Today was our first full day in Mole National Park. We had a brief Greyish Eagle Owl right beside the lodges the previous evening after settling in. We awoke early as usual in the morning for breakfast but it had started raining very heavily, the first substantial rain of the trip. The rainy season wasn't supposed to kick in for another two months so it was a bit of a surprise. After two hours of wasted daylight it thankfully stopped. After a slow start today proved to be one of the best days of the trip personally speaking. There were a several highlights during the course of the day which included good views of White-throated Francolin & Stone Partridge, White-headed Vulture, several Bateleurs (cracking looking birds in flight), a male Denham's Bustard displaying and mating with a female, Forbe's Plover, Four-banded Sandgrouse, Northern White-faced Owl, Standard-winged Nightjar, White-breasted Cuckooshrike, African Moustached Warbler and of course African Elephant! I'll throw up another post shortly featuring the passerines (plus near-passerines) and mammals.
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| Black-crowned Night Heron |
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| Squacco Heron |
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| Black-headed and Grey Heron |
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| Cattle Egret |
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| Hammerkop |
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| White-faced Whistling Ducks |
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| Hooded Vulture |
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| White-headed Vulture |
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| White-headed Vulture |
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| Male Bateleur |
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| Male Denham's Bustard displaying to female. |
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| Male and female Denham's Bustard |
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| Copulation |
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| Copulation |
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| Dust flying after the deed. |
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| Female Denham's Bustard |
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| Stone Partridge |
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| White-throated Francolin |
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| White-throated Francolin, almost Corncrake like! |
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| Senegal Thick-knees |
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| Senegal Thick-knee |
Fantastic stuff Dermot. I thought you might like to know that the bird you've captioned as Hadada Ibis is in fact a Hamerkop! Fantastic photos, I can't wait to get to Ghana some day.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment and for pointing out the typo, just changed it there.
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