Snake-Eagles

Hot on the heels of yesterday's blog...a quick trip 20 kms up the Terekeka road north of Juba revealed some surprises.  In the early dawn, a borrow pit with remnant pools of water held 300 Knob-billed Ducks, 15 Yellow-billed Storks, 4 Pink-backed Pelicans, 6-8 African Spoonbills, at least one Eurasian Spoonbill (only two previous records cited in Nikolaus's "Birds of South Sudan"), as well as Little Egrets, Grey Herons, Hammerkops, Black-winged Stilts, Wood and Common Sandpipers, and 2 Greenshanks.

Knob-billed Ducks, African Spoonbills, Eurasian Spoonbill (second from right) and Pink-backed Pelican

Immature African Spoonbill


Adult Eurasian Spoonbill

Further on I stopped to look at a raptor that seemed slightly different from anything I'd seen before and was pretty amazed to discover that it was a Western Banded Snake-Eagle, a species that I would not have expected out in the harsh, dry acacia savanna - it's more of a riverine forest and woodland species.  It was not at all confiding but I managed to get some i.d. shots.

Western Banded Snake-Eagle

Moving on a bit, I was able to get much better views of two Beaudouin's Snake-Eagles.

Beaudouin's Snake-Eagles

There was a good mix of other raptor species.  A vulture that I photographed thinking it was a Hooded turned out to be an immature White-headed Vulture.  A Steppe Buzzard allowed close views as well, as did an immature Dark Chanting Goshawk.

Immature White-headed Vulture

Steppe Buzzard

Immature Dark Chanting Goshawk

There were rather few Palaearctic migrants.  A few Sand Martins and Barn Swallows hawked over pools, a Eurasian Marsh Harrier flew over, half a dozen Woodchat Shrikes were present, and a single Willow Warbler was good to see - the species seems very scarce in the Juba area. Among the resident species, a Batis called a series of identical notes, lending further evidence that the species in this area is Black-headed Batis, even though the birds have grey heads (and are therefore probably indistingushable in appearance from Grey-headed Batis, which seems to be present east of the Nile). Batises calling by the Nile during my rafting trip were either Grey-headed, or (much less likely) Chin-spot Batis. Something else to work out.

Finally, I was able to photograph the male of a pair of Four-banded Sandgrouse, a species I've only noted once before in the area.

Male Four-banded Sandgrouse

By the way, to see my posts from South Sudan prior to July 2011 go to Tom Jenner's blog http://birdingsudan.blogspot.com/