Phespirit goes to Egypt
tour     January/February 2009

KINGFISHER OVER CAIRO

In Cairo, Phespirit dined at The Place Boat, a floating restaurant moored on the Nile.

Throughout the meal, a Pied Kingfisher sat silhouetted on a skeletal finger of driftwood outside his window. Later, it treated him to this display of hovering and diving.

Note the polluted sky on a cloudless day in Cairo.

THICK-KNEES AND SPUR-WINGS

Here are four Senegal Thick-knees and one Spur-winged Plover on the Nile at Aswan.

Bird-watching in this area, Phespirit also spotted: an Osprey, Grey Herons, a Purple Heron, a Night Heron, Squacco Herons, Little Bitterns, Ferruginous Ducks, a Little Green Bee-eater, Purple Gallinules, Moorhens, Coots, Pied Kingfishers, Hoopoes, a Marsh Harrier, a Curlew Sandpiper, plus assorted egrets, terns, crows, cormorants and doves ..... a reasonable haul.

SUNSET ON THE NILE

Vivid skyline colours and delicate Egyptian sailing boats in silhouette are what make a sunset on the Nile so photogenic. Phespirit joined fellow tourists at Luxor for this shot.

The atmosphere was broken by a Northern English accent shouting out: "Aww, bloody felucca's in t' way!"