Long before the first proper storm breaks over the Northern Tuli Game Reserve, guides at Mashatu know summer is here because of a bird. Each November the red-chested cuckoo returns and repeats its three-note call from high in the trees, weeks ahead of the heavy rains. Mashatu, a 42,000-hectare private game reserve in Botswana’s far eastern corner, is now encouraging travellers to time their visits around this turn of the season, when migrant birds fly in and young animals appear across the plains.
On the reserve, November falls between two months with very different characters. October is the driest and hottest part of the year, and wildlife gathers around whatever water remains. December brings frequent afternoon storms and flash floods. November connects the two. Summer is well underway, the air grows more humid and convectional thunderstorms become likely, although the main rains typically arrive about a month later. Guests see a season defined by new life, not by scarcity.
Migrant birds fly back in
More than 350 bird species live at Mashatu, and in November the resident birds are joined by visitors returning from their southern winter further north. The reserve’s seasonal notes list woodland kingfishers, southern carmine bee-eaters and cuckoos among the migrants that begin arriving this month. After a good rainfall has been recorded, the monotonous lark, a small and very noisy bird, starts calling day and night from nearly every treetop.
Birds of prey are one of the…
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