Ethiopian Endemics.

Ethiopia is becoming an increasingly popular destination with birdwatchers and the southern part of the country has much to offer in terms of wildlife. During a 12-night trip one could expect to notch up an impressive list of over 400 bird species, many of which are endemic to the region.

Jonathan Barnard, tour leader forAltiplano, and Barry Howes visited the area in 2008 with the view to running a longer trips there from 2009.

The people and the cattle are thin in this land; a country torn through the middle by the Great Rift Valley, running from the Danakil Depression in the north down across the Kenyan border and beyond to the vast plains of the Serengeti.

At the end of the fifth day, after a bone-shaking eleven and a half hour drive along a dirt road, pitted and waterlogged through the rainy season, the end of which was now some two weeks overdue, we arrived in Awasa, a large town about 180km. south of Addis Ababa situated on the shores of a lake of the same name.

For the past three days we had, in the words of Woodie Guthrie, ‘been hitting some hard travelling’ but now, nearing the midway point of the trip, I was able to settle down after a hot shower and a cold beer to look over my notes and quietly run through an extraordinary species list, with so many lifers on one of the days that it was difficult to assimilate the amount of new information flying, often as more than just a figure of speech, my way.

There are about thirty species of bird endemic to Ethiopia and Eritrea (though some field guides, with possibly a slight degree of over-enthusiasm, grant several endemic sub-species full specific status) and on this short exploratory trip I was hoping to see at least half of these. But, really, I had come for three species; the two endemic corvids, as part of some unaccountable desire on my part to see all of the world’s crow species; these being the enigmatic Stresseman’s Bush Crow, found only in a small area of southern Ethiopia and the more common, monstrous looking Thick-billed Raven. But birding for me has always been the most outward expression of a greater love for nature as a whole and the third species for which I had made my first journey to this part of sub-Saharan Africa is found only in a small area of the Ethiopian highlands, and whose numbers total only somewhere between 300-500 individuals - the Ethiopian Wolf

But, for the first few days our birding would take us east of Addis Ababa to the quintessentially African landscape of open plains dotted with acacia trees and scrub bushes that make up Awash National Park.

It is worth pulling up at Lake Basaka, situated just outside the park boundary, to scan the shores for waders and other waterbirds. Spur-winged, Kittlitz’s and Three-banded Plovers feed in the marginal shallows with Intermediate Egret, Goliath Heron and Yellow-billed Stork all wade in the slightly deeper areas. A few Pink-backed Pelicans are usually present; their prehistoric heads hunched back into their shoulders as they fly in to settle on the water with the grace and elegance so often associated with large birds.

One of the great joys birding is the early start! And a place like Awash certainly repays the effort to be breakfasted and in the field just after 6a.m. as the equatorial sun comes up and darkness gives way, without the ceremony of dawn, to the brightness of day.

Most of us do our birding abroad on a limited budget of time, often moving on too quickly from one area to the next, but this is not an area to be rushed. A three-night stay at Awash, giving two full days birding in the park, is the minimum a visitor to the area ought to plan for. This will give time to find most of the more common species, such as Whydahs, Hornbills, Buffalo-Weavers and several species of Bee-eater, finches and raptors. But it will also allow time to search for the less common or more elusive species; Secretary Bird, Arabian Bustard, Nubian Nightjar, African Swallow-tailed Kite (Scissor-tailed Kite) and Lanner Falcon were among those that rewarded time and patience.

Awash National Park also holds a good variety of mammals, the more commonly encountered of which include Sommering’s Gazelle, Lesser Kudu, Beisa Oryx, Salt’s Dikdik, Warthog and Black-backed Jackal.

From Awash the tarmac road leads past five Great Rift Valley lakes on its way to the junction town of Shashamene where we were to leave the comfort of metalled surface for the slower going of a dirt road as we headed off to the hot springs resort of Wondo Genet. Driving past the lakes with only the occasional brief stop was a frustrating experience, softened only by the comfort of knowing that we would spend time birding them on the return leg of our journey.

Our accommodation at Wondo Genet, once a holiday retreat of Heille Salaisse, is now a resort hotel based around the area’s hot springs in a region of lush montane forest. It makes a good place for an overnight stop on the way to the Bale Mountains National Park, about 160kms. to the east.

