21 Jun 23 - Angola - On The Road Again

The plan to depart the Pousada Calandula Lodge overlooking the Calandula Falls at dawn failed. While we were ready to leave at dawn, it took about twenty minutes to find anybody in the hotel so Niall could sort out our checkout. Hotel payments always were complicated by Angola only accepting a limited number of credit cards in the country. Sometimes hotels wouldn't take credit cards or their machines wouldn't take Niall's South African credit cards. He always had the ultimate option of paying in cash. But that meant finding a larger town afterwards, with a working ATM machine where he could withdraw Angolan currency to top up his cash reserves. On at least one occasion, Phil had to use his credit cards to help Niall, when none of Niall's credit cards would work in an ATM. On a positive, diesel worked out about £1.10 a gallon: it was several years when I last paid that price for just one litre in the UK.

It was a good job we had seen the Calandula Falls on the first evening: The morning mists spoilt the view

Calandula Falls from the Lodge: This is what they looked like on the first afternoon (19 Jun 23)

Giant Kingfisher: The Giant Kingfisher was again sitting well away from the bridge over the River Lucala. This is the nominate maxima subspecies which occurs from the rainforests of Liberia to West Tanzania & North Angola. Another subspecies occurs from Senegal to Ethiopia & down to South Africa

After a short stop at the bridge over the River Lucala, we returned to the Kinjila Forest. Very quickly one of the previous days guides and a different guide came to join us. We spent a frustrating couple of hours in the forest. We managed to get decent views of Cabanis's Greenbuls in the forest, which we hadn't seen properly on the previous day: albeit it wasn't a Tick for me. After a bit of searching, Niall managed to find our first Brown-headed Apalis: which was one of our target species for the Kinjila Forest. We heard a White-spotted Flufftail, but it was in an area where it wasn't going to be possible to get close enough to have a chance of seeing it.

Local adaptability in carrying large objects

The next frustrating species was the nominate subspecies of Four-coloured Bushshrike, known locally as Perrin's Bushshrike. Niall said there were some plumage differences between the Angolan Perrin's individuals and further East in their range, despite all being classified as the nominate subspecies. After a fair bit of searching, Richard and I managed to get views of this individual, but unfortunately, Phil was in the wrong place on both occasions. He had seen the Eastern population of the nominate subspecies, but he never managed to see one in Angola. I was pleased to see a showy African Broadbill again as the Broadbills are always one of my favourite families: albeit the family has now been split into two families.

African Broadbill: This is the albigularis subspecies which occurs from Angola to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, North Zambia, West Tanzania & North Malawi

Narina Trogon: This is the nominate narina subspecies which occurs from the highlands of Ethiopia to Angola & South Africa. Other subspecies occur across much of Sub-Saharan Africa

We decided to head out into the Miombo area on the approach track about a mile or so beyond the village with the guides. We were looking for a Miombo Scrub-robin, but couldn't locate any. Fortunately, we did see one later in the trip. But we got jammy when a Dusky Long-tailed Cuckoo flew across the grassland: a bonus Tick for me. Soon after Niall decided to pay the guides and knock the Birding on the head.

Birding in the Miombo woodland

Crowned Hornbill: This monotypic species occurs on the savannas of East & South Africa

We drove back to the main road for the 2.5 hour drive West to the town of N'dalatando. It was an uneventful journey apart from a short stop at a bridge over a river where we saw a few Little Swifts, Angolan Swallows & Lesser Striped Swallows.

Little Swift: This is the aerobates subspecies which occurs from South West Mauritania to Ethiopia, Somalia, Central Angola & South Africa

Little Swift

Angola Swallow: This monotypic species occurs from Angola, Gabon, to Zambia, Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda & West Kenya

We quickly found the Hotel Terminus in the middle of N'dalatando which was to be our base for the next couple of nights. The hotel knew about Niall's booking & the check in went smoothly.

