Yesterday Jenny wanted to take some of her maths books up to the Missenyi District schools around Kyaka and Bunazi so we planned a visit to Minziro as well. It rained until nearly noon then we headed off into the gloom and low cloud. Many of the drivers even had their lights on!! By the time we got to Kyaka and dropped off the books the weather had cleared and there were a few sunny patches. We decided to postpone Minziro (the forest floor would be a lake at the moment) and instead went down the Karagwe road to the acacia woodland survey site I found a few months ago.
Our regular spot was very wet and muddy so we tried a different nearby area with a dry track. Everywhere we stopped there were birds - active now the rain had finally stopped. We saw 42 species in an hour or so. Three were lifers for me - Flappet Lark, Marico Sunbird and Cardinl Quelea. Other notable species were Meyer's Parrot, Bare-faced Go-away-bird, Blue-naped Mousebird, African Grey Hornbill, Greater Honeyguide, Nubian Woodpecker, Fork-tailed Drongo, Moustached Grass Warbler, Variable Sunbird, Thick-billed Weaver and Common Waxbill.
This is potentially a great spot and I really need the rain to stop so I can get in to explore the area properly. Lots of species on the Kagera list that I've been missing are probably in this drier woodland. Time is running out here for us however and today's deluge won't help.
On the way home we saw a pair of Common House Martins near Kyaka. These have rarely been recorded in Kagera and should be back in Europe by now. The most tantalising sighting of the day was an all dark, long-streamered swallow that whizzed across the highway in front of the car a few km south of Kyaka. We both called it as a probable Blue Swallow but couldn't be 100% sure. These are rare African birds. In Tanzania they breed in the far south then migrate north into Uganda about now. There have been a few sightings in grassland in Kagera near Minziro and around Bukoba.
Here are recent pics of a Western Banded Snake-Eagle near Kyaka and a Brown-backed Scrub-Robin from Katoke.
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| Western Banded Snake-Eagle |
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| Brown-backed Scrub-Robin |
Bukoba 21st May 2011
