15th November- A 112-Bird day

My brother is heading to South Africa to study for a few months and we wanted to spend some quality time together. Niether of us had commitments this morning so we set off on our motorbikes on a bird trip. Convening at my Dad’s house for breakfast we quickly checked off 22 species of birds that are already on the big year list. Hopping onto our bikes we headed up just beyond Oldonyo Sambu where we pulled up near a cattle trough to bird for a while. 35 species later we moved on, with the following additions to the master list.

102	African grey flycatcher
103	African hoopoe
104	Banded parisoma
105	Brubru
106	Capped wheater
107	Chin-spot batis
108	Cinnamon-breasted rock bunting
109	Common kestrel
110	Common rock thrush
111	Common scimitarbill
112	Grey wren warbler
113	Hildebrandt's starling
114	Isabeline shrike
115	Nubian woodpecker
116	Pygmy falcon
117	Red-fronted barbet
118	Red-fronted warbler
119	Schalow's wheater
120	Speckle-fronted weaver
121	Steppe eagle
122	White-bellied canary
123	White-bellied go-away bird
124	White-browed scrub robin
125	White-browed sparrow weaver
126	Speckled pigeon
127	Yellow-breasted apalis

The lark plains have turned green, but neither of us had the patience to tackle cryptic larks, so we headed across them to the Acacia-commiphora scrub to their east. Stopping a couple times we walked around and managed to get some highlights like the Rosy-patched bush shrike, white-headed mousebird, and northern wheater. Did you know that some of the northern wheaters that come to these plains migrate here all the way from Canada.

128	Beautiful sunbird
129	Black-faced waxbill
130	Black-necked weaver
131	Black-throated barbet
132	Brown snake eagle
133	Buff-crested bustard
134	Chestnut sparrow
135	Fishers sparrowlark
136	Isabeline wheater
137	Lesser masked weaver
138	Little bee-eater
139	Northern wheater
140	Rosy-patched bushshrike
141	Rufous sparrow
142	Temminck's courser
143	Violet-backed sunbird
144	White-headed buffalo weaver
145	White-headed mousebird
146	Yellow-bellied eremomela
147	Yellow-necked spurfowl
148	Yellow-spotted petronia

By this time the sun was pretty high and our stomachs started grumbling so we headed back for lunch before heading into a beautiful little forest on Burka coffee estate. Our walk took us up to a small dam for the following additions to the master list:

149	Ashy flycatcher
150	Black-backed puffback
151	Green sandpiper
152	Grosbeak weaver
153	Hammerkop
154	Holub's golden weaver
155	Palmnut vulture
156	Pied kingfisher
157	Rock martin
158	Scarce swift
159	Tambourine dove
160	White-browed robin chat
161	White-eared barbet