Almost a cold day on the Terekeka road

With more early morning rain, it felt almost cold this morning, at least driving in the vehicle with the windows down.  It was probably about 22 degrees centigrade in reality.  Richard Trewby and I went to see if the egrets etc from last weekend were still around. At first glance the marshland looked rather empty, with no Black Egrets in view.  However the five Black Egrets flew in as we waited and although there were fewer egrets and herons present, the number of species was again high.  This time there was a Goliath Heron as well as an immature African Fish Eagle, species not seen last weekend.

Goliath Heron

Immature African Fish Eagle

The bushland further on produced a good mix of species including Western Banded Snake-Eagle, White-billed Buffalo-Weavers, Black-bellied Bustard, White-rumped Swifts, a Diederik Cuckoo and a male Parasitic Weaver that allowed remarkably close approach - most small birds are really flighty, no doubt something to do with small boys and catapults.  I've only seen two Parasitic Weavers around Juba before today.  The females lay their eggs in the nests of cisticolas and prinias.

Male Parasitic Weaver

By the way, I did not include in my last post some photos of cisticolas taken yesterday as I was unsure of the species.  I am reasonably sure now that they are Winding Cisticolas Cisticola marginatus of the race C. m. marginatus. This race is confined to South Sudan and northern Uganda. The birds do not much resemble the painting in Fanshawe and Stevenson's Birds of East Africa, though a Winding Cisticola that I photographed here in January in non-breeding plumage is much more similar. Views welcome.



Presumed Winding Cisticolas.

Lastly, a species that does not make onto many wild bird blogs I imagine, Helmeted Guineafowl:

Helmeted Guineafowl