FROM THE CUCKOO’S NEST SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2018
Primates.
Chimpanzees
We saw chimps almost daily in September ; and 3 or 4 at a time. Seen them fewer times this month, but they are around as they keep eating the bracken at the side of our paths.
Monkeys
Black and white colobus, blue and l’hoest’s monkeys , red-tailed monkeys and baboons all are regular visitors to trees by the boundary, where Cuckooland adjoins the forest.
Other mammals
I disturbed a duiker today, while clearing round some young trees. Side-striped jackal has also been seen this month.,
Birds
Mahogany springs bird 
papyrus Gonlek
A very good period for birds. Even though I was away for almost a month, I have seen many interesting and uncommon birds in the time that I have been here.
Sunbirds particularly abundant at this time. One day, I saw 4 different species including blue-throated brown sunbird, competing for flowers of one calliandra tree. And blue-headed is now almost resident in the flowers around the pond, along with olive-bellied, green-headed and bronze.
All 3 Cuckoo shrikes, black , Petits and Grey have been seen in the last month, while Diederick, Klaas, Black and African Emerald Cuckoos have also been seen, with Diederick now almost a permanent resident. .
Other notable sightings include:
Tullberg’s and Elliot’sWoodpeckers
Spotted Flycatcher
White-throated greenbull
Double-toothed barbet
Shelly’s greenbull
Mountain Greenbull
Red-tailed greenbull
African Golden-breasted bunting -now seems to be resident
Mountain-masked Apalis
Black-throated Apalis
Black-spotted Wood dove
Pink-foot puffback
Red-headed Bluebill
Equatorial Akalat
Grosbeak Weaver
African Green Pigeon
African Hill Babbler
White-shouldered tit
Dusky tit
Yellow-eyed black flycatcher
Dusky Crimsonwing
Black-faced rufous warbler
European bee-eaters now patrol the skies above us on most days.
Fruit of the Land
Still plenty of avocados, also strawberry guavas , a few passion fruit and pineapples.
In the garden, we are harvesting mainly salad veg ,leeks and welsh onions with a few green peppers and courgettes.
Trees
Planted around 20 indigenous trees in the gaps in September but still struggling to find waterproof method of labeling trees.
.Philip