Summer 2006 BirdList

Most of these species below are "life-birds" for me. Species listed with a (A) are ones for which I did not get a visual.

DAR to Amani

Bishop sp. (Black-winged or Southern Red Bishop?)
A long tailed bird (Paradise Whydah or Pin-tailed Widow-bird?)

Amani Nature Reserve

Accipiter (imm. Sparrowhawk)?
African Citril
African Crowned Eagle
African Dusky Flycatcher
African Green Pigeon
African Palm Swift
African Paradise Flycatcher (F)
African Sparrowhawk
African-pied Wagtail
Apelis sp.
Black Saw-wing (Rough-wing)
Black-and-white Mannikin
Brown-hooded Kingfisher
Cabani's Bunting
Collared Sunbird
Common Buzzard?
Common Drongo
Common Fiscal
Fisher's Turaco (A)
Green Barbet
Green-headed Oriole
Little Greenbul
Little Swift
Mountain (Long-tailed) Wag-tail
Olive Sunbird
Silvery-cheeked Hornbill
Speckled Mousebird
Spotted Eagle-Owl? (A)
Tawny-flanked Prinia (A)
Trumpeter Hornbill
Verreaux's Eagle
Waller's Starling
White-breasted Alethe
White-naped Raven
Yellow-vented (Common) Bulbul

Lesser-masked or Dark-backed Weaver nest

Tanga

House Sparrrow
Pied Crow

Bububu Beach, Zanzibar

House Crow

Chumba-Jozani Forest Reserve, Zanzibar

Cattle Egret
Crested Hornbill (A)
Intermediate Egret
Red-eyed Dove (A)
Yellow-rumped Tinkerbird (A)

East Coast Visitor's Inn, Jambiani, Zanzibar

African Golden Weaver
Dimorphic Egret (black-phase)
Green Wood-Hoopoe
Grey Heron
Lesser-crested Tern
Ruddy Turnstone

Ruaha National Park, Tanzania

African Fish Eagle
African Skimmer
African Wattled Plover
African White-backed Vulture
Bare-faced Go-away-bird
Bateleur
Black-chested Snake Eagle
Black-faced Sandgrouse?
Black-winged Stilt
Buff-breasted Bustard?
Cinnamon-chested Bee-eater
Common Sandpiper
Common Scimitarbill
Crested Barbet
Crested Francolin
Crowned Plover
Egyptian Goose
Eremomela sp.
Goliath Heron
Grey-wren Warbler?
Hadada or Glossy Ibis?
Hammerkop
Helmeted Guineafowl
Hooded Vulture
Jackson's Hornbill
Lappet-faced Vulture?
A Lark/Lapwing-Plover like bird with black face, crest and bib?
Laughing Dove
Lilac-breasted Roller
Long-crested Eagle
A long-tailed Drongo?
Madagascar Pond Heron?
Marabou Stork
Martial Eagle?
Namaqua Dove
Pearly-spotted Owlet
Pied Kingfisher
A Drongo/Bobolink-like bird with a white crown-patch (Pied Wheatear or White-crowned Starling or White-crowned shrike?)
Red-bellied Firefinch?
Red-billed Hornbill?
Red-billed Oxpecker
Red-tailed Chat?
Ringed Plover
Ring-necked (Zenaida-like) Dove?
Ring-necked Dove?
Saddle-billed Stork
Scaly Francolin
Slate-coloured Boubou
Southern Ground Hornbill
Superb Starling
Three-banded Plover
Von der Decken's Hornbill
White-browed Coucal
White-browed Robin-Chat?
White-headed Buffalo Weaver
Yellow-billed Stork
Yellow-collared Lovebird?

Jive Rock, Iringa

Black-backed Puffback?
White-bellied Tit

Bungoyo Island

Scarlet-chested Sunbird
Lesser-crested Tern?
Red-eyed Dove?
Sacred Ibis
Sanderling?

DAR-Botanical Gardens

Pavo cristatus
Grey-headed Kingfisher?
Little Bee-eater

UK

Bar-headed Goose
Black-backed Gull
Herring Gull
Magpie
Sand Martin

Veracruz, Mexico

Frigatebird (F. magnificens)
Arctic Tern
Black-and-white Flycatcher
Black-bellied Plover
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Blue-gray Tanager
Brown Pelican
Buff-bellied Hummingbird
Ferruginous Spotted Owls
Golden-fronted Woodpecker
Great-tailed Flycatcher
Great-tailed Grackle
Green Parrot
Inca Dove
Kiskidee
Laughing Gull
Osprey
Sanderling
Sandwich Terns
Spotted Sandpiper
Sterna sp.

