PUGU HILLS 09-2009

tks Sean

We spent 12 years ringing and birding in the Pugu Hills, it was our retreat from Dar, more than 6,000 ringing records so we knew it rather well in the 80s and early 90s. From all the stories since then I'm surprised there is much left and your list lacks all the special passerines apart from Ul V-b Sunbird. Please send the pic to the group, this is a good bird for many people.

If I went back now I would just be even more angry than I am. Protecting this forest and highlighting the plight of other coastal forests was one of the reasons we created WCST in 86.

It's a vital stopover for Spotted Ground Thrushes between their breeding ground on the Rondo Plateau in SE TZ and their wintering grounds on the Kenya Coast. It will be a close call but I guess this population will disappear a few years before the last natural tree on the Pugu Hills

This $30 is of course pure nonsense, who dreams up these fees ? It would be interesting to see the books, could actually be a ploy to keep people away so the authorities can continue to plunder the resource. We have photos taken in the early 90s of forest guards employed by WCST building charcoal pits for the then Kisarawe Forest Officer who was subsequently promoted. Jo will remember this incident.

With the Pugu Hills denuded the first mega storm to hit them will sweep many hundreds of Dar residents into the sea and cause huge financial and personal losses

But.... as ever... who really cares.

and this was quite a good day .............

Neil



Hi Neil

Finally managed to get out to Pugu - spent 2 nights there, 19th and 20th September. www.puguhills.com

Small area, unless you want to walk into the forest itself, but that's an extra $30 per person. Difficult to find and very sad to see the human encroachment, great birding though, all things considering.

Lots of very tame bush-babies at night.



Wire-tailed swallow

Lesser striped swallow

Palm swift

Sombre bulbul

Yellow bellied greenbul

Yellow Vented Bulbul

Red-capped Robin-chat

Eastern nicator

Trumpeter hornbill

Crowned hornbill

Wood owl

Giant Eagle Owl

Fiery necked nightjar

Collared sunbird

Uluguru Violet-backed sunbird

Olive sunbird

Crowned eagle

Lizard Buzzard

Hammerkop

Pied crow

Emerald-spotted dove

Bronze mannikin

Green malkoha (lots)

White-browed Coacal

Brown-hooded kingfisher

Black-collared barbet

Tropical Boubou

Forest weaver

Masked weaver

Chestnut-fronted Helmet-shrike



If you have any queries etc, please shout. Have photos of some as well (eg Uluguru Violet-backed sunbird)

Regards

Sean.
Sean Lues,

Group Operations Manager.


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Neil and Liz Baker, Tanzania Bird Atlas, P.O. Box 1605, Iringa, Tanzania.
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