Primates.

Gorillas

Oruzogo group was near Cuckooland last week, as gorilla trackers were coming through our land to get to them.

Chimpanzees

Have seen chimps only a couple of times in last fortnight, but we can hear them every day now, making noise in the forest.  I expect them to be more visible now that the rains have started.

Other monkeys

Baboons mostly just pass by on the forest boundary, but we found one today trying to eat the guavas.  Black and white colobus, blue, red-tailed and l’hoests monkeys also seen regularly.

Birds

Bird of the month has to be Doherty’s Bush-shrike, a beautiful bird, with a striking call.  I hadn’t seen one for about 5 years, till a few days ago.

Other notable sightings included:

• Green-throated sunbird
• Double-toothed barbet
•  Many Cuckoos, including African emerald, Black, Dusky long-tailed, Diederik, Klaas’ and Levaillant’s.  Emerald seems to be resident at the moment, and many juveniles of Klaas and Emerald are feasting on caterpillars in our Prunus Africana trees.
• Mountain masked Apalis
• Black-throated Apalis
• White-throated green bull
• Yellow-throated green bull
• Blue-headed sunbird
• Petit’s Cuckoo-shrike
• Grey Cuckoo-shrike
• Black Cuckoo-shrike
• Olive Pigeon
• African green Pigeon
• Hairy-breasted barbet
• Red-headed bluebill
• Dusky tit
• Speckled tinkerbird
• Ruwenzori Batis
• Nightjar, but very hard to see which one, as it flew off quickly
• Black-faced rufous warbler
• Banded Prinia
• Crowned Eagle
• Violet-backed starling
• Red-headed Malimbe

Fruit of the Land

We still have guavas, in spite of the baboons and some pineapples in the garden.  First avocados of the season are almost ready.

In the garden, we have leeks, turnips, celery, courgettes, pumpkins, welsh onions as well as salad veg and a few tomatoes.

Trees

Planted another 15  forest trees yesterday in’ the gaps’.  Botanist came two days ago to help identify some of the more obscure species.

Swimming Pond

We emptied the pond last week and cleaned it.  Hoping it will now fill up if we get good rains.  Installed a new filter, which will hopefully keep the water quality cleaner.

Philip

August 31, 2019