Birding Tanzania

Introduction: Birding Tanzania

2011-06-13T08:40:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the birding blog I maintained during the year I lived in Dar es Salaam and traveled throughout Tanzania. Originally, my wife Aimee and I had planned to stay in East Africa for a number of years, similar to our experience in Ecuador, where we lasted for six years, but an opportunity arose for us to pick up yet again and move to Brazil. Although my time was unexpectedly short in the region, I worked hard to make it special, taking advantage of my proximity to visit some of the most fabled nature reserves in the world, including the Serengeti and the Eastern Arc Mountain Ranges. Exploring Tanzania is extremely expensive, and most visiting birders won’t want to risk planning an independent trip, as there is simply too much money at stake to try and figure things out on your own. Still, I wanted to describe my own experiences driving around and birding the country and to share information about my successes and failures. Hopefully, visiting birders will benefit from my accounts, even if they’re working with a tour company to organize their trip.

With over 1100 bird species recorded, including more than twenty country and dozens of regional endemic species, Tanzania is a spectacular country for birding, offering a wide variety of habitats, including montane forest, miombo woodland, savanna, arid plains, and coastline, making it an important migratory passageway as well. Despite all of these attractions, on visits to the many national parks and reserves, birds often take a back seat to the big game on display, such as lions, elephants, and giraffes. A visit to East Africa can indeed be a trip of a lifetime for birders, but it’s far from being in paradise. Here in Tanzania, where poverty and disease are crippling, habitat destruction is widespread, and energy and fuel costs are skyrocketing, birding is even more problematic than usual, giving visitors plenty to contemplate beyond their life lists as they travel between sites. Although I certainly wasn’t always a responsible tourist during my time here, I had my eyes opened to a lot more than a few new birds, and I would encourage visiting birders to plan for a more holistic experience of the country rather than a strategic bird strike.

Although my knowledge of the country remains limited, please feel free to contact me with any questions as you plan your trip. Although I'm excited to be moving on to birding in Brazil, I'm disappointed to leave this compelling and complicated country so soon.

Wami Mbiki Wildlife Management Area: June 4-5, 2011

2011-06-05T06:41:00.000-07:00

I figured there was no better way to spend my last weekend in Tanzania than to go birding, but finally making out to miombo woodland habitat gave me true cause for celebration. The word miombo is tossed around a lot in field guides and trip reports, but it’s difficult to get a sense of what the term actually means. Supposedly, miombo woodland is wherever trees of the Brachystegia genus are found, which is often in hilly areas in southern Tanzania and beyond to Mozambique, Malawi, and Zambia. As I can’t identify trees taxonomically, I would characterize miombo woodland as being relatively dry and open, with large small-leafed trees interspersed with shorts bushes and grassland, sort of like a stand of old oak trees in central California. I would also say that miombo woodland is where the tsetse flies dwell en masse, as we were literally swarmed by them at times this weekend (I wore my thick rain jacket in protection but still got bit twice around the waist). Perhaps, you don’t really know you’re in miombo until you start seeing Pale-Billed Hornbills instead of African Grey Hornbills or Racket-Tailed Rollers instead of Lilac Breasted Rollers; that is, you don’t know you’re there until you know you’re there.

While there is miombo woodland in the Selous Game Reserve and Mikumi National Park, both at least five hour’s drive from Dar es Salaam, the Wami Mbiki Wildlife Management Area (Tsh 10,000 per person entrance fee) boasts an outstanding tract that stretches from the Morogoro Road outside of Chalinze north to the Wami River. While there’s not much big game to be readily found (we did briefly encounter a leopard on our night drive, though), the birding proved rewarding as in any national park, and I was thrilled to find half a dozen new birds, including several miombo specialties, such as the Racket-Tailed Roller, Pale-Billed Hornbill, Rufous-Bellied Tit, and Miombo Wren-Warbler. The roller was easily the bird of the trip: long, slender, and a lovely pale blue, two birds swooped through the trees around the road, perching finally in the distance, where their elegant tail streamers could be seen with delicate rackets at the end. If it weren’t for the tsetse flies, I would say the site makes for an easy and rewarding day trip from Dar, but the infrastructure appears unpredictable and the way is unclear, so I wouldn’t recommend trying to visit unless you’re in the company of someone who has been there before (special thanks to Tony Evans for organizing our weekend).

Notable birds seen: Black-Headed Heron, Hamerkop, Hadada Ibis, Bateleur, Allen’s Gallinule, African Jacana, Buff-Crested Bustard, Emerald-Spotted Wood-Dove, Ring-Necked Dove, Brown-Headed Parrot, White-Browed Coucal, Striped Kingfisher, Pied Kingfisher, Swallow-Tailed Bee-Eater, Racket-Tailed Roller, Green Wood-Hoopoe, African Hoopoe, Pale-Billed Hornbill, Southern Ground-Hornbill, Black-Collared Barbet, Brown-Breasted Barbet, Cardinal Woodpecker, African Pied Wagtail, White-Headed Black Chat, Rattling Cisticola, Miombo Wren-Warbler, Pale Flycatcher, Pale Batis, Arrow-Marked Babbler, Rufous-Bellied Tit, African Penduline-Tit, Scarlet-Chested Sunbird, Black-Backed Puffback, Brown-Crowned Tchagra, Grey-Headed Bush-Shrike, White-Crested Helmet-Shrike, Retz’s Helmet-Shrike, Fork-Tailed Drongo, African Black-Headed Oriole, Yellow-Throated Petronia.

Udzungwa Mountains National Park: May 28-29, 2011

2011-05-31T02:47:00.000-07:00

It’s not a bright idea to visit Udzungwa Mountains National Park as a weekend trip from Dar es Salaam, as it’s a six to eight hour drive depending on traffic and road conditions, but I was eager to bird the region before I left Tanzania. The Udzungwa Range is the second most biodiverse place on the continent, with a remarkably high level of endemism, including over 25% of its plant species. Although the park wasn’t established until 1992, there are still two thousand square kilometers of continuous closed-canopy forest intact, stretching from an elevation of two hundred to over two thousand meters. It’s truly the jewel of the Eastern Arc mountains with many biological discoveries no doubt yet to be made, but it’s also a difficult site to meaningfully explore as access is limited, arduous, and expensive to arrange. With over four hundred recorded bird species, including several that were discovered only recently, such as the unique Udzungwa Partridge and Rufous-Winged Sunbird, the park bears must-see status for birders, even though tracking down these elusive endemics is hardly guaranteed.

