Somali wheatear (male) – Bogol Manyo, February 2007 (©Phil Benstead). Bird of the trip?

Introduction

In early 2007 I was given compassionate leave from work in the small primate enclosure that my home has become and travelled to Ethiopia with Pete Hayman, Frank Lambert and Nicolaas van Zalinge. We had a great trip. Ethiopia was a pleasure and delight and is a must-go-to destination in my opinion. Go there!

Logistics

Pete and I flew from Norwich to Addis (via Amsterdam) with KLM for the sum of £512. Visas are available on arrival for UK passport holders, no photo required currently, and cost just $20. This is much cheaper and easier than getting them in London before you go. We made our Ethiopian ground arrangements through Tony Hickey at Ethiopian Quadrants www.ethiopianquadrants.com/ and I would heartily recommend both him and his company. Tony provided a reliable 4WD vehicle, a great driver and booked and paid for all our hotels. My end of all this cost me £645. As we went round we just had to pay for park entrance fees, campsites and food. I struggled to spend £150 in country. Budget for about £6 a day for food and incidentals.

Guide and driver

We had room for a guide in the car (thanks to Frank’s unfeasibly narrow hips) and so elected to take Merid Gebremichael with us. Merid is well worth having along and definately added value to the trip. He is freelance and can be contacted on finfoottours[at]yahoo.com. We paid him $60 per day. We requested Mesfin as a driver as we had heard from others that he knew the route and was good value – he did and was. If you cannot fit Merid in your vehicle then book Mesfin as your driver and you will be in capable, friendly hands.

Food, Health and Safety

Meat was on the menu in a big way. If you steer clear of the cow sashemi you should be OK. Vegetarians can survive easily though on fasting food, which is available every day. We suffered few, if any, stomach problems and remained healthy throughout. I took Doxycycline against malaria but we were hardly bothered by mosquitoes. If you react to chigger bites then do arm yourself with some decent insect repellent, they are everywhere. No people hassle throughout, although some of the Afar people in the Awash area seemed keen to berate us for something or other. It’s why you hire men with guns I guess.

Strategy and tips

We followed the itinerary outlined below:

Day	Date	Itinerary
1	25/1	Flight KL543 arrives Addis @ 2155. Overnight in Addis (Debre Damo Hotel).
2	26/1	Drive to Wondo Genet. Overnight at Wabe Shebelle Lodge.
3	27/1	Drive Wondo Genet to Dinsho. Overnight at Park HQ dormitory at Dinsho.
4	28/1	Bird Dinsho area and drive on to Goba. Overnight at Wabe Shebelle Goba.
5	29/1	Day trip to Sof Omar. Overnight at Wabe Shebelle Goba.
6	30/1	Drive (birding en route on Sanetti Plateau) Goba to Harenna. Overnight camping at Katcha campsite.
7	31/1	Drive (birding en route) Harenna to Negele. Overnight at Green Hotel.
8	1/2	Birding on Liben Plains and then full days drive from Negele to Bogol Manyo. Overnight camping at village hall.
9	2/2	Birding around Bogol Manyo. Overnight camping at village hall.
10	3/2	Birding around Bogol Manyo. Overnight camping at village hall.
11	4/2	Drive Bogol Manyo to Filtu. Overnight at cheap hotel in Filtu.
12	5/2	Drive Filtu to Negele. Overnight at Green Hotel.
13	6/2	Day trip to Wadera. Overnight at Green Hotel.
14	7/2	Drive Negele to Yabello. Overnight camping at Yabello Motel.
15	8/2	Birding in Yabello area. Overnight camping at Yabello Motel.
16	9/2	Drive Yabello to Wondo Genet. Overnight at Wabe Shebelle Lodge.
17	10/2	Drive Wondo Genet to Addis Ababa. Overnight at Debre Damo Hotel.
18	11/2	Day trip to Gibe Gorge. Overnight at Debre Damo Hotel.
19	12/2	Drive Addis to Debre Libanos, then to Lemi. Overnight camping.
20	13/2	Lemi to Ankober, birding Jemmu Valley. Overnight Ankober Lodge.
21	14/2	Drive Ankober to Awash (via Melka Ghebdu). Overnight camping.
22	15/2	Birding Awash. Overnight camping.
23	16/2	Birding Awash. Overnight camping.
24	17/2	Birding Awash. Return to Addis from Awash. Departing Addis on KL543 at 2325. Arriving Amsterdam next day.

