savannah nr. palmarin

27th monday… palmarin….first the savannah… palm swifts over, young woodchat, cordon bleu. zebu cattle, francolin, sunbirds on clematis type flower, abyssinian rollers.

sun still strong on back of neck, shadows lengthening… under one big bare baobab… the two neighbouring ones have the colonial bundles of thorns wrapped along the branches like huge galls or cankers… white billed buffalo weavers and these are giving out their grackle like calls.
fanned form of acacias.. splaying from central trunks… feathery leaves belie their thorny branches.
Now the harmattan blowing strong and causing them to wave about. 2 ring necked parakeets fly noisily by. This morning a senegal parrot…bright mid green above and yellow below. masked face with pale eye. Clambering around in a bush with small yellow berries.
Blue cheeked bee-eaters overhead in the baobab… at one point with a bonelli’s warbler in amongst them. also a vieillot’s barbet… brilliant red spattered over its front.
first thing african green pigeons also in the baobab tops….. softest grey green head and neck… canary yellow undersides… white bill. soft violet forewings and olive green upperparts.
Jackal seen a couple of times.
Yesterday the jackal putting up the spur winged francolins.
3 verraux’s eagle owls up in amongst the weaver nest today.. 2 yesterday and one then with prey… huge grey brown plain owls… frightening faces going with their huge talons. white lobed faces…. a tribal mask… bulging orb eyes with the upper eyelid naked pink flesh. bristles around the base of the bill forming triangle around the bill but in profile the huge nature of the bills downward projection made obvious like seeing baby barn owls with their head anatomy revealed.
black crowned tchagra. song in swooping display flight. chiffchaff hopping around in bare baobab branches.

Senegal 2014, senegal-fieldwork-2014