Philip Briggs covers the site in his typically excellent way in the Bradt Guide to Tanzania, honestly recommending a visit to the Eastern Usambaras over the Udzungwas due to the superior infrastructure found at Amani Nature Reserve, so my expectations were low from the start. As I awoke early on Saturday morning and stumbled around the grounds of the Udzungwa Forest Camp though, I was in awe of the forested mountains stacked up steeply just behind the boundary of the camp. I could hardly contain my excitement all day as I first visited the Kilombero Floodplains to the southwest of the range in search of another three endemic bird species, the Kilombero Weaver and Cisticola, as well as the White-Tailed Cisticola. On the return trip to camp, I insisted on a quick visit to the park headquarters before dark ($20 per person per 24 hours), despite having to pay the additional ridiculous fee ($10) to have a guide accompany me on a two-hundred meter walk into the forest interior (I had to pay the same fee the following morning). Even on this modest walk, I managed to spot the Uluguru Violet-Backed Sunbird, Yellowbill, and Retz’s Helmet-Shrike.

I walked the same short trails the following morning with the same park guide, Huruma Shao (mobile 0764733674), who knows his birds pretty well and pointed out both Livingstone’s Flycatcher and Black-and-White Shrike-Flycatcher to me while I was focused on other species within mixed flocks. They were terrific finds and I was certainly grateful to have another pair of discerning eyes with me, but these two new lifers couldn’t hold a candle to the group of Livingstone’s Turaco that we encountered shortly afterwards. Since I first laid eyes on this incredible, distinctly African family of birds in the field guide, I have been obsessed with seeing as many of these large, long-tailed, and crested beauties as possible. Hartlaub’s, Fischer’s, and now Livingstone’s Turaco I’ve seen, each one seemingly more stunning than the last, although my photographs hardly do the latter bird justice. From my limited experience, I can say that turacos are often heard but rarely seen well, as they stay high in the canopy and dash squirrel-like along branches into dense cover. We were lucky to linger for ten minutes on this one as it stared us down from its perch high above.

Having arrived at 10pm on Friday night after eight hours of driving, much of it through Mikumi National Park in the dark, where trucks and busses barrel blindly past elephants and giraffes, I thought it would be prudent to return to Dar in the daylight. A more meaningful visit to the Udzungwa Mountains should at least include the half-day hike to Sanje Waterfall, which starts ten kilometers back along the road from park headquarters and climbs to a stunning series of cascades. A true expedition into the Udzungwas would necessitate a multi-day journery up to the park’s montane forest near an elevation of two thousand meters, where the sunbird, various forest robins, and perhaps even the partridge can be seen. As Briggs describes in his guidebook, the best chance for spotting the three localized endemics (I haven’t mentioned the Iringa Alkalat yet) actually involves accessing the park from the remote western side, necessitating at least five days to travel there, arrange a permit, and reach the high-altitude site on foot. It’s no wonder these species weren’t discovered until recently. Perhaps with another year living in the country, I might have worked up the desperation for just such an expedition.

Notable birds seen: Palm-Nut Vulture, Yellowbill, Trumpeter Hornbill, Livingstone’s Turaco, Green-Backed Woodpecker, Livingstone’s Flycatcher, Black-and-White Shrike Flycatcher, Grey Cuckoo-Shrike, Uluguru Violet-Backed Sunbird, Olive Sunbird, Retz’s Helmet-Shrike, Fork-Tailed Drongo, Dark-Backed Weaver.

Kilombero Floodplains: May 28, 2011

2011-05-31T02:18:00.000-07:00

Despite already having achieved my modest goal of observing four hundred bird species in Tanzania this year, I simply had to visit the Udzungwa National Park before I left this country for good (it’s the continent’s second most biodiverse place in terms of bird species). With less than two weeks remaining in Africa for me, it was now or never, and so I got in the car on Friday afternoon and drove for eight hours until I reached Udzungwa Forest Camp, which would be my base for a final weekend of birding in East Africa. If you’re going to come all this way, though, it’s a shame to skip the Kilombero floodplains, which is a flat, swampy region home to three endemic bird species: the Kilombero Weaver, Kilombero Cisticola, and White-Tailed Cisticola. The site is just a few hour’s drive beyond the eastern entrance gate to the national park, although it’s a rough road depending on the season; in fact, on the return trip Saturday afternoon, we passed a half-a-dozen large trucks stuck in the mud. The weaver is an easy tick at the Kilomero River, but the cisticolas proved more difficult for me to find, especially without the knowledge of an experienced guide.

Having arrived a few hours short of midnight on the previous night, I was rather grumpy the following morning, and the miserable road conditions and cloudy weather further soured the day’s prospects in my mind. Despite driving past long kilometers of gloriously full-grown reed beds and rice and cornfields, all simply littered with stunning bishops, weavers, whydahs, and widowbirds, I couldn’t shake my negative attitude, which worsened as we arrived at the ferry across the river. Here we would board a dugout canoe for a few hours to explore the marsh and search for the weaver and the Kilombero Ciscticola, which inhabits the flooded reedbeds of the region, according to the field guide. Our boatman, Anthony Hermani (mobile 0684 598 907; price Tsh 40,000), looked shaky though, and within minutes it was pouring rain. “Ten hours of driving for this mess,” I muttered miserably. But after an hour or so, the weather cleared and we were soon in hot pursuit of the resurgent birdlife along the river’s many flooded islands and inlets.

The Kilombero Weaver is almost assuredly a guaranteed tick, as every flooded island and reed bed apparently hosts a dense colony of these colorful, vociferous birds. Photographing them proved a bit more challenging, but there’s little suspense to be found in their straightforward identification. The cisticolas proved significantly more difficult, even after I learned from the field guide that the White-Tailed Cisticola prefers the drier habitat surrounding the floodplains. We regularly found the Winding Cisticola, which isn’t an easy identification in itself, but had neither sight nor sound of the relatively distinctive Kilombero Cisticola (it probably would have helped had me or my guide had an audio recording of the bird’s unusual call). There was still plenty of excitement to be had in the dugout though, despite whiffing on two-thirds of the site’s endemic species.

While Lesser Swamp Warbler, White-Crowned Lapwing, and Malachite Kingfisher were all good ticks, the highlight of the excursion was definitely being attacked by a territorial hippopotamus. Approaching a flooded island while standing in the canoe with binoculars raised, we were startled by the roar of an aggressive hippo, or kiboko in Swahili. Within seconds, it was bearing down on us, swimming just under the surface like a shark in attack with an impressively tall bow wave. The boatman violently slapped the water with his pole while my bird guide dove to the back of the boat. Meanwhile I crouched in shock, wondering if I should jump out of the way and into the water. Just before it rammed into the dugout like a torpedo, it ducked under the boat and made a wide circle around us. Needless to say, we got the hell out of there, but I would start shaking later in the morning whenever we heard the hippo reasserting his territory with powerful grunts.

