Up at 6.30am for a nice hot coffee, interrupted by an Uluguru Bushshrike calling at 6:50am and we raced off down the trail in search of this very rare beast and our main reason for coming up here. However, despite hearing it from several different areas we failed to catch a glimpse of it and it would take another 9 hours before we eventually nailed it. So we returned to camp for breakfast and then spent the rest of the day walking the trails either side of camp, which couldn’t have been more than around 400m either way! We quickly had nice views of several Loveridge’s Sunbirds in an open area, followed by a Sharpe’s Akalat – here with the white supercilium as opposed to the grey supercilium type we had seen at Amani Reserve in the East Usambaras.
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| Loveridge's Sunbird |
Perseverance, tenacity and a great deal of patience were required throughout the day but we plugged away and were rewarded with a nice close Chapin’s Apalis, brief Livingstone’s Turaco (but we’d see that one better elsewhere), a pair of Dark Batis, Tambourine Dove, Green Barbet, Fulleborn’s Boubou, African Tailorbird (Red-capped Forest Warbler), Shelley’s and Stripe-faced Greenbuls, Yellow-throated Woodland Warbler, and both Forest and Usambara Weavers.
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| Dark Batis |
Finally after brief views high in the treetops, we had a White-winged Apalis at head height in a dense area of secondary growth and we were very pleased to get this rare bird as it was our only chance as they are much easier after a really tough hike in the Udzungwa Mountains – an opportunity we decided to pass on!!! So we kept walking, listening, and walked more until an Uluguru Bushshrike started to call again around 3pm. It wasn’t easy to get on, in fact a pair were damn elusive and circled us a few times before everyone had reasonably tickable views, but they were lower than mid-canopy but always hidden in the foliage.
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| Uluguru Bushshrike.... Honest! |
Yet we had nailed it. Oh yes! After this, Peter and I went for Spot-throat along the stream and managed brief views much to Peter’s delight, whilst the rest of the crew headed further along the trail and found an Evergreen Forest Warbler.
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| Our camp |
So by 5.30pm we returned to camp and celebrated our Bushshrike success with some beer and another great meal.
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