New Years birding Iringa style

Hi all

Well, despite the good intentions it was a slooow start to the day and we did not finish breakfast until after 8 !! the garden provided the first 30 birds of the day, Little Bittern. we have a Palearctic migrant more or less resident (if it's the same bird of course) and it showed well early on. The real surprise was a Ground Hornbill in flight between the hills. We headed south to Litemela Dam on the Kilenga to Kiponzela road to count the waterbirds (IT IS JANUARY.... REMEMBER) and to add Osprey to the list (our lads found it last week) and then further south to try for Locust Finch on the edges of those upland swamps. The only surprise at Litemela was a pair of Pale Flycatchers, not an easy bird here. Before we tried the rather wet swamps we climbed into the hills and some good Miombo at 1900m. Miombo Rock Thrush, Miombo Sunbird and Wing-snapping Cisticola with superb views of Churring Cisticola and Fulleborn's Longclaw. Only 2 Uhehe Fiscal sightings along the base of the ridge, never a guaranteed bird. The swamp was far too wet and agriculture, maize, squash and potatoes on ridges at the very edge of the water so nothing left for any Locust Finches and we did not have time to try adjacent swamps. Zitting Cisticolas in breeding plumage, seriously smart birds, were good obs here with distant geese, ducks and a Purple Heron. A Wahlberg's Honeybird was the pick of the roadside birds on our way home for a late lunch and a short snooze !!!

Some local guys at the edge of the swamp knew Wattled Crane but had not seen them in recent years, they now have our cell number and 10,000/- waiting for them just in case.

Mid afternoon we headed north-east past the airport on a road (a real BA one this) we had not used before in search of a vlei only known to us from the maps. There is still good bush in this general area between the Dodoma and Morogoro roads but the charcoal boys and kuni cutters are working their way through it. The vlei, Lambiloli Swamp was a revelation. We were on the western edge of what must be a 45km2 short grass mbuga with the local dark orange Acacia seyal along the northern edges. The first Denham's Bustard for Iringa square (where have all these bustards come from these past few months, quite remarkable) was quickly followed by the first Caspian Plover, associating with 7 Temminck's Coursers. Close views of a Grasshopper Buzzard (only the 2nd for Iringa) as we left the swamp was also rather neat. It was now getting late and we needed to be at the airport before the harriers began arriving. We only found this roost last week on our return from Mtera. This time we made it just before the first of the harriers arrived. There are at least 36 birds using this roost now. Most are Montagu's with many Eurasian Marsh and a few Pallid's, the latter our 15th raptor for the day. 128 species, a good beginning, hope yours went just as well.

Neil

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