Neil Gray Birds

25 October 2008 Three more weeks at the DRC field camp with a trip list of 100 has boosted my list of identified sightings (or calls) from 80 to 126 for the area around the camp. Notable additions to the list were Retz’s Helmetshrike, Long-tailed Cisticola, Greater Whitethroat, Garden Warbler, Yellow-mantled Widowbird, Black-eared Seed-Eater, Green-backed Woodpecker, Collared Flycatcher, Yellow-bellied Hyliota, Woodland Pipit and Red-capped Crombec.

15 September 2008 A week at Mamaje ("place of plenty") field camp in the DRC found the camp living up to its name on the birding front. I managed to get in 45 minutes or so each day just after sunrise and just before sunset. No DRC endemics, but a few not found in Southern Africa - Black-collared Bulbul, White-winged Black Tit, Splendid Glossy Starling, and several Miombo woodland specials – Pale-billed Hornbill, Scaly-throated Honeyguide, Miombo Tit, Miombo Scrub-Robin, Miombo Rock-Thrush, Miombo Double-collared Sunbird, Racket-tailed and Broad-billed Roller, plus a few other "goodies" – Cabanis’s Bunting, Short-winged Cisticola, Grey-hooded Kingfisher, White-breasted Cuckooshrike, Copper Sunbird, African Golden Oriole, Schalow's Turaco, Fiery-necked, Freckled and Pennant-winged Nightjars, and Meyer's Parrot.

30 August 2008 Just back from Zambia to find that the birding talk is all about the Franklin's Gull that has been seen at the lake at the Centurion Shopping Mall between Johannesburg and Pretoria. This is only southern Africa's 2nd ever inland record for Franklin's Gull - oddly the first was some 22 years ago in Boksburg only 36km away as the 'gull' flies from the present sighting.

16 August 2008 Just back from 15 days visiting my family in the UK, where I managed to get in some birding in Greater London, Durham, Tees-side and the Scottish Highlands - the first birding I have ever done in the UK - chalking up 110 species (not including exotic/captive birds).