Sokoke Forest was simply magnificent, with swathes of good birds, coming thick and fast in just a day and half there...
OK so it may have taken the good part of a day to find their famous pipit (appropriately named of course "Sokoke Pipit"), but this came after we had taken in a glorious male Four-colored Bush-shrike, and watched dashing Peter's Twinspots flitting on and off the entrance track. Our final morning there was a classic, opening with a wary roosting African Wood Owl, continued with another Mangrove Kingfisher (we also scored this the day before right behind the park office), and was headlined with a pair of Fischer's Turacos, which Nick commented looked rather like they were wearing gaudy eye make-up! On one of our many off path forays in Sokoke that morning we stumbled on to their flagship mammal, the distinctly odd Golden-rumped Elephant-Shrew. This bizarre creature is not a shrew or elephant-like animal at all, but unbelievably now supposedly related to the sea-dwelling manatees! In reality it looks like nothing else on the planet, with a large behind, splashed with striking golden-coloration, and an unwieldy looking, downcurved snout, this strange beast looks like it has just jumped out of the mind of the author of the Harry Potter wizardry books. After chasing the shadows of furtive greenbuls for a while we finished with another landmark moment, when Sokoke's champion skulker, the handsome East Coast Akalat (something akin to a yellow-breasted European Robin, sort of), hopped up into full glorious view to cap off our time at Sokoke with a final flourish; we did not get it all, but we were close, so very close! Oh and I almost forgot with so much to mention, but chasing down a rowdy flock of Chestnut-fronted Helmetshrikes finally led us to the oft-missed Clarke's Weaver, also on this final, memorable morning.
1 comment:
I miss Sokoke very much...
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