Dinner with a couple of birders and the final effort

Jenny and I are in Dar now for our last day in Tanzania.  Last night we had dinner with Neil Baker of the Tanzanian Bird Atlas project and Tony Evans, another British birder living in Dar for a while.  Tony had been to Minziro a couple of years ago and showed us some of his mystery bird photos from the forest.  We were able to sort out a few but some will remain mysteries I guess.  Jenny, of course, thought we were all mad.

This morning (0500!) Tony picked me up and we headed for the Pugu Hills to the south east of Dar.  This is a degraded patch of forest that still holds some great birds.  We arrived before dawn and had Fiery-necked Nightjars and Bushbabies calling.  As the light improved the birds woke up and began to call but rarely showed themselves.  A pair of Black Sparrowhawks (tick!) have an active nest and we had several nice views of the birds coming and going.  Not sure what they are up to but probably incubating.  Other new birds for me were Trumpeter Hornbill, Little Yellow Flycatcher and Red-throated Twinspot.  We had good views of male and female Black Cuckooshrikes, Crowned Hornbills, Dark-backed Weavers and Collared Sunbirds.

Black Sparrowhawk

Crowned Hornbills

On the way home we stopped on the coast in Dar and scanned the exposed reefs.  Eight Greater Flamingos were a good find and we saw a Grey Heron and a Dimorphic Egret.

Dar es Salaam, 30 June 2011