April 2014
Odzala sees the transition period from the short dry season to the short rainy season. Most of the wildlife is slowly coming back towards the bais and rivers after having migrated into the heart of the terra-firma forest looking for some of their favoured fruits – for example, the two that are commonly called wild mango – Irvingia gabonensis and Pandaoleosa. The overcast weather accompanied by misty, cool mornings and evenings is slowly fading away and the level of humidity is rising. Heavy showers towards the end of the month settled the obvious presence of dust in the air.
A great surprise was seeing a small herd of bongo during breakfast one morning, just before going out on activity. The herd was spotted north-east of the Lango Bai crossing in between two forest patches. The Lango stream is fairly low at the moment which has allowed us to reach places that are inaccessible during the wet season. During such an expedition, we had an incredible up-close encounter with a solitary bongo walking 30 metres right in front of us without him noticing our presence – unique experience!
On average, the gorilla sightings have been good although challenging for one who is unfit as lately, the gorillas have been found far from camp. To reach the gorillas involved some long hours of walking this month, as Jupiter and Neptuno are at the moment present in areas where there is a concentration of various fruiting trees – and that’s a fair distance! As we approach the gorillas, a lot of patience is required as we always try to get the most out of every experience and mostly our aim is to observe the gorillas in their natural environment without disturbing them.
Sightings of the diurnal primates have been interesting, with moustached and putty-nosed monkey being curious enough to come and investigate human activity near the rooms. The night walks were very productive with sightings of the rare central potto, Lord Derby’s anomalure and many galagos.
February has been good especially for the birds of prey with sightings of black-shouldered kite, yellow-billed kite, long-tailed hawk, African harrier hawk, long-crested eagle, dark-chanting goshawk, red-chested goshawk, Cassin’s hawk-eagle, black sparrowhawk, bat hawk, and the stunning African crowned eagle.
