Thursday, 28 February 2013

Shikra





Booted Eagle

Juvenile male Osprey


Adult female




Pied Crow mobbing a juvenile male Osprey



White-fronted Plover

1st winter Southern Grey Shrike, perhaps elegans. 


Southern Grey Shrike, perhaps leucopygos. Need to look into the races. Much paler than the above bird. 



Woodchat Shrike's





Osprey eating a needlefish

Grey Heron trying to steal the needlefish


The wonders of Kaolack - a mixture of Blade Runner and Mad Max.




Jackals


Surveying it's surroundings from a termite mound



Bag Man

Baobab trees, Senegal. Taken from the moving vehicle this landscape is typical of central Senegal.

Blue-naped Mousebird. Vaguely Waxwing-like.


Wheatear on termite mound. Always amazing to see wintering migrants.

Needlefish (in freshwater)

Mottled Spinetail

Swallow-tailed Kite and Lesser Kestrel roost, Senegal. Previous counts of this roost have yielded 16,000 Kites and 26,000 Kestrels! We also saw an Osprey roosting with them.  

Red-necked Falcon top left of photo presumably leaving the roost.




Same three photos each one just slightly cropped to try and show the atmosphere of the roost but I don't think they do.


It felt a bit like being on Inner Farne when all the Arctic Terns are up in the air.







The walk back to the canoes from the Kite roost