Raptors in Moshi

Dear Liz & Neil,

Nice to get back to you with some news! We hope you are keeping well!

We are back in Spain after our trip to Kenya-Tanzania...we had to sort out many things there but we had also some chances to go birding. It was great!! We have seen some interesting sightings for us that you may like to know about, like the Western Banded Snake Eagle that we (with James and Geoff) saw in TPC Moshi the 28th of October, on the same day we had a long time to observe a couple of Temminck´s Stints. Geoff and I went on the 15th of November to Arusha NP and have taken some pics of what we think is a Long-legged Buzzard...amazingly long wings!

We attach some of the pics and I will send you the full lists another day.We are having cold and maybe white Xmas this year (0 C today)...we wish you both and family a very Happy Xmas and New Year!!!

Geoff & Anabel

Hi Anabel

Happy to hear you enjoyed the visit.

These dry season Western Banded Snake Eagles in the East are really interesting and almost certainly regular visitors.

I had my first at TPC in the early 80s, then again on the upper Pangani (with a Southern Banded !!) in the mid 90s and one on SW KIli in the early 00s. They are regular in the dry Ruaha Gorge between Iringa and Mikumi but always in low numbers, just odd birds.

The nearest breeding population in the north is on Rubondo Island and in the south perhaps Katavi.

Long-legged Buzzards are more frequently recorded these days due in a large part to the improved quality of the books but can still cause problems. Not easy to see the tail pattern (an important feature) on your bird but for sure those wings are long enough. Let's see what others think.


Neil