Full Lockdown - Day 80

Week 22; 30 May 2020 - Abu Hassania

We are into the final week of lock-down and I have got into my stride and will achieve my goal of 10,000 steps a day at the end of this week.

This week, I bit the bullet and carried my heavier zoom lens to try and photograph more birds than insects

There is a pretty big roost of Collared Doves in one of the large groves of tall trees

Eurasian Collared Dove (Streptopelia decaocto)

An interesting fungi pushing itself out of very hard ground

Fungi sp.

A Spotted Flycatcher was a pretty late leaver

Spotted Flycatcher (Muscicapa striata)

With more reach, I was able to get better images of the Golden-backed Weavers who had also built another nest in this week

Female Golden-backed Weaver (Ploceus jacksoni)

Male Golden-backed Weaver (Ploceus jacksoni)

What do you get when you cross a Red-vented Bulbul

Red-vented Bulbul (Pycnonotus cafer)

with a White-eared Bulbul?

White-eared Bulbul (Pycnonotus leucotis)

One of these; Red-vented X White-eared which threw me for awhile, as it called almost similar to a Red-vented

Red-vented X White-eared Hybrid

The pair of Senegal Parrot's were still about, but are pretty elusive and dont allow close approach and very seldom sit out in the open

Senegal Parrot (Poicephalus senegalus)

Along the beach, I had a surprise Common Kestrel

Common Kestrel (Falco tinnunculus)

A one-legged Slender-billed Gull

Slender-billed Gull (Chroicocephalus genei)

and a Sanderling in summer plumage

Sanderling (Calidris alba)

with still a few Barn Swallows and Sand Martin's heading north

Sand Martin (Riparia riparia)

This lone Tern dropped in to have a quick wash and preen on the beach and got me a little excited as a possible Saunders. But after consulting with Yoav I had to curb my excitement as he confirmed it to be a 2cy Little Tern

2cy Little Tern (Sternula albifrons)

This Tern was too distant to ID

Tern sp.

I had quite a few Plain Tigers in my final weeks walk

Plain Tiger (Danaus chrysippus)

And on one of the days, quite a number of Yellow-bellied Gecko's

Yellow-bellied Gecko (Hemidactylus flaviviridis)

The final week came to an end pretty quick and aside from making a few interesting discoveries, I achieved my walking goal clocking up 57km in the last week for a total of 160km for the 3-weeks.

To close off, the sunset on the last day....now hopefully back to some semblance of normality as restrictions are relaxed a little and we have daily curfew of 5pm - 6am in place from tomorrow, for the coming month or so....