India 2

Our Classic Himalayas tour (15th - 27th March 2015) is a guaranteed departure. Visiting Corbett, Pangot, Sat Tal and finishing up at Okhla Barrage we have 10 days to find Cheer Pheasant, Ibisbill, Wallcreeper, Tawny Fish Owl, Scaly-breasted & Himalayan Woodpeckers, Long-billed Thrush, Rufous-chinned Laughingthrush, Nepal Wren-babbler, Black-headed Jay and Pink-browed Rosefinch amongst others - phew..!!

As Corbett is a Tiger Reserve you have to go birding in jeeps

Corbett

A view across the grasslands at Corbett

Looking for bush-warblers at Corbett..!!

The weather is usually very good at this time of year

Oh yes, there are Tigers here....

This is the view from the lodge at Dhikala

More Corbett scenery

Up at Pangot the scenery gets even better

The Himalayan foothills - some great birds here...

One of the specialities of the area - Black-headed Jay

Lammergeier and Himalayan Griffon

We'll also do a dawn Elephant ride at Corbett....

India 1

Still places left on our India 1 tour 6th - 17th March visiting the Chambal River, Bharatpur, Taj Mahal, Ranthambhore & Sultanpur. Key birds include Indian Skimmer, Painted Sandgrouse, Painted Spurfowl, Marshall's Iora, Smoky and Sulphur-bellied Warblers and Sind Sparrow amongst others. Oh and always a chance of Bengal Tiger and a bunch of other great mammals as well.

Here's a small selection of photos form our last tours, but you can see more on my Flickr page at https://www.flickr.com/photos/94771517@N07/sets/72157636143209035/

Bay-backed Shrike

Black-bellied Tern

Brahminy Starling

Bronze-winged Jacana

Bund Baretha - great habitat

The Chambal River

Dalmatian Pelican

One of the major birds is Indian Skimmer

Looking for skimmers

White-throated Kingfisher

There's even a bit of culture on this tour

Tickell's Thrush

We'll look for Tiger at Ranthambhore

More Sulawesi & Halmahera Pics....

Ok well back to my last tour and we had a great time with nightbirds, getting great views of several Sulawesi Scops-owls, some day roosting Great-eared Nightjars and this incredibly co-operative Moluccan Scops-owl...

Moluccan Scops-owl

Sulawesi ~scops-owl

Great-Eared Nightjar

Another great evening excursion was for this Moluccan Scrubfowl that had flown down onto a secluded beach to lay its eggs in northern Halmahera. Worth the 5 hour drive (i think)....!

Moluccan Scrubfowl

And finally,  we connected with this Maleo at Tambun in northern Sulawesi on our second visit to its breeding site. 

Maleo

Colombia 14th Feb - 1st March 2015

Still places left on our exciting adventure in Colombia next year with Diego Calderon. For the full itinerary please go to: http://www.zootherabirding.com/page_2534521.html

We've already made several visits to this bird rich country and by having exclusive use of Diego (Colombia's No 1 bird guide) , we really are in safe hands and guaranteed a great tour. 

Here's just a few of the great birds on offer - all photos taken by Steve Bird: 

Chestnut-naped Antpitta

Antioquia Wren

Black-chested Jay

Chestnut Piculet

Dwarf Cuckoo

Glowing Puffleg

Red-bellied Grackle

Sulawesi & Halmahera Highlights

Have recently returned from an exciting tour to Sulawesi & Halmahera and unfortunately during our 3 weeks there things such as wifi were hard to find! So instead of a full blown diary I will post some of the best photos from the trip. The following pics are of some of the group's favourite birds and probably most people's No 1 (including me) would have been the stunning Ivory-breasted Pitta from Halmahera.

Ivory-breasted Pitta

Lompobattang Flycatcher isn't bad either and as far as I know, my group were the only ones to go for it this year. It is one of the rarest Sulawesi endemics and only known from the Lompobattang Hills....

Lompobattang Flycatcher

Following the recent splitting of Red-bellied Pitta into 16 species, the bird below is now called Sulawesi Pitta. We had stunning views of this individual at Tangkoko in northern Sulawesi...

Sulawesi Pitta

And you can't get much better than this Wallace's Standardwing at a lek on Halmahera. Instead of the monster 3 hour pre-dawn hike i've had to do twice in the past few years, to get to this lek involved only a 10 minute walk from where our vehicles were parked. Lovely!

Wallace's Standardwing

Wallace's Standardwing

Avis Dam - The End

Before breakfast we paid a visit to Avis Dam on the outskirts of Windhoek and managed to pick up a few new trip birds: Great White Egret, Cinnamon-breasted Bunting and Red-billed Firefinch. 

Cinnamon-breasted Bunting

We also had views of White-breasted Cormorant, Great White Pelican, Hammerkop, 2 Pearl-spotted Owlets, Black-faced, Common and Violet-eared Waxbills, Green-winged Pytilia, Acacia Pied Barbet, Crimson-breasted Shrike, Familiar Chat and White-backed Mousebird. 

Violet-eared Waxbill - a particular favourite of mine

Black-faced Waxbill

But all too soon it was time to leave and head back to the hotel, have breakfast, load the luggage and set off to the airport where we said our goodbyes to my good friend Charly. He had been a phenomenal guide, had looked after us extremely well and is about as good a guide as I have had the fortune to meet over the years. I look forward to many, many tours over the coming years with him. Thanks Charly

Waterberg - Windhoek

Well you cant get much better than a party of Violet Wood-Hoopoes being the first birds you see outside your front door and that’s exactly what happened top us this morning. There were at least 9 birds foraging amongst the acacia trees and flying aver our cabins on several occasions, giving great views. 

