Day 03 – Monday 18 March 2019
A day in the Bale Mountains getting as high as 4,200 metres.
Targets were the Ethiopian Wolf, successfully seen, and, for Jack, the Lamb-eater.
Pre-breakfast birding in the hotel grounds yielded …
129. Abyssinian Thrush
130. Tacazze Sunbird
131. Baglafecht Weaver
The Sanatti Plateau yielded …
132. Ruddy Shelduck
133. Common Swift
134. White-rumped Swift
135. Bearded Vulture (Lammergeier)
136. Barbary Falcon (subspecies of Peregrine Falcon)
137. Red-billed Chough
138. Thekla’s Lark
139. Banded Martin
Meseret spotted a single male Ethiopian Wolf. He (the wolf) was eating a meal (probably a rat which gets to about 3 kg – the ones we frequently saw were small 4-500g jobs) which took quite a few minutes to get down. He was about 150 metres away (maybe more) and the heat haze (even at 4,200 metres and with a stiff breeze making a jumper essential) meant the shots were “hazed” Then he set off at an angle getting closer to us until within perhaps 50 metres. Much better shots. On the return trip down the dirt road, we spotted another Ethiopian Wolf passing by a couple of cattle freely grazing in the highland plains.
The hotel runs its own generator for power. The afternoon is a favourite time for no power. It came on again at about 6pm. It goes off during the night for about 8 hours. Room service provides a candle for just such a time! For dinner we had a traditional Ethiopian meal which provides many small dishes of all sorts of local cuisine; all with injera, the sourdough bread. It was delicious.
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