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