ETHIOPIA PART 5 - The dry southern thornbush country, Nechisar National Park & Awassa

Eastern Paradise-Wydah

We continued south to the dusty town of Negelle for a two-night stay in the Maareg Hotel. Early in the morning we headed eastalong the Bogol-Manyo Road to the famed Libano Plain – home to one of the world's rarest birds. We saw quite a few Somali Short-toed Larks before local spotters who Abiy had lined up found ourtarget – the critically endangered Liben (Sidano) Lark; we saw just one bird.

Somali Short-toed Lark

We were soon catching up with much-wanted southern Ethiopian specialties such as White-crowned Starling and Shelley's Rufous Sparrow.

White-crowned Starling

Shelley's Rufous Sparrow

Other birds included Bristle-crowned Starling, Grey-headed Batis, Pectoral-patch Cisticola, Somali Bunting, Spotted Palm-Thrush and Yellow-bellied Eremomela. Then we tracked down the highly localised Salvadori's Seedeater in dry scrub.

Grey-headed Batis

Spotted Palm-Thrush

Later in the day we found a couple of African White-winged Doves on the outskirts of Negelle. Then along the Genale River nearby, a few Juba Weavers in riverside scrub. Birders previously had to travel much further south for the dove and weaver to country which these days is somewhat risky, so it's handy to have them around Negelle.

African White-winged Dove

A very long drive along appalling roads brought us to our next destination – the town of Yabello, where we had three nights in the Yabello Motel. Birds along the way included Pringle's Puffback, Red-and-yellow Barbet, Shelley's Starling, Bare-eyed Thrush and White-bellied Canary.

Bare-eyed Thrush

Red-and-yellow Barbet

Very early the next morning we headed south, unexpectedly flushing a couple of roadside Montane Nightjars a few kilometres out of town; this is a difficult species that we had dipped on in the highlands. We also heard Freckled Nightjar here. We continued south towards the Sarite Plains, not far from the Kenyaborder. Birds included Rufous-crowned Roller, a fine Eastern Paradise-Wydah in full regalia (first image) and attractive Vulturine Guineafowl roadside.

Rufous-crowned Roller

Vulturine Guineafowl

We tracked down Pale Prinia, another species I'd missed previously in Kenya, before reaching the short-grassed plains. Somali Ostrich appeared in the distance. It took us a while to track down our main target – the range-restricted Masked Lark. White-tailed Lark was also seen.

Pale Prinia

Masked Lark

In the afternoon we checked out sparse thornbush scrub aroundvillages south of Yabello for two much-wanted regional specialties – the enigmatic Stresemann's Bush-Crow (surely a candidate to have its own family) and White-tailed Swallow.

Stresemann's Bush-Crow

White-tailed Swallow

Other birds included Eastern Violet-backed Sunbird, Golden-breasted Starling, Somali Tit, Grey Wren-Warbler and Black-cheeked Waxbill.

Grey Wren-Warbler

Golden-breasted Starling

Mammals along the road to Sarite Plain included Guenther's Dik-dik and Geranuk, while on the plains we saw plenty of Unstriped Grass-rats scurrying about.

Gerenuk

Guenther's Dik-dik

Unstriped Grass-Rat

The next day we took the main road south to Mega where we easily found our early morning target- Black-fronted Francolin near the road. Then we checked the thornbush further north for a host of much-wanted southern Ethiopia-northern Kenya endemics including Red-naped Bush-Shrike, Scaly Chatterer, Somali Crombec and Northern Grosbeak-Canary.

Northern Grosbeak-Canary

Scaly Chatterer

Other birds included Foxy Lark, Magpie Starling and Boran Cisticola.

Boran Cisticola

We left Yabello and visited the World Heritage-listed Konso cultural site before continuing west to Arba Minch for a two-night stay in the very nice Haile Resort, owned by famed Ethiopian long distance runner Haile Gebrselassie. We visited Nechisor National Park, seeing our first Marabout Storks for trip.

Marabou Stork

We failed to find Archer's Francolin but seeing nice mammals including Bright's Gazelle, Burchell's Zebra, and Lesser and Greater Kudus.

Bright's Gazella

Burchell's Zebra

Lesser Kudu

Our final destination was Lake Awassa where we had a night in the United Africa Hotel.On the lake and in the fringing vegetation were a host of waterbirds including African Jacana, African Pygmy-Goose, Hamerkop, Spur-winged Lapwing, Hadada and Black Crake.