Nervous tick!!

Yesterday I was coming out of the park when I spotted a trio of bulbuls land on the birdbath outside the Main camp tourist office. The Dark-capped Bulbul is not uncommon here but I slammed on brakes and put my bins to them. The reason for this "over-reaction" was because main camp is one of the few places that I have seen the rarer Red-eyed Bulbul and every Bulbul I see deserves to be looked over.

Sure enough they were "Red-eyes" and I was able to snap off a few shots before they left again.

 

This reminded me of the first time I ever saw them....the "Red-eyes" that is. I was a young safari guide in the Gwaai valley and guiding a real "twitcher". Our vehicle was down so I took him to a little hide we had overlooking a pool in dense vegetation. As we sat there a Bulbul arrived and I caught a flash of red as it landed. He was looking through his scope at something else so I blurted out "a Red-eyed Bulbul just arrived". As is the law...it flew off again before he could see it and it was with great doubt in his voice that he questioned my birding skills. He had done his homework and the Red-eyed Bulbul was NOT found in this area!
I had committed myself by blurting out their identity and now I had an expert telling me I was mistaken.....a very nervous few minutes ensued with me praying that I was not going to make a fool of myself!

I needn't have worried because the bird returned and he added a "tick" to my nervous twitch!

                                               The Hwange Birder