The rest of the morning we spent searching fruitlessly for the Kilomero Cisticola, which neither my guide nor boatman had any knowledge of. I was pleased to find several groups of Zebra Waxbills, but ultimately I was irritated that I failed to procure the necessary resources and information for all three ticks. Visiting birders should thoroughly do their homework on the cisticolas’ habitats and habits, as well as bring their own audio recordings and the services of a verifiably knowledgeable bird guide. If you’re happy with a leisurely canoe ride and a plethora of water birds, then it’s certainly worth the few hours’ drive from Udzungwa National Park and the lodges and camps in the area. The views themselves along the road past the mountain range and into the floodplain are worth it, especially if you’ll only be in country for a short while longer.

Update: I was discussing my observations with some other birders who know the region quite well, and they said that the cisticola I saw from the canoe on several occasions was almost certainly the White-Tailed and not the Winding Cisticola. In fact, no one has recorded the Winding Cisticola in the area. You'll have to look carefully at the tail, then, for the white U-shape around the sides and base.

Notable birds seen: Common Squacco Heron, Striated Heron, Black-Headed Heron, African Open-Billed Stork, African Fish Eagle, Lizard Buzzard, Water Thick-Knee, White-Crowned Lapwing, White-Browed Coucal, Speckled Mousebird, Striped Kingfisher, Pied Kingfisher, Malachite Kingfisher, Little Bee-Eater, White-Fronted Bee-Eater, Lilac-Breasted Roller, Crowned Hornbill, Lesser Swamp Warbler, Winding Cisticola, Grey-Headed Sparrow, Kilombero Weaver, African Golden Weaver, Red-Collared Widowbird, Fan-Tailed Widowbird, Yellow Bishop, White-Winged Widowbird, Black-Winged Bishop, Zanzibar Red Bishop, Zebra Waxbill.

Pugu Hills: May 22, 2011

2011-05-22T03:48:00.000-07:00

A short Sunday morning trip to Pugu Hills yielded a few new birds, including the Mouse-Colored Sunbird, my four-hundredth bird seen in Tanzania. The highlight of the morning came early on as Tony and I sifted through a mixed species flock that included both Grey-Headed and Sulphur-Breasted Bush-Shrikes. Although I wasn’t able to linger long on either bird, I first glimpsed the Grey-Headed Bush-Shrikes unmistakable profile as it flew up into a tall tree and then watched a pair of Sulphur-Breasted Bush-Shrikes surface occasionally from a dense tangle of vines as they scrambled for prey. The Mouse-Coloured Sunbird was seen and heard well, although the pectoral patches weren’t visible, as it called distinctly in the open from an unobstructed perch. Also new for me was an Ashy Flycatcher, another nice find in this modest forest patch located just outside of Dar es Salaam.

Notable birds seen: African Cuckoo-Hawk, Tambourine Dove, Brown-Hooded Kingfisher, Crowned Hornbill, Trumpeter Hornbill, Yellow-Rumped Tinkerbird, Yellow-Bellied Greenbul, Terrestrial Brownbul, Grey-Backed Camaroptera, Ashy Flycatcher, African Paradise-Flycatcher, Little Yellow Flycatcher, Olive Sunbird, Mouse-Coloured Sunbird, Black-Backed Puffback, Brown-Crowned Tchagra, Sulphur-Breasted Bush-Shrike, Grey-Headed Bush-Shrike, Fork-Tailed Drongo, Black-Bellied Starling, Dark-Backed Weaver, Peter’s Twinspot, Red-Billed Fire-Finch, Black-and-White Mannikin.

Mikumi National Park: May 13-15, 2011

2011-05-16T05:10:00.000-07:00

With less than a month left in Tanzania, my trip to Mikumi National Park last weekend will probably be my final safari in East Africa. Considering how traumatic my recent experiences have been in the savanna due to sand flies, ticks, mosquitoes, and tsetse flies, I'm actually relieved to be leaving and to no longer have any prospects for further travel. Similar to my last trip to Tarangire National Park, I suffered a crippling allergic reaction to a tsetse fly bite that rendered my left arm swollen over twice its normal size. The severity of these reactions has increased dramatically over the year, and my doctor advised me to take an EpiPen on safari in addition to regular doses of Claritine, an antihistmaine, and Prednisone, a steroid. As my colleagues like to jokingly point out, if I had been one of the early European explorers in the region, like Stanley or Livingstone, I certainly would have died within days upon arrival.

Typically a safari to a national park during the rainy season is a dodgy prospect, but Mikumi is a reasonably short drive from Dar (it's less than 5 hours on a tarmac road), and the main roads in the park are well constructed and maintained. Plus, this trip was the annual "Mankumi" weekend, a legendary event for male IST faculty, who camp out in the wilderness for two nights sharing space with the lions and elephants. I'm generally wary of large congregations of men unless there are referees involved, but the prospect of camping and birding for an entire weekend seemed too good to pass up. Also being just a few birds short of four hundred on my country list, I simply had to man up and join the rowdy crew.

Despite the ridiculous antics that ensued during the weekend, I managed to do some productive birding, highlighted by a few new birds, including the gorgeous Zanzibar Red Bishop and the odd Woolly Necked Stork. Around camp, I regularly noted a Brown Snake-Eagle perched watchfully in a tree and a number of Flappet Larks displaying in flight over the surrounding grasslands. Other good savanna birds included Black-Bellied Bustard, Grey Kestrel, Brown-Headed Parrot, Beautiful Sunbird, and Broad-Tailed Paradise-Whydah. I expected to take some good-natured ribbing from the guys about wearing my binoculars around camp and scanning constantly on game drives, but everyone seemed appreciative of my identifications and would linger an extra moment on an unusually colorful bird.

Mikumi is a great park for lion sightings, and we eventually found a group of young males in the tall grass near the airstrip on our Saturday morning game drive. One lion had a large, fresh head wound that was probably the result of a defensive hoof to the head during an attack. It stalked the car unabashedly as some of the guys scrambled down from the roof. Later in the afternoon, we found the same lions closer to camp, one of which had climbed five meters high in a tree, perhaps to take shelter from the rainy weather; we found it in a classic feline pose, head resting on one paw as the other swung freely from the branch it was sprawled out on (I guess the tree-climbing lions of Lake Manyara National Park aren't that unique after all). Despite these excellent observations, I'm still hesitant to ever go on a similar type of safari again, and were I to stay another year, I would almost certainly focus solely on birding montane forests of the Eastern Arc Mountains instead of further exploring the classic East African savanna.

