St Lucia birding summary: June

Crowned eagle at the nest.

Birding has been great this month, especially on the warm sunny days after the bouts of cold overcast weather associated with passing Cold fronts.

The flowering Coral trees and Tree fuschia have been attracting a colourful assortment of Collared, Grey, Purple-banded, Olive and Scarlet-chested sunbirds as well as Eastern golden weaver which also seem to have a liking for the flowers.

The Lake St Lucia estuary mouth has remained open and the large areas of shallow water and mudflats exposed on the low tide have attracted some Lesser flamingo, Pied avocet and resident waders such as Three-banded, Kittlitz's and White-fronted plover whereas the mouth itself continues to attract a wide assortment of piscivorous birds including Yellow-billed stork, African fish eagle, Grey heron, Caspian, Common, Sandwich and Greater crested terns. Also, a pair of Ruddy turnstone have been regular.   

Out behind backline, winter-visiting Cape Gannet can be seen plummeting into the ocean and a couple of Cape cormorant and Kelp gull have been around too!

The mangrove kingfishers -very vocal on arrival at their non-breeding sites- have quietened down in recent weeks but have still offered regular (albeit erratic) sightings.

The wetlands close to St Lucia have continued to deliver some good birds such as African Pygmy goose, White-backed duck, Saddle-billed stork and Rufous-bellied heron.

In the forest we have enjoyed good sightings of winter visiting White-starred robin, Chorister robin-chat, Grey cuckooshrike and Spotted ground thrush this month as well as good sightings of the resident forest species such as Green malkoha, Green twinspot, Buff-spotted flufftail, Narina trogon, Blue-mantled crested flycatcher, Brown scrub-robin, Livingstone's turaco, Woodward's batis, Rudd's apalis, Tambourine dove, Pink-throated twinspot, Grey waxbill.

Raptor viewing has been fantastic with African goshawk and Black sparrowhawk entertaining with their aerial acrobatics at dusk as they hunt free-tailed bats over town. The Crowned eagles have been very active at the nesting site with some courtship rituals observed at the nest (suspect some nesting to be happening soon). Other raptors seen regularly this month include Brown, Black-chested and Southern-banded snake-eagle (one individual observed feasting on a large Gaboon adder!), Martial eagle, Long-crested eagle, Little sparrowhawk, African Harrier hawk, African Marsh Harrier and Secretary bird.

Lastly, we have enjoyed good sightings of Swamp nightjar, African wood-owl and Spotted eagle-owl again this month! 

Yellow-billed storks and Grey heron at the Lake St Lucia estuary mouth.