As most of my friends know, I traveled to South Africa in November for a safari vacation focusing on birds and mammals. I’ve managed to distill the 4000+ photos into various albums totaling about 500 photos highlighting the various plants, animals, and vistas from the trip. Instead of posting the photos here (which I had done for previous vacations), I’ve decided to give Google’s Picasa web site a try. Luckily there is a handy app for iPhoto to upload the photos and comments so that putting them there is simple. To take a look at some photos, check out
http://picasaweb.google.com/ElinorGates/.

Most mammals I saw I got photos of, but there were a few seen at night or too quickly to train my camera on.
The trip list for Mammals is:
Chacma Baboon
Peter’s Epauletted Fruit Bat
Blesbok
Buffalo
Lesser Bushbaby
Thick-tailed Bushbaby
Bushbuck
African Civet
Common Duiker
African Elephant
Small-spotted Genet
Southern Giraffe
Scrub Hare
Hippopotamus
Spotted Hyena
Impala
Black-backed Jackal
Side-striped Jackal
Klipspringer
Greater Kudu
Leopard
Lion
Banded Mongoose
Dwarf Mongoose
Slender Mongoose
White-tailed Mongoose
Samango Monkey
Vervet Monkey
Nyala
Oribi
Common Reedbuck
Grey Rhebok
White Rhinoceros
Tree Squirrel
Suricate (Meerkat)
Warthog
Common Waterbuck
Blue Wildebeast
Burchell’s Zebra
Fallow Deer
Long-fingered Bat

Other mammals seen, but not necessarily wild, were: Black Wildebeast, Sable Antelope, and Springbok.

For my birding pals, here is a list of the species I saw (* denotes not a life bird). I have photos of about 200 of these species in the on-line album (doesn’t mean it is a good photo, however, many are just record shots).

