admin's blog

Two new birds for East Africa: Acrocephalus dumetorum & Hirundo daurica rufula

Exciting news was released belatedly (only yesterday) to the kenyabirdsnet@yahoogroups.com by pre-eminent Kenyan birder Brian Finch and not by anybody affiliated to the
Ngulia Ringing Group.

A central Palearctic breeding bird that normally winters in South Asia: Blyth's Reed Warbler Acrocephalus dumetorum was caught at Ngulia, Tsavo, Kenya on 19th December.

This bird was very well examined (obviously it would have been) and all relevant images taken.

Brian believes it represents the first for sub-Saharan Africa and is thus a very exciting
record.

Submitted by admin on Wed, 2010-01-13 05:11.

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The River of Raptors in a moderate El Niño

Kimemo farm, in the Valley of Ngare Ormotonyi, looking west toward Monduli January 11

Submitted by admin on Tue, 2010-01-12 07:04.

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Crab Plovers at Tanga: We Healdath

Since more than half the world's population of birders is enduring 'the freezies' I thought this as good a time as any to post a hazy digiscoped image of two adult Crab Plovers, definitely one of my all-time favourite birds. "So easy in Tanzania!". They are part of a flock of over two hundred and fifty, who roost on the cement causeway at a waste water outlet near Tanga lapped by the waters of an always warm ocean. Occurring from the Arabian Gulf and upper Red Sea right across to Myanmar and Ko Libong in Thailand they are an Indian Ocean endemic par excellence. And they are utterly ignorant of frost and all its perils.

Submitted by admin on Fri, 2010-01-08 10:03.

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Swifts 'a-screaming' for Rift Valley rains

Happy New Year from an ecological interpreter in the dampness of the Rift Valley in East Africa!

The western wall of the Great Rift Valley viewed from 'the patch' at Ol Mesera tented camp. January 2, 2010.

Submitted by admin on Thu, 2010-01-07 14:02.

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Birds (and birders) without boundaries.

Are the "most itinerant migrants" those most likely to survive anomalising climatic occurrences across Africa? Consider the USAID - Drought and Dryness Map reproduced here.

This map shows us the areas of (most likely) worst habitat degradation in north-eastern Africa - the situation as it was in November-December 2009.

Submitted by admin on Thu, 2010-01-07 08:14.

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Birding Africa Today: Perfecting the One Hour Sit

Location of my "One Hour Sit" it's a camping stool on the broad track by base of telegraph pole

How Healthy is Your Place?

Try the One Hour Sit and See!

View westwards across "the Migrant Gap" to forested Monduli Mountain 28/12/09

This vantage point is on northern edge of coffee coppice at Kimemo 'Bird Observatory' Arusha, northern Tanzania.

Broad-crowned trees are Cordia africana (Kiswahili: Mringa mringa) and narrower ones Grevillea robusta (Australasian)

Site was watched today from 1100 ->1300 (28/12)

30 bird spp. in one hour until noon.

37 bird spp. in two hours (i.e. seven additionals by 1300hrs).

A rule: "Not allowed up for a pee until you get to thirty!"

New Site Record: seven Great White Pelicans circling over Ngaramtoni (i.e. due north of site at ca 1.5 km) 1255 hrs.

Also 'of notable interest':

12 Sacred Ibis, 2 Green Sandpiper (from nearby waste water pool), a sub-adult Ayres's Hawk-Eagle hunting pigeons, 4 Eurasian Marsh Harrier, Steppe Buzzard, Long-crested Eagle, Augur Buzzard, two Spotted Flycatcher - apparently they dropped-in with a grey rain shower at noon, 4 Black-headed Heron, 1 Alpine Swift, 25 Nyanza Swift, 4 Black Saw-wing, 12 Jackson's Weaver, 25 Speke's Weaver, 10 reichenowi Baglafecht Weaver, erlangeri Common Quail (h/o), 2 Black-crowned Tchagra, 2 Arrow-marked Babbler, 2 ambiguus Tropical Boubou, 3 Common Fiscal, 6 Winding Cisticola and 30+ Olive Pigeon feeding on the ripening Cordia berries.

Mammals: Kirk's Dik Dik, Hare sp., Ochre Bush Squirrel, Egyptian Mongoose

Invertebrate highlights: a large rufous-thorax/white abdomen bee-fly Bombomyia discoidea and a big emergence of an Acraea sp. butterfly illustrated below on Commelina.

Dog is Pi she's the ace quail-and-locustella-hemipode-and-corncrake flusher!

Posted via email from Afrotropical's posterous

Submitted by admin on Mon, 2009-12-28 18:39.

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A Eulogy for the Seldom Spotted Flycatcher

Spotted Flycatcher in Tanzania: "a widespread palearctic migrant October-April". This one at Maweni was in the 'very dry' La Nina conditions of 2008-09. MPGoodey: also two images below.

Submitted by admin on Fri, 2009-12-18 12:18.

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East African Birding & Wildlife Safaris

An intact mega-fauna; loafing Hippos in the pools on the floor of Ngorongoro Crater (JW)

It's Christmas.

Make next year very special and award your family, or just yourself, a wildlife holiday with a real difference.

In 2010 why not come to northern Tanzania and discover an incomparable wealth of nature with "the Birdman". Find what the other safaris miss and at half their price!

You could leave Sciphol airport with KLM at ten of a morning; by eight that same evening we'd meet you here at our exceedingly relaxed Kilimanjaro International Airport.

Within minutes you'll have been whisked away in a fully customised Toyota 4WD on your safari.

A safari where there really is something for everyone!

Off into the velvet darkness of the incomparable african night; to a quiet lodge nearby on the first wing of your escape.

Rediscover freedom; freedom from the pressures of twenty-first century "Industrial Life".

Come to Tanzania soon, return to a gentler rhythm, see a multitude of wild creatures - great and small - on our unique "All-Sizes" East African Birding & Wildlife Safaris.