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On Saturday I met up with Bram Piot and we took a car down to the wetlands on the border between Bugesera and Ngoma Districts in SE Rwanda (2°12'20.70"S+ 30°16'7.04"E). I wrote a blog on my first very productive trip there a month ago, and Bram fancied paying a visit so we went there for the morning, had lunch at La Palais, Gashora, and visited the remnants of acacia woodland in the south of Bugesera in the afternoon. It turned out to be a very productive trip.
We got to the papyrus swamps by about 8:00. Due to slightly overcast weather, the birds were still very active. As soon as we arrived we picked up some of the local specialities; Blue-headed Coucal, Little Rush Warbler, Wire-tailed Swallow, Swamp Flycatcher, Openbill Stork, Slender-billed Weaver and Fawn-breasted Waxbill were all around. Calls from Papyrus Gonolek, White-winged Warbler, African Reed Warbler and Little Rush Warbler echoed across the swamps.
As Bram wanted to see White-winged Warbler and Papyrus Gonolek, we tried calling them up. The gonoleks did not materialise, but a White-winged Warbler responded fairly quickly and gave very good views as he came closer to investigate. Soon after Bram spotted what was probably the highlight of the day; several otters feeding among the papyrus, very close by. My views were limited, but Bram got close enough views to identify them as Clawless Otters, a very interesting record, and a good indicator of the health of the ecosystem.
A Buff-bellied Warbler and an unusual sunbird drew me to the acacias by the road. The former gave fairly good views, and the latter turned out to be a non-breeding or possibly young Red-chested Sunbird, after my originally suspecting Purple-banded, due to the bill which seemed very short and the fairly dull breast markings.
Great White and Intermediate Egrets seemed to be all around, and Yellow-billed Stork, Spur-winged Geese and White-faced Whistling Duck passed overhead. Unfortunately, no Fulvous Whistling Duck, as on the last trip. Blue-spotted Wood-Dove, Laughing Dove and Tambourine Dove were present along the road, and Bram spotted a pair of African Wattled Lapwings that flew in.
The next highlight turned out to be a Little Bittern that flew fairly close over the papyrus. A second bird, probably juvenile confirmed that this may be a fairly common species here, although I haven't seen it anywhere else in Rwanda, yet. Didric Cuckoo, Little Bee-eater, African Pygmy Kingfisher, Yellow Bishop and Fan-tailed Widowbird were all spotted, and Bram also saw a surprising species given the habitat, Yellow-throated Greenbul/Leaf-love among the eucalypts by the road.
Although distant calls of Papyrus Gonolek rang out intermittently over the marshes, I didn't succeed in attracting any with playback, until a pair of Black-headed Gonoleks responded enthusiastically to my playback. They, in turn, attracted a lone Papyrus Gonolek (I wonder if this is non-breeding season, which would account for the lone bird and the fairly unenthusiastic response to callback?) who gave good views at distance, calling from the top of the papyrus reeds. It's interesting that the two species clearly defend territory from each other and respond to each others' calls: Useful information for attracting Papyrus Gonoleks if you don't have the call.
We observed, both Bram and I, some new bird behaviour for the first time on this trip: A Common Fiscal skewering an insect on an acacia thorn. It's behaviour that you often read about among European shrikes, but this was the first time that either of us had seen it in real life. The last highlight from the bridge was a low-flying Black-shouldered Kite, before we headed north along the new access road into the papyrus swamps to try to track down the Allen's Gallinule I had seen last month. On the way we saw Black-headed Heron, Woodland Kingfisher, African Jacana and two grassland specialists, surprisingly, on the drier parts of the marsh: African Stonechat and Grassland Pipit. We got to the lake where I'd seen Allen's Gallinule and waited patiently. Lots of other Common Moorhens and African Jacanas indicated that there was a lot of food on this lake, and after about 5 minutes, we were treated to good views of Allen's Gallinule out on the lily pads. He stayed out long enough to view through the scope, proving to be a very pretty little bird, much like a small Purple Swamphen/Gallinule, with the light blue frontal shield the only obvious distinguishing feature, along with the smaller size and the lighter, more graceful build. Suddenly it seemed to catch sight of us and scampered off back into the papyrus. http://kilnsey.tripod.com/allens_gallinule_3.jpg
The papyrus comes fairly close to the road at this point, so we left the car and continued on foot, in the hope of a glimpse of the rarer papyrus endemics, but none appeared. However, we did get Hottentot Teal, Long-toed Lapwing and Three-banded Plover (only my 2nd record for this species in Rwanda). A pair of Cape Wagtails and a distant Purple Heron, only my 4th record for Rwanda, were the last records for the swamps. It was past midday and the sun was getting hot, so we decided to head for La Palais Gashora for lunch.