Great Crested Grebe
Black-necked Grebe
Little Grebe
White-breasted Cormorant
Reed Cormorant
African Darter
Grey Heron
Black-headed Heron
Goliath Heron
Purple Heron
Little Egret
Yellow-billed Egret
*Cattle Egret
Green-backed Heron
*Black-crowned Night-Heron
Hamerkop
White Stork
Woolly-necked Stork
Saddle-billed Stork
Marabou Stork
Yellow-billed Stork
African Sacred Ibis
Southern Bald Ibis
Glossy Ibis
Hadeda Ibis
African Spoonbill
*Greater Flamingo
White-faced Duck
White-backed Duck
Egyptian Goose
Yellow-billed Duck
African Black Duck
Cape Teal
Red-billed Teal
Cape Shoveler
Southern Pochard
Comb Duck
Spur-winged Goose
Maccoa Duck
Hooded Vulture
Cape Vulture
White-backed Vulture
White-headed Vulture
Yellow-billed Kite
Black-shouldered Kite (elanus caeruleus – different than the Australian Black-shouldered Kite elanus axillaris, which I’ve also seen)
Tawny Eagle
Lesser Spotted Eagle
Wahlberg’s Eagle
Marital Eagle
Brown Snake-Eagle
Bateleur
African Fish Eagle
Steppe Buzzard
Jackal Buzzard
Little Sparrowhawk
Black Sparrowhawk
African Goshawk
Dark Chanting Goshawk
African Harrier-Hawk
Lanner Falcon
Eurasian Hobby
Taita Falcon
Amur Falcon
Rock Kestrel
Coqui Francolin
Crested Francolin
Shelley’s Francolin
Red-winged Fracolin
Natal Francolin
Swainson’s Spurfowl
*Helmeted Guineafowl
Kurrichane Buttonquail
Wattled Crane
Blue Crane
Black Crake
Red-knobbed Coot
African Finfoot
Kori Bustard
Denham’s Bustard
Red-crested Korhaan
Black-bellied Bustard
African Jacana
Greater Painted Snipe
Three-banded Plover
Crowned Lapwing
Senegal Lapwing
Blacksmith Lapwing
White-crowned Lapwing
African Wattled Lapwing
Common Sandpiper
Wood Sandpiper
Marsh Sandpiper
Common Greenshank
Ruff
African Snipe
*Black-winged Stilt
Water Thick-Knee
Bronze-winged Courser
Grey-headed Gull
Whiskered Tern
White-winged Tern
Double-banded Sandgrouse
*Rock Dove
Speckled Pigeon
African Olive-Pigeon
Red-eyed Dove
African Mourning Dove
Cape Turtle-Dove
Laughing Dove
Namaqua Dove
Emerald-spotted Wood-Dove
African Green-Pigeon
Brown-headed Parrot
Krysna Turaco
Purple-crested Turaco
Grey Go-away-bird
Red-chested Cuckoo
Black Cuckoo (heard only, not seen)
Great Spotted Cuckoo
Levaillant’s Cuckoo
Jacobin Cuckoo
Klaas’s Cuckoo
Diderick Cuckoo
Burchell’s Coucal
*Barn Owl
African Scops-Owl
Pearl-spotted Owlet
Spotted Eagle-Owl
Verreaux’s Eagle-Owl
Square-tailed Nightjar
White-rumped Swift
Little Swift
Alpine Swift
African Palm Swift
Speckled Mousebird
Red-faced Mousebird
Narina Trogon
Pied Kingfisher
Giant Kingfisher
Malachite Kingfisher
African Pygmy Kingfisher
Woodland Kingfisher
Brown-hooded Kingfisher
Striped Kingfisher
European Bee-eater
White-fronted Bee-eater
Little Bee-eater
Lilac-breasted Roller
Purple Roller
African Hoopoe
Green Wood-Hoopoe
Common Scimitarbill
African Grey Hornbill
Red-billed Hornbill
Southern Yellow-billed Hornbill
Southern Ground-Hornbill
Black-collared Barbet
Yellow-fronted Tinkerbird
Yellow-rumped Tinkerbird (heard only, not seen)
Crested Barbet
Golden-tailed Woodpecker
Cardinal Woodpecker
Bearded Woodpecker
Rufous-naped Lark
Flappet Lark
Sabota Lark
Eastern Long-billed Lark
Red-capped Lark
Chestnut-backed Sparrowlark
*Barn Swallow
White-throated Swallow
Wire-tailed Swallow
Red-breasted Swallow
Mosque Swallow
Greater Striped Swallow
Lesser Striped Swallow
South African Cliff-Swallow
Rock Martin
Common House Martin
Banded Martin
Black Cuckooshrike
Fork-tailed Drongo
Eurasian Golden Oriole
Black-headed Oriole
Cape Crow
Pied Crow
White-necked Raven
Southern Black Tit
Grey Penduline Tit
Arrow-marked Babbler
Dark-capped Bulbul
Sombre Greenbul
Kurrichane Thrush
Karoo Thrush
Orange Ground-Thrush
Groundscraper Thrush
Cape Rock-Thrush
Sentinel Rock-Thrush
Mountain Wheatear
Capped Wheatear
Buff-streaked Chat
Familiar Chat
Mocking Cliff-Chat
Ant-eating Chat
African Stonechat
Chorister Robin-Chat
White-browed Robin-Chat
Cape Robin-Chat
White-throated Robin-Chat
White-starred Robin
White-browed Scrub-Robin
Bearded Scrub-Robin
Willow Warbler
Yellow-throated Woodland-Warbler
Bar-throated Apalis
Yellow-breasted Apalis
Long-billed Crombec
Yellow-bellied Eremomela
Burnt-necked Eremomela
Green-backed Camaroptera
Cape Grassbird
Zitting Cisticola
Wing-snapping Cisticola (heard only, not seen)
Rattling Cisticola
Levaillant’s Cisticola
Croaking Cisticola
Lazy Cisticola
Neddicky
Tawny-flanked Prinia
Black-chested Prinia
Drakensberg Prinia
Spotted Flycatcher
African Dusky Flycatcher
Ashy Flycatcher
Southern Black Flycatcher
Pale Flycatcher
Fiscal Flycatcher
Cape Batis
Chinspot Batis
African Paradise-Flycatcher
African Pied Wagtail
Mountain Wagtail
Cape Wagtail
African Pipit
Long-billed Pipit
Yellow-breasted Pipit
Cape Longclaw
Yellow-throated Longclaw
Lesser Grey Shrike
Common Fiscal
Red-backed Shrike
Magpie Shrike
Southern Boubou
Black-backed Puffback
Brubru
Brown-crowned Tchagra
Black-crowned Tchagra
Bokmakierie
Orange-breasted Bush-Shrike
Grey-headed Bush-Shrike
White-crested Helmet-Shrike
Retz’s Helmet-Shrike
*Common Myna
Pied Starling
Wattled Starling
Violet-backed Starling
Burchell’s Starling
Cape Glossy Starling
Greater Blue-eared Starling
Red-winged Starling
Red-billed Oxpecker
Malachite Sunbird
Marico Sunbird
Southern Double-collared Sunbird
Greater Double-collared Sunbird
White-bellied Sunbird
Scarlet-chested Sunbird
Amethyst Sunbird
Collared Sunbird
Cape White-eye
Red-billed Buffalo Weaver
*House Sparrow
Cape Sparrow
Southern Grey-headed Sparrow
Yellow-throated Petronia
Thick-billed Weaver
Spectacled Weaver
Village Weaver
Cape Weaver
Southern Masked-Weaver
Lesser Masked-Weaver
Golden Weaver
Red-headed Weaver
Cuckoo Finch
Red-billed Quelea
Southern Red Bishop
Yellow-crowned Bishop
Yellow Bishop
Fan-tailed Widowbird
Red-collared Widowbird
Long-tailed Widowbird
Green-winged Pytilia
Green Twinspot
African Firefinch
Blue Waxbill
Common Waxbill
Red-headed Finch
Bronze Mannikin
Pin-tailed Whydah
Village Indigobird
Yellow-fronted Canary
Cape Canary
Forest Canary
Streaky-headed Seed-Eater
Golden-breasted Bunting
Cinnamon-breasted Bunting

315 species seen, only 10 of which weren’t lifers. Wow! What a trip!