This blog recounts a very successful 15 day trip to Ethiopia with Bridget and Paul James (mum and dad). My special thanks to Abel Belay Molla (our guide) and Nebu (our driver) who guided and drove us around and looked after us impeccably.
Our overnight Ethiopian Airlines flight from Heathrow arrived early morning at Bole International Airport 45 minutes ahead of schedule. Despite the coronavirus outbreak, only passengers from the Far East were being screened on arrival, allowing us to pass through immigration with minimal delay. Abel was there to meet us in the car park outside together with Nebu our driver and a 4WD Toyota Landcruiser which would no doubt come in useful over the next couple of weeks. Our first stop was the Tatu Hotel, reputedly the oldest hotel in Addis, where coffee in the garden was accompanied by our first birds of the trip: Baglefecht Weaver, Brown-rumped Seedeater, Dusky Turtle Dove, Hooded Vulture, Mountain Thrush,Wattled Ibis and Yellow-billed Kite.
From Addis we wound out way out of the city heading northwards on to the Sululta Plain, a high altitude (2500m) grassy plain surrounded by mountains. A roadside stop was made after about an hour by a stream to look for Abyssinian Longclaw. Being a Saturday, a ‘welcoming party’ of kids was there to meet and follow us wherever we went, pleading for ‘money’. Despite their attention, we did see 3 Longclaws though the views we had were brief and a bit unsatisfactory. Also noted here were: Thick-billed Raven, five Green and two Common Sandpipers, five Red-billed Oxpecker, African Pipit, three Ethiopian Cisticola, Pied and Malachite Kingfisher, two Red-throated Pipit, African Stonechat, Augur Buzzard, two Lanner Falcon and a flyover Black Stork.
The monastery at Debre Libanos is a well-known religious site but we were here for the birds rather than cultural reasons. With thunder rumbling in the distance and a few drops of rain, we took a rocky path that led uphill through the forest to the base of a dried-up waterfall. Birds in this area included a noisy party of 8 White-cheeked Turacos, an equally noisy party of White-rumped Babblers, Hemprich’s Hornbill, three Blue-breasted Bee-eater, Abyssinian Slaty Flycatcher, Common Bulbul, African Harrier-hawk, two Mountain Wagtail, Fan-tailed Raven, Beautiful Sunbird, White-backed Blacktit as well as our first two mammals of the trip in the form of a Rock Hyrax and a Vervet Monkey.
Our final stop was at the Portuguese Bridge where two new endemics – three Ruppell’s Black Chat and 15 White-billed Starling– were quickly located plus parties of Nyanza Swifts, a Red-rumped Swallow was noted overhead, a pair of Tacazze Sunbird, Mocking Cliff Chat and a Tawny-flanked Prinia which skulked around in the bushes.
The views of the Jemma Valley from the grounds of the now closed Ethio-German Park Hotel were spectacular and made even better when a superb Lammergeier passed right overhead.
We stayed overnight in the rather basic C-Lale Resort Hotel in Fiche where Arsenal v West Ham was showing on the screen in the restaurant.
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| Red-throated Pipit, Sululta Plain, Ethiopia |
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| Ruppell's Black Chat (endemic), Portuguese Bridge, Ethiopia |
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| Lammergeier, Portugese Bridge, Ethiopia |
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