1st Century...

Most birders in East Africa won’t find this figure too impressive, but there it is, a small milestone.

Nov 8^th started off slower than Nov 7^th, thanks to a few of my favorite drink (Serengeti lager) celebrating with friends. A few work commitments took me into town so I only managed to add another 6 birds on the list.

55	Bronze mannikin
56	Cardinal woodpecker
57	Common house martin
58	Lesser striped swallow
59	Egyptian goose
60	European bee-eater

Pretty content with this as a start and with too much to do, I waited until Saturday morning before heading off on a long birding walk in the hills behind Gina’s place. My walk took me through a few different micro-habitats and I was quite happy to add these 23 birds to the list.

61	African grey hornbill
62	Black crowned tchagra
63	Dark capped warbler
64	Eastern pale chanting goshawk
65	Flappet lark
66	Green wood hoopoe
67	Grey heron
68	Lizard buzzard
69	Long crested eagle
70	Marabou stork
71	Mosque swallow
72	Pallid harrier
73	Pearl spotted owlet
74	Red backed shrike
75	Red billed quelea
76	Red faced crombec
77	Red headed weaver
78	Ring-necked dove
79	Singing cisticola
80	Slate colored boubou
81	Streaky seedeater
82	Willow warbler
83	Yellow bishop
84	Yellow fronted canary

The weather turned wet in the afternoon so I only added a few in the afternoon.

85	Black chested snake eagle
86	Cattle egret
87	Little grebe
88	Sacred ibis

Planning to get some good birding in this morning, we woke up at 5 a.m. planning to meet my Dad at 6 and head off for a few hours birding in different habitat. As Murphy’s Law would have it, it started raining a few minutes after we left the house. Plans changed and we ended up having pancakes with maple syrup at my Dad’s house waiting for the rain to stop. When the rain ended briefly we managed to see some good garden birds including a surprising Golden-winged sunbird that was spectacular.

89	Cape robin chat
90	Chestnut weaver
91	Golden winged sunbird
92	Hildebrant's francolin
93	Tree pipit
94	Vitelline's masked weaver

The rate at which you add new species to a bird list gets significantly harder unless you change habitats, and I haven’t left Arusha yet. It took some effort to get the last 6 species. I found it quite interesting how I was having trouble finding some really common birds, but then, I’m hoping I’ll add them this week.

95 Common buzzard 96 Grey headed bush-shrike 97 Long tailed fiscal 98 Red-cheeked cordon bleu 99 Yellow-billed kite 100 House sparrow