Meerkats

Waking up at 5:20 morning, we were greeted with a lot more optimism than yesterday, since the weather during the previous day was a lot more settled and hot with no rain, with the additional benefit of no messages from Grant cancelling the morning. Things looked even better when we met Grant at 6am, with only 4 others to share the experience with – tours can hold up to 16 guests. We arrived only about 10 minutes later in an open area of karoo, which had previously been farmed with livestock. This was where Grant had located the Meerkats last evening, and so we approached a small mound looked upon by a small pile of black plastic chairs. We sat patiently for almost 45 minutes, listening to Grants interesting diatribe, for the first of the much vaunted gang to appear. During this time, a Black Bustard was calling from another mound to our rear. Larks, prinias, and cisticolas were constantly calling, but were difficult to identify from our seated position. However, the subsequently common Karoo Lark was pinned down, and a Bush Karoo Rat with young was the first mammal to rise in a bush near to us. The somewhat tardy appearance of the Meerkats was fantastic, with an initial lone climate checker standing on the mound, followed by the rest of the gang 10 minutes later, standing on hindlegs as a unit only metres from where we were sat. This would have been reward enough for our endeavours, but we then followed the foraging group through the scrub for the next hour or two, seeing in real life many of the idiosyncratic behaviours we had become accustomed to from numerous television programmes. One or two birds were seen while following the gang, with at least one positively identified Spike-heeled Lark, a few Pearl-breasted Swallows flying through, a pair of Crowned Lapwings in the distance, numerous Cape Sparrows, and at least one pair of Karoo Scrub-robins. The delights eventually came to an end at around 9:30, when the Meerkats crossed the boundary fence to an adjoining property, where we were unable to follow them.