Cinnamon chested bee eater

We saw this guy from a restaurant overlooking Lake Bishoftu this morning. The lake is one of a few volcanic crater lakes around Debre Zeyit. He would flit from this branch, repeatedly, looking for prey. Eventually he did find an insect (not a bee), and we got a few good shots as he swallowed it.

Today I was with Brian and Abbas. Anj and the kids stayed in the city, as they had other things planned.

Next we went to Lake Hora. The guidebook said that you could walk around the entire lake in 1.5 hours. This can't be true! After 1.5 hours we weren't even halfway around and we turned back. We did manage to frighten an enormous lizard out of the underbrush. Luckily, he fled into the water as fast as he could. If he hadn't jumped in, I would have! He must have been 5 ft long.

The list of birds we saw today includes: kites, an African fish eagle, pelicans, a grey heron, an egret, ducks, two kinds of grebe, a kingfisher, cormorants, sunbirds, lovebirds, doves, firefinches, hammerkops, ?starlings, vultures, an unidentified eagle, the blue-napped mousebird and a red-cheeked cordon bleu. And I'm not kidding about that last one. It's a real bird. Very pretty, too.