Hi all,

 

Just back from a wonderfull time travelling around in Kenya and Tanzania, for a bit more then 4 weeks.

I have seen quite a lot of birds (aswell as mammals, reptiles, etc.) and met some very nice people.

Concerning birds it seems to be to difficult for me in the short time I had, to find all the endemic species, but enjoyed every spot very much.

I will add my sightings to http://www.observado.org , maybe someone sees something ‘special’. It will take a while before all sightings are on it.

I am working on a few determinations myself using photo’s I took.

 

One of them is an eagle, of which we where convinced in the field was not a Tawny (neither Steppe), which we saw quite a lot, actually.

Maybe you can share your thoughts about it with me?

http://observado.org/waarneming/view/50644331

 

Other nice sightings where:

• Black Egret (1 at Kilombero, 1 at Tarangire)
• Eurasian Oystercatcher (1 Peponi’s near Pangani)
• Greater Painted Snipe (1 Tarangire)
• Great numbers of Spotted Thick-Knees
• Coursers (Temmincks 4 Serengeti, Two-Banded 2 Tarangire)
• Black-Winged Lapwing (2 Serengeti)
• Senegal Lapwing (2 Mikumi NP) – seems to be out of range (Stevenson / Fanshawe)???
• Common Snipe (1 Serengeti) – didn’t except to see one here already?
• African Skimmer (3 Kilombero)
• Barn Owl (1 Segera)
• Hunting Marsh Owl (1 Serengeti)
• A few breading records of Verreaux’s Eagle-Owl (mainly in and near Ruaha and near Nyeri)
• Mackinders Eagle-Owl breading record (thanks Paul/Darcy! – Nyeri)
• Large groups of Eurasian Swifts
• Red-Throated Wryneck (Aberdares)
• Eastern Nicator (near Ruaha)
• Dodsons Bulbul (in Mkomazi NP)
• Northern Pied Babbler (more places, but also in Mikumi – seems to be out of range???)
• Black-Bellied and Hunters Sunbird (Mkomazi NP)
• Sharpes Starling (2 Aberdares)
• House Crows – seems to be a real problem!? – inland all the way to Ifakara!

 

More sightings where quite special to me, but according to a few trip reports, not unusuall…

Maybe I forget one or two now, then I will let you know later…

Totally I saw 457 confirmed species (and some still to be named) on our trip, of which about 80 species where new to me.

Quite happy with it!

 

Last, but not least. We took a lot of photo’s during our trip.

I will a few every day on our website, http://www.pbase.com/corotauria,

With a special gallery for the trip:

http://www.pbase.com/corotauria/tan_2010

 

Please, feel free to leave a message on the site.

Also if find some errors or wrong names underneath the photo’s, please let me know!

 

All the best!

Rick