Life in the 1980s

Life in Ethiopia, as I suppose with most anywhere in the world, can be a roller-coaster of ups and downs. On the one hand, I had the pleasure of working on an interesting (if at times frustrating) research project and a great office staff, get to eat amazing Ethiopian food on a daily basis, and of course enjoy the fantastic birding I talk about on this blog ad nauseam. On the other hand, I had to deal with poor infrastructure, horrid taxi drivers, and the utter lack of decent craft beer. By far the biggest obstacle of the summer, however, was the fact that the Ethiopian government possesses the ability to shut off any and all communications in the country at the drop of a hat.

The government used this power twice over the summer: once because schoolchildren were taking their final examinations throughout the country, and once due to an attempted coup d'état in the Amhara region. Both times all internet and mobile data were turned off with no warning, and certainly with no indication of when  they would return, if ever. During the national examinations (apparently a bunch of middle schoolers cheating on math tests presents a grave national security threat) we were allowed at least a few hours of connection to the internet on most days, but after the attempted coup there was over a week where there was absolutely no access to the internet whatsoever. Some Ethiopian friends of mine argued that it was worth it to avoid unrest and violence in the country, but without delving too much into national politics I have to admit that I cannot quite understand the cost-benefit analysis that decides that shaving several points off of GDP growth is worth it to prevent people from messaging each other on WhatsApp.

As an Extremely Online person, I dealt with several weeks of internet isolation about as well as one might expect. Baby boomers reading this might feel a bit superior knowing that they had to grow up in the days without modern Millennial luxuries like internet, texting, or polio vaccines, but it was a very isolating feeling having to suddenly lose all connection to the outside world. From a birding standpoint, it also meant no access to things like eBird, iNaturalist, and of course this blog- hence the longer-than-usual gap between posts in June and July!

The second, much-worse internet outage began the night of June 22nd, when a group of Amhara nationalists assassinated the Amhara regional president and the popular chief of staff of the Ethiopian National Defense Force in simultaneous hits in Bahir Dar and Addis Ababa. The mastermind was a general who had been imprisoned for over a decade for a previous coup attempt, and apparently wanted to continue spreading his horrid ethnic nationalism. The general was later tracked down and killed, but communications were shut down long after that, supposedly because of unrest in the Amhara region.

July 23, as it happened, was the day that I intended to return to Gemassa Gedel to look for Ankober Serin again after my previous failed attempt. I was joined by Lill, Ariel, and Ben, fellow people working in Addis over the summer who mostly just wanted to do some hiking and get out of the city, and yet another new driver, Mesfin. Unfortunately, we got to the edge of Addis Ababa only to find that the roads out toward Amhara were completely blocked, with dozens of trucks parked in the road clearly having spent the night there. It soon became clear that a trip to Gemassa Gedel was completely out of the question for that day.

Of course, by then we'd already roused our sorry asses out of bed at 5 in the morning to go somewhere, so it seemed like a waste to just go home. After a bit of thought, I proposed we instead visit the Menagesha Forest a little bit west of Addis Ababa. Found on the slopes of the extinct volcanic peak of Mount Wechecha, the forest dates back to the 1400s, when emperor Zera Yakob mandated that juniper trees from the Ankober area be planted there to reverse some of the deforestation in the Ethiopian highlands. It has been officially protected since the 1600s, making it most likely the oldest nature reserve in Africa, and one of the oldest in the world. Emperor Menelik II (again, one of the most interesting historical figures of the 19th century) assigned forest guards and proclaimed a logging ban, meaning that today it's a rare area of pristine forest near the big city.

We arrived at the forest ranger station a little before 8, and while we were checking in with the rangers I almost immediately heard Abyssinian Woodpeckers and Ethiopian Orioles calling from the trees above us. After checking in, Mesfin drove us a little bit further up the road and parked in a campsite, where we began walking up on our own. The others started hiking at a somewhat more normal pace, while I went up at birding pace. Many Brown Woodland Warblers (slightly better-looking than most phylloscopus warblers) were calling from the bushes, joined by Broad-ringed White-eyes and growling Lemon Doves. A pair of Yellow-fronted Parrots perched above me screeching, but flew away before I could get a decent picture. I went down a side trail for a little ways, and was rewarded with a beautiful Abyssinian Ground Thrush, one of the only mountain endemics I hadn't seen yet. Guereza Colobus monkeys were everywhere, filling the forest with their slightly scary calls.

Brown Woodland Warbler

Broad-ringed White-eye

Abyssinian Ground Thrush

Guereza Colobus

Like all forest birding, the birding was difficult, with lots of things calling from the trees but most of them heard only. When there were no birds around, however, I mostly just admired the environment: the huge conifers draped in moss looming over the trail made it feel more like we were somewhere in the Pacific Northwest than Ethiopia. If anyone is reading this from Addis Ababa and is in need of a weekend getaway and some nature time, I can highly recommend the Menagesha Forest, even if they're not particularly interested in birds.

The Menagesha Forest landscape

I caught up with the others after a bit, and we headed up the mountain together, me having seen most of what I was hoping to on the mountain. We got some better views of Ethiopian Orioles, and to my surprise we happened across a beautiful Sharpe's Starling at a bend in the road, a lifer I hadn't been expecting as they have a reputation for being quite uncommon in Ethiopia. Further up the mountain, I was able to call in a pair of White-cheeked Turacos, certainly birds you don't have to be a serious birder to appreciate. The higher elevations of the mountain were more open, and we could enjoy some decent views southwards before heading down the mountain, as well as seeing some cool butterflies. As we were about to head down, I heard a raptor calling and was able to track down a Rufous-breasted Sparrowhawk perched in a pine tree.

