What will almost certainly be a quiet little year - Soukous 2019

[Dave Williams]

Poor contenders for EBC of the Year I'm afraid but the Finfoot would rank high up my wish list. Never seen an adult, just a juvenile which looked similar to yours.

[Peter Connan]

Both of those "EBC's" aren't. And for those, even proper EBC's would still be great.

[Soukous]

13 hours ago, Peter Connan said:

Both of those "EBC's" aren't. And for those, even proper EBC's would still be great.

 

with guys like you and @Dave Williams and @xelas and @PeterHG in the game I reckon they count as ebc's. The bar is set pretty high.

[Soukous]

#156 -Cattle Egret - bubulcus ibis

Zambezi NP, Zimbabae. May 2019

 

 

[Soukous]

#157 - African Yellow White-eye - Zosterops senegalensis

Zambezi NP, Zimbabwe. May 2019

 

 

 

[Soukous]

#158 - Spectacled Weaver - Ploceus ocularis

Zambezi NP, Zimbabwe. May 2019.

 

 

[Soukous]

#159 - Grey-headed Parrot - Poicephalus fusicollis

Zambezi NP, Zimbabwe. May 2019

 

We had a lot of interesting discussion about this sighting.

We first saw the bird in flight and our guide called it as a Meyer's Parrot. I immediately told him he was wrong (a very unusual occurrence for me to be confident enough to argue with a guide).

Based on the illustrations in the Roberts guide, in particular the pink/orange forehead, I said i thought it was a Cape Parrot. The guide reluctantly said it could be as he had seen them in the area.

But, when we got back to camp and looked more carefully at the description of the Grey-headed Parrot we could see that the female of this species also has a salmon pink forehead. And is fits the distribution map.

 

 

 

[Soukous]

#160 - Brown-hooded Kingfisher - Halcyon albiventris

Zambezi NP, Zimbabwe. May 2019

 

 

[Soukous]

Birding in Goa - November 2020

 

I've floated the idea of a Safaritalk birding expedition to Goa in November 2020. 

It could be a great way to give your Big Year a lift with some new species.

[Soukous]

#161 - African Darter - Anhinga rufa

Zambezi NP, Zimbabwe. May 2019

 

 

[Soukous]

#162 - White-backed Vulture - Gyps africanus

Zambezi NP, Zimbabwe. May 2019

 

 

[Soukous]

#163 - Reed Cormorant - Phalancrocorax africanus

Zambezi NP, Zimbabwe. May 2019

 

 

 

[Soukous]

#164 - Hamerkop - Scopus umbretta

Zambezi NP, Zimbabwe. May 2019

 

 

 

 

[Soukous]

#165 - Trumpeter Hornbill - Bycanistes bucanitor

Zambezi NP, Zimbabwe. May 2019

 

Easy to hear and identify by their 'crying baby' like call. But not so easy to get close to.

 

 

 

 

[Peter Connan]

Beautiful shots of the Trumpeter Hornbill!

[Galana]

Back out of the blackhole of IFFY Wiffy with abject apologies re Silverbills and congrats on 150+

Still without a Guide book so no more comments from me til I get home other than maybe take a closer look to one of your alleged double posts for RB Quelea. The tick may be good for a 2nd species.

And those EBCs don't even come close.

Back soon.

[TonyQ]

That Trumpeter Hornbill is a very impressive bird

Lovely photos 

[Soukous]

15 hours ago, Galana said:

Back out of the blackhole of IFFY Wiffy with abject apologies re Silverbills and congrats on 150+

Still without a Guide book so no more comments from me til I get home other than maybe take a closer look to one of your alleged double posts for RB Quelea. The tick may be good for a 2nd species.

And those EBCs don't even come close.

Back soon.

 

Welcome back. @Galana I trust that your peregrinations were fruitful.

I take your point about post #127 and am now thinking it is a non-breeding Village Indigobird. Although I don't understand how that fits your cryptic clue which means I am probably wrong. 

[Galana]

No cryptic clue was intended. I think you are on the right lines with Indigo type bird but we need to check the book. Thanks, I have had fun on my trip which ends tomorrow but a lifer this pm was a nice ending and unexpected.

[Soukous]

#166 - Green-backed heron - Butorides striata

Zambezi NP, Zimbabwe. May 2019

 

 

 

[Soukous]

#167 - Red-faced Mousebird - Urocolius indicus

Zambezi NP. Zimbabwe. May 2019

 

 

 

[Soukous]

#168 - White-browed Scrub Robin - Cercotrichas leucophrys

Zambezi NP, Zimbabwe. May 2019

 

 

 

[Soukous]

#169 - African Fish Eagle - Haliaeetus vocifer

Zambezi Np, Zimbabwe. May 2019

 

Surprisingly, we did not even hear a Fish Eagle while we were in Hwange NP, and this scruffy looking immature one was the only one we w=saw in Zambezi NP.

 

 

 

[Soukous]

# 170 - Striped Kingfisher - Halcyon chelicuti

Zambezi NP, Zimbabwe. May 2019.

 

 

Another dreadful shot taken in poor light and de-noised to the point where little detail remains. BUT, it does bring me to 170, and is the last of my posts from the May trip in Zimbabwe.

 

I shall now go into standby mode. 

I did try to get some pix of the avocets that are currently on the tidal flats a few miles away, but they don't seem to like me very much and flew away before I got anywhere near them. . If it ever stops raining I may have another go.

[xelas]

170 is a decent count, @Soukous!

 

As for de-noise, there is a (thin) line between the appeal of the noise and the "appeal" of the denoising results. I prefer the noise. Remember the old days films with ISO1600 ?! Sandpaper quality noise they have .

Edited June 19, 2019 by xelas