Yabello, Bushcrows and Phaffing

A few Red-winged Starlings accompanied us for breakfast at the Yabello Motel this morning before we set off to a special site where we enjoyed point-blank views of the much-wanted endemic White-tailed Swallow. A pair were nesting in a small hut in a village, and once again we provided a vast amount of amusement to the local villagers - but the crippling views of the swallow were amazing. 

White-tailed Swallow

But we did get distracted by very close views of Grey-capped Social Weavers, D’Arnaud’s Barbet, Boran Cisticola, Vitelline Masked weaver, and Chestnut Sparrow.

D'Arnaud's Barbet

We then phaffed around visiting a lake which I found a little frustrating, but there was a Pink-backed Pelican, African Spoonbill, Woolly-necked Stork, Red-billed Teal, and our first Shikra, Lesser Masked Weaver and Bare-faced Go-Away-Bird – but come on there’s better birds to find.

Driving to the Yabello Wildlife Sanctuary gave us a group of endemic Stresemann’s Bushcrows, so we jumped out and had nice views for half an hour. I was really pleased to get such nice views and it was nice to be able to watch them for quite some time.

Stresemann's Bushcrow

In the reserve we only spent a short time but managed to find a flock of European Bee-eaters, Banded Parisoma, Ashy Cisticola, Whinchat, Vitelline and Speke’s Weavers, Purple Grenadier and best of all, a fine Buff-crested Bustard – but we’d some plenty of the latter species in a few days.

Somali Bunting

After lunch we drove south out of Yabello to an arid, bushy area and spent a wonderful couple of hours before heavy rain came in later in the afternoon. Shame we didn’t get here earlier, but the list of birds we came up with made the visit eminently worthwhile. First up was a fine Black-throated Barbet singing from the top of an acacia. Then a flurry of activity around a big tree turned into several Purple Grenadiers, Black-capped Social Weavers, Somali Bunting, Grey Wren-Warbler and Yellow-breasted Apalis. A male Pygmy Falcon was then scoped on a distant tree top. A furtive movement in a dense area of bushes turned out to be a Spotted Palm-Thrush, a group of Mottled Swifts flew over, and we also saw White-bellied Canary and Northern Grosbeak Canary as well. 

Northern Grosbeak Canary

We spent much of our time searching for Red-naped Bush-Shrike which initially proved elusive, near-invisible and downright skulky, but eventually we had pretty decent views of several birds in the vicinity. 

Red-naped Bush-shrike

More new birds followed with a group of African Yellow White-eyes feeding on some red flowers, a singing Red-fronted Warbler, Masked Shrike and best of all, a pair of Heuglin’s Coursers found by Lee hiding in the shade of some dense bushes. What stunning birds they are! With really dark clouds rapidly approaching we made a hasty retreat back to the car (yes we ran) and arrived just in time before a heavy rainstorm, seeing more White-tailed Swallows and a couple of African Orange-bellied Parrots fly across the road.

Heuglin's Courser

We then drove along a dirt road and tried a spot of owling which resulted in a Verreaux’s Eagle-Owl being spotlighted alongside the road and an obliging African Scops-Owl being found. 

Driving to Yabello

There are a number of long drives on any Ethiopia tour and today was no exception, but there are always lots and lots of birds to see with Yellow-necked Spurfowl and Eastern Chanting Goshawk being the first new birds of the day. So we left Negelle shortly after 5am and headed out on the bumpy dirt road towards Yabello, and after about an hour as we drove through acacia woodland saw a pair of African Golden Orioles fly over the road. So we stopped and spent a little while in the area and it was jumping, with a pair of Black-headed Orioles, Yellow-spotted Petronia, African Grey Hornbill, Nubian Woodpecker, Lilac-breasted Roller and a cracking pair of Grey-headed Bush-shrikes present. Continuing on we stopped at the edge of a small village when a Striped Kingfisher was seen, and also saw a Diederik Cuckoo, and some Shelley’s Starlings. 

Diederik Cuckoo

Birds kept on coming throughout the long drive and next up and possibly bird of the day was a Black-chested Snake-Eagle that flew over the road – a much-wanted bird indeed. A Grey Kestrel, Mouse-coloured Penduline-tit and a flock of Chestnut Weavers were seen at the next stop. Another contender for bird of the day was an Abyssinian Scimitarbill that flew across the road in front of us and turned out to be very obliging and stayed on view for over half an hour. 

Abyssinian Scimitarbill

As usual when we stop and find one bird, then others quickly follow and at the same stop a pair of Brubru were called in, a male Hunter’s Sunbird flew in to its nest and then a Cardinal Woodpecker appeared.

We kept on driving all day and the route was characterised by an extremely long, straight dirt road that kept on going all the way to the horizon. A Grey Wren-Warbler was new for us some time later, and then at a stake-out we quickly located African White-winged Dove after a heavy thunderstorm. At the same spot an immature Rufous-tailed Rock-thrush was a nice find as well.

African White-winged Dove

Rufous-tailed Rock-thrush - looking very bedraggled after a thunderstorm

We spent the early afternoon at the Dawa River not finding Juba Weaver in the hottest temperature we had experienced so far. The Acacia forest here was very quiet until we got to a certain point and then found Somali Bunting, Purple Grenadier, White-browed Scrub-robin, D’Arnaud’s Barbet, Violet-backed Sunbird, Yellow-breasted Apalis, and a Pygmy Batis. Along the river a pair of African Fish-eagles were seen, along with Pied Kingfisher, African Pied Wagtail, and overhead a Long-legged Buzzard was a surprise, as was another Black-chested Snake-eagle. Leaving here a Turkestan Shrike was perched along the roadside.