Having stayed at La Palais (2°11'34.86"S+30°14'22.47"E) before, I knew that the birds can be very good there, so as soon as we had ordered our food we popped off for a bit of birding along the front of the lake. Most of the birds were as expected. The only notables were a Black Kite nest with a young bird present, Yellow-throated Greenbul and a burst of Greater Swamp Warbler coming from the reeds. Interestingly, next to the kite nest was a bird on a branch which showed a dark end to the bill, as per the migrating nominate race. Bram reckoned this would be a first year bird that hadn't migrated north. It showed little grey on the head and a very dark eye; which I think would all be consistent with this diagnosis. http://kilnsey.tripod.com/black_kite_5.jpg
Then we headed the other way, and quickly Bram noticed a disturbance, with babblers, bulbuls and sunbirds all mobbing something. As we got closer, we couldn't see what they were mobbing, probably a snake on the ground. However, the mobbing party included a lot of species: Red-headed Weaver, Bronzy, Scarlet-chested and Red-chested Sunbirds, Tawny-flanked Prinia, Common Bulbul, and then we spotted something atypical. It bore initial resemblance to a plain flycatcher species, but then revealed white outer tail feathers, so we quickly suspected a honeyguide / honeybird species. Fairly good views for about 30 seconds revealed all pale grey underparts, darker grey upperparts, a very slim bill, and slightly raised crest, probably due to the presence of whatever they were mobbing. The white outertail feathers stretched right to the tail tip, and the outer two feathers were slightly fanned. I managed to get a few reasonable photos before it disappeared. When we checked in the guides, it was clear that this could only be Produtiscus regulus – Brown-backed Honeybird (or Wahlberg's/Sharp-billed if you prefer), which the photos confirmed. We suspect a young bird due to the white right along the tail feathers. This was a smashing record, and completely unexpected. http://kilnsey.tripod.com/brown-backed_honeybird.jpg
After lunch we headed to the remnant tracts of acacia woodland still remaining in southern Bugesera. We spent about 1 hour wandering in one spot and another ten minutes in another. The woodland was somewhat degraded, and a smouldering charcoal kiln and freshly felled trees indicated that this forest would soon be gone, alas. However there was still plenty of it left and it produced some good records: Sulphur-breasted Bush-shrike were frequent, Ring-necked Dove (rare outside Akagera in Rwanda), Tropical Boubou, probable Red-capped Robin-Chat, Yellow-breasted Apalis, Chinspot Batis, Red-headed Weaver, Collared Sunbird, White-browed Scrub-Robin, Greater Blue-eared Starling; all species of open acacia woodland. The highlights of this part of the trip were two cuckoo species; first an African Emerald Cuckoo, my first for Rwanda. Probably a young male or female, it showed fairly well as it gleaned for caterpillars in the low bushes. It showed no white spot behind the eye, but clear barring of green on white underneath, much denser on the throat than the belly, copper barring on green wings, pale eye ring and dark eye: http://kilnsey.tripod.com/emerald_cuckoo.jpg And the second was a juvenile Red-chested Cuckoo who alerted us to its presence as it called endlessly (a thin, fairly high `seep') to its foster parent, a White-browed Robin-Chat. Early views were frustrating, showing white on the underparts and all dark uppers in flight. Eventually Brad flushed it from one patch of scrub and it sat for a few seconds. I saw it well enough to see the slate-grey uppers, and distinctive black barring on the white belly. A good, confirmed breeding record after many records of calling Red-chested Cuckoos earlier in the year, and interesting to confirm the foster species. This was pretty much our last throw of the dice, as the afternoon light began to flatten. A quick stop further along produced African Paradise-Flycatcher to add to all the above, and a Red-necked Spurfowl was calling in the halflight, but that was it.
(Bram has just informed me that I missed a few birds on my complete list, some of which are quite notable: Little Egret, Long-tailed Cormorant, Lilac-breasted Roller being the most interesting.)
It was a great day's birding by any accounts.
Jason
That is one impressive List :)!
ReplyDeleteI didn't even know there was a Lilac-breasted Roller.... whoa!