Bulletin 324 - South Africa #1 - part 2 - Plovers, Sandpipers, Jacana and Mongooses

Continued from Part 1 

We also saw 5 sandpipers close enough to photograph. They were all in non-breeding plumage as they were migrants from Eurasia. Without the guide, I would not have been able to ID the birds. The 9" Marsh Sandpiper (Tringa stagnatilis) was a life bird for me.

Marsh Sandpiper

The 8" Wood Sandpiper (Tringa glareola) is IDed by the yellow base of the bill. 

Wood Sandpiper

The 12" Common Greenshank (Tringa nebularia) as the name implies has greenish legs.

Common Greenshank

The 8" Common Sandpiper (Actitis hypoleucos) has yellow legs, a white shoulder patch and bobs when he walks. When we first saw the bird on a boat ride, he was standing on the back of a hippo, but the hippo submerged and he jumped onto a branch.

Common Sandpiper

Lastly is another lifer, the 5" Little Stint (Calidris minuta). The book says this is the most common of the small sandpipers in southern Africa.

Little Stint

After these dull sandpipers, the colorful African Jacana (Actophilornis africanus) was a nice change. We saw several of the on the trip. It is an easy ID with the blue bill and shield on the forehead and long legs. It is endemic to Africa and another lifer.

African Jacana

Among mammals, I was surprised that we found 4 species of mongoose. All of them are native to Africa. The first was the Banded Mongoose (Mungos mungo). It is gray and brown with darker bands across the back of the animal. We saw several of these.

Banded Mongoose

The next one was the Slender Mongoose (Galerella sanguinea). It ran across the road and stopped on a log to look at us. It is yellowish in color. This was the only one of the species that we encountered.

Slender Mongoose

We saw 2 of the Yellow Mongoose (Cynictis penicillata). The first ran into his burrow before I could take a photo, but this one stood up to look around.

Yellow Mongoose

The last one is the Suricate (Suricata suricatta). It is also known as the Meerkat. You have probably seen groups of Meekats on TV shows all standing up.

Suricate
AKA Meerkat

I have put the different bird/mammal families in single folders for easy viewing

I have photos of 24 of the 67 species of plovers

I have photos of 46 of the 93 species of sandpipers

I have photos of 4 of the 8 species of jacanas

I have photos of 5 of the 35 species of mongooses



Happy birding and photography,

David McDonald

dkmmdpa@gmail.com

photos copyright 2006 - 2018 David McDonald

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