This itinerary was, on the whole, well designed. We could have stayed somewhere nearer to Gibe Gorge though on the night of Day 17. This would have cut out some driving and kept us out of Addis for a night. Most people do this itinerary much faster but we got some great stuff around Bogol Manyo by going a bit slower. If you want a bigger overall list then you should cut a day in Bogol Manyo and spend it at Lake Abiata/Lake Langano in the Rift – we missed a lot of widespread African wetland species as a result – but I‘d take the Somali wheatear option everytime. If pressed for time you could drive straight through from Addis to Dinsho on the first day (and overnight at Wondo Genet on the return leg) but I would not recommend it. To save money I would not bother pre-booking accommodation through the ground-agent – we had tents with us and most hotels let you camp in the garden if they are full.

Although we did well, we did not clean up and missed the following target species: Archer’s francolin, swallow-tailed kite (ouch!), Nechisar nightjar (understandable, include Nechisar NP for a chance of this), African collared dove (Awash), white-tailed lark (Nechisar), bush pipit, Somali starling, Reichard’s seedeater and worst of all lineated pytilia.

References

We used two key pieces of gen that are available through the African Bird Club:

• Richard Webb Ethiopia Trip Report, Dec 1995 – January 1996. It’s an oldy but still glorious. Kudos to the man!
• Jon Hornbuckle Ethiopia Trip Report (supplement), October – November 1996.

To order these two go to www.africanbirdclub.org/sales/sales2.html#east

We also used:

• Erik Forsyth Ethiopia 2005. Useful for planning and available at www.travellingbirder.com/tripreports/trip_reports_Ethiopia.php
• finally we were lucky enough to have a draft copy of Spottiswoode & Gebremichael’s forthcoming site guide to birding in Ethiopia. This was very useful and, when published, will become the ‘must-have’ bit of gen for anyone contemplating a trip to Ethiopia.

It is worth taking a variety of fieldguides but if you take just one then currently it has to be Sinclair & Ryan Birds of Africa – south of the Sahara. One is not enough though! We also used the Collin’s Guide, Stevenson & Fanshawe Birds of East Africa and photocopies of the nightjars, cisticolas and larks pages from the relevant volumes of Fry & Keith The Birds of Africa.

Acknowledgments

My thanks go to the ‘dream team’ of Frank Lambert, Pete Hayman and Nicolaas van Zalinge (who found me loads of birds and put up with me throughout), and of course to Merid Gebremichael, Mesfin and Tony Hickey at Ethiopian Quadrants. Claire Spottiswoode and Alan Lewis kindly commented on our draft itinerary and Richard Thomas did the same and lent us some gen and sounds – our thanks to you all.

Sites visited

26/1 & 10/2          Rift Valley

We spent very little time birding in the Rift Valley but could not resist stopping at Lake Koka on the first day for a splendid black crowned-crane. We did spend a little longer on our way back and worked the grounds of the Wabe Shebelle Hotel getting some great birds including Clapperton’s francolin and had a decent lunch too. The ground staff here might be able to point you in the direction of the many roosting birds here, if you do not have a guide. Other highlights included: great white pelican, pink-backed pelican, goliath heron, squacco heron, marabou stork, glossy ibis, lesser flamingo, Hottentot teal, garganey, Eurasian hobby, African jacana, pied avocet, little ringed plover, Kittlitz’s plover, black-tailed godwit, spotted redshank, common redshank, marsh sandpiper, little stint, Temminck’s stint, ruff, lesser black-backed gull, grey-headed gull, whiskered tern, white-winged tern, Greyish eagle-owl (Lake Langano), slender-tailed nightjar (Lake Langano), red-faced crombec (Lake Langano), scarlet-chested sunbird and little weaver.

26-27/1 & 9-10/2                Wondo Genet

The forest surrounding this excellent hot-spring resort is sadly getting trashed and the site will probably soon slip off the menu. This is a shame as it is a reliable site for Abyssinian woodpecker, spotted creeper and yellow-fronted parrot. We scored with all three. We spent just two nights here at the Wabe Shebelle and had two walks up the hill behind the hotel and a morning spent chasing half-collared kingfisher below the hot springs. We hired locals to guide us when we went up the hill. Do not ignore the hot spring pool – very relaxing – which is free if you are staying at the hotel. Other highlights included: banded snake-eagle, Klaas’ cuckoo, yellow-fronted tinkerbird, grey-headed woodpecker, brown woodland warbler, brown parisoma, African dusky warbler, dark-headed oriole and Sharpe’s starling.

