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Levant Sparrowhawks hunt Queleas in the Great Rift Valley

Thankfully I have been out birding in the field in Tanzania most of these past five weeks!

All four of the photographs (hopefully pasted here?) were taken by my great friend Martin Goodey; shot in very bright morning light.
In life these birds seemed to me to be much darker on the upperparts.

They portray two, of at least six different individual birds, hunting queleas in early February at Ol Mesera.
Great birds!

None were at the very first site (Ol Mesera 15km north of Mto wa Mbu) on Saturday/Sunday last - presumably because there were no Red-billed Queleas remaining there in the grasslands of the Maasai set-aside, only Chestnut Sparrows.

None were at the early February site (Ol Mesera Tented Camp is 15km north of Mto wa Mbu) on Saturday/Sunday last - I believe that is because there were very few Red-billed Queleas remaining there in the tall grasslands of the new-style Maasai pasture set-aside, only Chestnut Sparrows.

I suspect that the Levant Sparrow Hawks have become adapted to following queleas in their opportunistic breeding movements, and do so probably right across Central African Republic, Chad, the South Sudan and into Ethiopia.

It's just a hunch, guess that it's dynamic qualitative ecology, based on what I watched over those three days last week.

Submitted by admin on Tue, 2012-02-28 11:43.

"Birding is the Best" by Private Helgoland

Has the species depicted above been recorded on Helgoland? What is it? Ol Mesera, Tanzania February 2012 Martin Goodey

Whatever the climate: "Birding is Best" by Private Helgoland

The brief excerpt below is a very slight modification of part of a recent review (which, living in sub-Saharan Africa I only discovered via Twitter) in the monthly magazine British Birds.

" The authors of Die Vogelwelt der Insel Helgoland (The Birds of the Island of Helgoland), by Jochen Dierschke, Volker Dierschke, Kathrin Hüppop, Ommo Hüppop and Klaas Felix Jachmann have managed to assemble an enormous wealth of data and provide the reader with unique analyses of trend data over 170 years.

Odd, and always admired, rarities range from the Egyptian Nightjar Caprimulgus aegyptius from the nineteenth century and the Pale Thrush Turdus pallidus in 1986 to the Grey-necked Bunting Emberiza buchanani as recently as 2009.

However, the real value of the book in the opinion of Christoph Zöckler is the trend data. Analyses of changes over the past 50 years provide trends for 66 species, of which 49 have decreased. Among them, not surprisingly, are Turtle Dove Streptopelia turtur, Wryneck Jynx torquilla and Tree Sparrow Passer montanus, but also Bluethroat Luscinia svecica.

Only ten increased, including Eurasian Sparrowhawk Accipiter nisus, Wood Pigeon Columba palumbus, Wren Troglodytes troglodytes and Common Chiffchaff Phylloscopus collybita.

(What about Goldfinch?)

Even longer-term trends, made possible by using the accounts from Gätke as well as Rudolf Drost in the early twentieth century, reveal the sheer numbers of mass migration and falls of literally thousands of birds, such as an estimated 2,000 Ring Ouzels Turdus torquatus in one October night in 1934, or thousands of Common Redstarts Phoenicurus phoenicurus on spring days with a southeasterly wind. There were 1,500 Common Redstarts in May 1940, but such numbers have not been observed since, pointing to overall declines of this once-common species.

More intriguing are the fluctuations in numbers of the Shore Lark Eremophila alpestris over the past 170 years. Hardly known from before 1847, the species increased rapidly to thousands in autumn migration at the end of nineteenth century, declining in the early twentieth century but with hundreds again by the mid 1900s. After 1960 the species declined, increased again in the 1990s and has declined since 1999.

[Are these latter fluctuations climate-change related?]

The book reveals many more intriguing analyses of several species, drawing parallels with observations of birds across the British Isles. "

http://www.britishbirds.co.uk/book-reviews/die-vogelwelt-der-insel-helgoland-the-birds-of-the-island-of-helgoland-by-jochen-dierschke-volker-dierschke-kathrin-huppop-ommo-huppop-and-klaas-felix-jachmann

Posted via email from Afrotropical's posterous

Submitted by admin on Thu, 2012-02-16 10:06.

