Anne and I made it to the Rotary Park in Sparta, Illinois without any trouble, and we got to enjoy a full three minutes of totality. It was amazing, but I didn’t bother with pictures, and we just enjoyed it.

Before the big show, however, we also got to watch this Osprey fishing over the Old City Reservoir. What a great opening act.

We didn’t see it have any luck, but at least is was a very nice day for a dip.

Anne and I drove down into Illinois yesterday afternoon in hopes of finding a good location for viewing the eclipse later this afternoon. This morning, I got to go look for birds with my uncle, and we found a few, but I don’t have a lot of time this morning, so here are just a few of the highlights.

The butterflies are already out down here, and so here is a pretty red admiral, the likes of which we’ll be seeing in Estabrook Park soon enough.

A merlin flew in just for a moment.

And titmice are singing from almost every tree it seems.

This morning started out very nice in Estabrook Park, but then the clouds soon rolled in, and we’re now enjoying yet another grey day in April. Oh well. The mergansers and now all the grebes have moved on, but as happy coincidence would have it, I captured my first great blue heron image of the year. It was perched high over the northern island and didn’t stick around long, but if last year is any indication, we’ll soon be seeing plenty of them.

So, back to Africa we go. After my visit to the Lilongwe Wildlife Center, we all went to Elina & Evelyne’s Conference center for a picnic with the family of our host in Malawi. The grounds were nice, and I arrived early, so I had time to wander around and see who lived there.

Here’s my best portrait yet of a male variable sunbird, and this time at eye level with good light and a nice background.

Together with a female, they gave me the very strong impression that they were trying to chase me away from their territory.

Here’s another tawny-flanked prinia, also posing for a portrait.

And picking a fight with his reflection in that window.

Once again, there was a wall around the grounds with a cornfield on the other side, and this time it was a male yellow bishop (Euplectes capensis) protecting his territory.

There was also a male southern masked-weaver (Ploceus velatus)

and he was doing a little maintenance on his nest.

Finally, as I started to lose light, and the rest of the picnickers started to arrive, I found another pair of bulbuls cuddling up for the evening.

What a gorgeous morning we had in Estabrook Park today. With nothing to block the sun, I was able to start my visit at 6:30, which let me beat some of the rush. Plenty of birds were singing, but the first critter to pose for a picture was this red squirrel, busily munching on a nut beside the path from the river to the pond.

The pair of mergansers were gone from the pond, and the wood ducks kept to themselves, so I continued back to the river. There, plenty of brown creepers continue foraging up tree trunks, and this one let us have a nice profile look.

With the horned grebe also gone, the north end was unremarkable, so I turned back south. At the bottom down the bluff from the southern playground, I did find one of the pied-billed grebes again, and here it is.

Finally, back at the south end, I was surprised to find this goldfinch already in his summer finery. All the others I’ve seen so far this year are still wearing their drab winter coats.

Once we got back to Lilongwe, I had a chance to visit the Lilongwe Wildlife Centre while Anne and the team were busy working again. I already showed you a vervet monkey and butterfly from there, so here are the rest of the sights.

First is another Schalow’s turaco, which we already saw in Lilongwe last October, but a little more clearly this time. Man, they are shy birds.

Then a blue monarch, African blue tiger, or dappled monarch butterfly (Tirumala petiverana). I don’t know how “blue” got in the name because all the pictures I can find online show a black butterfly with white spots, just like the one pictured below.

I never saw this creature move, but there were warning signs about Nile crocodiles (Crocodylus niloticus) all along the river, and that’s what Google lens identifies it as, so that’s what I’m gonna go with. I kept my distance, but I’d estimate the exposed portion to be about the size of a man.

The reserve was mostly lush, deep forest, and I suppose most of the birds were keeping to the canopy, as was the turaco above, but that left me time to notice the many butterflies closer to the ground, and here’s a soldier pansy or soldier commodore butterfly (Junonia terea) with fancy coloration on the topside/inside and leaf-mimicking camouflage on the underside/outside.

Here are a couple more young vervet monkeys just monkeying around.

Lastly, the brown-veined white butterfly that I already showed you was not the only butterfly on the tall grass along the highway outside the wildlife centre. In fact, it was this blue pansy or dark blue pansy (Junonia oenone), in the same genus as the soldier pansy above, that convinced me to take my camera back out and put it together for one more picture.

The huge storm system, which brought us snow two mornings in a row, has finally moved on, and I can’t see a cloud in the sky right now, but it was still pretty cloudy when I visited Estabrook Park earlier this morning. Happily, there was still enough light to capture this image of our first pied-billed grebe of the season. There were two of them, in fact, but I couldn’t manage a picture of them together. The last time was saw one was back in October.

This pair of red-breasted merganser drakes on the pond, however, just needed a moment to drift into a nice tight formation for me.

When the sun finally did start to poke through the clouds, it was just in time to light up this brown creeper as it took a moment to preen itself.