The hotel rooms hold an interesting selection of local invertebrates whilst, outside, the hotel grounds and surrounding woodland are rich in a wider variety of wildlife and I was woken shortly before dawn by the deep cries of the Abyssinian Colobus Monkeys.

A walk around the area before breakfast produced a good selection of birds including three species of sunbird, Double-toothed Barbet, Black Saw-wing, White-cheeked Turaco and Montane White-eye.

The 160km drive to Goba takes pretty much a full day and Goba is another place that requires a minimum two-night stop-over. The difficulty of navigating the dirt road contributes in part to the time needed to make the journey, but the dozen or so stops we made en route did nothing to hasten our arrival – but there was no hurry.

The impressively large Abyssinian Ground Hornbill, Long-billed Pipit and the endemic Thick-billed Raven are among the species one can expect on the early part of the journey before the climb through the towns of Kofele and Dodola take one into a different landscape where trees gradually give way to a vast expanse of high plains, devoted largely to arable farming. Here, in this fertile, open landscape Erlanger’s Lark, Imperial and Verreaux’s Eagles and the endemic Wattled Ibis and Ethiopian Cisticola all occur.

We reached the edge of the Bale Mountains National Park in late afternoon but had enough daylight left to spend a bit of time birding a small area of wetland. This large pond, situated on the road into the park, before the town of Dinsho, holds the endemics Rouget’s Rail and Blue-winged Goose as well as Yellow-billed Duck, Red-knobbed Coot and several species of wader. Along the road we also came across Moorland Francolin, Mountain Wagtail and Groundscraper Thrush. Mammals to look out for include the endemic and scarce Moutain Nyala, Reedbuck, Warthog and Olive Baboon.

Following a 07:15 breakfast we headed out with our guide, Meseret Mercuria, for a full day in the Park. Our schedule only allowed for a two-night stay in Goba. In hindsight, we should have benefited from another night in this vast and extraordinary area.

As our Toyota Landcruiser climbed to 4200m. (13,650ft) the air temperature dropped and a cold drizzle started to fall. Cloud swept across the top of the plateau, the largest area of Afro-Alpine moorland on the continent and for a while it obscured the sweeping views that we had enjoyed across this flat, treeless landscape, dominated by the yellow and white flowers of Helichrysum and heather that carpet the area. Dotted across the plateau, growing up to a height of 30ft or more, were the endemic Giant Lobelia, looking like huge Yucca plants in a desert landscape. These plants served as lookout posts for the striking Augur Buzzards that hunt the area in search of the endemic meadow rats. The prey species at this altitude also include two other endemic mammals; the Giant Mole (Root) Rat and Abyssinian Hare. Smaller birds such as Moorland Chat and the endemic Abyssinian Black-headed Siskin and Spot-breasted Lapwing also provide food for the high altitude raptors. As well as Augur we also came across Steppe and Long-legged Buzzards, Steppe, Tawny and Golden Eagles and also Peregrine Falcon and Great (Black) Sparrowhawk.

But at this time of year the cloud and drizzle do not last long and they soon blew over allowing us to explore on foot, thankful that we had brought fleeces with us, as we trod our way carefully through this boggy landscape.

The highland area is, inevitably, home to many lakes of varying sizes; these provide a good stopover point for migrating waders, but are also home to the rare and beautiful Wattled Crane, two of which we were lucky to find feeding at one of the larger lakes.

After breakfast that morning as we made our way to the vehicle Meseret said that we would be taking a picnic lunch with us but that no one was allowed to eat until we had seen the Ethiopian Wolf! The morning’s scenery and birding had been spectacular but by two o’clock and still with no sign of the Wolf we were getting hungry; our early breakfast seemed like a long distant memory. True to his word Meseret did not bring out the lunch but exhorted us to ‘keep scanning’. As the clock neared three Meseret exclaimed ‘Now I can eat!’ A lone wolf was crouched on the ground watching the burrow of a Giant Mole Rat and waiting for its inhabitant to make an appearance. We forgot all about lunch as we watched a Mole Rat tentatively poke its nose out of its burrow, sniff the air and then retreat into safety. It performed this routine several times before deciding to venture out, unaware of the wolf lying motionless downwind of the burrow. With increasing confidence the Mole Rat ventured about a metre from the entrance to its burrow and began to graze. The wolf, probably hungrier than we were, made its move and leapt at the rodent who made a dive for its burrow. The wolf, in a desperate attempt to seize the rat, turned somersault in its leap then thrust its jaws down the burrow in a vain attempt to catch the rat that was by now deep underground. The wolf looked at the burrow disconsolately for no more than a few seconds before trotting off to begin its vigil by another burrow. We had won our lunch but the wolf had missed his.

