More Nerdy Birders

Bel and I are strictly "armchair" birders. We may put down our tea/beer and stand up to get a better look, but Gabon truly doesn't disappoint when it comes to birding. We've been ticking off "lifers" on a daily basis and have sighted nearly 90 species in our 3 weeks.

Our 2 weeks' R&R in Setté Cama was a delight. Thick forests all around, a lazy lagoon on one side, a wild Atlantic beach on the other. Heaven for the 3 of us. 

 

Apart from a few passing fishermen, our company was:

• Black-capped bulbuls "suh-wheat pah-tay-toe" getting us out of our tents each morning
• Busy blue-breasted bee-eaters classicly posed a few meters from us. Master hunters in and out of their sandbank nests.
• All day, a cacophony of the emphatic "chip-chrrrrrr" of the woodland kingfishers, the raucous bark of ever-elusive turacos and casqued hornbills, the monotonous "plink-plink" of tinkerbirds and the high-pitched trilling of sunbirds.
• The perfectly camouflaged square-tailed nightjar only taking flight from the sand at the last second just before we stepped on it and its tiny pink speckled eggs.
• Great flocks of African grey parrots, living as they should – not caged in solitary confinement - broadcasting their pops, hoots and whistles on the short-wave radio.
• The evening sky filled with rosy bee-eaters and numerous, unnamed swifts and swallows swooping and diving, playing tag with Peggy.
• And of course, there's nothing better than sipping a cold beer, accompanied by the unmistakeable ringing call of the African fish eagle.  .

Aah, that's life!