27-28/1                  Dinsho

Our first stab at the upland specialities was on the drive into Dinsho. We spent a night in the basic dormitory at the lodge here which is essential. The guides on site showed us roosting Abyssinian nightjars and took us out at night for a splendid encounter with a pair of African long-eared owls. The surrounding area also produced our best views of white-backed black-tit. We spent a morning working the road back towards Wondo Genet and this produced our only flock of spot-breasted lapwing and three Cape eagle-owls. Other highlights included: red-knobbed coot, Abyssinian longclaw, yellow bishop and yellow-bellied waxbill.

29/1                        Sof Omar

This is supposed to be the best site for Salvadori’s serin; we elected to do this as a day trip from Goba and probably arrived a little too late; we dipped. This put us under pressure but Merid assured us that we would catch up with the serin later and he was right. There were several trip exclusives recorded here though including: Eurasian turtle dove, alpine swift, mottled swift, brown-tailed rock-chat, grey-headed bush-shrike and violet-backed starling.

30/1                        Sanetti Plateau

We birded the forest along the lower parts of the road just above Goba twice and this produced some great birds. The crossing of the Sanetti Plateau was fantastic and the undoubted highlight was several encounters with the wolf. Bird highlights included: ruddy shelduck, lesser spotted eagle, Verreaux’s eagle (above Goba), moorland francolin, red-billed chough and the ‘Bale’ parisoma (above Goba).

30-31/1                  Harenna Forest

We camped here to break up the journey between Goba and Negele. It is a pleasant spot but we had to work fairly hard for the birds we saw. The biggest highlight was pair of nest-building Abyssinian crimson-wing. Other highlights included: rufous-chested sparrowhawk, [red-chested cuckoo], African emerald cuckoo, African wood-owl and yellow-crowned canary.

1/2 & 6/2              Negele area

We spent quite a lot of time around Negele, especially at dawn and dusk. En route from Harenna Forest we stopped at the Genale Valley by the ford but were swamped with ‘well-wishers’ and birding became impossible. We simply drove on another kilometre and walked into the dry riverbed, quickly picking up a local guide who walked us straight to an obliging pair of Ruspoli’s. Nearer Negele the Liben Plains and its suite of special larks are fantastic birding. [GPS – we had Sidamo larks at N 05º16’606” E 039º41’608”]. Make sure you get there for first light to get a true feel of the number of birds present. We also had white-tailed swallow on the Liben Plains where it appears to be regular these days [GPS – swallows at N 05º18’094” E 039º39’082”]. We also had a pair of Prince Ruspoli’s turacos in the scrub on the Negele edge of the Plain. Highlights included: comb duck, red-billed duck, little sparrowhawk (Genale Valley), lesser kestrel, Temminck’s courser (Liben Plains), black-headed gull, great spotted cuckoo, broad-billed roller (Genale Valley), red-fronted barbet, Sidamo lark (Liben Plains), Somali short-toed lark and pectoral-patch cisticola (Liben Plains).

1/2 & 4-5/2           Negele to Bogol Manyo and back

This route is packed with birding potential and worth taking your time over. We finally cracked Salvadori’s serin along this road – thanks to some great birding by Merid. [GPS – the serins were at N 04º58’760” E 040º46’116”]. We took two days on the way back, stopping overnight in Filtu. Other highlights included: Hartlaub’s bustard, spotted thick-knee, red-fronted warbler, greater whitethroat, three-streaked tchagra and northern grosbeak-canary.

1-4/2                      Bogol Manyo

This is a fantastic location, we camped by the village hall for a small consideration. The area around the village is good for coursers and larks. The best places to bird are the river crossings south of the village (for sandgrouse, the sunbird and the dove) and the mining track – the latter is situated west of the main road 2.3 km north-west of Cole. We birded the area along this track between 5-7 km from the main road and it is easily the best birding around and the only place we saw Somali wheatear and short-billed crombec. We also birded a dry wadi area 9.7 km south of Cole (which is itself south of Bogol Manyo) [GPS – wadi at N 04º22’213” E 041º50’252”]. The many avian highlights included: striated heron, water thick-knee, cream-coloured courser, black-faced sandgrouse, pied cuckoo, African palm-swift, Somali bee-eater, European roller, Degodi lark, golden pipit, Upcher’s warbler, yellow-vented eromomela, barred warbler, spotted morning-thrush, rufous-tailed scrub-robin, black-bellied sunbird, parrot-billed sparrow, red-billed buffalo-weaver, Juba weaver and orange bishop.

