It looks as though they have 'only' done Zambia as part of the route through Malawi to Tanzania. Looking at the route they have published they will only get to the Chaplin's Barbet range when they head back later in the year. No idea when.
Hi All,
Sorry just seeing this thread now! Anyways, yes Melissa and I are in the midst of a 10ish month trip around Africa. We started Jan 4th so it'll all be within 2020. I'm not technically going for the year list record (targeting endemics and as well as a number of endemic ssp that'll be split eventually), but I do think I'll probably break the record.
At the moment, the spreadsheets show that I have about 1230 "targets/lifers" for the trip. Since I already had 560ish species for South Africa prior to starting and add in some common WP migrants etc, and it looks like that I could probably get around 1700 species if things go well.
That being said, I think things have been off to a slow start aggregate species wise, but that's because we are target birding. Target wise, things are going very well with no absolute dips yet (although missing Blue Quail in Zambia hurts, we walked over a dozen fields, no luck).
Otherwise, plenty of great birds so far Namuli Apalis, all the flufftails (including both antonii and antorii Striped) except White-winged (and white-spotted, but that will come soon), "eastern" Oustalet's Sunbird, Reichenow's Batis, Katenga & Tanzania Masked Weavers, Zambian Papyrus Yellow Warbler, and so on!
If you're enjoying the blog, please also follow along on instagram @budgetbirders as that's where a lot of pics and instagram stories will be (there's a long one on ticking the birds at Mt Namuli i'm sure you'll enjoy).
We are trying to keep things updated as possible (most blog posts are written to date), but wifi/data make it hard to add pics and get them posted!
Off to Ghana now for 3 weeks before heading back to spend about 40 days "cleaning up" Tanzania!
Good birding,
Ross