Spring 2014 birding

As promised earlier this week, I'm posting about the birds we saw on our outings over the weekend.

Although I've posted many photos of the Black-headed Heron, I felt I'd like to share this image with you:

A Black-headed Heron in an iconic heron-like pose! 

Just below where this Heron was poised, I spotted my first Dabchick of the season. It was gliding along the water surface, constantly pruning which meant many photos before I managed a decent image and reflection! 

Dabchick (Little Grebe)  

Nearby on a seemingly precarious perch, was a Yellow-billed Stork. Its pink-tinged wings show that it's a breeding adult

 

And although the next bird is supposedly found all over African South of the Sahara, here in Northern Tanzania we don't often come across this very clean-looking bird.

Black-shouldered Kite

While riding along the bush road, I looked through Grant's window and spotted - what I first thought was - a mousebird. We'd already passed the spot when I asked Grant to stop and reverse. He took a look and announced that we were seeing a woodpecker. This is always exciting to us, as woodpeckers in the African bush are nothing as accommodating and tame as those I see on American blogs. Another thing, the times I've photographed a woodpecker it was always pecking wood. Therefore it would be moving rapidly around a tree trunk and of course its head would be going nineteen to the dozen. This makes it very difficult to photograph. Here was a woodpecker that wasn't pecking wood; in fact it was quietly eating something on a tree with large thorny pods.  

We also don't have a definite id on this woodpecker yet, so not sure which one this is. 

 Woodpecker 

Little Bee-eater

Last week we also noticed quite large flocks of pelicans flying in formation over New Alhamasi dam. I tried my sport function and managed a couple of images which I could download for posting!

One of the pelicans in the rather large flock flying above us 

Riding along the dam wall, we saw a variety of waders and waterbirds, some of which I already posted last week. Grant stopped so that I could focus on two Black-winged stilts. When I downloaded the photos I saw that I'd captured an adult and a juvenile.

Black-winged Stilt, juvenile in front and adult behind

The Black-winged Stilt is a black-and-white wader with very long red legs and a very thin pointed black bill. The juvenile has a greyish nape, grey-pink legs and brownish wings with pale trailing edge. 

 While photographing the stilts I noticed that the pelicans had landed on a small island on the other side of the dam.  A small group of White-faced Whistling Duck appeared in my photo as well! 

Just below the dam wall, we saw a young Yellow-billed Stork resting on the sandbank. I enjoyed this bird's picture so much that I've used it as my Facebook cover photo.

Yellow-billed Stork (Juvenile) 

I'm linking my post to Wild Bird Wednesday hosted by Stewart Monckton. Do click here to visit his amazing blog. 

Here's wishing you all a wonderful mid-week!