I’ve got some time at the airport in Lilongwe with good connectivity and power, so let me show you a little more from Malawi in case conditions are not so good when we arrive in Comoros.
For a break from all the birds, here’s a vervet monkey from my visit to the Lilongwe Wildlife Centre yesterday. It was one of a large troupe monkeying around along the Namanthanga River.
Anne and I arrived in the tiny island nation of Comoros in the Indian Ocean this afternoon, and things got off to an interesting start. The jet parked right in front of the shiny new terminal building, we exited out onto the tarmac, we were instructed to hike instead to the old terminal building a few hundred yards to the south, and then skies opened up. Anne and I did our best to hustle with our luggage, but we were both pretty soaked as we went through passport control and immigration. At least I kept my camera bag dry. Ha!
But the show must go on, and so we took a taxi to the hotel Anne picked out for us, we checked in, we stepped out the back to check out the ocean view, and I saw the weirdest looking bird flap lazily by. The body looked at least as big as a Cooper’s hawk and almost as big as a red-tailed hawk. It was the most incongruous sight.
I said to Anne, “that looks like a giant bat!”
Sure enough, we didn’t have to wait long before we saw a couple perch in a nearby tree so we could get a better look.
As it got closer to sunset, they became more and more plentiful, and we estimated that there were as many as a couple dozen flying or perching over the grounds around the hotel. I read that they can weigh “approximately 600g, and can have a wingspan of up to 1.1m long.”
Finally, to wrap up on a more traditional note, Anne also spotted this stunner, a red fody (Foudia madagascariensis), just hanging out on a palm frond about 20 feet away. The light was getting pretty low by then, so the image is real grainy and the red runs together, but I think you get the idea. Comoros is amazing!
Sorry about skipping another day, but there was a lot going on yesterday, and I never had a good time with both connectivity and power. I did see more great birds, however, and I’ll be able to show them to you eventually. Today, Anne and I are flying to Comoros for the next phase of our trip, and here’s a darling black-and-white mannikin (Spermestes bicolor) to keep you company until I can post again. We saw bronze mannikins when we were here last October, but this is my first black-and-white.
For comparison, here’s another bronze from the same location.
Connectivity continues to be sporadic, partly due to the nature of the trip of Anne’s that I’ve piggybacked onto, but I continue to see new birds, and I’ll get to show them all to you eventually.
In the meantime, here’s a pair of little cuties to keep you going, and these are called cut-throats (Amadina fasciata). Yes, that’s their real name, click the link if you don’t believe me. We spotted them at the edge of Lake Malawi, and they would occasionally take a peck at each other as they perched on that branch and preened.
Sorry about the radio silence. I thought I would have connectivity, but that hasn’t really turned out the be the case. Anyway, I have been seeing a lot of incredible birds, many of which are completely new to me, and here’s one of them a red-billed firefinch (Lagonosticta senegala).
That’s all I have the bandwidth to show you now, unfortunately, but I’ll have a lot more for you eventually.
Anne and I arrived safely in Malawi and are now finishing up a wonderful dinner with her colleagues in Lilongwe. I even got to see some birds this afternoon, but I’ve gotta make a quick post because of limited bandwidth.
I was thrilled to get another look at the amazing variable sunbird. There were a pair flitting back and forth between a powerline and a tree in the yard. Here’s the male:
And here’s the female:
Finally, I believe this is a new bird for me, a spotted flycatcher. It winters down here, in southern Africa, and will probably soon fly to Europe for breeding season.
Tomorrow, we all drive to the Nkotakhata Wildlife Reserve to see what we can see. I’ll keep you posted.
Anne and I will be spending all day in airports and airplanes, but when we finally arrive in Malawi, I look forward to seeing another black-throated wattle-eye.
First, it has been raining steadily since it was light enough this morning to take pictures, and second, my laptop died last evening, and this loaner I’m typing on right now doesn’t have a slot for reading the chip from my camera, so I wouldn’t be able to show you any pictures from today anyway.
Thus, I need to go to the archives, and since Anne and I are leaving for Malawi again tomorrow morning, let me refresh your memory of some sights I hope to see again in the coming days. Near the top of my list must be the incredible African hoopoe.
They came up just recently in a conversation I was having with a prominent local birder as we were going to a birding trivia event, because that’s what I do now. She asked “what are they related to,” and I didn’t know so I asked Dr Google, of course. It turns out the surprising answer is “not closely to much!”
I couldn’t ask for a nicer morning in Estabrook Park, and I made it out the front door at 7:00 am CDT to celebrate. That’s my earliest start of the year, if you ignore the recent time change.
As I hiked down to the river, I found our winter wren hasn’t flown north yet.
At the pond, I finally got my first wood duck hen picture of the season. I’ve already seen one once or twice before this spring, but she’s always been awfully shy and successfully eluded my camera. She wasn’t much different today, but I finally got lucky. There was a drake with her, too, but we’ve already seen plenty of pictures of him and in much better light.
At the north end, this chipmunk was surprisingly bold and seemed quite unperturbed by me.
At the Port Washington Road bridge over the river at the far, far north end, I found a red-tailed hawk perched on a lamppost and surveying the scene on the river below.
As I hiked back up to the pond for one more look, I found this red squirrel who seemed torn between curiosity and shyness.
Finally, the first crocus to bloom in the park, that I know of, is by the pond and already attracting insects.
Our latest warm snap continues, and it was 20° warmer in Estabrook Park this morning than yesterday morning. I could hear my first killdeer of the season today, and I’m positive that it wasn’t just a starling mimicking one, for a change, but I wasn’t able to spot it yet.
Finally, the beer garden in Estabrook Park had a sign posted this morning that said they “will be open Tue 12th & Wed 13th at noon,” in case that is the sign of spring you’ve been waiting for.
Signs of Life in Estabrook Park 