Atlasville, 26 April 2008
My job now takes me for extended periods to the Zambian and DRC Copperbelt region, where to date I have still not had the luxury of a camera or better than a pair of pocket 10×25 Tasco binos – after all I am there for work and not birding!
Nevertheless, I am just back from my 5th trip to the DRC where I have chalked up my first 100 species (102 actually).
Of these only 5 are species not found in southern Africa – Miombo Pied Barbet, Black-backed Barbet, Sooty Chat, Cabanis’s Greenbul and Long-tailed Cisticola.
A further 14 are species that I have not yet seen in southern Africa, although some of these are extremely uncommon south of the Zambezi and I might never see them in our region at all – White-browed Coucal, Ross’s Turaco, Rufous-cheeked Nightjar, Pennant-winged Nightjar, Blue-spotted Wood-Dove, Western Marsh Harrier, Yellow-bellied Hyliota, Copper Sunbird, Northern Grey-headed Sparrow, Yellow-mantled Widowbird, Magpie Mannikin, Broad-tailed Paradise-Whydah, Brown Firefinch and African Wood Owl.
I look forward to when I will be able to take a camera with me and finally get some photographs of new species.
