Okavango houseboat impressions

[Atravelynn]

The bazooka did its job with the bee eater and dragonfly. You have to be thrilled with the Pel's Fishing Owl!

[johnkok]

The bazooka did its job with the bee eater and dragonfly. You have to be thrilled with the Pel's Fishing Owl!

 

Thrilled to bits by both bazooka and Pel's :-D

[johnkok]

Impressions of my Okavango Houseboat Experience (Part Two)

3 nights on the Delta Belle Houseboat 25-28 April 2014

 

One of the unexpected highlights of the houseboat was our trips out for Fish Eagle "fishing", i.e. where bait is introduced to the water to induce the eagle to "come and get it". Folks who feel this is beyond the pale (ethics-wise) should stop reading now as I do not intend to engage in a morality debate here.

 

It was unexpected because we had heard of this practice in river and water safaris in many parts of Africa but we had not known the houseboat would ask if we wanted to have this experience. Once we said yes, it turns out the crew are well practised in its delivery. Unfortunately, as we were to find, our execution did not match theirs.

 

First up, Clifford the captain went fishing after morning coffee the first morning. In no time, he was back with two huge Tigerfish (Hydrocynus vittatus). Maybe he just popped off to the supermarket in Shakawe to get them :-)

As you can see, each fish is easily two Clifford-feet long

 

These were to be cut up as bait for Fish Eagles and this stirred our photography juices. Simultaneously, we are not ashamed to admit, our gastronomic juices were equally stirred. Fish is never as good as when freshly caught and eaten on a boat. So we asked our cook Bashi if he could save some for cooking. He warned us that tigerfish have lots of bones (they really do) but we were undeterred, so we had delicious fresh fish several times.

 

The way Lucas, out boatman, prepares the bait is that he hacks off good sized chunks. While on the speedboat out, he would head towards the papyrus reeds on the bank and pick off a good sized stem. The fish sink while the stem floats. He needs to estimate the size so as to have the bait just floating beneath the surface but without sinking. By the way, there's no risk of the eagle choking on reed nor fish as eagles tear off pieces of fish for swallowing.

 

The way we prepared for it was to put the 70-200/2.8 on for my wife Jill. Being pretty clueless, but thinking I knew it all (I had run it through my mind a few times; how hard could it be to shoot a large bird in flight, right?), I decided to put a 1.4X teleconverter onto the 300/2.8. I figured I would be able to make good use of 420mm. There'd be lots of light and I would have lots of elbow room with shutter speed to freeze motion and aperture for good depth of field. Both hand holdable and easily maneuvered while on the little boat. And thusly we set out.

 

We left that afternoon sometime after 4:30. Lots of light. And we found that Lucas not only knew which trees to look at for Fish Eagles, he also knew which Fish Eagle to try and attract. He told us a certain one does not come, other ones come at you this way or that, and some were the ones to go for. You could say he has done this once or twice.

 

So we stopped at this area where in fact there was no Fish Eagle. At least, we could not see any. Lucas says there's one in the vicinity. One that cooperates nicely. The bait is prepared. Lucas stands up, waves his arms about, and whistles. And damned if a fish eagle does not appear. First caught at 420mm.

I put it in the middle of the frame and fired. This is uncropped but you can see it is returning to its patch with some nesting material. So I suppose Lucas knew its nest must be close by. I forget if he had mentioned that. We certainly did not (and still cannot) recognise Fish Eagle nests.

 

The Fish Eagle duly perches in its tree. And Lucas duly does his next thing. He picks up the prepared bait, and proceeds to wave it above his head, and whistles some more. Lucas then tosses the bait into the water. Perhaps 10-20 metres from the boat. In between us and the Eagle. All this while, we are drifting downstream with the pretty strong current. And so does the bait.

