Winter birding in Mwadui

This week we drove out through the mine and into the bush and no matter what we see, Grant always stops and I photograph the bird or animal. As in the case of the two oft-seen and common birds in the next two sequences of photos, they turned out to be juveniles!

African Sacred Ibis (Juvenile)

The African Sacred Ibis is a large white bird with a black decurved bill. While the adult's head and neck is naked while the juvenile has a white-feathered neck which appears mottled. 

A clear view of the African Sacred Ibis (Juvenile) 

Just around the corner from where we saw the African Sacred Ibis Juvenile, we came across another small body of water with another juvenile in it! I photographed this bird about ten days ago in another small pond on the airstrip. The water there has since dried up and this resourceful bird moved to another place!

 Yellow-billed Stork (Juvenile)

While I snapped away at this young bird, I noticed that it used one foot to agitate the water and so stir up any tasty morsels of creatures lurking below

While we're on the "Yellow-billed" birds, I'd like to post a very, very common - in fact quite pesky - raptor here in Mwadui: the Yellow-billed Kite. However, no bird is too common or "nasty" for me to miss a photo op when they pose so beautifully on the airstrip beside our vehicle. 

 Yellow-billed Kite; a handsome bird ...

 ... with a fearsome profile

Driving along through the bush, we stopped to photograph mousebirds, Grey-capped Social Weavers, a Dark-Capped Bulbul and a Silverbird.

In my bird book, the Silverbird is listed along with Black and other flycatchers. It sits beautifully while you click away  

At our favorite largish reeded dam of water, we spotted a moorhen swimming quickly into the reeds.

 Common moorhen just visible in the reeds

As I watched the Common Moorhen disappear between the reeds, another duck appeared in my line of sight. This was a new waterbird for me and Grant. We sent it off to Jez who returned with the verdict: Lesser Moorhen. A lifer for us. 

 Lesser Moorhen 

Lesser Moorhen and juvenile

 Lesser Moorhen Juvenile

I'm linking my post today with Wild Bird Wednesday hosted by Stewart Monckton. Please visit his interesting blog by clicking here

I hope you're all having a wonderful week so far.