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Ray Wilson
Bird & Wildlife Photography |
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Page 4
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21st January - Casino Cycle Track & Fajara Golf Course
The Casino Cycle Track runs from the Palma Rima Hotel to the Kotu Creek bridge and passes through a variety of habitats including, Oil Palm plantations, rice fields, scrub and acacias. |
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Oil Palm plantation
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Scrub habitat along the Casino Cycle Track (with Senegal Coucal on dead tree...)
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Senegal Coucal (Centropus senegalensis)
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Vinaceous Dove (Streptopelia vinacea)
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Blue-bellied Roller (Coracias cyanogaster)
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As we were standing looking for shorebirds on the tidal pools behind the Badala Park Hotel, a local herdsman conveniently drove his small herd of cattle, with their attendent Yellow-billed Oxpeckers perched on their backs, right past us.
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Yellow-billed Oxpecker (Buphagus africanus)
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Black-headed Plover (Vanellus tectus)
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Black-headed Plovers were common on the fairways of Fajara Golf Course. This bird was one of a pair that were busy courting but whenever the male looked like he was getting ready to mount the female, a Red-billed Hornbill would come bounding in and chastise them like a chaperone at a High School dance!
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22nd January - Pirang & Fantaba Bush Track
This was my least productive day photographically. Although we did manage to see (and get 'record' shots of) a decent variety of species, including Black-crowned Crane, Quailfinch, Grasshopper Buzzard, Yellow Penduline Tit, Little Weaver and Chestnut-backed Sparrow-Lark, most of them were too distant or the lighting conditions too poor to enable me to get very many good quality shots. |
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Crested Lark (Galerida cristata)
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This Crested Lark was one of the exceptions. It sat and sang quite happily while I slowly approached to the minimum focusing distance of my 600mm lens.
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Abyssinian Roller (Coracias abyssiniica)
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Grey-headed Sparrow (Passer griseus)
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23rd January - Senegambia Hotel
Our final morning was another productive one in the Senegambia Hotel grounds, with more opportunities to get some better photos of some of the commoner species that had so far eluded my camera as well as adding another 3 species to my life list (Slender-billed Gull, Pearl-spotted Owlet and, after I had packed my camera away, a confiding Olivaceous Warbler). |
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Red-billed Firefinch (Lagonosticta senegala)
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Speckled Pigeon (Columba ginea)
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Northern Black Flycatcher (Melaenornis edolioides)
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Yellow-billed Shrike (Corvinella corvina)
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Pearl-spotted Owlet (Glaucidium perlatum)
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All images are copyright Ray Wilson
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