Birds, wildlife and travel
Our last night in Zambia at the end of a stellar week. With one drive still tomorrow we have had 10 encounters with Leopards, most of them excellent. Not bad, considering we would have settled for half an inch of tail at the start of the week. It hasn’t just been Leopards, but obviously they have been the highlight.
I suppose the week could have been improved had we seen Wild Dogs, which some people saw, but you can’t have everything.
There may be a time when I become bored of looking at Leopards, but I’m confident that it won’t be in this century.
Yesterday started well, with a Leopard seen from our Bed in Three Rivers camp (other things on our bed list include Elephant, Giraffe and Greater Painted Snipe) and went on to produce an outstanding night drive with more Leopards and a failed Lion hunt.
This is a fairly random selection of pictures: it’s not too easy to select and process on an iPad with limited storage when you’re half asleep. They are rather cut down to get them through the slow wifi as well.
We’re having a week in Zambia to a) celebrate the fact that Karen has just turned 50, b) celebrate the fact that I’m still only 49 ( for 5 more weeks) and c) have another go at finding a Leopard. This is our fifth attempt, so as time goes by without a sighting, the tension is sure to mount…
… until 6:50 on our first morning, when we encountered this stunning Leopard up a tree – it gave us the full show. On then to more fun with some stunning Southern Carmine Bee-eaters. Has there ever been a more beautiful trash bird?
Some fairly low res shots here, as uploading in our lodge is a bit slow.
Weird weather yesterday, with it practically dark at three o’clock and the sky a deep yellow. These panoramas haven’t been retouched that much: it really was that weird.
Another work trip, this time to Minnesota, gave me a chance to do some birding on a glorious Sunday. Quite a lot had gone south already, but there were hundreds of American Robins and Myrtle Warblers passing through, with flocks of Cedar Waxwings and Ruby-crowned Kinglets everywhere.
A Red-bellied Woodpecker was my 4000th world species, and back at the swamp by the hotel in the evening, I came across three Eastern Bluebirds, still hanging around in the north to add another lifer.
A Sunday in Singapore before a week’s training means I get to do some birding while getting some daylight to help beat the jetlag.
Many thanks to Martin Kennewell who gave me a fantastic day out.
A nice surprise by the pond yesterday when we discovered the first Migrant Hawker for the garden.
A nice surprise this evening when a Sedge Warbler turned up in our garden pond. It’s the second we’ve had this autumn. I was able to sneak up on it and get a picture, but the pond’s a bit busy, so there was no chance of getting it unobscured, and the light had already gone, so it’s a bit noisy.
We had a bit of a warbler frenzy at that point, with a Willow Warbler, Chiffchaffs, Lesser Whitethroat and Blackcap pinging around the bushes near the house for half an hour.
A better picture of our Clifden Nonpareil, a real stunner.
An eventful weekend, with a spectacular end. We had a quick check for migrants at home on Saturday morning: two spotted Flycatchers the stars of the show, but our first Lesser Whitethroats of the autumn were good to see, and then off for what turned out to be a butterfly day. Some Queen of Spain Fritillaries at Peacehaven gave some nice views an then at Beachy Head some more common butterflies behaved well.
On Sunday, either the same two or two new Spotted Flycatchers posed together, but the year’s first Sedge Warbler hid in the pond vegetation to avoid the camera. Then off to Cuckmere to twitch the Baird’s Sandpiper that had just been found. A much-wanted British lifer bites the dust. Back home, we emptied out a truly pathetic moth trap: very few moths and nothing interesting, until our first Clifden Nonpareil opened its wings. Massive and magnificent! It’s not often an insect upstages a special bird, but the Nonpareil truly lives up to its name.
