Black Coucal.
01st December 2023
When driving through extensive semi-flooded wetlands marvelling at the breath-taking numbers of birds; Herons, Egrets and Ducks in their thousands. Seeing hundreds upon hundreds of African Jacanas or ‘Lilly Trotters’ as David Attenborough likes to call them, is a special experience. However, when Mas slams the brakes on and starts shouting ‘Steve camera – Quick’!! It’s time to shift into gear.
‘Over there’ he pointed into the silhouetted grassland ‘Black Coucal’ after a few seconds I could see a dark shape in the vegetation. I knew it was going to be difficult to get anything and I told him so; ‘Just get a record’ he said.
Senegal Coucal is a very common bird in The Gambia but Black Coucal is very much the opposite.
I took some sort of shot which was really badly silhouetted and showed him, but his enthusiasm didn’t wane.
He doesn't have the English vocabulory to express himself fully to me but I know he's pleased when he starts waving his arms in the air!
‘Super rare around here’ he said; 'Very uncommon Wet Season breeder’
Processing the image back home I began to salvage detail. Shooting in RAW is a massive bonus as I always maintain, and then running it through ‘Topaz’ Denoise software afterwards works wonders. He will be over the moon when I send him the image on ‘WhatsApp’ later today.
‘Over there’ he pointed into the silhouetted grassland ‘Black Coucal’ after a few seconds I could see a dark shape in the vegetation. I knew it was going to be difficult to get anything and I told him so; ‘Just get a record’ he said.
Senegal Coucal is a very common bird in The Gambia but Black Coucal is very much the opposite.
I took some sort of shot which was really badly silhouetted and showed him, but his enthusiasm didn’t wane.
He doesn't have the English vocabulory to express himself fully to me but I know he's pleased when he starts waving his arms in the air!
‘Super rare around here’ he said; 'Very uncommon Wet Season breeder’
Processing the image back home I began to salvage detail. Shooting in RAW is a massive bonus as I always maintain, and then running it through ‘Topaz’ Denoise software afterwards works wonders. He will be over the moon when I send him the image on ‘WhatsApp’ later today.