By the time you get this, Anne and I should be in a plane or an airport somewhere on our way home, and I might see something interesting out on the tarmac, but just in case, here are a few more critters from the Azraq Wetland Reserve.
I’ve been seeing gray herons since Aqaba, but they’ve been super shy or just too far away. This one, however, must have been quite hungry because it let me sneak this picture.
Here’s another look at the blue-cheeked bee-eater as it gobbles down what could well be that beautiful violet dropwing dragonfly I already showed you.
Here’s that white-eared bulbul again and reassuring me that both of its “ears” are white.
For comparison, here’s a white-spectacled bulbul at the citadel in Amman gobbling down what might be a seed out of one of those cones.
This next picture ain’t great, but it does show the best glimpse I got of our very first white-throated kingfisher (Halcyon smyrnensis). I wish I could blame this one on WordPress’s rendering, and if you do click on the image so you can zoom in on the original, you’ll see it’s not much better, but you can make out the namesake white throat just below the enormous rusty bill.
For those of you trying to keep track at home, I think that makes the 28th new species we’ve seen this trip. There are also another 9 that I was able to ID but not photograph well enough to show you, and now you know my bar is pretty low.
Finally, the violet dropwing was not the only dragonfly perching in the sun, and here’s a northern banded groundling (Brachythemis impartita), in case you don’t go in much for those gaudy colors.
Lastly, there are supposed to be mammals at the reserve, as well, including some water buffalo, which are reported to have been brought by Chechen immigrants in the early 1800s, but I only had about an hour and a half during mid-day to enjoy the reserve, so who knows where they were hiding.
Signs of Life in Estabrook Park 