Lions, warthogs, meerkats, giraffes, blesboks, bat-eared foxes, aardwolf, secretarybirds, sandgrouse, bustards, owls, falcons, eagles, hornbills and a variety of weavers and finches awaited us in the Kalahari desert.

Although busy, June provided some time to catch up with local summer specialties including Eleonora’s falcon, common rock thrush or western olivaceous warbler, plus a welcome variety of waders in El Hondo.

A recent visit to the coastal lagoon of Merja Zerga, a stopover of the East Atlantic Flyway and home to slender-billed curlews before their extinction, yielded some of the critically endangered and WP’s last marsh owls.