Good week for unusual sightings

It's been a better-than-average week for unusual sightings here in Mbale. On an early morning walk along Wanale Road I heard a distinctive contact call and then caught sight of the russet in the plumage of an African paradise flycatcher (Terpsiphone viridis). This has been one of my all-time favorite birds ever since I got acquainted with them at home in Malawi in the 1970s. They are fairly common in many places, but for some reason I rarely see them inside Mbale town (three or four times in eleven years). The one I saw a couple of days ago was either a female or juvenile/non-breeding male, without the signature long tail streamers of the adult male in breeding regalia.

Then this morning, on the upper side of our neighborhood, right before one begins to ascend in earnest the lower slopes of Wanale mountain, I heard a bird call that stood out as different from the usual avian symphony in our neighborhood. It sounded familiar, just out of place. Turned out to be a pair of darkish starlings, which, if I had not heard them calling, I'd have identified from a distance as Ruppell's long-tailed. The liquid call notes, however, made it obvious that these were red-winged starlings (Onychognathus morio). This species does occur, I'm sure, on the flanks and cliffs of Wanale mountain above Mbale town, but I've never before seen them down here in our backyard, so to speak. I guess this pair was just out a-wandering away from their home turf.