Hidlebrandt's Francolin - Francolinus Hildebrandti
Another species of Francolin associated with bushy grassland. I think this male bird was on display as we drove out of Manyara National Park saying goodbye - but with the Ngorogoro Crater and the wilds of the Serengetti all to come.
When I think about birding in the UK or even Dubai and I think about birding in places like Tanzania or Sri Lanka (e.g. the Yala national park) I wonder what Britain looked like when it was mostly covered in forest perhaps 1500 year's ago. When wetlands covered a third of the land and packs of wolves, bears, moose and beaver roamed the land. All of the big animals in the third world are hanging on by a thread granted - but they are still there. There just seems to be more birdlife in the National Parks in the third world I have seen as well. I am not an ecologist and I understand that there are only so many "biomes" in the UK. When I see a francolin in Africa or India (or any other kind of Quail, Partridge or Grouse type thing) it takes me a good twenty minutes to start to figure out what it is - if the driver hasn't already told me. The options in East Africa are Guineafowl (3 species), Forest Francolins (5 species), Red-winged Francolins (5 species), Other Francolins (6 species), Spurfowls (3), Quails (3), Button-Quails (3), Flufftails (6). In Britain I think I would be looking at Red and Black grouse, Pheasant, Grey and Red-Legged Partridge and Common Quail - possibly stick in a couple of other introduced Pheasant species like Lady Amherst's Pheasant. There are a bewildering number of alterantives in East Africa to any common ''form" of bird.
I am reading a book about butterflys at the moment - Butterfly Isles where a guy sets out to see all of Britain's Butterflys in a single year. If diversity is built from the ground up then this tells a story. We don't have anywhere near as many butterflys as birds. Some of them depend on specific food plants and some of them are quite adapatable both in terms of food and climate. Take the Adonis Blue. It requires a specific length of cropped grass and a specific red ant that the caterpillar will rely on to get through the Winter (hiding itself as an ant grub in the nest by the specific use of pherenomes). We are losing these butterflys due to changes in grazing patterns etc. The fuss over the Winchester bypass was in part caused by the fact that it was one of these Southern grasslands or downs. There are a dozen or more highly specialised butterflys hanging on in remnant patches of habitat - ditto orchids - wild flowers - rare mushrooms - trees even - and birds. Nightingales require a specific type of woodland - a mess actually - a specific treatment of the understory in order to thrive. Other birds and plants well - they just do well for whatever reason when man's impact boosts their niche. Gulls, magpies etc - any bird that likes the detritus of the Western world. I think Britain is sorely impoverished. The pressure of 68 million people on such a tiny patch of land must just bludgeon diversity out to the very edge of every view.
Having said that I could travel for miles in India or Africa seeing only a few species. The explosion in diversity happens when we let the plants and insects thrive in a natural setting. Diveristy built from the bottom up.
I read that the man who owned Oz magazine is it - a hippy multi-millionaire has willed a vast tract of land by UK standards to be turned back into primordial English lowland woodland. Fantastic. There is a small copice near my parents home - I have walked around it in all seasons for 15 years. It has a "Millenium Green" abutting it which is managed for the wild grass and flowers. Clouds of Gold finches, Yellowhammer, Little owls, Spotted Flycatchers - butterflys (I started to notice them more recently). Its not just the numbers of different species but the ''weight'' of them. Nature should be threaded through every space we have - every garden, every wayside, every verge, every corner. Its a bit hard to see the big animals coming back (if we have stories about foxes attacking babies then god knows what wolves would do for the Daily Mail). We have to try though.
I am leaving a wood somewhere. Some of that c**py oil seed rape or linseed can be given over for something else. I have a fair idea now about what to do with myself when I grow up. I will start with a pond and we can go from there.
Hildebrandts Francolin, Francolinus Gildebranti
Lake Manyara National Park, Tanzania
July 2012
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