Really enjoyed these views of Violet Wood-hoopoe outside our cabins this morning 

So after breakfast we packed up and drove down to the reception, where a Golden-tailed Woodpecker showed nicely, and there were some more Rosy-faced Lovebirds flying over as well. Driving back towards the main road we connected with a few Crested Francolins, one of which ran across the road and stayed out in the open for a while. 

Then we hit a purple patch with a bunch of raptors showing nicely above an escarpment with White-backed and Lappet-faced Vultures, African Hawk-eagle, Brown Snake-eagle, Booted Eagle and a superb Verreaux’s Eagle as well.

This Verreaux's Eagle flew right over us - wow!

After lunch in our hotel in Windhoek we visited the local sewage pools where several Hottentot Teal, African Darter, Lesser Swamp and both African Reed Warblers were the highlights. We also enjoyed scope views of Red-knobbed Coot, African Swamphen, Cape Shoveler, Three-banded Plover and others before returning for our last dinner together.

Etosha to Waterberg Plateau

We had to say goodbye to Etosha, but not before one quick check of the Klein Namutoni waterhole as we still needed Southern Red-billed Hornbill. Sure enough we nailed the hornbill and also saw a Red-crested Korhaan and our last Giraffes and Oryx as well before heading out of the park. Another quick stop produced Black-faced Babbler and White-browed Scrub-robin before we drove to Otjikoto Lake where the only real bird of note was Black-backed Puffback. Next up was Otjiwarongo sewage pools where we saw Black Crake, African Swamphen, Reed Cormorant, Black-crowned Night-Heron, African Jacana and Lesser Swamp Warbler before heading to lunch.

Rosy-faced Lovebird was very easy to find at Waterberg Plateau Park

Another 90kms drive saw us at Waterberg Plateau Park and along the approach road we passed several Swainson’s Spurfowl and many Red-billed Spurfowl. At the campsite flocks of Rosy-faced Lovebirds were perching on the treetops in the late afternoon sunshine, making for a lovely picture against the deep blue sky. There were also some Burchell’s Starlings and a pair of African Grey Hornbills present as well. We then drove up to our cabins below the picturesque escarpment, seeing a Ruppell’s Parrot beside the road, and enjoyed a little time to relax before dinner.

Namutoni Safari

Began the day with an out-of-range Yellow-bellied Greenbul in the gardens showing nicely in the early morning sunshine, whilst a few Black-backed Puffbacks in the same tree were also new and there was also a couple of Red-billed Buffalo-Weavers. A nice way to start the day. 

This Yellow-bellied Greenbul should have been along the Caprivi Strip, far to the north....

Then we set off on our morning safari, driving along Fischer’s Pan and boy it was chilly! Before the day warmed up we had good views of a pair of Red-necked Falcons, Black-shouldered Kite, Secretarybirds, Black-chested Snake-eagle and a pair of Gabar Goshawks perched in an acacia, one of which was a melanistic bird. 

Gabar Goshawks

We continued along the edge of a huge wide-open plain and then into more typical ‘bush country’ until we reached a small waterhole where a few Burchell’s Sandgrouse were coming in to drink. 

Burchell's Sandgrouse is one of the star birds of Etosha

One male was very obliging as he sat in the water gathering moisture on his belly feathers to take to his chicks somewhere out in the vast expanse of Etosha.

Continuing on we had a close flyover from a stunningly superb Bateleur that circled right above us several times, and then later a Martial Eagle was seen in flight, although the close views of a fine adult perched on top of a bush later on were much better. A White-headed Vulture was also seen a couple of times and is a rather scarce bird here, and we also saw Rufous-crowned Roller, Red-billed Quelea, Long-tailed Paradise-Whydah, our only Red-breasted Swallow of the tour, Long-billed Crombec, and both Desert and Rattling Cisticolas.

Bateleur

Undoubtedly the highlight of the day was at the last waterhole we checked as there were two separate herds of African Elephants present, with numbers estimated at around 100+ animals. They came quite close to us and were maybe just 10 metres away at one stage, with some very close behind us which made me a little nervous. But they seemed quite calm and we enjoyed watching them for a good half an hour as they sprayed water over themselves, and several very small youngsters were revelling in the mud and water, rolling around and scraping their very small trunks in the dirt. They seemed to be having a lot of fun and again, it was a privilege to share this little insight into these highly gregarious animals lives.

African Elephants gave outstanding close views this morning

In the afternoon we spent some time at a couple waterholes, and it was really nice just to enjoy the animals coming and going. Again we had Giraffes, Elephants, Greater Kudu and others drinking, whilst Kittlitz’s and Three-banded Plovers skittered along the water’s edge. 

There's always plenty of action around the waterholes. This Kori Bustard seemed to be on territory here....

Another waterhole....

We drove the Dik-Dik Trail but it was quiet apart from some Damara Dik-Dik’s, a few Green-winged Pytilia’s, and a pair of Pearl-spotted Owlets in a tree. 

Damara Dik-Dik

We reached Namutoni Fort just as the sun was setting and as I am writing this diary I can hear Black-backed Jackals howling and a Lion roaring. That’s Africa!

An Etosha Sunset

The evening session at the waterhole produced a South African Porcupine, Small Spotted Genet and a Verreaux’s Eagle-owl.