The remains of the forested valley near N'dalatando

After checking in, we headed out again for the remains of a wooded valley about a forty minute drive beyond N'dalatando. This would have been a great Birding place at some point. But as usual for Angola, the commercial trees were long gone and what remained were a few big trees with little commercial value. A few of the old Portuguese buildings had been occupied by villagers, with others living in the more traditional mudbrick houses. The valley now had areas of cultivation including fruit trees, which confirmed this was a more lush area with a higher rainfall than a number of the dry arid sites we visited. There was a reasonable selection of new species for the trip: none of which I had seen for at least twenty five years. So, I was focusing on enjoying the Birding, rather than photography. The highlight was seeing my first male Ludwig's Double-collared Sunbird. We probably saw a number of others, but they were females or immature males and we hadn't got our eye in on how to separate them from the similar looking Olive-bellied Sunbirds that were also there.

Nothing to see here: Just a Goat on a high wall

Crossing a clearing to the morning's forest patch

We returned to the Hotel Terminus at dusk. It all looked quite posh in the hotel & the rooms, like a modern 2 or 3 star UK hotel. But the appearance lulled us into a false sense of security: as the food service was typically Angolan. On the first evening, I asked that we ordered the food just after the restaurant opened at 19:00. The restaurant started filling up with other guests around 20:00 & their food arrived well within an hour of their arrival. Our food started to appear about 22:00 and then it came in dribs & drabs. Very frustrating given how early we had ordered. Not the ideal scenario when we were planning to be up for about five the following morning. It was better on the second evening, as we only had an hour & a half wait before the first plates arrived. Albeit they still appeared in dribs & drabs again.

18 Jun 23 - Angola - Forest: A Lost Cause

Despite not getting our evening meal till around 22:00, we were up at 05:00 to be back in the field for dawn. For the last several years, I've carried a metal coffee press, ground coffee & an insulated mug on foreign trips. This has been great, but it's dependent on being able to get hot water from hotels: on many days in the past this hasn't been possible. I've gone one step further on this trip & also packed a small travel kettle. So the typical morning routine has been to allow enough time for Phil (my room-mate on the trip) & I, to boil enough water for decent coffee to take into the field. The travel kettle proved its worth on this trip & will be another thing I have to fit into my bag on future trips.

It was about a forty-five minute drive to return to the area we had been Birding the previous afternoon in the Damengola Forest. This name is very misleading as the Damengola Forest has been completely logged and the only trees left are those with little or no commercial value. It is a real challenge to find even the smallest patches of surviving trees. The Birds we found were those who were more tolerant of secondary habitats, while the true forest specialists will have gone.

Our first stop was on the main road a few miles before the tracks into the remains of the forest. Here there were a few large trees next to the road, where we saw African Pied Hornbills, Piping Hornbills, Western Bronze-naped Pigeons, African Green Pigeons, Green-crested Turacos and a selection of Barbets & Tinkerbirds. A Gabon Coucal mocked us from the dense secondary growth, with lots of calling, but no sign of this sought after Tick.

African Pied Hornbill: This is the nominate fasciatus subspecies & it was a frequently seen Hornbill in Angola

Yellow-rumped Tinkerbird: This is the leucolaimus subspecies which occurs from Senegal to South Sudan, Uganda, to Southern Democratic Republic of the Congo and North Angola. This was a commonly heard, but rarely seen, Tinkerbird

White-collared Oliveback: This was a species I was really keen & pleased to see. It occurs in the mountains of Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, West Uganda, North Rwanda, Burundi & North West Tanzania. There other are isolated populations in North Angola & the Republic of the Congo

As the traffic increased on the main road, we carried onto a different ex-logging track into the forest from the previous afternoon. We drove for many miles along this dirt track, in the hope of finding a reasonable pocket. But we had no luck with any remaining decent forest. We encountered a small village quite a few miles along the track. We found many similar villages throughout the country, along every track we drove. These villages resulted in more miles of surrounding slash & burn subsistence farming which further degraded the remaining habitat. We saw many examples of the locals cutting trees for firewood and shooting the few Mammals, and on occasions the larger Birds, for bushmeat. No wonder, we only found some poorer secondary patches along this track and the Mammals & Birds were often shy.

