ETHIOPIA 23 February 2011: Ngele to Yabello

Wednesday 23 February. We left the hotel before dawn but fortuitously before reaching Liben Robel realised that he had left his phone in the hotel giving us the opportunity while he returned for it to bird a drainage area known for Ruspoli’s Turacos as it was getting light. This proved to be excellent with a pair performing very well as the light slowly improved although they were hard to leave when Robel and our vehicle returned. We quickly continued on to the Melka Ghuba River crossing were we had a prolonged breakfast/birding stop. The hoped for male Juba Weaver didn’t materialise and again we had to be satisfied with female plumaged birds. We made several stops on the Wachile-Soda road seeing our first Stresemann’s Bush Crows at the last one. We finished on the Sariti Plains, where 2 White-tailed Swallows were seen and more Bush Crows took my total to 13, before continuing on to the Yabello Motel. Other birds seen included Kori Bustard, Mottled Swift, 20 Blue-naped Mousebirds, 3 Pigmy Batis, Somali Fiscal, Eastern Olivaceous Warbler and Spotted Palm Thrush.

 

Ruspoli's Turacos

Speke's Weaver

Pigmy Batis

Von Der Decken's Hornbill

Ian, Dave S, Mick & Merid off road south of Bulbul

driving south-west

Black-capped Social-Weaver

Rattling Cisticola

RJF north of Soda

Stresemann's Bush Crows