Ethiopian Oriole

Sharpe's Starling

Rufous-breasted Sparrowhawk

Ozarba terribilis, a very impressive noctuid moth with a very impressive Latin name

Painted Lady 

Some kind of very strange flower

Craterostigma plantagineum

The way down we hiked somewhat faster, as we were all hungry for lunch. I was still able to get a better view of my lifer White-backed Black Tit (endemic to the Ethiopian highlands) and a Slender-billed Starling hanging out where I'd seen the Sharpe's Starling earlier. There were also more Abyssinian White-eyes and Brown Woodland Warblers, and a male Guereza Colobus surprisingly sitting on the road. We were very much ready for lunch by the time we returned to the car, and we stopped for some very good gomen besiga on the way back to Addis.

Slender-billed Starling

Broad-ringed White-eye

Brown Woodland Warbler

White-backed Black Tit

Guereza Colobus

Some kind of agaric mushroom

One of the forest campsites- not a bad spot to set up a tent

I had to do an intensive training that week in Manila, which went about as well as one might expect a week of intensive tablet-based training would work with no access to the internet. By the end of the week there was still no access to the outside world, but things had at least calmed down a little in Amhara, enough that a visit to Gemassa Gedel was finally possible. Lill joined me for this trip, so that she could finally get up into the mountains- while I was mostly just hoping to see the damned Ankober Serin at long last.

It was a 4-hour trip from Addis Ababa to Gemassa Gedel, most of which I spent worrying I'd dip on the serin for a third time and have to return home in disgrace. We stopped just before the main overlook at an area of cliffs where they're sometimes seen, and my fears seemed to be coming true when all we saw were Moorland Chats and a few Ethiopian Siskins. However, when we pulled up at the overlook, it took all of 10 seconds before we spotted an Ankober Serin foraging on the ground right in front of us! It's not exactly a spectacular-looking bird, but it was a spectacular relief to finally see it, and to get some decent pictures to boot.

Ankober Serin!

Lill and I spent a while longer hiking along the cliffs, enjoying the dramatic views of the escarpment. There were no Geladas this time, which was rather surprising, but there was still some interesting flora on the windswept cliff-face. On the way back down the mountains, we saw a surprise pair of Erckel's Francolins and a flock of my lifer Yellow-crowned Canary. It was nice to be able to enjoy the views and the nature without worrying about seeing anything specific- really my preferred method of birding.

The view from the escarpment

Cyanotis barbata

Everlasting flower (Helichrysum sp.)

On the way back, we stopped in some fields outside the town of Debre Birhan to look for Erlanger's Lark, another highland endemic I was annoyingly missing. Similar to the Serin, I also saw it almost immediately after we stopped the car by a fallow field- about a dozen Erlanger's Larks foraging with Long-billed Pipits and Thekla's Larks. We also had a near flyover from a Lammergeier on the way out, unfortunately after I'd already put my camera away but still a nice look at this impressive raptor.

Erlanger's Lark

We made one final stop on the way back to Addis Ababa, at a seemingly random set of ponds by the side of the road that Mesfin said usually had a lot of birds. It didn't look like much, especially with truck drivers having parked their vehicles by the side of the ponds and noisily washing them. However, it was in fact full of birds, including lots of Ethiopian Siskins, typically noisy Spot-breasted Lapwings, and Mottled Swifts and massive Alpine Swifts zooming overhead. There was also a surprise Wood Sandpiper by the side of one pond, a bird that was supposed to have migrated north by then according to eBird.

The best find by far, however, was a pair of Cuckoo-finches in the reeds next to one of the ponds. Strange parasitic widowbirds, Cuckoo-finches are known from only a few sites in Ethiopia, including Lake Hawassa and the Bishoftu lakes, with probably only a couple of dozen records from the entire country. This was a new location record for the species, and possibly a new altitudinal record, as my field guide says they're found below 1,100 meters above sea level, while this area was above 1,500 meters. Considering it was nesting season, they were probably looking to parasitize one of the nests of the many Ethiopian Cisticolas that were present, which would potentially be a new host species record as well. It was certainly the least-expected of my bird records in Ethiopia, though not the rarest-overall bird I saw in the country.

Cuckoo-finch!

Village Weaver

Spot-breasted Lapwing

Alpine Swift

Mottled Swift

Alpine and Mottled Swifts together, showing how huge Alpine swifts are...

Ethiopian Siskin

Acraea necoda

The next week still had no internet, until WiFi was restored on Thursday, albeit at a fraction of its original speed. I spent a couple of days working from my old haunts in the ILRI campus in hopes they would have better internet (they didn't), which offered me the chance to do some more birding on campus as well. A nice surprise was my African Yellow Warbler singing from a treetop, the last lifer I got in Addis Ababa. I also got my best looks yet that week of Yellow-bellied Waxbill and Red-billed Firefinch, and added Village Indigobird and African Hobby to my Addis Ababa bird list. It was the rainy season, which means breeding season for many birds, including Swainson's Sparrow, which I saw doing an interesting display on top of a fence post.

African Yellow Warbler

Yellow-bellied Waxbill

Red-billed Firefinch

Tawny-breasted Prinia

Bronze Mannikin

Displaying Swainson's Sparrow

Lycaena phaeas

Eristalinus sp. 

A pretty fly of some kind

Lampides boeticus 

Another impressive fly

Abyssinian Forktail (Ischnura abyssinica), an Ethiopian endemic damselfly!

Monolepta leuce, possibly the first-ever picture of this species in the wild

One final impressive fly

By the end of the week, at least some internet connectivity was finally restored, and I was able to resume contact with the outside world. With the end of training (and ensuing further delays of our survey thanks to the lack of mobile data in the field, I also had more time to go birding, and thus was able to resume my weekend trips- which thus will require blog entries of their own!