Tdgraves big year 2016

[Tdgraves]

Ditholo wildlife estate, 30/1/6

 

Motion sensitive camera!!

 

 

 

118) Secretary bird

[Tdgraves]

Now I am really scraping the barrel. I have had to go back to the RAW files for those which did not make the favourites folder, as there are birds I know we saw, but have not yet posted. These are more proof shots so no photographic data!

 

Berg-en-Dal in camp,18 /1/16

 

Canon 7D mark II

 

 

Sabie river, KNP, 19/1/16

 

Canon 5D mark III

 

 

119) Pied kingfisher

[Tdgraves]

Near Berg-en-Dal,18 /1/16

Canon 7D mark II

 

 

120) Grey hornbill

[Tdgraves]

In camp, Letaba, 25/1/16

Canon 7D mark II

 

 

121) Hooded vultures (and friends)

[Tdgraves]

Berg-en-Dal in camp,18/1/16

Canon 7D mark II

 

 

122) Amethyst sunbird (female) - behind the sombre greenbul!!

[Tdgraves]

And here's a better Burchell's coucal, because my original shot was dreadful

 

 

and some other miscellaneous duplicates

 

 

 

 

 

and some nice female masked weaver close-ups

 

 

 

[xelas]

@@Tdgraves

 

Glad to see you have also joined the (ebc) club !

[Tdgraves]

So in January we saw 136 species and I know that there were some which I definitely didn't catch on camera (little sparrowhawk, little swift, African goshawk). But I cannot believe that I didn't get a photo of a turtle dove, a yellow-billed stork or a hadeda. ARRGGHH. Others seen with no proof: white stork, broad-tailed paradise whydah, sacred ibis, fiscal shrike, cattle egret, jacana, black-shouldered kite, red-faced mousebird, myna and some others as the maths doesn't work

 

Hopefully we'll see some of them in September in the KTP, but not all of them occur there....

[Tdgraves]

We went to Mauritius for a week at the start of the month. This was purely a beach holiday for relaxation, but I did take a camera. There are lots of endemics and rare species here, but we were all about the beach, so apart from a couple of hours at the botanical gardens, we were confined to the hotel. However, this did not stop the birding. This guy came to greet us in the hotel reception as we were checking in....

 

Le Meridien, Mauritius, 5/6/16

 

Canon 7D mark II, 100-400 mark II, ISO 250, f 7.1, 1/80

 

 

7/6/16

 

Canon 7D mark II, 100-400 mark II, ISO 500, f 7.1, 1/80

 

 

Canon 7D mark II, 100-400 mark II, ISO 500, f 7.1, 1/160

 

123) Common myna

[Tdgraves]

It was off season, so we were expecting it not to be too hot or humid. The first day it rained, a lot. As we retired to our room, we found a bird table that the staff appeared to fill daily. This lead to many new species.....

 

Mauritius, 6/6/16

 

Canon 7D mark II, 100-400 mark II, ISO 640, f 7.1, 1/320

 

 

 

Canon 7D mark II, 100-400 mark II, ISO 1000, f 7.1, 1/160

 

 

124) Malagasy turtle dove

[Tdgraves]

Mauritius, 6/6/16

Canon 7D mark II, 100-400 mark II, ISO 800, f 6.3, 1/320

 

 

Canon 7D mark II, 100-400 mark II, ISO 1250, f 7.1, 1/800

 

 

Canon 7D mark II, 100-400 mark II, ISO 1250, f 5.6, 1/800

 

 

125) Zebra dove

[Tdgraves]

Mauritius, 6/6/16

Canon 7D mark II, 100-400 mark II, ISO 640, f 7.1, 1/250

Canon 7D mark II, 100-400 mark II, ISO 500, f 6.3, 1/250

126) Spotted dove

[michael-ibk]

Oh, the Zebra Dove is just awesome. What an interesting-looking bird.

[Tdgraves]

@@michael-ibk I've always had a soft spot for doves, which are often overlooked and these ones really just highlight that

[Galana]

"Oh, the Zebra Dove is just awesome. What an interesting-looking bird."

I wholeheartedly agree. What a great bird! Almost enough to get me on a plane to Mauritius.

[Atdahl]

@@Tdgraves, fantastic Dove shots. They are easy to overlook birds (Pigeons too for that matter) but some of them simply look fantastic.

[Tdgraves]

Mauritius, 6/6/16

Canon 7D mark II, 100-400 mark II, ISO 800, f 6.3, 1/200

 

 

127) Red fody (female) - the male is much more impressive.....

[Tdgraves]

Mauritius, 6/6/16

Canon 7D mark II, 100-400 mark II, ISO 500, f 6.3, 1/320-800

Canon 7D mark II, 100-400 mark II, ISO 800, f 6.3, 1/800

9/6/16

Canon 7D mark II, 100-400 mark II, ISO 1000, f 7.1, 1/800

128) Village weaver

[Tdgraves]

Mauritius, 6/6/16

Canon 7D mark II, 100-400 mark II, ISO 800, f 6.3, 1/160

 

 

9/9/16

 

Canon 7D mark II, 100-400 mark II, ISO 640, f 7.1, 1/2000

 

 

129) Nutmeg mannikin (or scaly-breasted munia)

[Tdgraves]

This has to be the coolest new bird of the year so far....

 

Around the hotel, Mauritius, 7/6/16

 

Canon 7D mark II, 100-400 mark II, ISO 500, f 7.1, 1/2000

 

 

Canon 7D mark II, 100-400 mark II, ISO 500, f 7.1, 1/100

 

 

Canon 7D mark II, 100-400 mark II, ISO 500, f 7.1, 1/640

 

 

 

Botanical gardens, 9/6/16

 

Canon 7D mark II, 100-400 mark II, ISO 1000, f 7.1, 1/1000

 

 

11/6/16

 

Canon 7D mark II, 100-400 mark II, ISO 500, f 7.1, 1/320

 

 

130) Red-whiskered bulbul

Edited June 29, 2016 by Tdgraves

[Tdgraves]

Botanical gardens, Mauritius, 9/6/16

 

Canon 7D mark II, 100-400 mark II, ISO 640, f 7.1, 1/200

 

 

131) House crow

[Tdgraves]

This one caused some consternation in ID as its' name is not really reflected in what it looks like. It was also pretty difficult to photograph, as it did not stop moving

 

Botanical gardens, Mauritius, 9/6/16

 

Canon 7D mark II, 100-400 mark II, ISO 1250, f 7.1, 1/200

 

 

Canon 7D mark II, 100-400 mark II, ISO 2500, f 7.1, 1/160

 

 

Canon 7D mark II, 100-400 mark II, ISO 5000, f 7.1, 1/200

 

 

Canon 7D mark II, 100-400 mark II, ISO 5000, f 7.1, 1/250

 

 

132) Mauritius grey white-eye (an endemic)

[michael-ibk]

That´s definitely the most attractive Bulbul I have ever seen.

[Tdgraves]

So 9 new species photographed, not bad for a beach holiday.

We also saw a white-tailed tropicbird and a mascarene swiftlet, but no camera was available at the time....

 

I assumed we would see sea birds, but that was not the case

[Tdgraves]

And so on to the not new birds from Mauritius....

 

I was really pleased to find this on the hotel lawn and even more pleased that I found them again the next day when I actually had a camera, as we saw them last year but I think I deleted the far away proof shot, so they did not make it to the big year 2015

 

Around the hotel, Mauritius, 11/6/16

 

Canon 7D mark II, 100-400 mark II, ISO 250, f 7.1, 1/1000

 

 

 

 

133) Common waxbill