Karen Country Club bird walk, Friday 3 October

On the muggy, overcast morning of Friday 3 October, myself, Alastair Campbell, Gail Paul, Tina Milne, Di Gilbert and Carol Zibarras wandered forth at the Karen Country Club. We first visited the wetlands, where a Madagascar (probably) pond heron flew in stately manner across the ponds. Bird life was active in the surrounding trees, and we got very good views of the usually skulking grey-capped warbler, and of Speke’s weaver.

At the dam, we were rewarded with a good view of two black-winged stilts displaying their improbably long legs in measured flight; a grey heron; and a few common ringed plovers, apparently a first sighting for the Karen Club. An intriguing sighting was some resting yellow-billed ducks with both green and blue speculums – different races hanging out together? The pair of Egyptian geese with seven goslings were still in attendance, though it was rather sad to see the runt gosling struggling to scale the plastic dam side to reach the rest of the family. Here’s hoping that this plastic expanse gradually turns into a more bird-friendly habitat.

All in all, the bird walk was very leisurely, compared to the heady experience of the 63 species last time out, and the 45 species listed below was a very satisfactory selection:

Egyptian Goose

Yellow-billed Duck

Little Grebe

Hadada Ibis

Madagascar Pond Heron

Grey Heron

Hamerkop

Reed Cormorant

Black Kite

African Goshawk

Augur Buzzard

Black Crake

Common Moorhen

Common Ringed Plover

Black-winged Stilt

Common Sandpiper

Dusky Turtle Dove

Red-eyed Dove

Little Swift

Speckled Mousebird

Yellow-rumped Tinkerbird

Chin-spot Batis

Tropical Boubou

Pied Crow

Singing Cisticola

Yellow-breasted Apalis

Grey-capped Warbler

Grey-backed Camaroptera

Common Bulbul

Yellow-whiskered Greenbul

Olive Thrush

Cape Robin Chat

Ruppell’s Robin Chat

White-eyed Slaty Flycatcher

Collared Sunbird

Amethyst Sunbird

Bronze Sunbird

Variable Sunbird

Grosbeak Weaver

Baglafecht Weaver

Holub’s Golden Weaver

Speke’s Weaver

Bronze Mannikin

African Pied Wagtail

Streaky Seedeater