birding never sleeps: ETHIOPIA 16 February 2011: drive to Dinsho and Goba

Wednesday 16 February. We left the hotel as it was getting light and drove towards the Bale Mountains. Our first stop was at Kofele Tarn where we saw our first 2 Rouget’s Rails and Black-headed Siskin. Next stop was near a road construction site where we were taken partway down a small ravine and shown a partly obscured roosting Cape Eagle Owl. We continued on to the HQ of the Bale Mountains NP at Dinsho where we spent the next six hours, initially being guided to see an Abyssinian Long-eared and 2 African Wood Owls. Three species of roosting owl in a day was more than I manage on most trips! Merid and co left us at Dinsho to check another site nearby, which proved not to be particularly productive, and check accommodation options as it was felt best to continue on to Goba if possible. While this was happening we continued birding in the forest patches around the HQ where 8 Chestnut-naped Francolins, White-backed Black Tit and Abyssinian Catbird were amongst the highlights. We then left Dinsho, had a quick but unproductive stop at a river and arrived at the Wabe Shebelle Hotel in Goba. Like most ‘upmarket’ hotels we visited it seemed to be well past its prime, particularly on the catering front. Other birds seen included 3 Blue-winged Goose, 7 Wattled Ibis, Lammergeyer, Lappet-faced Vulture, African Snipe, 50 White-collared Pigeons, 25 Red-billed Chough, 8 Thick-billed Ravens, 2 Groundscraper Thrushes, Black-breasted Stonechat, 10 Red-breasted and 4 Pied Wheatears, 4 Moorland Chats and 2 Abyssinian Longclaws.