352 : Northern House Martin

House Martin - Delichon urbicum

I am writing this from the sunroom of our holiday cottage in Boot, Eskdale Valley in the Lake District. We have come back to the South-West Lakes (taking the Wainwright delineation) for the third time in 10 years.

Our cottage is a stone built affair with half metre thick walls. The view is spectacular - a rock, scree and wooded ridge line alternatively clothed in mist and cloud or bright against the cold sky. In the bottom of the Esk valley the eponymous winding mountain river and a ribbon of deciduous woods.

A walk this morning discovered Roe Deer, a toad and a huge mixed feeding flock of tits;coal and willow tit, great and blue all mixed in together.

The pastures hold a good variety of old fashioned cow breeds and with them flies and hirundines.

I am delighted to see the tree in the corner of the short lawn area dripping with House Martins - newly fledged and waiting to set out on the long haul back to Africa.

I have never seen them perch in a tree before - the swallows are collecting on the top wire of the fence in a nearby cow pasture but the Martins seem to collect in the tree every hour or so before heading out again to fatten up. Even in the misty Lakeland weather they seem to be content hawking for insects at 5-20 m The swallows are buzzing the ground but the martins seem more to cruise around in loose flocks at tree height or more. 

House Martin, Delichon urbicum

Boot, Eskdale, Cumbria

22 August 2018

351 : African Harrier-Hawk

African Harrier-Hawk - Polyboroides typus

The South Luangwa National Park is the largest safari destination in Zambia. Situated half way up the course of the relatively unspoilt Luangwa river valley. The park has been in operation since the 50's. Our camp, Chinzombo was a permanent camp set on an oxbow lake right on the river towards the Southern end of the park. On one of our 5 days we elected for a big adventure driving North for an all day trip with a packed lunch. We ventured into the Lion plain - an area where the camps were already closed as the rains were setting in. The result ? We had the whole park, an area perhaps the size of an English County, all  to ourselves ! At some points we worked out that we were probably 30 miles from the nearest other human beings. Deep into the bush.

Some of the most beautiful features of the park are its ebony glades. The trees line up alongside historic water courses. We were lucky enough to take in quite a few of these during our big adventure. Simon Barnes, the excellent sports and travel writer has written a book called the Sacred Coombe which focuses particularly on South Luangwa with which he clearly fell in love. The premise of his book these secret spiritual places and journeys. Not in any hippy sense but just a personal and quiet spiritual sense - renewal through these secret hidden beautiful spaces in nature. These are the places and moments we need to seek out to remain whole in this world.

I forget the name of each "glade" - the combination of beautiful shade and trees though was stunning - entirely different from the usual "Miombi" or Acacia shrub that we are used to traveling through in Africa. You wouldn't have felt out of place sat next to some form of African elf. I haven't paid enough attention to trees in my life - utterly deserving or portraits. Family portraits here.

Before I get onto the encounter with the African Harrier-Hawk I had a lovely photo session with a buffalo attended by a Yellow-billed Oxpecker.

This is first time I have actually looked at a buffalo properly through a lens.

And this was the shot I wanted. Riding as if in the turret of a tank - or perhaps some undersized jockey in a bizarre race. In any event entirely in command of its vehicle or mount - or  so it thinks ! I love this picture - it goes into a safari top ten of shot so far in my life.

That is a big lump of beef. It was a long day with some fantastic encounters. The Harrier-Hawk was spotted soon after resting on the sandy bank of a lake edge. A long way off so you will excuse the quality of the pictures.

The face on the his bird is flushed red - I am not sure if this is associated with males in breeding or why this happens. The overall plumage a very smart grey with a barred front.

The bird then flew and I did my best to crank out some shots in flight that allow a solid identification. These birds are quite long legged and adapted for winkling out nestlings and lizards from cavities and chicks from weaver nests. They are often seen dangling upside down in order to access difficult sell spaces.

These birds are fairly widespread with a population of a million spread across the bulk of Sub-Saharan Africa. Still a first for me and better picture is needed.

African Harrier-Hawk, Polyboroides types
South Luangwa National Park, Zambia
November 2018

350 : Kittlitz's Plover

Kittlitz's Plover - Charadrius pecaurius 

Yes there has been an almighty dearth of posting for the last few months. This whole project has just ground to a halt really. The main issue in my head is the way that the collection is now scattered across two sites. It would be a shame to let that throw me though so I am going to keep plugging away and catch up at least the photos that I have on the stocks.