Cardel Hotel Bienvenido

American Kestrel
Baltimore Oriole
Black Vulture
Broad-winged Hawk
Peregrine Falcon
Scissor-tailed Flycathcer

Chichicaxtle

Altamira Oriole
Empidonax sp.
Mexican Sheartail
Rough-winged Swallow
Scrub Euphonia
Swainson's Hawk
Tropical Parula
Vermillion Flycatcher
Wood Stork
Zenaida sp.

Mahabalipuram, the Shore temples of South India (Aug. 2006)

I was grounded in India, as I waited for my US VISA to arrive. But, I made the most of my stay by visiting the 7th century Pallava port of Mahabalipuram which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site for its shore temples.


I look like I came down from playing volleyball.
Well, I couldn't help but remembering Pulp fiction:

                              THE WOLF

                   Perfect.  Perfect.  We couldn't've

                   planned this better.  You guys look

                   like...what do they look like,

                   Jimmie?



                              JIMMIE

                   Dorks.  They look like a couple of

                   dorks.



You know what I'm talking about!

This is a contemporary light house, but the Pallavas had their own lighthouse back in their day (8th cent.?)


Panorama showing the new and the old lighthouses!



The famous Mahisasuramardhini scene (Goddess Parvati decapitating the bull-headed demon) from Hindu mythology in exquisit bas-relief.


The Pancharathas (5-chariots) carved from monolithic stones.


My main man.

Veracruz, Mexico (2-8 Octobre, 2006)

The final leg of my journey this summer took me to Veracruz, Mexico for the fourth North American Ornithological Congress.






Old town Veracruz - localo o central?


At the Constitution Plaza


Centro de historio, Veracruz.



A 16th century citadel. Ironically, the hotel guys told us there aren't any cool things to see in the old part of the city and that all the buildings are quite recent.


This is what a flock of birdpeople looks like!


The World Trade Center, our conference venue. The whole area was very upscale. It reminded me of being somewhere in the US, not in Mexico.


at the Hawk Migration Watch place in Cardel


A kettle


A kettle of hawks (mostly Swainson's, Broad-winged and Black Vultures) just forming. We must have seen about 20,000 hawks in just under 2 hours! It was a veritable river of migrating hawks.

Edinburgh, Glasgow and Stirling, Scotland (15-21 August, 2006)

I had days to kill in the UK, so off I went to Scotland. It was the peak of the Edinburgh festival and the tattoo was in full swing. I was lucky to find any student youth hostel accommodation at all! I went to the Edinburgh Castle of course, hiked to Arthur's seat, before I left for Glasgow where I stayed at Univ. of Glasgow Murano street student village which is in a somewhat shady neighborhood. I used Glasgow as a base to visit Stirling Castle. Highlights include the Elephant House, the famous cafe where J. K. Rowling got her inspiration (Edinburgh), and some of the finest Indian cuisine in Glasgow, the curry capital of the world: the Dhabba, which, untrue to its proletariat etymology, was extremely expensive. I got a real flair for the common folk at Glasgow. Unlike the touristy Edinburgh with its quaint "closes", parts of Glasgow are extremely sketchy and can be littered, but it gives one a sense of association with the local working class. Unsurprisingly, parts of Glasgow are extremely gentrified too.

Festival mob at Edinburgh


The beautiful St. Giles Cathedral or the High Kirk of Edinburgh on the Royal Mile.


The Castle







Beautiful stained-glass window in the oldest building in all of Edinburgh - St. Margaret's Chapel, a tiny Norman building which has been intact for more than 900 years!



The Scottish National Parliament. Cool looking but at a whopping 400 million pounds, ten times its original estimate!


Palace of Holyroodhouse


A tarn en route to Arthur's Seat


Arthur's Seat. No connection with the legendary King Arthur!




Glasgow Cathedral


The crypt where Glasgow University was founded


The adjacent Neoclassical ruins of the Necropolis, a crumbling but beautiful cemetery.



George Square, Glasgow


Of course, can anyone go to Scotland and not have Haggis (in my case, vegetarian) and IRN-BRU?


(MacKintosh) Willow Tea Room on Argyll St.



At Stirling Castle


Apparently they discovered a piece of wall with this ugly-colored coat intact and so they spoiled the look of the castle by painting it.