 

So there we sit. Cameras locked and loaded. Not at all sure how it would play out. And that's when I thought - do I focus on the bait in the water or on the bird as it comes in (providing it did come in)? Oh bugger. Should have thought of that earlier. What to do? What to do? By the way, it is not easy to keep one eye on an Eagle and one eye on floating, drifting bait. And it is not an automatic thing to find either in your viewfinder. We are on a drifting moving boat. The bait is partly submerged and drifting too. The Eagle although unmoving, is a speck up in the trees.

 

So I keep my eyes on the Eagle. After what seemed an age, but wasn't, it took off. I started firing. Some of them are even in focus :-)

I have left them un-cropped so you can see the size difference as it approached.

 

1.7 seconds of flying time later

 

And then 0.4 seconds after that

 

And another 0.4 seconds after that

 

And then I decided to switch to the bait. You know what's coming next right? Absolute disaster. Nothing in focus even of the bait so I won't even bother. And here's my Eagle shot. [sob Sob]

 

And what of the other camera? Jill had kept her lens on the Eagle as it approached. And twin disasters. None of them were in focus. With a point of view to die for, we had both contrived to screw up our shoot. [sob Sob squared]

Nice reeds back there.

 

When we picked up the action, Eagle was moving away already. I'm afraid these were the best we could do on our first foray.

[All shots un-cropped; the 70-200/2.8 was at 200mm, and the other shots are 420mm]

 

We hung our heads in shame. And we begged for another chance. Fortunately, we were the only guests on the houseboat, we had a most cooperative crew, and I did say the fish were at least two-Clifford-feet sized. So we managed to get another go on another day. But that will be another story.

 

More to come, time permitting :-)

[michael-ibk]

You still got some super shots from the Eagle approaching and flying away! No need for shame.

[Zim Girl]

Great description of events and a pretty cool sequence of pictures so don't sob too much!!

[Peter Connan]

The last of your approaching eagle shots is superb!

 

As somebody who tries to catch birds in flight every weekend, I can say that you were doing pretty darn well!

[Marks]

Your sense of humor appeals to me ("Nice reeds back there."). And I could be way off base, but was that a Clifford the cartoon dog reference?

 

Your shots of the eagle from behind are great, so really I'd say that the first try looks pretty good!

[graceland]

Very enjoyable John, I think the houseboat idea for a few days is cool.

 

DH is taking his flyrod to Zimbabwe; hope we find a bird that will fly in and snatch the catch on the fly. What a shot that'd be.

 

The fisheagle photos were superb flying in...i bet you get one at first Bite next day!

[johnkok]

Thanks @@michael-ibk, @@Zim Girl, @@Peter Connan, @@Marks, @@graceland for reading and the consoling remarks :-)

 

I have (had) a fair number of BIF shots under my belt (including swallows in flight from the houseboat - but that's a story for another day) and hence the (over-) confidence at this fishing Eagle shoot.

 

Clifford was the name the Captain introduced himself as, so no references to any cartoons :-)

 

Getting a Fish Eagle to snatch your catch would indeed be awesome. I've never heard of something like this happening - but there's always a first time. I've heard they do the baiting thing on the Zambezi too so you will have options.

 

And no, I did not get it on first bite the next day, but that story will have to wait [sob].

[FlyTraveler]

Excellent writing and photography @@johnkok! All images of the fish eagle are great, except the two which are clearly out of focus. Enjoying this report very much!

 

 

Last year on a boat trip on Lake Naivasha, the guide did the bate game with a fish eagle without warning me and I tried my luck, noticing the eagle at the very last moment (I am far from your league in terms of both photographic skills and equipment, just the situation was similar) - http://safaritalk.net/topic/11512-kenya-safari-masai-mara-amboseli-lake-nakuru-lake-bogoria-lake-naivasha-selenkay-and-ol-kinyei/

Edited July 28, 2014 by FlyTraveler

[Jochen]

You missed on purpose to have a reason to go back. This is so obvious.

 

[Atravelynn]

"So we managed to get another go on another day. But that will be another story."

 

I am awaiting the story. Your initial fish eagle photos are really good too.

 

You mention you were the only 2 passengers on the boat. Did you book a private trip or did you happen to luck out with no other guests?