Babblers in Serengeti, notes

 "Babblers in Serengeti NP, Tanzania  Oct-Nov 1997.
 > For the past decade or so Arrow-marked Babblers have
 > been relatively
 > common over much of the Serengeti NP, while the only
 > records of
 > Black-lored have been a few old specimen records
 > around the turn of
 > the century, as mentioned in Zimmerman et al (1996).
 > Recently while on a visit to northern Tanzania I was
 > surprised to
 > come across several groups of Black-lored Babblers
 > in the Serengeti,
 > yet only a handful of Arrow-marked. Also due to the
 > extreme dryness
 > prevailing in the area (worst in living memory
 > according to some
 > observers, and with the Seronera River totally dry).
 > At the same time
 > I also noticed that all Temminck's Coursers appeared
 > to have moved
 > out, only to be replaced by Two-banded Coursers.
 > This leads me to
 > wonder whether the drought conditions have caused a
 > similar
 > displacement in babblers.
 > The Black-lored however are of unusual plumage, and
 > nothing like the
 > normal Black-lored encountered in other areas. They
 > are predominantly
 > tawny brown in colour, prominent whitish throat,
 > very rufous tails,
 > but all individuals clearly have creamy-white eyes
 > and very black
 > lores. In fact they seem not too far removed from
 > the race vepres
 > around Nanyuki and Lewa Downs in Kenya.
 >
 > Arrow-marked are still present along the thicker
 > riverine areas of
 > the Seronera Valley, also around Seronera Wildlife
 > Lodge, while in
 > the Ndutu area only the Black-lored are present
 > (having moved in
 > approx 8-9 months ago according to the lodge staff
 > and park rangers
 > in the area). Black-lored are also present in drier
 > parts of the
 > park, in some places only a few kilometers from
 > Arrow-marked.
 >
 > Sadly there are no Tanzanian specimens in the
 > Nairobi collection, so
 > it would be worth seeing what there is in Tring, and
 > see if these odd
 > coloured birds match anything there. Should there be
 > no matching
 > specimens in Tring, or elsewhere, it might be worth
 > collecting one or
 > two, as the possibility of an undescribed race
 > cannot be ruled out.
 > In fact the whole issue of the many unusual forms of
 > Black-lored
 > Babblers in East Africa is worth a closer study."
 >
 > Cheers
 > Don
 > --
 > Don & Margaret Turner