A walk round Buduzeera

Some of you may recall I posted about Buduzeera park in June. It's a large land-locked lake filled with semi-fresh water (part salty) and surrounded by a well landscaped area. There are tall reeds all round the edges of the lake. There are also holiday chalets and a children's playground.


The lake is so large and the reeds so impenetrable that the landscape makes it  not only a good place for birds but also almost impossible to see most of them!


In June the most obvious feature was the large colony of breeding cattle egret - near the entrance and right next to a loud busy main road!

great egret going for a walk, Buduzeera 

Some cattle egret were around. Mostly they were walking on the lawns surrounding the lake. Scattered all round the lake at the side of reeds were single grey heron at fairly regular intervals. There was more evidence that large numbers of great egret have now arrived in the country. I snapped another one nonchalantly walking up a path. 

This bird is yet another missing from the Collin's guide distribution map for Libya.In fact the book claims the closest birds are in Sinai and Tunisia which are both 1250 kilometres away.

juvenile cormorant, Buduzeera

I didn't bring my scope and I saw one bird a long, long way away in the reeds. I identified it my taking a large number of photos and blowing them up when I got back, hoping one or two would be in focus. It turned out to be a juvenile cormorant. This is the first time I have ever identified a bird this way. The technique beat my binoculars. Cormorant had been one of my guesses but not the leading contender!

Although the juvenile was probably on its own, it has nothing to worry about. The lake is teeming with fish.  

spotted flycatcher, Buduzeera

The passage is nowhere near over in Libya. Some birds stay a while before carrying on their southward journey. There are plenty of spotted flycatcher still about.

willow warbler, Buduzeera

I was chasing fruitlessly around for a picture of the local resident African reed warbler which I could hear and occasionally glimpse. By way of compensation,  I chanced upon an amenable willow warbler which is still on passage.

another view of a willow warbler

The area also had the "usual" resident house sparrow and great grey shrike. They were mostly up among the holiday home area. However there was one bird I would have loved to have photographed but it alluded me. A European robin had arrived for the winter. This beautiful bird reminds me of home. Hopefully I'll snap one in the coming weeks.

The odd heron and egret

The title of this blog is a play on words. It's about one odd heron - a strange heron I have seen and the odd (meaning small number) great egret. 

dark heron, Ain Azziana, October 8th

The strange heron I'm blogging about is a dark heron found two weeks ago at Ain Azziana. I have asked help from the birding community to identify the bird. Ideas have varied. There were three main ideas,  1. hybrid bird, 2. melanistic (genetic colour defect) or 3. stained.

I think I now have the answer to its identity because of today's visit to the same spot as the bird was seen before. 

It was there again. However, It was no longer lively today. It appeared very tired. It struggled to take off although once in flight it seemed OK.

I got a very close look. I am sure the neck feathers were of poor quality. Also the bird may have been involved in some sort of fight as a small number of its feathers on its wing look like they have been pulled or pucked. There is permanent pack of dogs near-by.

I have little doubt the bird is stained. Ironically it is returning to a more natural colour on its wings   (to a grey heron I believe). See the photo above. It looks like the staining was very light there and somehow it is clearing up.  However it appears to be a race against time as the bird is weak.

I'm a very grateful for those who commented whether they got it "right" or not.  It's been a great learning curve for me. 

I had wondered how the bird had retained its symmetrical plumage if it had been stained but James in Tanzania seems to have worked it out when he comment on this blog yesterday morning

Rob,
I still think that it is an oil stained bird probably a Grey Heron that was engulfed when standing downwind of an oil smoke plume, presumably whilst it was huddle-perched on the ground - hence the appearent 'patterning'. We saw lots and lots of birds of many species droplet-stained just like this during the massive oil fires of the "First Gulf War" in 1991. Note also the rather greasy look to many of the longer body feathers, especially underneath.
Cheers,
James in Arusha

great egret, Ain Azziana

I saw the odd one or two great egret today very close to the dark heron. My memory isn't perfect but I am pretty sure they are the first ones I have seen this winter. The bird differs from little egret (which is very numerous up and down the coast) because it travels more slowly away and less distance away from the cold. So its not surprising it is a later arrival. Since it has finally started to arrive that must mean its getting colder in Europe.  Hard to believe - 36C is predicted for here on Tuesday!