Birds

I’ve never been a bird watcher. But then, I’ve never been in East Africa before. I ordered a pair of binoculars after my first trip to a national park. And once I had them, I realized I did want to know the names of the birds I was seeing. So I ordered Birds of East Africa from Amazon on November 16. It arrived January 31 but was worth the wait! (We just got a package addressed to a prior project intern that had been mailed in 2009. The letter is going back to the states with someone who’s leaving; we’re eating the beef jerky but I’m not sure anyone is interested in the jelly beans.) I used to think that the way to see birds was to walk around and find them. I’m realizing that here the better strategy is to sit in my backyard and wait till they fly through. My only photo is of the Ugandan national bird, the crested crane, which I took in a national park. But, if interested, you can ‘google image’ the Ross’s Turaco, Eastern Gray Plantain-Eater, Speckled Mousebird, Double-Toothed Barbet, Gray-Headed Kingfisher, African Cuckoo, and Western-Violet Backed Sunbird - the prettiest of the 32 species that have flown through my backyard.