Namibia - Private Coastal pre-tour - August 2026
Dates: August 10 - 12, 2026
Leader: Geoff Lockwood
E-bird
Total Species: 76 birds
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Overall Summary
The pre-tour offers the chance to explore one of the oldest and driest desert coastlines in the world, along with the spectacle of thousands of Greater and Lesser Flamingos; Great White Pelicans; four species of marine cormorants; and arriving flocks of migrating shorebirds.
Our key targets were those species that we would not be seeing later on the main tour, and our first stop in the Kuiseb Delta gave us some of our best views ever of a pair of Dune Larks foraging around a small dune in the dry riverbed, along with a number of more common and widespread birds.
The drive to Walvis Bay along the shoreline the next morning produced a small flock of African Oystercatchers; Crowned, Cape, and Great Cormorants; and Kelp and Hartlaub’s Gulls, along with numbers of Eurasian Whimbrels and White-fronted Plovers. A small party of House Crows in a bayside park in Walvis Bay was an unexpected and worrying find, as this species is highly invasive and has a massive impact on nesting birds. Shorebirds were low in numbers, however, but we managed to locate most of the expected species. In the salt works, exquisite Chestnut-banded Plovers were everywhere, giving great views!
The Walvis Bay sewage works wetlands are visually spectacular, with reed-lined pools set amongst red sand dunes, and a highlight here was a number of Maccoa Ducks—a species that is declining in the sub-region. Back in Swakopmund, a walk through the town gardens produced Orange River White-eyes and White-backed Mousebirds—both species we usually record in the grounds of our hotel!
Our last morning produced another surprise. We had stopped for lunch in the gravel desert plains when we suddenly had a small flock of near-endemic Gray’s Larks feeding all around us. Some of the birds approached to within yards of where we were sitting, giving us our best-ever views. A pair of Tractrac Chats—another near-endemic—appeared and began chasing the larks. Wow!
A walk around the Rossmund Golf Course produced another highlight—a small flock of European Bee-eaters that passed low over our heads. A wonderfully colorful way to end the pre-tour!
Day-by-Day Summary
October 10 - Flight to Walvis Bay; drive to Rooibank in the Kuiseb Delta for Dune Lark.
October 11 - Drive along the coast to Walvis Bay (am); the bay and the Salt Works; Sewage Works wetlands, Swakopmund Gardens (pm).
October 12 - Mile 4 Salt Works; gravel and lichen plains inland from the Salt Works (am), Rosmund Golf Course; back to the hotel to meet the group for the start of the main tour.
Wildlife Seen:
MAMMALS:
Rats & Mice Muridae
Four-striped Grass Mouse Rhabdomys pumilio
Eared Seals & Sealions Otariidae
Cape Fur Seal Arctocephalus pusillus
Bovids & Horned Ungulates Bovidae Springbok
Antidorcas marsupialis
3 Species
REPTILES:
Marsh Terrapin Pelomedusa subrufa
1 Species