically placed in it so that you could take a spoonful. A sign below helped identify the contents. 

About ten yards away was a small table with a small cast iron pot on it and similar looking worms in a reddish sauce. Next to it was a sign and also certificates that could be taken by those who tried them. 

Note the worm-like figures on top of the sign. 

I took some of each on a plate and went back to our table for a sample.

We'd eaten worms in Mexico recently and that helped my mental preparation, so it wasn't too hard. The dried worms were quite crispy and broke into little shards, kind of like popcorn pieces that stick in the throat and cause you to cough. The taste was okay, but it took forever to chew and try to get it all down. I disliked the texture. 

The real deal: dried on the left and saucy on the right. 

The more moist worms in the sauce were easier to eat and tasted better. They held together better, soaked up the sauce and were not bad. 

We had better food in Africa, but none quite so interesting. 

African Penguin

The African penguin, also known as the jackass penguin, and black-footed penguin, can only be found in southwestern Africa, from Namibia to Port Elizabeth in South Africa, with three colonies on the mainland and 24 colonies on islands. It is an endangered species, with an estimated 55,000 as of 2010, but expected to be extinct in the wild by 2026. 

They have a black facial mask, black upper body, a white chest, a black stripe up the sides and across the chest, and small black spots on the chest that are unique to each individual. They have pink glands above the eyes that help regulate cooling. As the penguin gets hotter, more blood is sent to the glands and they get pinker. 

The adult has a black mask and pink mark above the eye. The youngsters lack the pink mark and are mostly covered with a brown down. 

A youngster in a different stage of development. 

The black chest strip and spots are visible. 

Juveniles are not as delineated as adults. They have dark upperparts that range from grayish-blue to brown and pale underparts that lack the spots and the stripe. 

A mixture of ages.

These are the penguins I remember from my youth. Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake City had them on display and we could watch them from above or below as they swam underwater. 

We visited Boulder Beach on the Cape Peninsula and had a wonderful time watching them. 

We also visited Robben Island, off the coast of Cape Town, to see where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned. We also saw penguins on that island. 

Black-Faced Impala

There are two subspecies of Impala, the common impala which I've previously blogged about, and the black-faced impala. There are an estimated 2 million common impala, but only an estimated 2,200 to 3,200 black-faced impala, found in northwestern Namibia and southwestern Angola, of which about half are in Etosha National Park in Namibia. It appears that most of those in Etosha are in the southwestern portion of the park.

This beautiful buck has a long stripe down the side of the nose in addition to the stripe on the bridge of the nose. 

This younger buck has the stripe on the ridge, but not much on the side. 

The black-faced impala is larger and darker than the common impala. It has a dark stripe on either side of the nose, that runs upward to the eyes and thins as it reaches the forehead, but appears to be longer in males than females. It also has a larger black tip on the ear and a bushier and longer tail. 

These beautiful females are drinking at the Chudop waterhole in the far eastern part of Etosha. I love the white at the bottom of the legs. 

Close-up of this beautiful buck.

They are beautiful and I fell in love with them. 

Pied Kingfisher

The pied kingfisher has black and white coloration, including a black face-mask; a black crown; black and white spotted wings; a white supercilium (a stripe which runs from the base of the beak, above the eye, and finishing toward the back of the head); black breast-bands (females have one, males have two); and a black dagger-like bill. 

This kingfisher was seen on the edge of a river in the Okavanga Delta of Botswana. We saw kingfishers plunging into the water after fish. 

Standing on a rusted piece of metal in the Okavanga Delta.

There are five subspecies. We saw the nominate subspecies (rudis), found in Egypt and Sub-Saharan Africa. 

These pictures from the Zambia side of the Zambezi River near Victoria Falls show different looks of the head. 

It feeds mainly on fish, but will also eat crustaceans and large aquatic insects, such as dragon-fly larvae. 

Karibu - Cape Town, South Africa

Our first meal in Cape Town was at Karibu on the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront. We took Uber to and from our hotel. I'd scoped out restaurants before-hand and knew that Karibu offered a variety of game meats. 

The V&A Waterfront at night. Karibu is in the building to the left on the ground floor. 

The rainbow platter was three types of carpaccio, in thin round slices, with a variety of sauces streaked down the side of the plate and with a mango wedge. Carpaccio is raw meat, sliced thinly or pounded thin. Crocodile, white, transparent and in the center, was by far the best. Surprisingly flavorful.  Ostrich, left, and springbok, right, had more powerful, but unusual flavors. Ostrich was better than springbok. 

Ostrich, crocodile and springbok carpaccio. 

The safari platter was a whole smorgasboard of meats. At left were kudu, impala and springbok steaks. At right was an ostrich steak, and in the middle, underneath the pile, was a beef rump steak, with venison cheese sausage and venison boerewors sausage on top. 

At left: kudu, springbok and impala. At right, ostrich. 

When the platter came out we asked our waiter, Emmerson, which was which on the left side. He said he didn't know, but the chef told him, the kudu will be toughest, the sprinbok will be grainy and the impala will be most tender. He was right. I think the kudu could have been more rare and would have been better (I had it more rare later on our trip and liked it a lot). The impala, which was most rare, was the best. Cut like butter. The springbok was also very good. 

The kudu, impala and springbok cut in half to reveal the inner cooking. I learned from eating game meat on the trip that it needs to be cooked like seared ahi - seared on the outside and virtually raw in the middle. 

The ostrich was very rare and very wonderful. It was almost like eating flaky fish. 

Note how rare the ostrich is. 

Boerworse is a type of sausage that originated in South Africa. It is made from at least 90% coarsely minced meat, in this case venison, and up to 10% spices. No more than 30% of the meat can be fat. Spices can include coriander seed, black pepper, nutmeg, cloves and allspice.  

The boerwors is to the left and the cheese sausage to the right. I like fattier sausage. 

Very secondary to all of the above was garlic mashed potatoes, salad, beets,etc. 

This was one of my favorite meals of the trip. The ostrich and impala were really outstanding, the springbok was close and the kudu lagging behind.