It appears that the horned grebe has finally moved on, and the belted kingfisher didn’t want to show its face, so that’s all I have from Estabrook for today. There are more pictures from Malawi, however, so let me squeeze a couple more in.

Here’s one of the two African pied wagtails (Motacilla aguimp) that I saw often enough in Jelia Park that they seemed to get used to me. By the last day, I was able to get this nice portrait. We saw a mountain wagtail at Dzalanyama, a western yellow wagtail on the Ackerdijkse Plassen in South Holland, and plenty of white wagtails all over South Holland, but this is my first African pied wagtail. Here’s a nice little video of a wagtail wagging its tail, and all the ones I have seen so far do this.

On our long drive from Tongole Lodge, we passed many fields with corn or just tall grass, and we kept glimpsing dramatic red and black birds perched on the stalks, but it wasn’t until I peeked over the wall surrounding Jelia Park into the neighboring fields that I could start taking pictures of one. They were very shy, and it took me many tries, but here finally is an astounding black-winged bishop (Euplectes hordeaceus)

Finally, here’s another look at a yellow-fronted canary, showing a bit of its namesake yellow front.

That’s finally it for Jelia Park, and the next stop will be back in Lilongwe, from which there are still amazing creatures to see.

The April snow persists, and this morning’s weather was almost a repeat of yesterday’s. Happily, the critters in Estabrook Park changed things up for us, so here’s who I saw today.

The red-breasted merganser was on the pond again, along with the two Canada geese and about a dozen mallards, but the new sight today was this pair of wood ducks. Sure, they’ve been around and even on the pond from time to time, but I didn’t see them there yesterday.

Here’s the hen.

As I walked over to the river, I glimpsed a little bird flit into a tree, and I thought it might be an eastern phoebe. When I got a better look through the corner of my binoculars that hadn’t fogged up yet, I was thrilled to see it was and eastern bluebird, instead. They visit Estabrook from time to time, but I sure don’t get to see them very often.

When I finally did make it to the river, there was another surprise waiting for me, this darling goldeneye hen, the likes of which we haven’t seen in Estabrook since February.

Lastly, the horned grebe is still with us, and sound asleep this morning.

While we’re all here, let me show you a few more pictures from Malawi. Plus, they’re all nice and sunny. After our stop on the western shore of Lake Malawi, we turned west and eventually stopped for the night in Dowa at a place identified as “Jelia Park” on google maps. The next morning, while Anne and her team got to work, I took a look around to see who I might find in a “subtropical highland climate.”

First up is this stunning male village indigobird, which I promised you earlier.

Next, is this amazing pair of red-billed firefinches (Lagonosticta senegala), a first for me.

They just kept coming, and here’s a southern black flycatcher (Melaenornis pammelaina), another first for me.

And it is tempting to suppose that this is why it looks so blue, instead of black, but it is probably just feather iridescence, instead.

Lastly, common bulbuls seem to be just about everywhere, and here’s a pair looking pretty cozy.

Well, the snow sorta did eventually arrive here in Estabrook Park, but temps never got below freezing, so the little bit that did stick to the grass and branches is almost already melted. The big surprise for me this morning, however, was how high the river water has become. I estimate that it is 2-3 feet higher than when I was there on Monday, and I don’t believe I’ve ever seen it so high. Much of the river path was submerged.

Anyway, the birds were still going about their business, since they don’t really have a choice, and I saw quite a few. Here are the ones moving slowly enough for me to capture a decent image in such dim light.

A red-breasted merganser drake was on the pond and taking a break from fishing when I stopped by.

The mother goose was keeping her eggs warm on the island.

Along the river, I saw more brown creepers than I believe I’ve ever seen in a single day. At one point, I could see four of them on a single tree trunk and a fifth on the next trunk over.

The horned grebe was still on the river by the northern island, and it too was on break from fishing at the moment.

Farther south, at the bottom down the bluff from the southern playground, which was completely flooded, I found my first swamp sparrows for the season. Woo hoo! “Welcome back!”

Finally, there were also plenty of golden-crowned kinglets around, and I took another crack at getting a decent portrait. We’re not there yet, but I think you can get a general idea of what they look like.

Since I have a little room left, let me slip in a couple more pictures from Malawi. On our journey back toward Lilongwe from the Tongole Lodge, we stopped for supper at the luxurious Sunbird Livingstonia Beach Hotel on the shores of beautiful Lake Malawi, which I read “is far deeper than Lake Michigan,” although it has about half the surface area.

I already showed you the amazing pair of cut throats I saw there, but here’s another picture.

That is also where I saw a stunning adult wire-tail swallow that I promised you.

Finally, this amazing butterfly, which I believe is an African monarch or dorippus tiger (Danaus chrysippus dorippus) fluttered by and paused for just a moment. As you might have already guessed, it is a close relative of the African queen we saw on Comoros and to the monarch butterflies we’ll soon be seeing in Estabrook Park.

