I'm another big fan of your excellent report and incredible sparrow images too.

The cat is almost certainly a mutant hybrid with feral cats, of which I am sure there are very many in the north of the country. I cannot recall any 'official' subspecies of Wild Cat globally that shows such a long, slender tail (most are bushier than feral cats). Hopefully, the mammal fundis will be able to clear this up for you but 'hybrid' is my strong feeling on this one.

Your mystery bird appears to be a Sombre Greenbul, albeit a very pale 'desert form' which, apparently, is undescribed. I cannot find any images of this species that shows such 'washed out' plumage OR pale edging to the remiges but structurally the bird is certainly this species as evidenced by the bill size, plus there is the overall shape and base colour, leg length and colour and, most glaringly of all, the eye colour and facial pattern. Now, these could just be a freakish-looking couple birds but my feeling is that there are more out there looking like this in the general area. After all, if we didn't know about Bafirawari Flycatcher as a 'form' it would be hard to comprehend its existence. The same applies here.

Strangely, South African birds are quite dull olive-brown, becoming brighter lemon-yellow below in southern Tanzania (spp.hypoxanthus) before becoming brownish again in central Kenya (ssp.insularis). It would be very interesting to see skins of any individuals collected from Somaliland, as it would bet they show similar characteristics to this bird. Don - might you be able to get a museum to take a look?

I have attached a montage here of different-looking Sombre Greenbuls to illustrate their variety. Interestingly, only the bottom right bird (taken by Pete Steward in NNP) bears much of a resemblance to your northern bird in terms of overall coloration but I hope you'll all agree that the bill is pretty distinctive.

Best for now,

Adam