Notable birds seen: Hamerkop, Saddle-Billed Stork, Open-Billed Stork, Woolly-Necked Stork, Bateleur, Brown Snake-Eagle, Black-Headed Heron, Grey Heron, Black-Bellied Bustard, Red-Necked Spurfowl, Long-Tailed Fiscal, Southern Cordon-Bleu, Egyptian Goose, White-Faced Whistling Duck, African Grey Hornbill, Southern Ground Hornbill, Grey Kestrel, Grey-Headed Kingfisher, Striped Kingfisher, Crowned Lapwing, Blacksmith Lapwing, Flappet Lark, Yellow-Throated Longclaw, Red-Billed Oxpecker, Yellow-Billed Oxpecker, Brown-Headed Parrot, Three-Banded Plover, Green-Winged Pytilia, Lilac-Breasted Roller, Fischer's Sparrow-Lark, White-Browed Sparrow-Weaver, Greater Blue-Eared Starling, Superb Starling, Marabou Stork, Beautiful Sunbird, Scarlet-Chested Sunbird, Water Thick-Knee, Crimson-Rumped Waxbill, African White-Backed Vulture, Broad-Tailed Paradise-Whydah, Pin-Tailed Whydah, Fan-Tailed Widowbird, Green Wood-Hoopoe, White-Winged Widowbird, Zanzibar Red-Bishop.

Pugu Hills: May 8, 2011

2011-05-08T04:01:00.000-07:00

On Sunday morning I tagged along with Neil Baker and the gang to do some birding at Pugu Hills, where there is some remnant forest just outside of Dar es Salaam. Niel has three decades of birding experience in the country and heads the Tanzania Bird Atlas project, which has recorded over a million bird observations to map a detailed distribution of every species. It was a great learning experience to bird with him, however casually, and he injected a lot of enthusiasm into our observations, several of which proved to be extraordinary. Our primary target was to catch a migratory African Pitta or Spotted Ground-Thrush in transition back north, although we were easily satisfied with clear weather and decent bird activity.

Arriving at dawn at a clearing off the main road, we listened to the Pale-Breasted Illadopsis and African Wood Owl begin and end their days, respectively. Working over the clearing with half a dozen pairs of eyes, we soon had Great Sparrowhawk, Yellow-Rumped Tinkerbird, Brubru, and Pallid Honeyguide. Wandering off on my own a few times, I found a delightful group of Little Yellow Flycatchers and a good-sized mixed flock with Yellowbill, Black-Headed Apalis, Eastern Green Tinkerbird, and Black-Throated Wattle-Eye, among others. The highlight of the morning was making a rare breeding record of the Uluguru Violet-Backed Sunbird, a pair of which was actively constructing a nest in a tall tree about twenty meters overhead. Neil explained it was almost certainly a first for Tanzania, which gave me a nice sense of accomplishment for an otherwise quiet weekend.

Notable birds seen: Palm-Nut Vulture, Black-Chested Snake-Eagle, African Goshawk, Great Sparrowhawk, Yellowbill, Little Swift, Brown-Hooded Kingfisher, Trumpeter Hornbill, Yellow-Rumped Tinkerbird, Eastern Green Tinkerbird, Lesser Honeyguide, Pallid Honeyguide, Yellow-Bellied Greenbul, Red-Capped Robin-Chat, Yellow-Breasted Apalis, Black-Headed Apalis, Black-Throated Wattle-Eye, African Paradise Flycatcher, Little Yellow Flycatcher, Uluguru Violet-Backed Sunbird, Brubru, Brown-Crowned Tchagra, Dark-Backed Weaver, Black-and-White Manikin.

Selous Game Reserve: April 22-24, 2011

2011-04-25T07:59:00.000-07:00

The long rains began in earnest as soon as I returned from my trip to the Eastern Usambara Mountains, and the unpaved roads in Dar es Salaam quickly deteriorated. My gentle commute to work by bicycle became a mud bath, and while driving was cleaner it was hardly any easier as my car bounced along painfully through flooded potholes. Originally, I had hoped to fly to a remote park or reserve in Tanzania for the Easter holiday weekend, but many of the landing strips were closed for the rainy season, and the remainder of flights to Arusha, Pemba, and Mwanza were already sold out. Even accommodation at nearby Mikumi, Sadaani, and Udzwunga National Parks were booked, which didn’t leave me with many palatable options. I could take the long highway to Ruaha Naional Park (12 hours), brave the dirt road to Selous Game Reserve (7 hours), or hang out in Dar. Although I wanted to make the best of the short vacation, it was with considerable trepidation that I set off to Selous Game Reserve for five days, knowing that the road conditions would be formidable and the chances for good wildlife viewing slim.

I had made arrangements to stay at Selous Mbega Camp, which is located along the Rufiji River just outside the Mtemere Entrance Gate, asking the manager to reserve a particular park ranger named Apollo to accompany me on my game drives. Aimee and I had had a peaceful stay at the same camp in October, and Apollo had worked effectively with our student group while on walking safari for three days in February. During the latter trip I was impressed with how well he knew the birds of the reserve and had discussed the possibility of exploring the reserve with him further, focusing on finding bird species unique to the Miombo forests of southern Tanzania. Having a park ranger with me would also reduce the likelihood that I would get lost, stuck, or both and have to sleep in the reserve while waiting perhaps a day or longer for rescue. The setup certainly had potential, but the margin of error would be slim.

First, I had to complete the long drive from Dar, which proved wet, muddy, and treacherous in parts. The worst section was along the final three-hour stretch, where the road drops down into a floodplain and circumvents a bridge in a state of interminable repair. Here, groups of men from the village nearby were escorting the occasional vehicle across a two hundred meter stretch of mud and through a deep but narrow stream. As it hadn’t rained for a few days, the mud was relatively dry and I snaked through it without trouble, but I had to reflect a few minutes at the water’s edge before attempting to complete the passage. The water came up over the hood as I plunged the car blindly forward over a few thick boards that had been lined up underwater over the deep mud. A bit surprised I had made it across, I continued on into a powerful thunderstorm that persisted for over an hour, leaving the regular dips in the road overflowing with water.

With the feeling of having dodged a bullet, I slid across the mud into a parking spot at the camp and unwound over a late lunch. The river was swollen and flowing fast, and all the grassy islands that had harbored a variety of bird life in the dry season were now submerged. A boat safari would be pointless in these conditions, where as in the dry season it had been remarkably rewarding. While the woodland along the river was more verdant than before, I saw very few birds as I patrolled around the camp that afternoon, aside from a White-Browed Robin-Chat and a pair of Terrestrial Brownbuls. It was great to relax on my tent platform in the evening though, reading with the aid of a kerosene lantern and listening to the chatter of the Bush Babbies in the trees nearby. Even later that night as I listened to the rain in my tent, I was glad I had come and optimistic about exploring the reserve over the next few days.

Although the weather was clear and sunny in the morning, I felt terrible by the time I met Apollo at the entrance gate. I had already changed a tire that morning, and my left arm was swollen painfully from the hand all the way above my elbow thanks to the bites of a tsetse fly. My stomach was also reeling from the salad I had foolishly eaten at dinner the previous night. Explaining carefully to Apollo my hopes for the next few days and stating the birds for which I was searching, I agreed to drive to several different sites in the reserve, where we would explore on foot. After paying the entrance fee ($50 per person per 24 hours) and negotiating his price ($35 per day), we set off on a nearby circuit along the Rufiji River. The grass was high and green along the road, but we saw a variety of large game, including Greater Kudu, giraffe, elephant, as well as warthog and impala.

