Archive for the ‘Birds’ Category
These eggs caught my attention the other day. The nest was just on the ground not far from the patrol post, made of old grass. It is the first time I have seen 4 eggs of this kind together, usually it is just 2.
The eggs seemed quite exposed.
The eggs are those of a Caspian Plover. This bird helps us, during the night and the day, by making a noise if they see something strange. These birds help our security. In Ishango, and my country in general, having help with security is a good thing. Remember we still have the Mai Mai not far away, even though at the moment they are calm.
Taken from a distance with zoom, so a little blurred.
I am going to try and find out if it is 1 or 2 birds nesting.
I also wanted to share a photo of a crocodile. This is a young crocodile trying to climb the hill on the bank of the Semliki River. Recently we recorded 10 crocodiles just below the patrol post in the river, and you often see the crocs basking in the sun with the hippos. This picture was taken from the boat, so I was not scared!
Just outside my house I am often visited by many weaver birds. I was interested to see how they got along with each other and so I threw them a piece of potato.
There is no sound and the quality is poor, but below you can see a video that I took of the birds fighting over the potato. I edited the video to just 30 seconds, but the original went on for two minutes and the actual battle went on for much longer.
Always fighting, with the piece of potato too big for just one bird to take away. The fight continued with no bird winning, each one losing.
Ishango is well known for its diversity of bird life. This is the Saddle-billed Stork that makes a regular appearance in the Semliki River just below the patrol post.
As you can see it has a long tri-coloured beak and very long legs.
It hunts through flooded vegetation where it captures fish and frogs, which are often thrown into the air before they are swallowed. They do not make much noise, but we like to watch them. Ishango used to be one of the best bird watching sites in DR Congo, with a lot of migratory birds landing on the sandbanks in the mouth of the Semliki River. With the slaughtering of so many hippos the sandbanks are now covered with grass and reeds (hippos used to eat and trample on the vegetation) and there are much fewer birds.
The hippos are hopefully coming back to Ishango, and so one day we will be seeing more birds.
While clearing away some grass around the paths of Ishango we came across this egg.
It is the egg of the Senegal Thick-Knee. Notice the speckled markings on the shell which add camouflage among the gravel in the ground.
When the Thick-Knee has a nest, she will try and scare away any animal that comes near by running straight at him.
Although we were too big a match and so she waited by the paillote, just by the doorway, and then returned again once we had left the area.
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