Bushcrows and Goodbyes
I've been gone from Ethiopia for more than three months now (yes, I know, this blog is once again grievously out-of-date), but I still look back on many parts of it fondly: the food, the landscapes, the fascinating history, and (of course) the birds. Aside from the fact it was my first-ever introduction to African birds, birding in Ethiopia has the ideal combination of being very easy and very rewarding, with lots of interesting and charismatic birds that are generally easy to find and approach. Hard to beat really. By the end of July, I'd seen almost all the Ethiopian endemic birds, and some more incredibly rare residents. However, with two days left in the country, I still had some of the best-looking and rarest of Ethiopian endemics left to see. We were in the town of Mega in Ethiopia's far south after an all-day drive the previous day, and the destination for the morning of July 31 was just a bit further south, on the cliffs that surround the town. Anywhere ther