One morning we were awakened to a new sound we had not heard. We were sure that it was a non-human sound. Robert went to try and see if he could find what it was making the noise. He came running back to report that it was ground hornbills walking along the riverbank. We as silently as we could walked down to the area by the permanent tents and watched them as they came past. They were making a "booming" type noise and the red throat pouch would puff out as they boomed. Robert said they looked like a group of monks moving down the river because they were so stately looking! We watched them until they moved out of sight on down the river. We heard them a second morning and they were across the river and we were not able to see them as well and they did not boom quite as long.
It was three adults and one immature ground hornbill. The reason we knew it was not a female is that she has blue on her throat patch. We incorrectly assumed because they were called ground hornbills they could not fly or at least not very well. We were surprised to see them flying while we were on our night drive. They are very stately in flight and have beautiful white wing patches visible.
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