A flyover Lanner Falcon was the best bird seen from the car before our first stop off; an area of scrub and grassland near Sotokoi Village. This area had a scattering of some all important mature grey plumb trees that have sustained a small population of this stop's target bird; the Brown-headed Parrot. After a while of searching, Ebrima spotted some of the parrots feeding in the top of a tree. Despite trying our hardest to get a view of the birds with the sun behind us, the birds didn't cooperate, however the views were good nonetheless.
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| Brown-headed Parrot |
While feeding, the parrots were incredibly hard to spot.
Other birds seen at this stop off included a flyover Beaudouin's Snake-Eagle, Long-crested Eagle, a couple of Wahlberg's Eagles and a Palmnut Vulture. A few African Green Pigeons were in trees and a Stone Partridge was flushed.
The next stop, a little further up the road was at the Kampanti rice fields. These fields are irrigated with water through the dry season, which attracts many raptors in for a drink. On approach, a couple of Grasshopper Buzzards perched in trees and a few African Harrier-Hawks were flying around. Then suddenly there were three Wahlberg's Eagles sharing the skies with the omnipresent Black Kites. Then we realised there was also a Tawny Eagle... amazing. We set up under a tree to view the area that the raptors come down to drink from, and soon, an African Hawk-Eagle landed on the ground right in front of us, spending the following 20 minutes lapping up water from a puddle, and giving us breathtaking views in the process.
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| African Hawk Eagle |
Another Beaudouin's Snake-Eagle was spotted high overhead, and then a much larger Brown Snake-Eagle appeared behind us before itself also coming down for a drink.
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| Brown Snake-Eagle |
Other birds seen in the area included Northern Crombec, Yellow-throated Greenbul, a couple of Abyssinian Rollers, and a few Yellow-billed Oxpeckers that were pecking away at a large sore on the back of a cow.
During a stop off at Brumen Bridge at a cafe for lunch, we were joined by some Splendid Starlings before continuing to two area of good habitat outside Nema Kuta and at Toniataba. Ebrima employed his Pearl-spotted Owlet whistling technique to attract in the birds in. Small passerines hate owlets, so soon there were 25+ birds, the majority being sunbirds, anxiously flitting around. In fact it really suprised me how well this always worked. Birds would just appear out of nowhere; presumably having been roosting in the shade of bushes to escape the worst of the midday sun. It makes you realise just how many birds there are when you multiply these small areas up to a larger landscape scale. The highlights from these stops were Swallow-tailed Bee-eater, Brown-backed Woodpecker, White-rumped Seedeater, Black-crowned Tchagra, Yellow-breasted Apalis, Senegal Batis, Vieillot's Barbet, Pygmy and Collared Sunbirds, Brown-backed and Fine-spotted Woodpeckers, and a Brown Babbler.
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| Brown-backed Woodpecker |
A few minutes after driving off, we spotted a dead donkey at the side of the road, so Ebrima reversed up a bit and we got out to enjoy amazing close views of 10+ Ruppell's Griffon Vultures, three White-backed Vultures and 10+ Hooded Vultures. They quickly left the feast and perched in nearby trees, obviously wary of our presence, so we decided to leave them be.
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| Ruppell's Griffon Vulture |
A ghostly male Montagu's Harrier was seen from the car in the dying daylight just before arriving at Morgan Kunda, a lovely sustainable, well run lodge set up by an Englishman. The money made from your stay here goes directly into the community, providing an education for its children, and supporting a maternity project.