Western Bronze-naped Pigeon: This species occurs from Sierra Leone to North West Angola, Democratic Republic of the Congo, South West Uganda & Rwanda

Narina Trogon: This is the nominate subspecies which occurs from the Ethiopian highlands to Angola & South Africa. Other subspecies occur in the coastal lowlands of Somalia to Natal (South Africa), Sierra Leone to Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Malbrouck Monkey: This species was split from the East & Southern Africa Vervet Monkey at the start of this century

Congo Rope Squirrel: This was the most frequently Mammal we encountered on the trip

Birding in the forest remains: We drove for many miles along dirt tracks away from the main trying to find some reasonable pockets of forest: but with no joy

Being able to see this surviving large tree indicates how all the surrounding trees have been logged

The problem with having distant large trees and dense secondary bushes by the track was it wasn't easy to get photos of the Birds we were seeing. It was worse as they were constant mocking calls from many Little Greenbuls in these bushes, all of which refused to show themselves. Fortunately, they weren't a Tick for any of us. At least, the Insects were a lot more cooperative.

African Castor: Thanks to my mate Steve Morrison who was able to identify a number of the Butterfly species from my published photos

Spotted Ciliate Blue: Thanks to my mate Steve Morrison who was able to identify a number of the Butterfly species from my published photos

Orange-streak Acraea: Thanks to my mate Steve Morrison who was able to identify a number of the Butterfly species from my published photos

Orange-streak Acraea: Another photo of the last individual

Orange-streak Acraea: This was the commonest Butterfly we saw in the Damengola Forest area

Orange-streak Acraea

Blue-tipped Jewel: Thanks to my mate Steve Morrison who was able to identify a number of the Dragonfly species from my published photos

Unknown Carpenter Bee Xylocopa sp.: Thanks to my mate Steve Morrison who was able to help narrow down this Bee identification from my published photos

This large & impressive Wasp nest appeared to be unoccupied

Ceroplesis bicincta: Thanks to my mate Steve Morrison who was able to identify this species from my published photos

Eventually, we gave up on that track and headed off to a lake near to the main road. This proved productive and we saw our first Black-collared Bulbul: a stunning looking Bulbul.

Black-collared Bulbul: This monotypic species occurs from the savanna of Gabon to Angola to South East Democratic Republic of the Congo & North West Zambia

Malachite Kingfisher: This is the nominate subspecies of this widespread Kingfisher which occurs from Nigeria to West Sudan, Uganda & Kenya and South to South Angola, North Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe & South Africa. Other subspecies occur in West Africa, the Horn of Africa & on Sao Tome & Principe

African Pygmy Kingfisher: This is the natalensis subspecies which occurs from Angola to South Mozambique & South Africa. It is another widespread Kingfisher with other subspecies which occur over most of Sub-Saharan Africa

After checking the lake, we headed back to the track from the previous evening as they was slightly better remnant patches of forest along that track. We tried walking various stretches before returning to check a small patch of forest that had been left as shade for coffee near the start of the track. Here we saw a family party of Rufous-vented Paradise-flycatchers. This area was one of the better patches of trees.

Rufous-vented Paradise-flycatcher: Not the best of photos, but the black head and crest confirm this is a Rufous-vented Paradise-flycatcher. This is a monotypic subspecies which occurs from South East Nigeria & South Cameroon to Gabon & North Angola

On both afternoons, a party of African Pied Hornbills passed through the area

At the end of the day, we headed back to the roadside patch of forest we had started the day in. As we were walking out of the forest in the afternoon, I flushed the only Gabon Coucal we were to see in Angola. Unfortunately, Phil was behind Niall & missed it. We hoped the individual that was calling at the start of the day would show itself. While Niall & Phil were occupied trying to see the Gabon Coucal, Richard & I had an equally unprofitable search for a couple of calling White-spotted Flufftails. They came close, but wouldn't show. Despite a number of attempts over the trip, we had no joy seeing another Gabon Coucal or a White-spotted Flufftail.