If this were to be a perfect day, it would have to be sometime next week. Next week, my exams would be over and with any luck this hangover will be gone too! I had left the big camera at home as I knew that if I brought it to Lagos, it would draw the attention of the Security Manager and I would be distracted from my revision.
As it happens, the revision was going fairly well until I noticed ripples coming from a puddle on the flat roof outside my window. Luckily I had packed the small camera and some binoculars, ‘just in case’. The bird hopped up onto the wall and showed itself to be a Shikra. This was just the distraction that I needed and I dropped my books and took myself out to the gardens for a quick once round before dusk.
In the area beyond the razor-wired wall a Double-spurred Francolin stood atop a cinder block wall. Peter told me of the francolins’ habit of burying their eggs, but leaving one above ground to remind them where the nest is. I can’t find any supporting evidence for this, but if anyone has any special knowledge of this bird, it would be interesting to know.
Peter was the security guard who had been tasked to keep an eye on the gardens and he joined me for a lap around the path that serves as a jogging track to some of the more active guests. He did not object to the camera, so I assumed that its smaller size was acceptable.
Birds stayed high and silhouetted, out of range of the Nikon, but some dragonflies stayed put just long enough to have their pictures taken. The one above is a Lucia Widow and below is a potential Red Basker, Urothemis assignata.
Bird Species; 10
Cattle Egret 2, Black Kite 4, Shikra 1, Double-spurred Francolin 1, Red-eyed Dove 2, Laughing Dove 3, Rose-ringed Parakeet 2, Western Grey Plantain-eater 4, Common Bulbul 4, Splendid Glossy Starling 1.
Sheraton Hotel, Lagos, Nigeria, LOS,
Other Lagos posts can be found at the links below;
http://redgannet.blogspot.com/2010/05/sheraton-hotel-lagos.html
http://redgannet.blogspot.com/2011/05/sheraton-hotel-in-lagos-just-one-lap.html
http://redgannet.blogspot.com/2010/04/to-pish-or-not-to-pish-dire-warnings.html
Visit the dedicated Africa Page for more posts from Nigeria, West Africa and the continent
No comments:
Post a Comment