6/2                          Wadera

Because of concerns about camping overnight at Arero we decided to visit Wadera from Negele instead for yet more Prince Ruspoli’s turacos. This paid off we had an incredible flock of 12 turacos here [GPS N 05º42’896” E 039º20’567”]. This was the only place we saw woolly-necked stork.

7/2                          Negele to Yabello

Another great drive with plenty of birds. We stopped at the Dawa River and whenever we saw flocks. Highlights included: black goshawk, lesser masked weaver and steel-blue whydah.

7-9/2                      Yabello area

We based ourselves at the motel at Yabello and worked the area 57 km south of there, ie about 8 km north of the village of Dubuluk. Great birding. Highlights included: grey kestrel, Donaldson-Smith’s nightjar (easy at night), white-rumped swift, white-tailed swallow, lesser striped swallow, Boran cisticola, red-naped bush-shrike, Stresemann’s bush-crow, Shelley’s rufous sparrow, grey-headed social-weaver, black-capped social-weaver and white-bellied canary.

11/2                        Gibe Gorge

We visited this site hoping for lineated pytilia but sadly dipped, it is a reliable site ordinarily. Gibe Gorge was a great spot though and produced some excellent birds. Dropping into the valley we had several flocks of yellow-throated sandgrouse and by following one of these up we bumped into a pair of four-banded sandgrouse too. Down in the valley we taped in a great snowy-crowned robin-chat in riverine scrub upstream of the bridge [GPS – N 08º14’063” E037º34’240”]. Driving out we saw our first but rather uninspiring white-throated seedeaters [GPS – N 08º15’124” E037º36’984”]. Other highlights here included: darter, greater spotted eagle, Senegal thick-knee, wattled plover, striped kingfisher, mosque swallow, whinchat, lesser blue-eared starling, village weaver, fawn-breasted waxbill and ortolan bunting.

12/2                        Debre Libanos

We visited this site en route to the Jemma Valley from Addis. We stopped at the new built hotel before the monastery and put out a sack of bones from a butcher in Addis for the birds. This resulted in epic views of lammergier and Aquila eagles on the deck and we also saw our only stout cisticola of the trip here.

12-13/2                  Jemma Valley

We camped by the church on the lip of the escarpment just after Lemi [GPS – N 09º49’921” E038º53’191”]. We saw Harwood’s francolin easily the next day by walking down the road from the campsite just after dawn. The other place we spent time at is the small river crossing 8.1 km after the main river crossing in the valley bottom. Other highlights included: vinaceous dove, Nyanza swift, green wood-hoopoe, foxy cisticola, white-billed starling, black-winged bishop, African silverbill, bronze manikin and straw-tailed whydah.

13-14/2                  Ankober area

Merid took us to a great Ankober serin site about 40 km past Debre Birhan (not on the road to Ankober, instead stay on the main road and carry on past the junction to Ankober), where the birds could be scoped feeding on the other side of a narrow ravine [GPS - N 09º49’190” E 039º44’051”]. We also birded the area south of Ankober Lodge before you drop off the scarp en route to Melkha Ghebdu which is where we saw Erckel’s francolin.

14/2                        Melka Ghebdu

We stopped here for an hour – it was the only site where we saw yellow-throated serin. We scored easily and had a bonus half-collared kingfisher.

14-17/2                  Awash area

We camped near the HQ and birded the Illala Sala Plains, Mount Fantalle and in the Bilen Lodge area. Great site full of birds. Highlights included: ostrich, greater flamingo, dark chanting-goshawk, Arabian bustard, collared pratincole, gull-billed tern, [star-spotted nightjar], singing bushlark, red-winged lark, chestnut-backed sparrow-lark, tawny pipit, long-billed pipit, ashy cisticola, northern wheatear, sombre chat, blackstart, Nile Valley sunbird, beautiful sunbird, Eurasian golden oriole, southern grey shrike, Somali fiscal, Rueppell’s glossy starling and house bunting.