During the day we came across a family group of four wolves and another individual.

The following morning, leaving the National Park with the feeling that we should have had more time there we retraced our tracks to the comfort of the tarmac road and then headed south, arriving in the large town of Awasa, where, in late afternoon with about forty minutes of daylight left, we had a lake to view.

African Fish Eagle, Marabou Stork and Silvery-cheeked Hornbill flew around the large trees at the lake’s edge whilst the reedbeds held African Jacana, Black Crake, Allen’s Gallinule and Reed (Long-tailed) Cormorant. Hadada and Sacred Ibis and Hammerkop fed in the shallows with numerous waders. A Moorhen, swimming from the cover of the reeds into open water caught my eye and as I turned my bins towards it a Hippopotamus surfaced behind it, opened its huge jaws, took a gulp of air and submerged again leaving me staring at the rippling water in awestruck surprise.

Other birds found around the lake include Malachite, Pied, Grey-headed and Woodland Kingfishers, White-faced Whistling Duck, Hotentot Teal, African Pygmy Goose and the endemic Black-winged Lovebird.

And this is where my story began – at the end of our fifth day – tired from the rough roads but euphoric at the birds we had seen and overcome by the beauty and diversity of the country we had driven through.

In an early morning walk along the lake shore before our departure we found about 70 species including Nubian Woodpecker, Paradise Flycatcher and Spur-winged Goose, while Vervet Monkeys played and chattered in the trees.

As we climbed back into the Land Cruiser my excitement rose at the thought of our journey south to the remote Yabello region; to the small area that is home to one of the loveliest and most enigmatic of corvids, Stresseman’s Bush Crow.

The journey south added a few more species to our list, including Woolly-necked Stork, African Black-headed Oriole, Grey-backed Fiscal and Singing Bushlark. At one point we stopped to buy fresh guavas from some children by the roadside and were rewarded with Greater Spotted Eagle overhead and Orange-bellied Parrot and Gabar Goshawk in some nearby trees. But the search for the Bush Crow proved a frustrating affair as we came across many old nests, sure signs that we were in the right area, but saw none of the birds themselves. So, following a fruitless morning search we headed into the small town of Dubuluk for a lunch, delicious despite our disappointment, of fried lamb with garlic and chilli, served in a traditional earthenware dish over a base of hot charcoal that kept the food sizzlingly hot. But the afternoon gave us an equally difficult and frustrating time as we continued to find nothing more than signs of the birds’ presence until, with the light about to fade, we called it a day and headed to our lodgings in Yabello.

The light of morning brought with it new hope and we set off at 6.20a.m. to search the area again, with Meseret saying that he knew of a couple of other places to try. Bush Petronia, Emerald-spotted Wood Dove, Somali bunting and Abyssinian Oriole all showed themselves to our eager eyes but again no sign of our target. We stopped and brewed some tea in silence by the roadside knowing that we had the long journey to Lake Langano ahead and that precious little time remained to find the Bush Crow. And then, as we drove off again, I saw a flash of white in a tree and yelled out ‘Ka-ka’, the local name for the Crow that we had all been using, certain only that I had seen some white on a bird about the size of a Jackdaw. Meseret hit the brakes hard and we all lurched forward as Barry, in the middle of changing a camera lens, cursed me loudly. But there they were, four Stresseman’s Bush Crows in a bare tree not fifteen yards from the road, and we were soon to find another eight or more nearby.

Ticking these birds off on a list became suddenly so unimportant and irrelevant; the beauty and wonder of nature, manifesting itself in a bird found only in a remote corner of a distant land, seemed for a long moment to symbolise everything that I have always loved in nature and that has kept me travelling our world in search if its marvels.