Birding in Somaliland, November 2019 By Enrico Leonardi
[email protected] I visited Somaliland for work between 3rd and 15th November 2019. I spent several days in Hargeisa, shuffling between the Hotel Ambassador and the UNICEF Office located on the high plateau not far from the airport. I managed to do some birding in the garden of the hotel and spotted few additional species during the drives to/from the office. Between 6th and 11th November, I went on a field trip to Tog Wajaale, Boroma and Lughaya, stopping at several small villages and hamlets for work reasons. I managed to do some birding early in the mornings and in between meetings and project visits. Lughaya, a small town (~6-8,000 pp.) on the Aden Gulf coast, is bordered on the east and the west by two brackish water lagoons. A small military garrison is located close to the western lagoon, which makes the place far from ideal for birding, as jittery soldiers consider binoculars as suspicious equipment. However, I managed to spend about one hour birding part of the eastern lagoon and the beach separating it from the ocean, with some nice records. A large (several hundred birds) terns and gulls roost was present on the far side of the lagoon, but without a spotting scope it was impossible to investigate it thoroughly. Finally, following the advice of the always resourceful and helpful Bram Piot (merci!), I managed to organize a daily excursion to the Tuuyo plain with Abdi Jama. We left at 5:45am and with several stops along the road, we reached Tuuyo plain around 1pm; indeed a very long road.