Phuket: The Non-Hunting Area

James Nok reports:

The Birdman of Arusha: Sent from my iPhone

Begin forwarded message:

From: James Wolstencroft <gonolek@gmail.com>
Date: 9 January 2012 17:29:06 GMT+07:00
To: Jim Vaughan <jvaughan64@hotmail.com>
Subject: A Phuket Non-Hunting Area the entrance

Not as it used to be but closer than some!

IMG_0900.MOV Watch on Posterous

Submitted by admin on Mon, 2012-01-09 10:51.

We Need These Trees - Standing

The Berlin .. Kongo er .. Oxford .. Conference of 2012

Submitted by admin on Sun, 2012-01-08 06:30.

It's a Pallid New Year across darkest Africa

A belated Pallid Harrier New Year to everyone from Ranong in deepest Thailand!

In all the gloom and for many e.g. "our" raptors yes! the doom!

Seems to me we have (here below) an explanation for the heart warming increase in those exquisitely beautiful Pallid Harriers which we are seeing in savanna Africa.

Pallid Harriers, like more steppe conditions, rather than open woodland or forests with extensive glades. Now such conditions appear to be spreading rapidly north and west across the Eurasian continent.

During the coming decades

"as the Northern Hemisphere grows drier and hotter, researchers knew the forests would struggle. The surprise, Andrea Lloyd said, was finding such a sudden shift in the tree line: Across the north country, trees are dying back and being replaced with drought-tolerant grasslands in response to fairly minor changes in moisture."

Sadly there must be grave doubt whether populations of the equally handsome Montagu's Harrier will be faring half as well - pitted as they are against the sterilisation wrought by the "profits-for-the-1%" whose agri-business eats ever deeper into the remaining healthy heartlands across the eastern half of this species' breeding range.

Anyway, wishing you good birding wherever on our much abused Earth you are just now,

James Birdman .... from a damp 'Rain-ong' in the Kra Isthmus.

From Doug Harebottle here's an extract from his email written on 24th May 2010

"There have been numerous recent postings about (potential) massive declines in raptors across Africa (e.g. Secretarybird, Hooded Vulture).

But have there been any raptors that seem to show an increase. The SABAP2 team looked at the Pallid Harrier and the result is a news story and range change map on the SABAP2 websitehttp://sabap2.adu.org.za/index.php which makes for fascinating debate.
Considering the comparison between SABAP1 and SABAP2 data on the map this seems to show an increase in the occurrence of Pallid Harrier in central South Africa.

We'd be interested to hear what other African or Eurasian birders or raptorphiles think, particularly regarding trends in breeding populations!

Project Manager:

Southern African Bird Atlas Project 2

AFRING Coordinator
Animal Demography Unit
Department of Zoology
University of Cape Town
Rondebosch 7701 South Africa

The scientists at the American Geophysical Union meeting drilling ever deeper into the evidence said, in broad terms, 'Change is worse than we thought.'

"The planet is going through incredible change," said Jonathan Foley, director of the University of Minnesota's Institute of the Environment.

Submitted by admin on Sat, 2012-01-07 10:05.

"Africa Hazards Outlook" - A Greening "Greater Horn" in 2012

Climate Prediction Center’s "Africa Hazards" Outlook for USAID / FEWS-NET January 5, 2011 – January 11, 2012

The 2011 short rainy season's yield of moisture was far above average across much of the "Greater Horn" of Africa.

Submitted by admin on Sat, 2012-01-07 07:23.

Whilst Birdman was nearly lost - in oresome Upper Guinea

In San Francisco, a massive meeting discussed climate science while in Durban, another huge gathering debated climate politics. Two roads, on opposite sides of the Earth, diverge – and send progress along at very different speeds

By Douglas Fischer

Submitted by admin on Thu, 2011-12-22 16:46.

The Woes of Kilimanjaro

The Unbelievable Equatorial ( now ... the dustings) Snows of Kilimanjaro:

Returning from my ecological work in Sierra Leone on Friday morning (October 28) I was in the back seat of the 0800 hrs Precision flight from Jomo Kenyatta International NBO to JRO.

So Big Brother was close on my left as we emerged from the heady turbulence of what, in a Boeing, would have necessitated a "Direct Access - Fasten Seat Belts Message"; the ride can often be rough in the 'steppe buzzard flyway' between Kilimanjaro and Mount Meru.

So, thanks to the internet, you can see how solemn and grey "Kili" is just now.