November 2017 Jane and I took a ridiculous trip to the South Luanga National Park in Zambia. "Ridiculous" in that we went on our own minus the boys (who both now board in the UK) and that we went a little bit high end at a camp called Chinzombo - a Norman Carr camp. It was right at the very end of the season before the rains came and on some days there were only perhaps us and one other couple in a camp. We flew into Lusaka and had an overnight in a Raddison and then caught a much smaller plane up to the airport to be met by our guide for the drive in. One of this pinch me arrivals - we had booked up for 5 whole  nights at Chinzombo - plenty of time to unpack all of lenses books and coloring pencils and get into the rhythm of the camp - which could be simply explained as food, resting, pre-dinner cocktails and exciting safari drives.

The camp was situated on the river itself just opposite the park. Each day we would ferry across to the vehicles. We had a guide and vehicle to ourselves and were usually also accompanied by an armed guard as part of the program was walking safaris. It is very different to get down out of the vehicle on safari - the couple of times that we did it were very memorable. Ferry crossing and guard below.

I am reminded this is not Conde Naste but a birding blog. There was a single Kittlitz's Plover which seemed to frequent a riving crossing that we had to make a few times which gave us a short cut to see a pack of wild dogs. Tiny little plover - perhaps as small as a little stint. I am not actually sure that I managed a decent picture with the 400 m lens having found this weak shot on a collection of images from my mobile phone. It counts though - a small African plover to add to the collection.

Kittlitz's Plover, Charadrius pecaurius
South Luanga National Park, Zambia
November 2017

349 : Giant Kingfisher

Giant Kingfisher - Megaceryle maxima

The frequency of posts to this site have dwindled and almost died. The Task however lives on through 2017 a large number of photos were taken in my travels - I just seem to lost my voice for posting them up - and I guess I am bit disheartened by not having them all in one place.

Its no reason to give up though so I will kick off 2018 with a retrospective to a beautiful trip to Zambia. I always planned to treat myself and Jane to a Safari at some point without the kids. If only to see what retirement like look like. They are both boarding now in the UK so really there are no restraints on travel other than the wallet and work. So a few weeks after the "little one" started at his new school in the UK I dragged his Mum kicking and screaming to the South Luanga National Park. More specifically a nice high end Safari lodge called Chinzombo. Absolute indulgence - 5 days and nights of fabulous dining, gin and tonics, private game drives, wild  dogs (more of them in later posts) and animals and birds and well just Africa.

Nobody looks at this site but me so I write this almost as a diary. Two previous Safari experiences to Tanzania  can all be found on the "lost site" - Neil's Daily Bird on the link above on the cross bar. It been a while though - 2013 we were in Ruaha National Park for 5 days and 2012 was our first Safari taking in Lake Manara, Ngorogoro Crater and then the gorgeous Serengeti. Africa and  Safari more particularly gets under your skin. Its like Xmas with animals - at least it is the way I like to do it.

I don't drive a fancy car for Dubai standards and these days I can't claim even to eat out once a week. A normal weekend involves 3-4 hours work and most days see me in the office for 10-12 hours. I save my money but every year I am more than happy after school fees to pay for a couple of really fabulous holidays and make sure that everyone gets a break and some memories are laid down. I met a bloke in the Serengeti - perhaps we only crossed paths in camp for a night or two but gave a small speech over a glass of wine at dinner that revolved around the importance of holidays - especially for families which in essence are on borrowed time as the years roll by.

That promise to the whole family remains and last year we made it to the US and previous years have taken in the Seychelles, Vancouver Island, Sri Lanka, Mauritius and safaris. Have scattered a few links to some holiday birding posts. I can see now the opportunity to take a quick trip without the boys each year - whether thats a European City for a spot of high culture and food or lovely but different a trip out on safari - plenty of plans for tigers, wales, gorillas. I don't fancy looking at pictures of Porsche or a Ferrari while sitting in my sheltered housing at 90 (touch wood). It going to be heaps of pictures of bird and safari lodges, eco lodges, rainforests, rivers, mountains and animals.

So this Giant Kingfisher was photographed on our last game drive along the Luango river after a fabulous 5 days. A kingfisher almost the size of a small crow. One can only imagine the size of fish that this individual is taking on !

This is much a post for myself to remind myself where my site is and how to post up the photos and so on. I will get back into the swing of this but for now it might be enough just to get a few birds under my belt. Maximus below as we might call him is as good a place as any to start. Very stop of that safari truck a precious new bird. How many more stops on the way to complete the task ? Thousands. Any good to be back

Giant Kingfisher, Megceryle maxima
South Luanga National Park
Zambia
November 2017