Stopping at a viewpoint above the river, we admired a large group of African Skimmers flying in v-formation low over the water. There was plenty of bird activity in the vegetation along the riverbank, including a group of wary White-Crested Helmet-Shrike and a single Bohm’s Bee-Eater. Red-Billed Quelea, Pin-Tailed Whydah, and Eastern Paradise Whydah males were all dazzling in their breeding plumage as they displayed in flight and on treetops. Along Lake Mzizmia we also found Water Thick-Knee, Scarlet-Chested Sunbird, and Brown-Hooded Kingfisher, all good birds but ones I’ve also seen in Dar. The majority of our time was spent navigating through difficult stretches on the road, as Apollo would scout a path for the car through the saturated black-cotton soil. After half a dozen risky but successful dashes through the mud, we finally got stuck only a few meters from the main road. Fortunately, a Land Rover soon passed by and within thirty minutes we were back on the road feeling fortunate.

In hindsight, I can see that I should have asserted myself at this point, scaling back on our risky driving and focusing more on watching birds. Apollo had his own ideas though, and took us deep into the reserve at a site he claimed was good for Purple-Crested Turaco. Three hours later and at least five kilometers off the main road we finally arrived at a deserted camp along Lake Manze. The site was indeed good for birding; however, it was already late afternoon and the western sky was darkening with clouds. I tried to enjoy myself for a while, watching a pair of Green Wood-Hoopoes scour over a massive Baobab tree, but I had a growing sense of dread. I noted Brown-Breasted Barbet, Chin-Spot Batis, Green-Winged Pytilia, Collared Palm-Thrush, and Village Indigobird as we walked slowly through the ruins of the camp. Whenever we were on foot Apollo always took his rifle, and he cautiously surveyed the environment before moving ahead, especially as we passed through closed areas.

His judgment turned significantly worse once we were back in the car as he guided us toward the main road, at one point directing me through a trackless field of tall grass. Driving into it, I knew we were headed for trouble, but he had successfully pushed me through dozens of muddy stretches so I just let go and followed his command. Within minutes we were bottomed out in a swampy patch of black-cotton soil, barefoot and up to our knees in mud as we tried to dig the car out with our hands. We had seen a total of five cars all day, and none of them had been off the main road, so we understood very clearly that we were going to spend the night in the car if we didn’t extricate ourselves within the next hour. After collecting stones and branches, desperately digging, and wildly shifting gears, we were back on track only to get stuck again five minutes later. Although we worked furiously, the car stubbornly slid back into the mud each time we almost had it back on track. It wasn’t until it was dark and had begun raining were we finally free.

Even this feeling proved to be illusory, as we headed back to the entrance gate over fifty kilometers away. The rain quickly drenched the main road, leaving it in a retched condition similar to the side roads, and we barely skidded through muddy sections with speed, not traction. As we careened recklessly through the night, we encountered hordes of birds and animals that seemed to be in an equally frenzied state. Large groups of impala dashed back and forth across the road, hundreds of thick-knees and nightjars flew up into the headlights at the last possible moment, and several massive hippopotamus raced at impossible speeds as they fled from the car on way to their feeding grounds. We even came within meters of a menacing Spotted Hyena that boldly stared us down as we passed. With the rain pouring down and the lightning flashing, the scene beyond the muddy windshield was terrifying, and the nightmare didn’t begin to subside until we reached the gate just before 10pm.

I finally made it back to camp that night, but not before getting the car stuck one last time, ten meters short of the parking area, where I simply left it. It had been a long and traumatizing day, and my confidence behind the wheel was deeply shaken. It’s not that I would have been that scared or uncomfortable sleeping in my car in the reserve; it’s that I would have rather spent the day observing birds than pushing my car to the limit. I appreciate taking the occasional risk and feeling adventurous, but I had learned that going on driving safari in the rainy season is only for the most fearless drivers and toughest vehicles. The other guests at the camp were still up gossiping about the road conditions and discussing how they were going to get back to Dar by Wednesday (it was only Saturday). Myself, I decided to leave the following day after hearing about the worsening situation at the bridge, where I had barely made it across in dry weather (the other alternative would be to drive twelve hours through the reserve to Morogoro). It would take four hours and six determined men to get my car through those two hundred meters of deep mud, and I wouldn’t arrive back in Dar until midnight, but I would need the remaining two days of vacation to recover from the physical and psychological wounds of the trip.

Notable birds seen: Hamerkop, Marabou Strok, Little Egret, Palm-Nut Vulture, African Fish Eagle, African White-Backed Vulture, Eastern Chanting-Goshawk, Tawny Eagle, Helmeted Guineafowl, Black-Bellied Bustard, Water Thick-Knee, White-Crowned Lapwing, Crowned Lapwing, Three-Banded Plover, African Skimmer, Speckled Mousebird, Brown-Hooded Kingfisher, Bohm’s Bee-Eater, Little Bee-Eater, White-Throated Bee-Eater, White-Fronted Bee-Eater, Blue-Cheeked Bee-Eater, Lilac-Breasted Roller, Green Wood-Hoopoe, African Hoopoe, Von der Decken’s Hornbill, Crowned Hornbill, Trumpeter Hornbill, Brown-Breasted Barbet, Crested Barbet, Nubian Woodpecker, African Pied Wagtail, White-Browed Robin-Chat, Thrush Nightingale, Spotted Morning-Thrush, Collared Palm-Thrush, Chin-Spot Batis, African Paradise Flycatcher, Terrestrial Brownbul, Purple-Banded Sunbird, Scarlet-Chested Sunbird, Black-Backed Puffback, White-Crested Helmet-Shrike, Yellow-Billed Oxpecker, White-Browed Sparrow-Weaver, African Golden Weaver, Red-Billed Quelea, Green-Winged Pytilia, Southern Cordon-Bleu, Red-Billed Fire-Finch, Eastern Paradise Whydah, Village Indigobird, Black-Winged Bishop, Pin-Tailed Whydah, African Golden-Breasted Bunting.

Amani Nature Reserve: April 6-9, 2011

2011-04-10T06:18:00.000-07:00

The Usambara Mountains in northeastern Tanzania posses the same type of biological diversity that I learned to appreciate while living in the Ecuadorian Andes. These two steep coastal ranges trap warm, humid air blowing off the Indian Ocean and receive several meters of rainfall annually. This climactic effect combined with different soil conditions in each range have produced impressive levels of plant and insect endemism, which support, of course, a wide variety of endemic bird species. Indeed, there are a number of species and races of birds named after the mountains themselves: Usambara Weaver, Usambara Alkalat, Usambara Hyliota, and Usambara Eagle-Owl. And there are a great many more bird species that are restricted to these montane forests and those of the greater Eastern Arc Mountains, which stretch far inland to Iringa. In terms of avian significance, visiting these mountains should be a top priority for birders; however, their remoteness and general lack of infrastructure combined with the powerful attraction of the country’s famous game parks, such as the Serengeti, have resulted in low levels of tourism. As individual reserves like Amani are dependent upon revenue to support their conservation efforts, there is still steady deforestation in the Usambaras despite their having been long recognized for biological diversity.

