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Message: <blockquote data-quote="kitefarrago" data-source="post: 3168688" data-attributes="member: 91670">RaptorsIn general I was surprised we didn't see more raptors flying - most of our sightings were of perched birds. We were in an open vehicle, so angle of view wouldn't have been a problem.We saw Secretarybirds almost every day, but photographic opportunities were limited - they were always on the move where we couldn't follow them.We saw all five vultures. White-headed was the rarest with two sightings, whereas the others (Ruppell's, White-backed, Hooded and Lappet-faced) were more or less daily. We stopped making an effort for them once we had the full set.We had Black-chested Snake Eagle three times (once on the ground with a freshly caught snake, but flying off before I could take a picture - the grass was high and we hadn't seen the bird properly before it took off), and Brown Snake Eagle once. I thought we'd missed Western-Banded, but a photo that I had taken of a Snake Eagle shortly before dusk revealed the necessary detail once I got back home and could look at it on a decent screen.African Fish Eagle, Tawny Eagle and Bateleur were very common, and the last seemed tamer here than I'd seen it elsewhere, giving nice photo opportunities. We grilled a lot of Tawny Eagles because of their sheer variety, but of course August isn't the time when one might see eagles from Europe. Martial Eagle was also fairly common, and we saw both adults and immatures.We had Wahlberg's Eagle on three occasions (once a mating pair), including one pale morph. This was my first Wahlberg's and it took us forever to work out what it was. Because of internal flights I had packed very light and so instead of taking Birds of East Africa in paper form I only had the app. This doesn't show the pale morph until one scrolls all the way down...We had one Ovambo Sparrowhawk, identified from a photo at long distance in failing light similar to the Western Banded Snake Eagle. We were very lucky with one sighting of African Cuckoo-Hawk, just as we were on the way back to camp for lunch it landed in the grass, but at some distance. We had one encounter with a Long-crested Eagle, again at a distance.We only saw one species of falcon in the form of Grey Kestrel, which we had on four occasions in the fortnight. A few times I caught a glimpse of a falcon species, but the birds always vanished before one had a chance to do more than glimpse.Admittedly I didn't spend a lot of time looking up at the sky, but I did scan reasonably frequently, and almost all we saw that way were vultures. I was a bit surprised by this, since I'm more used to seeing raptors on the wing from other locations.This was a very good time for vultures and other birds that don't mind scavenging, since prey was plentiful and I saw lions, cheetahs and leopards all with freshly killed prey. I assume though that leopard kills usually don't do too much for vultures - all the leopard kills I saw were carried into trees.Photos:1. Secretarybird2-4. Bateleurs5. Very dark Tawny.</blockquote>

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