// GUIDE COURSES

SPECIALIST BIRDING COURSE
 

This course is co-instructed by a top birding guide as well as a master bird ringer and offers a unique combination of hands on bird ringing and exposure to bird guiding skills.

Specialist Birding Course

This course is therefore ideal for anyone interested in furthering their bird knowledge. It will greatly improve bird identification abilities as well as giving an intimate knowledge only gained by seeing these birds in the hand. It is very much a practical course with basic theory content. This will be in the way of lectures delivered during the day when temperatures prohibit mist netting. While there are staff to assist at our bush camps, some participation will be required, in particular, the erection and monitoring of trapping lines and mist nets.

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acitivities

  • Theory lectures

  • Setting up mist nets and trapping lines

  • Bird ringing

  • Bird watching

  • Wilderness walks, mokoro and game drive excursion

access

  • Maun Airport

​Typical week

Arrival day – We depart for Kwapa Training Camp at 08h00 from our meeting point at Maun Airport and begin our 2 hour road transfer which can become a bit longer with the interruption of mixed feeding parties of birds...

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This first day will consist primarily of orientation and familiarization of the area and what we will be doing for the next few days, in the early evening we will begin ringing the birds.
Meals – dinner

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Days 2 & 3 – We begin setting up mist nets and trapping lines. The daily structure will be determined by the most suitable activities given the environmental conditions. We aim to do as much trapping and ringing as possible with bird walks and drives between ringing.
Meals – breakfast, lunch & dinner

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Day 4

We depart for Lake Ngami pre-dawn and do a full day birding excursion to Lake Ngami.  Given the dwindling amount of water in the Lake, our day trip may be birding to a different location.

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Last day – After your morning activity and breakfast we will return to Maun in plenty of time for those guests that have international flights to connect with.
Meals – breakfast

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Please note – The above is just a broad outline so it can and will change depending on the guests needs, external factors and on some days it has been known to not be followed at all…..

  accommodation

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4 x 3m Meru tents with en-suite bucket shower and flush toilet.

LAKE NGAMI

Lake Ngami is an endorheic lake in Botswana north of the Kalahari Desert. It is seasonally filled by the Taughe River, an effluent of the Okavango River system flowing out of the western side of the Okavango Delta. It is one of the fragmented remnants of the ancient Lake Makgadikgadi. Although the lake has shrunk dramatically beginning from 1890, it remains an important habitat for birds and wildlife, especially in flood years

General

Course length:
6 days / 5 nights

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Qualifications:
No prior experience is required – this course is open to anyone with an interest to learn about birds. It is not essentially a guiding course, although it will be an excellent component to develop as a specialist birding guide.

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Min. & max. numbers:

Minimum is 2 students, maximum is 8 students

Inclusive

  • Accommodation

  • All activities

  • All meals (food is basic and meal time are flexible according to activities)

  • Drinking water, tea and coffee

  • All activities

  • Scheduled transfer from Maun to Lake Ngami and return to Maun (1 transfer in and out per student)

exclusive

  • Unscheduled transfers to/from Lake Ngami

  • Travel insurance

  • All flights

  • Items of personal nature, including toiletries

  • Staff gratuities

  • Drinks other than those mentioned above – these can be purchased in Maun before leaving for Lake Ngami, and we will gladly refrigerate them for you safe well-point drinking water is supplied – if you prefer bottled water, please ensure you purchase this in Maun

  • If you require snacks to tide yourself over between 3 meals a day, please bring these with you. Breakfast is cereals, oats, rusks with tea and coffee. Lunch consists of a hot dish with a meat, carbohydrate and a salad component. Dinner is a single course meal with meat, carbohydrate and vegetables.

Qualifications

This is for students wanting to do the course for personal enrichment rather than pursuing a formal qualification to become a guide. They will receive an Okavango Guiding School certificate for participation in the course.

Letaka Safari

How about a gentle end to your course, with a fully catered mobile safari or river safari

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Luxury Lodges

Would you like to package your training course with some of Botswana’s luxury lodges?

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1 Rodeo Drive Matlapaneng Ward Maun

Tel: +267 6800115

Fax: +267 6800955

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