Tujering
Yesterday took its toll on the group, it was very hot
and humid, everyone (including me) was very hot and tired, so when we got back to the
hotel last night we made a group decision to have a half day off today and in fact two
of the group took the whole day off.
 |
| A Variable Sunbird (male not particularly well marked) |
Tujering is
an area of savannah woodland, I use the term woodland loosely, as the only
trees were in small clumps or stand alone. This is all due to heavy harvesting
for firewood by the local people, there is a great deal of young secondary
growth and some clear areas where tree planting has been attempted. Despite
this it is one of my favourite coastal sites and is full of birds.
At times it
felt as though I was birding in the Western Europe or maybe in Southern Spain because
the number of migrants found here was very high. The small trees and shrubs
held many Willow Warblers and a few Eurasian Chiffchaffs and our first
sighting was of a Common Redstart! We
went on to see: Melodious Warbler,
Olivaceous Warbler, Woodchat Shrike, Whinchat, Garden Warbler and a very
nice Wryneck.
 |
| A White-fronted Black-Chat - you can just make out the white patch between the eyes, this bird refused to turn around |
We were here to see African species and a cuckoo
sighting proved to be a rare Red-chested
Cuckoo, distant views were had but we had no doubt, what a great find. Some
of the group also had good views of Klaas’
Cuckoo but others just saw it in flight.
 |
| A Black-crowned Tchagra we saw half a dozen of these this morning |
One of our
main target species was the White-fronted
Black-Chat and after abrief search we saw a pair of them extremely well sitting on top of a young
tree, what a nice bird! Our search continued for woodpeckers and in one clump
of trees we waited for them but only found: Senegal Batis, White-shouldered Black-Tit, Black-crowned Tchagra,
Swallow-tailed Bee-eater, Little Bee-eater and in the sky over a period of
an hour we saw 4 Ospreys.
 |
| Swallow-tailed Bee-eater |
It was now
getting very warm so we spent more time in the shelter of the trees but
continued to watch as the birds kept on appearing: Rufous-crowned Roller, Common Whitethroat, Red-winged Warbler, Tawny-flanked
Prinia, Lavender & Orange-cheeked Waxbills and finally a Cardinal Woodpecker. Whilst we
were watching the Cardinal a Wryneck appeared, how fantastic. A few
sunbirds were also noted and our last species of the morning was seen just as
we were getting back onto the bus, another Western Palaeartic migrant, a Garden Warbler.
We called it
a day at that point and left the area for the 30 minute drive back to the
hotel. From then on we all split up and had a leisurely afternoon in the hotel
grounds. Some when swimming, others went to bed after lunch and others just
strolled around taking pictures, how very nice!
I took a walk around the grounds with Trish at 4pm for an hour. we saw 23 species and had great views of Gonolek, Brown Babbler, Yellow-billed Shrike, Shikra, Northern Black Flycatcher, Beautiful Sunbird and lots of doves and common species.
PICTURES OF SOME GARDEN BIRDS TAKEN THIS AFTERNOON
 |
| Cattle Egret round my feet whilst I type this blog |
 |
| Red-billed Hornbill |
 |
| Grey Plantain Eater |
 |
| Yellow-billed Shrike |
 |
| A Northern Black Flycatcher |
 |
| Shikra - a small sparrowhawk seen everyday in the garden and on our travels |
No comments:
Post a Comment