More Borrowdale Brooke Atlassing, October 2013

I did another two atlas cards for the Borrowdale Brooke/Greystone Park square in early October, and recorded 118 and 120 species per five-day period.
As per usual, there was often something interesting to be seen!

The reason for Greystone Park's 'special' birds; Tambourine Dove, Red-throated Twinspot, Black-throated Wattle-eye. These birds inhabit dense riverine forest, such as the one in Greystone Park. In Harare, there are only a few small patches of this habitat left.

Best birds recorded: African Black Duck, African Cuckoo-hawk, Tambourine Dove, African Green-pigeon, Red-faced Mousebird, African Wood-owl, African Cuckoo, White-breasted Cuckooshrike, Black Cuckooshrike, Miombo Tit, Yellow-breasted Apalis (very unusual, but recently recorded at the same place by me), Ashy Flycatcher (Greystone Park - I don't know of any other records from here of this species), nesting Black-throated Wattle-eye, Miombo Blue-eared Starling, Copper Sunbird and Red-throated Twinspot.

African Black Duck, Borrowdale Brooke

Black-throated Wattle-eye sitting on eggs in Greystone Park.

Greystone park has large areas of thicket and bush with thick understory, perfect for waxbills and other small finches

Blue Waxbill

Green-winged Pytilia male, Greystone Park. Common at GP, but this doesn't mean they are easy to photograph

Lizard Buzzard, Borrowdale Brooke

Male Red-throated Twinspot, Greystone Park

...And the female

Male White-bellied Sunbird mid-song at Greysone Park

Ashy Flycatcher at Greystone Park

Not many notable finds in the 'other animals' department aside, from this large cricket.

Butterfly, species unknown. It's one of the 'blues', a very difficult group to get to grips with.

In other news: We caught and ringed a Kurrichane Thrush at Mukuvisi with a huge parasite load. 27 ticks were removed from the bird, the majority of which were around or even inside the ear cavities.

You can see a few of the engorged ticks protruding from the ear. Nasty!