Saturday morning arrived again and it was time for another visit to Afdis! This is one of our most productive ringing sites, and the most recent trip was no exception - 30 birds caught. Many were warblers (Dark-capped Yellow, Lesser Swamp, Little Rush and African Reed Warblers), plus a bunch of Dark-capped Bulbuls, a Bar-throated Apalis, African Yellow White-eyes, Copper Sunbird, Variable Sunbird, Red-faced Cisticola, Village Weaver, Blacksmith Lapwing and more. There were only two Three-banded Plovers at the ponds, one of which had a ring. There was also one Black-winged Stilt. Four Yellow-billed Storks flew past, and there were raptors such as Black-chested Snake-eagle and Long-crested Eagle around most of the morning.
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| Black-winged Stilt |
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| Dark-capped Bulbul |
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| Bar-throated Apalis |
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| Copper Sunbird - male in non-breeding plumage |
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| Village Weaver - male moulting into breeding plumage |
The next day I went to Trader Horn, Lake Chivero, for most of the day. The wind was blowing much of the time, but that actually made for interesting birding, as the wind was pushing floating mats of weed into the bay, along with many herons and egrets that were using it as a fishing platform! I counted 20+ Grey Herons, at least as many Great Egrets, and various other species with them including a Goliath Heron. A few birds came close enough to get some nice photographs, whilst two in particular were the main performers of the day; a Purple Heron and a Squacco Heron, both fishing very close to shore. The Squacco looked like it had bit off more than it could chew when it finally managed to spear a fish - it's actually a pretty small bird.
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| Great Egret |
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| Purple Heron |
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| Squacco Heron - a big fish for a such a little heron! |
Another exciting sighting was that of an immature African Fish-eagle catching a fish, but unfortunately not close enough to photograph well.
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