Pygmy Batis

Black-chested Snake-Eagle

Driving on, and the road kept on going on and on, we had Chestnut-bellied Sandgrouse, Golden-breasted Starlng, flocks of Vulturine Guineafowl, Pygmy Falcon, and a Grasshopper Buzzard. 

Golden-breasted Starling

Vulturine Guineafowl

Finally, we reached an open, savannah area where several Somali Ostriches were striding along in a typical African scene, Somali Fiscals were perched up, a pair of White-bellied Bustards were spotted by Lee, and a colony of Black-capped Social-Weavers were seen. 

Somali Ostrich

White-bellied Bustard

It was then that the rain came in really heavy and stayed until the end of the day so we drove another 80 kms to Yabello, where we found ourselves at a rather nice hotel – much to our surprise!

Liben Plain

This was the day we made the pilgrimage to the Liben Plain in search of the critically endangered Sidamo Lark. Another early start and a quick 50 minute drive saw us arrive on site shortly after sunrise. It was a vast open area and rather like looking for a needle in a haystack but off we set and over the next couple of hours we found lots of Somali Short-toed Larks, Plain-backed Pipit, Ethiopian Swallow, Isabelline Wheatear, Crowned Lapwing, Black-winged Lapwing, Eurasian Hobby, Lanner, Pectoral-patch Cisticola, Parrot-billed Sparrow, and 3 hulking Kori Bustards. 

Black-winged Lapwing

Crowned Lapwing

It wasn’t looking good for the ‘biggie’ until nearly back at the car and a little commotion involving some local kids who had called over our guide and Merid & Steve Rooke from the Sunbird tour and there it was! In fact a pair of Sidamo Larks were found about 30 yards away and we could grill the finer plumage features, with a scalloped back, pale crown stripe and when song-flighting, the long hind claw. What a relief and worth getting wet feet for!

Sidamo Lark

From here we drove down to a seasonally flooded lake which turned out to be choc-full of birds. We walked across some scrubland and fields for a couple of kilometres seeing Reichenow’s Seedeater, the first of many White Storks, a surprise Baltic Gull, and it was here that we became aware of the huge numbers of Lesser Kestrels present in the vicinity.

Lesser Kestrels

Around the lake 20+ Abdim’s Stork and 6 African Openbills were the highlights. Lots of waders were present with 50+ Ruff, Marsh, Wood and Green Sandpipers, Pied Avocet, Temminck’s and Little Stint, and lots of Collared Pratincoles. Overhead a huge Lappet-faced Vulture was seen, and we spent quite a while studying the Lesser Kestrels which we estimated at around 400 present in the immediate area. It was great to spend a long time watching all of the activity and actually watching birds!

Abdim's Stork and African Openbill

Abdim's Storks

We left around midday and as it was a cool, overcast day decided to skip lunch and continue birding at a nearby acacia forest. A good move as we found Great Spotted and Eurasian Cuckoos, Red-backed Shrike, a flock of Grey-capped Social Weavers, Northern White-crowned Shrike, Gabar Goshawk, and several Yellow-bellied Eremomela. More Reichenow’s Seedeaters were seen when we stopped to look at an Ethiopian Swallow perched on telegraph wires, and another Kori Bustard was seen en-route as well.

Kori Bustard

At another acacia forest we notched up Nubian Woodpecker, Marico Sunbird, Rufous Chatterer, Orange-breasted Bush-shrike, Scaly Francolin, Isabelline Shrike and our only African Wattled Lapwings of the tour before the rain came in around 4pm and we got absolutely drenched. What a day!

Travelling to Negelle

We set out on the long drive to Negelle at 5.30am and headed over the Sanetti Plateau seeing plenty of previously seen species, including more beautiful Spot-breasted Plovers. As the road began to descend towards the Harenna Forest we quickly picked up Bale Parisoma (possibly a split from Brown Parisoma) and Cinnamon Bracken Warbler.

 

Bale Parisoma

In the forest we had our first real rain of the tour and this hampered our birding on and off all day. But we did pick up Black-and-white Mannikin, Yellow-bellied Waxbill, Grey Cuckooshrike, Spectacled and a surprising Speke’s Weaver, and best of all an Abyssinian Crimsonwing. 

Vitelline Masked Weaver

The road was quite bad as we left the forest but improved somewhat as we drove out into the drier Acacia forest and at our picnic lunch spot we found Black-billed Barbet and some distant Chestnut Weavers. We drove on and a random stop to stretch our legs turned out to be pretty good with several Vitelline Masked Weavers feeding in a nearby tree, several Shelley’s Starlings, a group of White-headed Buffalo-weavers, Red-fronted Barbet, Red-and-yellow Barbet, Eastern Paradise Whydah, Straw-tailed Whydah, Slate-coloured Boubou, Red-billed Quelea and a flyover Bateleur. Wow!

Eastern Paradise-Whydah

Shelley's Starling

Straw-tailed Paradise-Whydah

Our ultimate goal was to find Prince Ruspoli’s Turaco and at the first site we tried, a pair were found quite quickly, along with a Levaillant’s Cuckoo. But at the second site we had mind-blowing views of this bird feeding along a hedge….

Levaillant's Cuckoo

Prince Ruspoli's Turaco

Prince Ruspoli's Turaco

There were also several Bruce’s Green-pigeons feeding in a large fig tree, along with a pair of Double-toothed Barbets, and a Northern Black Flycatcher certainly wasn’t ‘bird of the day’. We still had an hours drive to get to Negelle and finally arrived around 7pm. We stayed in a new hotel which was really quite nice and contrary to what we had heard back in the UK.