Indeed, this was my first trip to the Usambara Mountains, and I’m a dedicated birder who has lived in the country for almost a year. My colleague Cyrille and I had decided to spend our week-long vacation first at Tarangire National Park, a classic game park in northern Tanzania, and then at Amani Nature Reserve, a small forest reserve in the Eastern Usambaras (10,000 hectares in size with approximately 3,000 ha of undisturbed forest). I had made arrangements in advance to stay at Emau Hill Forest Camp and even printed out the directions off their website, but stupidly I didn’t study them carefully or consider how long it would really take for us to arrive from Tarangire. As a result, we didn’t show up until 10pm after having deposited the car in a muddy ditch a few hundred meters from the camp. Four hours of driving in the dark on a narrow, slippery dirt track up the mountains had left us a bit rattled, and it took Cyrille a while to realize that having made it so far was a real tribute to his steady nerves and driving acumen (naturally, he kept blaming himself for getting the car stuck). The camp itself looked beautiful in the starlight, as we enjoyed a few drinks and tucked into the vegetarian fare, and the tents were well constructed and comfortably equipped with beds and solar-powered lamps.

In the morning, the owner Stephen gathered a large workforce to dislodge the car and pull it back onto the road (see Cyrille's photograph of the endeavor above), while I waited around the camp for Martin Joho, who would be my private bird guide for the next two and a half days ($25 per day; 0786-108086; martinjoho2008@yahoo.com). There were some great birds to watch in the garden, including White-Eared Barbet, African Paradise Flycatcher, and Uluguru Violet-Backed Sunbird, so I didn’t mind the delay. Having worked as a field researcher and guide for many years, Martin has comprehensive knowledge of the birds of the region, and he works very effectively with English-speaking birders who are serious about tracking down the bird specialties of Amani Nature Reserve, of which there about twenty. Although he didn’t have audio equipment with him, he was able to attract birds with an impressive array of calls and sounds, and he organized our excursions efficiently so that we maximized our opportunities to see the more difficult birds, including the Long-Billed Tailorbird. In general, I was very happy with his guiding and would strongly recommend him to visiting birders who only have a few days to spend exploring the reserve.

We started off down the steep road that leads up to the camp, passing along clearings and forest edge. Quickly, we spotted a Fischer’s Turaco bounding up a tree, its beautiful plumage changing color as it passed through light and shade. Two Green Barbets were calling to each other from different fruiting trees, and an African Harrier-Hawk was busy probing into cavities in the tree branches with its long legs. Massive Silvery-Cheeked Hornbills were calling noisily from the canopy and flying loudly from tree to tree, no doubt dispersing seeds all over the place. In fact, the hornbills are in part responsible for the profusion of non-native tree species throughout the reserve, having gorged themselves on the fruit of exotic trees in the large botanical garden surrounding the research station. Noting a pair of African Crowned Eagles soaring overhead, we then moved on into the forest along a narrow trail. Within a few minutes we had tracked down a mixed flock, lead by a pair of Square-Tailed Drongos, and we were soon parsing the subtle differences between greenbul species, including Shelley’s, Cabanis’s, Yellow-Streaked, Little, Stripe-Cheeked, and Tiny Greenbulls. We also noted Moustached Green Tinkerbird, Black-Throated Wattle-Eye, Forest Batis, Dark-Backed Weaver, Yellow-Throated Wood-Warbler, Yellow White-Eye, and Uluguru Violet-Backed Sunbird.

After lunch we tried for the enigmatic Long-Billed Tailorbird, which is a small, endangered forest warbler with only a few hundred pairs remaining. As part of his research duties, Martin is responsible for tracking these birds and monitoring their behavior, and he regularly visits several territories in the area around the camp. Although their nesting habits have never been studied, the tailorbird appears to be related to the tailorbirds of Southeast Asia than the similar-looking apalis warblers of Africa. After a few different attempts at a territory behind the camp, we finally resorted to using playback on the following afternoon, which provoked the resident pair into immediate and aggressive defense of their territory. As the light was good, I decided to try for a few photographs, despite my damaged lens and the birds’ movement in the dense tangles blanketing the clearing. Although the photographs aren’t of high quality, they give a truer sense of the bird’s plumage than the field guide, which exaggerates the contrast in color between the upper and lower parts. Martin elaborated on the species further as we sat in the shade and reflected on our observations, sharing his understanding of the bird’s habits and habitat.

The following morning we visited the area around the research station, which is at about 950 meters above sea level. The exotic trees around the complex were good for both Amani and Banded Green Sunbirds as well as Green-Headed Oriole. We also spotted a Southern Banded Snake-Eagle perched on a dead tree in the distance before walking the Mbamole Hill Trail. Without having playback it took Martin about an hour to coax the Black-Fronted Bush-Shrike and Red-Tailed Ant-Thrush from a mixed flock, but we succeeded at getting great looks at both birds (I was especially relieved to finally record my first bush-shrike seen in Tanzania and am hoping this observation opens the floodgates, so to speak). In the afternoon, Martin and I walked the Turaco Trail, which passes through undisturbed forest and probably offers the highest quality forest birding in Amani, along with two other forest transects that he walks regularly as part of his research. I was hoping desperately to see the African Broadbill, but our real focus was on Turidae, of which there is unusually high diversity in the Usambaras due to the richness of the leaf litter on the forest floor. While we only recorded White-Chested Alethe, Martin tells me that during the period of the short rains, from October to November, when the robins and thrushes are breeding, he sometimes hears Swynnerton’s Robin, Sharpe’s Akalat, Orange Ground-Thrush, Spot-Throat, and others, an impressive array of similar skulking species all foraging through the same habitat.

Having also noted Bar-Tailed Trogon, Red-Faced Crimson-Wing, and Half-Collared Kingfisher that day, it was with great satisfaction that I relaxed in the evening after ten long hours of walking up and down steep trails. On our way out of the reserve the next morning, we stopped for an hour at a patch of lower elevation forest near the entrance gate at Sigi ($30 per person). Birding along the road, which is about 300 meters above sea level, we first encountered a magnificent male Peter’s Twinspot that stopped briefly to check us out peering through the undergrowth. Then, we encountered a huge mixed flock that left us scrambling to pick out the specialties, including Southern Hyliota, Kretschmer’s Longbill, Green-Headed Oriole, Chestnut-Fronted Helmet-Shrike, and Black-and-White Shrike-Flycatcher. In the midst of all the action, I pointed out to Martin a squat, large-eyed bird that looked a bit like a robin but with a heavier bill. It sat almost motionless on a branch within the forest as warblers and flycatchers bustled about, so it took me a minute to get him onto it. Imagine my embarrassment when he identified it as the African Broadbill, the very bird I had been hoping to find on this trip.