It appears that the weather’s April Fools’ prank will be arriving a day late this year, if we do get any of the snow forecast for today. In any case, it’s dark and precipitating now, which is expected to continue all day long, so this is my big chance to get some more Africa pictures out of the queue.

I left off with pictures from our stay at the Tongole Lodge in the Nkotakhota Wildlife Reserve, so let’s continue there, and next up are this pair of tiny and brightly-colored half-collared kingfishers (Alcedo semitorquata) on the far bank of a small tributary flowing into the Bua River. They average just 7.1 inches in length while the belted kingfishers we see in Estabrook are nearly twice as long at 11-14 inches.

The bird I saw most frequently was the common bulbul, which I also saw in Lilongwe, so not nearly as exotic, but they sure do strike handsome poses.

Near the end of our stay, we all piled into the lodge’s old Toyota Landcruiser to go looking for the elephants that left their calling cards all over the dirt roads. We never did spot any, but when we drove the length of an abandoned airstrip, we did find this flock of about eight helmeted guineafowl (Numida meleagris).

We were not allowed to exit the vehicle, of course, so here’s the best closeup I could manage from my seat.

Back at the lodge, I could hardly believe my eyes when I spotted this quintet of hornbills in the tall trees across the river.

They were far beyond the useful range of my camera, but you can still make out the shape of their bills in this over-zoomed section. That makes them trumpeter hornbills (Bycanistes bucinator), and the few times I heard them call made me think that they were aptly named.

Another amazing sight I saw across the river was this mutable sun squirrel (Heliosciurus mutabilis) with a long, ringed tail.

On the last morning, as we were all packing up to head to our next location, a small troupe of vervet monkeys, like the ones we saw in Dzalanyama, came to see us off.

Since we were so close to the equator, you shouldn’t be surprise that we had lizards, and this one is either a rainbow skink (Trachylepis margaritifera) or its close cousin with an overlapping range, the African five-lined skink (Trachylepis quinquetaeniata)

Finally, I saw just one amphibian on the entire trip, and it was this small and brightly colored toad, whom I am not having any luck identifying further.

Okay, time to wrap this up, but not before I show you this darling little butterfly, which I believe is a spangled skipper (Dotta stellata).

The weather hasn’t pranked me yet today, and it was a nice sunny morning in Estabrook Park. That let me get out nice and early, so I was able to spot this muskrat at the edge of the river, which we’ve seen plenty of times before.

But this is the first time I’ve managed to spot two of them together like this.

I’ve been seeing a kingfisher around lately, and even captured a picture by the river a few weeks ago, but this is my first picture of one over the pond for the year.

Finally, back at the river again, this is the very first horned grebe I’ve ever seen in Estabrook Park. I’ve seen one before at the South Shore Yacht Club, but this is a first for me in Estabrook.

Better yet, it caught a nice fish for breakfast. Ha!

The skies were grey again this morning, but at least it wasn’t raining. The most interesting sight today was this red-breasted merganser drake on the pond.

He even caught himself a goldfish for breakfast.

Since we’re all here, let me show you a bit more of the sights from Malawi. After staying one night at the house in Lilongwe, which featured the birds I showed you yesterday and the first day, we all traveled to the Nkotakhota Wildlife Reserve to stay at the Tongole Wilderness Lodge on the Bua River. On the one hand, it offered the possibility of seeing elephants and hippos, which would be super cool, but on the other hand, we couldn’t explore on our own, as we could at Dzalanyama Forest Reserve last October, because of the possibility of encountering elephants and hippos. I did the best I could.

Things did get off to a good start when I spotted this Arnot’s chat (Myrmecocichla arnotti) right at the entrance gate. It is a completely new bird for me.

I didn’t see anything else that first day, but when I got up in the morning, I could hear some loud bird(s) making a ruckus. I eventually found the source on the other side of the river. It was these five hamerkops (Scopus umbretta). Here’s a video of just one “talking”.

Later in the trip, I was finally able to get a nice closeup of one. Oddly enough, they are the only living species in their genus, and that genus is the only genus in the family Scopidae. You have to go all the way up to the order Pelecaniformes to find any of their relatives.

Also interesting, at least to me, is that they construct enormous nests, “up to 6.5 feet wide, 6.5 feet deep and over 100 pounds“. Here’s a picture of one I saw in Uganda back in 2017. You can just make out one of the nearly-two-feet-tall and 1-pound birds working on the opening near the top. “Dude, that’s big enough!”

Despite the limitations on exploring, I did see more there than I want to cram into this post, so let me wrap up with a couple of the amazing butterflies I saw there.

This first one appears to be a common joker (Byblia anvatara). Pretty snazzy, if you ask me.

Finally, this second one appears to be a white pie (Tuxentius calice), and it was one of the smallest butterflies I have ever photographed.