Finfoot & Battle weary buffalo (Lake Mburo Part 4)

We also came across another buffalo who had clearly just returned from an un-televised WWF fight somewhere. Nothing was left of the right eye and the left eye was seriously swollen - what did the other guy(s) look like??!! He was well grumpy with his only eye opening painfully on the lake and probably wondering where all the land had disappeared to. Needless to say, Moses steered the boat out of reach of this old man.
Pleasantly chugging along, Moses pointed out (less excited than before) another Finfoot. OK, I can get excited about a 2nd Finfoot - no problem with that, so off went the rapid shutter fire again, hoping for at least one decent hit. Why can't these birds be curious and stop and look at us at least for a few seconds?? They just don't make them like they used to anymore!

Well, a few near misses with the rapid fire accounts for this shot;


Starting to make our way back towards the shore (geez, time's flying!) it was only about 5min later when Moses blandly stated "Oh, there's another one." Another what?!...buffalo, flying pig, jumping fish, storm...talk to me!! My head spinning like somebody at a Red Arrows aerobatic show trying to watch 5 planes all over the sky. Just another finfoot he says - my exclamation of 'HUH' this time is not due to shock but the near ridiculous occurrence of Finfoots here. Who said they're hard to see - they're a dime a dozen for Pete's sake! But still trying for a decent hit, rapid shutter fire is engaged which appears to be more accurate - lack of adrenaline maybe?



Getting to shore after spotting some distant Pink-backed Pelicans, we thank Moses with huge smiles for an entertaining and extremely productive boat trip. He later comes over to us again asking if I would please send photos of the White-backed Night Heron and mating Fish Eagles - these are important sightings you see. And of the African Finfoot Moses, I ask - nah, that's ok he mumbles. (I wonder how many Finfoots he sees every day?!)

Settling down for a soda in the lakeside local restaurant, we continue to watch the 30-40 Yellow Wagtails foraging in the grass and dozens of Barn and Lesser Striped Swallows feasting on the emerging lake flies/midges. Turning to look at the Village Weaver colony with the seemingly single intruding Lesser Masked Weaver, something swims out from the tree and along the campsite shore - ANOTHER finfoot - Nooooooooooo!?!? This must be a joke! They got zillions of radio controlled finfoots or what? and NO, I didn't take pictures of this bird as well.

The missus gave me the good news that she felt quite relaxed and there was no rush back to the lodge so a leisurely birding drive was in order. Must be something in air bringing me all this luck on a single morning! (I did ask for confirmation about this leisurely drive a few times before we left though).

Relaxation was clearly on the mind of others as well (we were only a accorded a very brief perfunctory look before dozing off again)

The rest of the drive back wasn't extremely busy bird-wise (something to do with it being 1pm?) but we came across our 1st baboons for the trip and more of the very common Bateleurs in the sky. I have absolutely no reason to believe that the Bateleurs in this park ever perch in trees, but in fact spend their life on the wing soaring at great heights. A Long-crested Eagle was following suit and enjoying the afternoon thermals.

A little junction where we turned off appeared to be the birds' junction as well with Red-rumped Swallows, Spot-flanked Barbet, Tawny-flanked Prinia, Black-necked Weaver and at least 10-15 Little Bee-eaters.

After about 6x Broad-billed Rollers, all seemingly in fresh plumage, and some Fork-tailed Drongos, we stopped later closer to the lodge for a photo of our room perched on a rocky outcrop.

We took a bit of a break at the room before my contemplated walk into the woodland and bush around the lodge later.

Part 5 soon

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