Notable birds seen: African Harrier-Hawk, African Crowned Eagle, Long-Crested Eagle, Southern Banded Snake-Eagle, African Hobby, Lemon Dove, Fischer’s Turaco, Silvery-Cheeked Hornbill, Half-Collared Kingfisher, Moustached Green Tinkerbird, Green Barbet, White-Eared Barbet, African Broadbill, Bar-Tailed Trogon, Greater Honeyguide, Mountain Wagtail, Little Greenbul, Shelley’s Greenbul, Stripe-Cheeked Greenbul, Cabanis’s Greenbul, Yellow-Streaked Greenbul, White-Browed Robin-Chat, White-Chested Alethe, Red-Tailed Ant-Thrush, Little Rush Warbler, Dark-Capped Yellow-Warbler, Common White-Throat, Willow Warbler, Yellow-Throated Wood-Warbler, Long-Billed Tailorbird, Black-Headed Apalis, Green-Backed Caramoptera, Kretschmer’s Longbill, African Dusky-Flycatcher, Black-Throated White-Eye, African Paradise Flycatcher, Pale Batis, Forest Batis, Southern Black Flycatcher, Yellow White-Eye, Olive Sunbird, Uluguru Violet-Backed Sunbird, Amani Sunbird, Banded Green Sunbird, Square-Tailed Drongo, Waller’s Starling, Black-Fronted Bush-Shrike, Red-Backed Shrike, Grey Cuckoo-Shrike, Chestnut-Fronted Helmet-Shrike, Green-Headed Oriole, Dark-Backed Weaver, Red-Faced Crimsonwing, Yellow-Bellied Waxbill, Peter’s Twinspot, Southern Hyliota, Cabanis’s Bunting.

Tarangire National Park: April 3-6, 2011

2011-04-10T05:49:00.000-07:00

This is the period of the long rains in Tanzania, although you wouldn’t know it living in Dar es Salaam. Certainly, there has been the occasional rainstorm, but nothing voluminous enough to warrant the name. Inland perhaps it’s another story, as safari traffic typically slows to a halt in the national parks and game reserves. In fact, many camps and lodges are closed in April and May, leaving tourists and expatriate residents with the impression that the dirt roads are all impassable and the wild animals impossible to see. For birders, though, the rainy season is a glorious time in the savannah as many bird species develop their breeding plumage and seem to call all day. With the famous northern national parks beckoning green and empty, then, I decided to spend half of my weeklong vacation revisiting the celebrated Tarangire National Park, and the other half discovering the little-visited Amani Nature Reserve in the Eastern Usambara Mountains. In both places, the birding would prove significantly more impressive than the weather.

Tarangire is a long ways from Dar by tarmac road, which snakes up along the Western Umbasaras practically to the border with Kenya before looping back around to the southwest. Making a brief stop in Arusha, my colleague Cyrille and I spent twelve straight hours in the car, trading driving responsibilities in strictly managed two-hour intervals. It was brutal, but it would have been worse in my car, which doesn’t have air conditioning and rides a bit rougher. Despite the fatigue, our spirits soared as we headed from Arusha out into the open spaces of the Rift Valley. Passing languid goat herders from Maasai villages along the road, we raced to the park entrance before the gate closed at sunset. Tarangire Safaari Lodge had offered us a nice discount on one of their classic ensuite tents on the bluff overlooking the river, and we were hoping to start off our vacation by knocking back a few sundowners before dinner. Settling down on the terrace with a gin and tonic, I took in the beautiful scene spread out before us in the dying light: a family of elephants crossed the river, which was full from bank to bank, and marched slowly past the verdant baobab trees.

I awoke at dawn to a growing chorus of birdsong and lay in my bed peacefully, content to let the day slowly permeate through the windows and door to our tent. Within a few minutes, though I was stirred by an unfamiliar call, and thinking it could be a Rosy-Patched Bush-Shrike (I'm obsessed with bush-shrikes, none of which I've seen), I was dressed and out of the tent with my gear within seconds. Birding on foot along the bluff over the next few days would prove to be remarkably productive, as I cleaned up on some acacia forest species that I had missed on my previous trip to northern Tanzania, including Eastern Violet-Backed Sunbird, African Orange-Bellied Parrot, and Grey Woodpecker. More impressively, the bluff would yield some excellent views of perched and soaring raptors, including Martial Eagle, Brown Snake-Eagle, and Bateleur. For a few hours, then, I walked slowly back and forth in front of the empty tents, following up on different calls and coming quite close to a variety of fine birds for photographs, such as Red-and-Yellow Barbet, Nubian Woodpecker, and Ashy and Superb Starlings.

After a late breakfast, Cyrille and I decided it was finally time for a game drive, and we set off to along the Tarangire River, sticking to the northern side as the high water had overwhelmed the bridge. The story you’ll hear about going on safari in the rainy season is that the parks are more beautiful but the game is dispersed throughout the high grass, but that morning we must have encountered over a hundred elephants, dozens of giraffe, and a variety of antelope species. Unfortunately, we were also bombarded by tetse flies, which seemed to swarm through the windows of the car anytime we stopped to watch an animal or bird. These tough and nasty flies are famous for transmitting sleeping sickness with their painful bites; while the disease is very rare in this part of East Africa, we soon had multiple bites on our exposed ankles and arms. In defense, we rolled up the windows and turned on the air conditioning, which was an unpleasant but unavoidable strategy. As the bites on my ankles, arms, and face began to swell up uncomfortably over the next few days, I realized why this part of the country is still pristine in many parts and generally uninhabited: despite its beauty and fertile plains, insects and disease will quickly ravage humans and their relatively fragile livestock.

Before turning back to the lodge for lunch, I had spotted a number of new bird species, including Bare-Faced Go-Away-Bird, Brown-Crowned Tchagra, and Cardinal Quelea. It was Cyrille, though, who pointed out my first male Eastern Paradise-Whydah in breeding plumage, which must be one of the most delightful avian sights in East Africa. In the parking lot of the lodge, which is set amidst mature acacia woodland, I noticed an African Scops-Owl roosting on a branch snugly against a tree. At about 17 cm, this diminutive owl is widespread and common, but strictly nocturnal and tricky to notice during the daytime. The owl seemed too tired to be bothered by the sounds of my camera, but at one point it objected to my presence by drawing up tall and thin on its perch and raising its ear tufts slightly. Over lunch we noticed another tiny owl, this time the diurnal Pearl-Spotted Owlet, being mobbed by a variety of small birds as it hunted for insects and small lizards around the patio. Our luck with owls would continue that evening as we came across a pair of massive Verreaux’s Eagle-Owls at sunset.

