Rafting the White Nile

Well, it's only taken seven months to start this post-independence blog after I had previously co-blogged with Tom Jenner.  Better late than never.  I really had to share a few photos from a rafting trip with African Rivers, downriver from Nimule 90 kms towards Juba.  The birding highlights were the Rock Pratincoles that seemed to be present on almost every suitable rock in the river.

Rock Pratincoles

Other highlights included several African Fish Eagles; Red-throated, Northern Carmine, European and Blue-cheeked Bee-eaters; Broad-billed Rollers; an amazing male Standard-winged Nightjar; Bat Hawk; White-crested Turacos and several Goliath Herons.

Immature African Fish Eagle

I was not able to take many decent photos of birds, partly because of the risk of giving the camera a soaking - one of us fell in! However I did get some photos of what may be the first African Cuckoo-Hawk for South Sudan - an immature; and some of a beautiful male Semi-collared Flycatcher.

Presumed immature African Cuckoo-Hawk

Semi-collared Flycatcher

Another good bird was a Spot-flanked Barbet, possibly the first record away from the Didinga Mountains, by reference to Nikolaus's "Birds of South Sudan". The previous rafting group apparently saw Pel's Fishing-Owl a couple of weeks ago - definitely one to look out for as the habitat seemed suitable.

Riverine trees

Palaearctic migrants included a few Steppe Buzzards, two male Eurasian Golden Orioles, a Eurasian Marsh Harrier as well as an adult Black-headed Gull (only a few previous records of this species in South Sudan). We saw a hippo and a few crocodiles, whilst the mammalian highlight was the several elephants seen near the park entrance.

Elephants

And just to prove we were actually rafting (up to grade 4) rapids: