Whoever said that long distance relationships don’t work never fell in love with the African skimmers of the Zambezi River.
Perhaps it’s easier with birds, but my love for these rare African vagabonds of the sky has never dwindled, even though I know that just when I have them by my side, on the water at Royal Chundu in Zambia, they will, soon enough, leave me again. It is their nature as migrants. Perhaps a nature that makes them all the more alluring.
The skimmers arrive on the Zambezi around the month of July, in the dry season, when little sandbanks peak out of the great river and call the migrants home. Here they roost and breed, usually between August and October, and leave around November.
During this time, the promise of glimpsing them in the glow of the river at golden hour calls me from my bed every morning and evening. And while taking a moment to put down the camera and simply be with them, I find my mind completely taken over by the life of the river itself. The intricate and beautiful life, its changes and its constants.
And isn’t that what love does to us? It makes us see the connection in everything, the beauty, the little things along with the big. During his own time on the Zambezi in search of skimmers, photographer Will Goodlet had similar thoughts…
“Drifting slowly down the Zambezi in search of Skimmers I couldn’t help but to reflect on the river itself. It’s at the centre of so much animal and human life in the region, a fabled realm that still holds a mythic place in my own consciousness. I can never quite believe that I am there, swept on by its green current, much as Livingstone might have been. It seems too strange…
It’s more than just a river. Cultures sit astride it and the river brings them all together, like a common thread drawn through the African continent.
It was fascinating to see the local people living with the river. Perhaps more interesting was to see how this area, on the very edge of the conflict between humankind and the world of animals, survives.”
Below, our love affair with the African skimmer reveals itself through photographs… Discover more about life on the Zambezi at Royal Chundu.
“African Skimmers are found in small flocks and are monogamous breeders. Their courtship is a sight to behold – boasting aerial chasing and calling as well as low-level synchronised flights close to the water. They nest as solitary pairs, but are usually found in small dipersed colonies. They will return to the same nesting site each year if it is undisturbed and remains free of vegetation.” – Pangolin Voyager
“Despite the dangers of nesting on sand banks regularly trampled by hippo, predated by monitor lizards, and even disturbed by humans, skimmers and other birds such as lapwings and plovers return to successfully breed on the river each year.” – Encounter
The African skimmer “is listed as ‘Near Threatened’ by the international conservation community and the population is thought to be declining. … Human disturbance is thought to be largely responsible for the gradual but steady decline in African Skimmer populations throughout its southern African range. Its breeding areas have been much reduced by human management of river systems, in particular dam-building, which causes flooding in upstream areas and smaller flows downstream.” – Encounter
Discover more about the silent art of birdwatching at Royal Chundu in our blog and contact us to find out more about going on your own birding safari during your stay with us.