I hear that there have been several widely scattered bouts of heavy rain across large patches of northern Tanzania during the last three weeks.

My Arusha garden, now much wilder than the wilderness, is simply leaping - chock full of singing birds, and at last it is suitable for the two "western pally" Luscinias to announce their return, any week now.

The Hadada Ibis are building again as I write.

Renowned Kenya birder Brian Finch reported to the "kenyabirdsnet" ( i.e. consider joining kenyabirdsnet@yahoogroups.com ) on October 17, 2011 as follows.

"It rained nearly every day I was away in Uganda throughout September.
Freak storms washed away bridges on the Ishasha Road, Queen Elizabeth National Park, and closed Kaajjaanse Airfield in Kampala just as we were about to land, so we had to
go all the way back to Soroti for the night.

There has been some steady rain on the west side of Nairobi (Langata), but hardly anything obvious to the southeast of the city at Athi River, this has been the situation for the past two weeks, although rain is sporadic.

Northern half of Nairobi NP green and lush, dams are very healthy, southern portions remain in the grip of drought and look like semi-desert, and the largest dam will not see out (survive) another month.

Floods in the north west in Kitale, where there has been a serious volume of rain during much of this year; good rains in Rift Naivasha and Nakuru; flooding on the coast in Mombasa, Watamu and also Kibwezi, whilst parts of Makueni only sixty kilometres distant have not seen rain for three years!

A storm over Kibwezi last week was so intense that it prevented small aircraft from going to the coast.

That is just the jist of this crazy climate."

Good Birding is Good for Business, and it can make you healthy and wise.

Save the Birds Capitalism

... or kiss your purse goodbye!

Posted via email from Afrotropical's posterous

Submitted by admin on Sat, 2011-10-29 11:48.

Congo and the climate of Africa by brown-shrikes, books and bins

Incoming! Into the arms of Canon, Swarovski & Zeiss. The red-brown shrikes of western Asia page in the best ID bird guide ever written. Mullarney, Svensson & Zetterstrom - my Princeton review copy!

Congo and the changing climate of Africa

by Braunshrikes, Books and Bins

1] The latest sub-Saharan Africa climate news from USAID's Relief Web Maps.

From the eastern and western peripheries of the Guinea-Congo heartland:

"An erratic distribution of rainfall during the past

two months has led to rainfall deficits throughout

eastern Sudan, Eritrea, and northwestern Ethiopia.

The late onset of the seasonal rains in Sudan had

delayed planting in the region by more than thirty

days and could negatively impact millet, sesame,

and sunflower yields in the region. With the end of

the rainy season near, additional relief is unlikely.

After the end of a below-average Hagaa rainy

season in the middle Shabelle and lower Juba

regions of Somalia, dry conditions still persist along

the southern Somalia and northern Kenya coast at

the start of the short Deyr rainy season. With past

failed rainy seasons, ground and livestock

conditions remain poor. "

Go west young shrikes!

"Two weeks of heavy rains have strengthened

thirty-day rainfall surpluses to greater than 100 mm

over much of southern Ghana. Abundant rains

during past weeks have caused flooding in the

eastern region of Ghana which has resulted in

fatalities, displacement of local populations and

damages to infrastructure. A third week of moderate

to heavy rain forecast could cause additional

flooding across southern Ghana."

http://reliefweb.int/node/451138

Africa's pulmonary artery- the divine river Congo, pictured here almost on "the Equator" (she's flowing southwards from left to right) September 30, 2011 from KQ 510 at 36,000 feet

Posted via email from Afrotropical's posterous

Submitted by admin on Tue, 2011-10-11 10:53.

Congo Cloudscape September 30, 2011

Posted via email from Afrotropical's posterous

Submitted by admin on Fri, 2011-10-07 17:14.

blogs

Levant Sparrowhawks hunt Queleas in the Great Rift Valley

"Birding is the Best" by Private Helgoland

Phuket: The Non-Hunting Area

We Need These Trees - Standing

It's a Pallid New Year across darkest Africa

A belated Pallid Harrier New Year to everyone from Ranong in deepest Thailand!

In all the gloom and for many e.g. "our" raptors yes! the doom!

Seems to me we have (here below) an explanation for the heart warming increase in those exquisitely beautiful Pallid Harriers which we are seeing in savanna Africa.