DUNE LARK AND KUISEB DELTA AND
WALVIS LAGOON BIRDING

The Kuiseb Delta vegetation comprises of Tamarisk Trees Tamarix
usneoides, stunted vegetation and huge ‘Nara’ hummocks Acanthosicyos horrida
with a backdrop of the red dune fields. 
Further upstream towards Rooibank fairly large Camelthorn Trees Acacia
erioloba are also found.

It is here that your guide will find the only true endemic of the
country, the arid-adapted Dune Lark.  

Out of the 16 near-endemic birds of Namibia the Dune Lark is the only
true endemic.  Fortunately, 90% of the
population falls within protected areas, both national and private so there is
no threat to their survival.

This little lark is one of the most arid-adapted birds in the
world.  It lives at the base of the huge
red dunes of the Namib where it is most active in the morning and late
afternoon.  Here you can find it running
rapidly over the bare sand between patches of vegetation and dune grass.  It scurries between the dunes searching for
seeds and small insects on which it feeds. By mid-afternoon, the birds become
quiet and take shelter in the shade of grass tufts on the dune edges.  At this time of the day where the surface can
reach a scoring 55 - 60⁰ C, the shaded areas in which they roost may only be
around 33⁰ C.  Approximately 20 – 30% of
the Dune Lark’s diet is invertebrates, ants, termites, grasshoppers, etc.  This helps to metabolize enough water to
survive as this species does not drink water. 
Besides this species, we may also see the coastal form of Tractrac Chat
en route and in the river bed there are several other species such as
Bokmakierie, Black-chested Prinia, Ashy Tit, Chestnut-vented Tit Babbler,
Yellow-bellied Eremomela, Cape Sparrow, Dusky Sunbird, Pale Chanting Goshawk,
Rock Kestrel, Lanner Falcon, and Black-chested Snake Eagle.

From the Kuiseb we travel to the Walvis Bay Lagoon and salt pans
(proclaimed as a RAMSAR site) where depending on the time of the year you may
see thousands of wetland  species (over
100,000 birds in summer and less than 50,000 in winter) such as Curlew
Sandpiper, Red Knot, Sanderlings, Little Stint, both Greater and Lesser
Flamingos, Great White Pelican, various Gulls, and Terns and with luck Terek
Sandpiper, Great Sand plover, Red-necked Phalarope, Franklin’s Gull and
European Oystercatcher may be seen in huge numbers.  However, the best time to see most of the
abovementioned species is in our summer months from December to mid-April this
is when most of the migrants have arrived to feed on the lagoon mudflats.  

On a full-day excursion, we will spend a short time at the sewerage
works near Walvis Bay where large numbers of Common Moorhen, Hottentot Teal,
Red-knobbed Coot and other wetland species may be found, we then travel to the
Salt Pans near Swakopmund to look for any specials that may be around at the time before searching the surrounding desert plains to search for Gray’s Lark,
Rufous-eared Warbler and Tractrac Chat. If time remains we can spend some time
around the vegetated Swakop river and may encounter Orange River White-eye,
Yellow-bellied Eremomela, Red-faced, and White-backed Mousebird, Rufous-vented
Tit Babbler, Rock Kestrel, Dusky Sunbird, Bokmakierie, Fiscal Shrike, Common
Waxbill, Cape Sparrow, Black-Chested Prinia and with luck Peregrine Falcon. The
Key species for this trip are Dune Lark, Gray’s Lark, Orange River White-eye,
Tractrac Chat and the only true Namibian endemic the Dune Lark. There have been
76 different species of birds, 14 mammals and many reptiles on this tour.