Frontier Mine, DR Congo, Sunday 3rd November

Sunday morning and a chance to work my patch properly. As usual I started on the Tailings Dam which still holds plenty of waders although Little Stint numbers were down. One female Black-winged Stilt was noted sitting on eggs. A few hirundines about including several Common House-Martins, most of them brownish juveniles, good to see knowing the sharp decline suffered in the UK recently. It's been a good autumn for them passing through, amazingly for such an abundant bird we still don't know where the bulk of them winter. Best of all was a brief Whiskered Tern in breeding plumage perched on a post. Species number 313 for the site and a long overdue addition.

Barn Swallow, Frontier Mine, DR Congo

Checking the woodlands in the camp first yielded a nice flock around a floodlight picking off the previous night's insects. Preoccupied with feeding, I managed to get some mug shots of a few common species as well as Schalow's Turaco up in the canopy. One day I'll nail one at eye level, but not this time.

Bronze Mannikin, Frontier Mine, DR Congo

White-browed Robin-Chat, Frontier Mine, DR Congo

female Peters's Twinspot, Frontier Mine, DR Congo

Ashy Flycatcher, Frontier Mine, DR Congo

Kurrichane Thrush, Frontier Mine, DR Congo

Schalow's Turaco, Frontier Mine, DR Congo

Willow Warbler, Frontier Mine, DR Congo

It was a good day for evidence of breeding, locating nests of Chestnut-backed Sparrow-Weaver and Yellow-bellied Hyliota whilst Chinspot Batis and Wahlberg's Eagle were still sitting and Violet-backed Starling feeding young in the nest. Recently fledged Boehm's Flycatcher and Holub's Golden-Weaver were also found and a pair of African Paradise-Flycatcher were just starting to build.

Chestnut-backed Sparrow-Weaver, Frontier Mine, DR Congo

nest-building African Paradise-Flycatcher, Frontier Mine, Sakania

female Chinspot Batis, Frontier Mine, DR Congo

There were also plenty of migrants around the pick of which was a Collared Flycatcher and nine each of Red-backed and Lesser Grey Shrike.

first-winter Lesser Grey Shrike, Frontier Mine, DR Congo

Last weeks showy Miombo Pied Barbet responded to playback and came in immediately again but the dambo was fairly quiet. Most of the storks and herons having departed with falling water levels and dwindling fish stocks. I did find a very small Nile Monitor in the inlet channel, presumably evidence of fairly recent breeding by the gargantuan pair who can sometimes be found lurking around.

After another Vettel-dominated F1 borefest I had intended to get out again in the late afternoon but with bad light and light rain I decided instead to start working through photos and get them up on Flickr. Driving to the mess at dusk I found the two recently fledged Spotted Eagle-Owl young in the road where their sibling had been killed two weeks previously. They'd already grown up a lot from the balls of fluff they were when I last saw them ten days previously, as the photo below shows one of them.

fledgeling Spotted Eagle-Owl, Frontier Mine, DR Congo