Ethiopia 18th to 20th backdated
Savannah birding 18th Feb backdated
We headed out into the savanna, not too far from the border with Kenya. Here we picked up Foxy and Short-tailed Larks, and Shelley's Rufous Sparrow close to a very remote little settlement where the young children looked at these strange people armed with bins and tripods with total bemusement. Don't think they'd ever encountered anything quite like us before! Further down the road, we added Chestnut Sparrow to the list too and later that afternoon a stunning Ovambo Sparrowhawk.More savannah, 19th Feb backdated
Good habitat all round so we birded the savannah again, this time finding Magpie Starling and Red-naped Bush-Shrike, which were new for the whole group. Later, re-scanning the plains we located Somali Courser (a potential split from cream-coloured) as well as the odd looking Gerenuk (gazelle), Tiny Cisticola and Boran Cisticola were easy here too. Then at a new site further south, a whole village 'assisted' us in finding a group of Scaly Chatterers lurking in a clump of Euphorbia. At first we were unsure if their offer of help would be useful but as soon as we showed them the fieldguide there was great excitement and much gesticulation and it was clear they knew the bird we were looking for. With their support, we located a likely Euphorbia clump and Christian crawled into the bush leaving just his feet sticking out. Following his muffled instructions from inside the bush, we were all lucky enough to enjoy great views of these birds as they shifted upwards towards the thinner sections of the clump.Birding the Government ranch, 20th Feb backdatedDrove out to a nearby cattle ranch managed by the Government to improve the local Brahman stock. Were they also bred striped horses? No, a closer look in the bins revealed a herd of Plains Zebra grazing in the scrub. Streseman's Bush-Crows put in a good appearance and we also had great views of Wattled Plover and Grey-backed Fiscal, giving us excellent digiscoping and videoing opportunities. The gun-toting guard on the gate, who'd only reluctantly let us in despite our official permit, now refused to let us out without a large personal cash donation. But the combined force of our four now very angry drivers persuaded him to back down and remove the roadblock! All in a day's birding