Lurkers on the trot

I was wrong it seems we still have a few Yellow-billed Kite in Durban. On my usual bird atlassing circuit yesterday I saw five birds foraging and quartering in Seaview, Westwood and over the Umegeni River. So my prediction from my first blog was off the mark. Well, I must say I am rather pleased. I love having them around. Yes many might say thay are the most common raptor in the world, but their northerly larger cousins the Black Kites are showing declines across their range and at the migration bottle-necks like Eilat off the Sinai Peninsula and the straits of Gibraltar. Though it seems that we must be in the final stages of their departure from the general KZN region. As noted by Trish Strachan this morning via email she has seen no Yellow-billed kites in the Highflats region in Southern KZN.

The Wahlbergs Eagles were still around 'upsurging' near the Pavillion shopping centre yesterday so I expect to see them as we head out today. With the weather turning for the worse yesterday we opted against going to the Barn Swallow roost at Mt. Moreland, but today the weather has improved and we are going to have a crack at this afternoon.

Hopefully we will pick up a few 'lurking' YBK's that are enjoying the Durban climate, easy foraging and overall abundance of roosting and perching sites. I am sure some last minute migration 'fattening-up' is not going to hurt them either. It should make the success of their migration journey more certain.