Today we had our normal early start and I told William my target was to see Roan which have, bar a fleeting glimpse in Botswana eluded us. As they like wooded areas viewing them is difficult as the foliage makes it hard - at this time of the year in Mole most of the leaves have gone so wildlife is relatively easy to spot but it's amazing how many twigs your camera finds to focus on rather than the bird or animal so photographing them is very hard.
Within in the first half an hour of leaving I spotted a large male roan on my side of the car - he stood and looked at us and didn't run which was amazing - I took a couple of photos but the dim breaking early morning light made good pictures impossible but I did get a good piece of video so was very happy to see one so quickly. Later on we saw two females with some hartebeest galloping off into the woodland. On our travels we also saw kob, lots of waterbuck, bushbuck, duiker and oribi. Star new birds included the red headed weaver (today's photo) who was actually waving his nest, hooded vultures, and Abyssinian ground hornbills.
We didn't get back until almost midday so I quickly changed and had a swim before lunch which we rescheduled for 1315. After lunch we watched the elephants coming and going from the waterholes below the hotel.
As we had a long morning we started our evening drive at 5pm and took the Samole Loop which took us to the waterholes where the elephants had been earlier. We were able to get out and look for birds and animals - an early spot was a Nike crocodile in the waterhole lying patiently for something. I also saw a black crake, squacco heron, wattled lapwing, spur winged goose and a spur winged plover.
We then went into night drive mode and although we saw one nightjar the owls eluded us. We did however see a long a long snouted mongoose and a genet.
We got back just after 1930 hours and went straight into dinner, afterwards the bird/animal checklist was reviewed.... next stop bed.