Our most significant wildlife observation also came on that game drive, as we wound our through the tall grass along one of the many river circuits near the lodge. We stopped short in front of a Serval Cat that was ambling towards us on the track. Totally unfazed by the car, it sat on its haunches for a minute and stared around with heavy-lidded eyes, probably having just arisen from sleep. Passing right along the car, it then entered the tall grass where it stalks birds and rodents its on long legs. “No one ever photographs a Serval,” people keep telling me, but it’s the same cat that my friend Mark saw at the Momela Lakes in Arusha National Park in December, so it can’t be that rare to see. As this was the only cat we encountered during our four days in the park, having missed the lion, cheetah, and leopard, it ultimately helped to hear how lucky we were to find it. In fact, only one other group of tourists saw any cats that week, noting a female lion and her cub near Sopa Lodge, which was considerably deeper in the park than we would explore.

On the second day, we had originally planned to drive to the large swamp system in the remote southern section of the park, but with the rivers swollen with the rain in the hills, and with a shaky car battery, we decided to stay closer to the lodge. Our morning game drive took us past a juvenile Martial Eagle, which I confidently identified this time instead of confusing it with the African Crowned Eagle like I did at Sadaani National Park in February (it’s critical not to be distracted by the raised crest, but to focus instead on the thigh plumage and talon color). Having seen both species several times now, I also know enough to distinguish between them based on the habitat: one inhabits forest, the other savanna and more open woodland. At a small pond we also found a group of Knob-Billed Ducks, or Comb Duck as it’s known in South America, and a single Yellow-Crowned Bishop, which was another nice find by Cyrille, who’s still a fledgling birder. Throughout the grasslands, White-Winged Widowbirds and Cardinal Queleas were also in great abundance as the males established and defended their territories and chased the females wildly about.

In the evening, we drove out to the Little Serengeti area at the northern edge of the park, where the wide-open grasslands were flooded with rich yellow light. Hundreds of elephants were lumbering around, and the road was crowded with Two-Banded Coursers and a few Black-Faced Sandgrouses. We also passed a group of Rufous-Tailed Weavers that were foraging alongside of Red-Billed Buffalo-Weavers. The former is one of the Serengeti-Mara endemic bird species and has been placed in its own genus despite its association with the buffalo-weavers. As the light faded we headed back to the lodge, having searched half-heartedly along the river again for a leopard. We would leave for the Eastern Usambaras the following morning, which would turn out to be a much greater endeavor than we had planned.

Notable birds seen: Hamerkop, Marabou Stork, White Stork, Yellow-Billed Stork, White-Faced Whistling-Duck, Knob-Billed Duck, African White-Backed Vulture, Black-Shouldered Kite, African Fish Eagle, Tawny Eagle, Martial Eagle, Bateleur, Brown Snake-Eagle, Crested Francolin, Helmeted Guineafowl, Red-Necked Francolin, Yellow-Necked Francolin, Common Button-Quail, Black-Faced Sandgrouse, Spotted Thickknee, Two-Banded Courser, White-Bellied Bustard, Yellow-Collared Lovebird, African Orange-Bellied Parrot, Bare-Faced Go-Away-Bird, White-Bellied Go-Away-Bird, Red-Chested Cuckoo, Verreaux’s Eagle-Owl, Pearl-Spotted Owlet, African Scops-Owl, Woodland Kingfisher, Gray-Headed Kingfisher, Pied Kingfisher, African Pygmy Kingfisher, Little Bee-Eater, European Bee-Eater, Lilac-Breasted Roller, European Roller, African Hoopoe, Red-Billed Hornbill, Von der Decken’s Hornbill, Red-and-Yellow Barbet, Nubian Woodpecker, Bearded Woodpecker, Grey Woodpecker, White-Browed Scrub-Robin, Spotted Morning-Thrush, Grey-Backed Camaroptera, Yellow-Breasted Apalis, African Paradise-Flycatcher, Northern Pied Babbler, Beautiful Sunbird, Scarlet-Chested Sunbird, Eastern Violet-Backed Sunbird, Magpie Shrike, Brown-Crowned Tchagra, Red-Winged Starling, Ashy Starling, Swahili Sparrow, Red-Cheeked Cordon-Bleu, Cardinal Quelea, White-Winged Widowbird, Eastern Paradise-Whydah, Pin-Tailed Whydah, Yellow-Crowned Bishop.

South Beach, Dar es Salaam: March 26, 2011

2011-04-02T01:41:00.000-07:00

On Saturday morning, I joined the Roots and Shoots trip to south beach, where a dozen IST students would be planting mangrove trees to assist the reforestation project of a small coastal community outside of Dar es Salaam. Community service is a large part of the extracurricular program here, and Roots and Shoots was founded by Jane Goodall, who did much of her primate research in Gombe Stream National Park in remote western Tanzania. Given that I haven't done much service work in Tanzania, I figured it would be good to get involved and learn more about the mangroves, perhaps seeing a few birds in the process. Planting mangroves is fairly painless, as you simply have to transplant seedlings from deep inside the dense forest to the edge. We stalked around in the mud for a few hours pulling up shoots and replanting them in small holes, being careful not to damage the roots. The students seemed to enjoy the labor too, clowning around in the rain as several squalls broke up the intensely sunny weather.

Having planted almost a square kilometer of mangroves, with approximately nine mangroves per square meter, we made our way to Kim's Beach for a swim before returning to Dar. Coastal Tanzania can seem a timeless place as the ancient dhows sail under the eternally blue sky day after day without variation. The mangroves are quickly being cleared though for their hard wood as well as to make way for shrimp farms, and the coastal forests are rapidly being converted to charcoal for use in towns and cities as cooking fuel. Even the sea itself is fast being depleted as fishermen continue to fish with dynamite and blast the coral reefs into oblivion. In fact, on our way to the mangroves we walked through a village where two men were preparing plastic water bottles filled with ammonium sulfate. At any rate, it was good to get a few trees planted with the students and to consider some of the issues that aid and development workers wrestle with every day here in Tanzania.

Notable birds seen: Pied Kingfisher, Levaillant's Cuckoo.

Dar es Salaam, South Beach: March 19, 2011

2011-04-02T00:49:00.000-07:00

Aimee and I spent her last weekend in Tanzania relaxing at Ras Kutani, a lovely hotel along the beach south of Dar es Salaam. She's now in Washington D.C. training for her new career while I'm staying here unitl June to finish out the academic year at the International School of Tanganyika. It's exciting to wonder where we'll be living, and hopefully birding, next year, but I'm also disappointed to leave East Africa behind after less than twelve months. With little time remaining, I still need to visit the Usambara Mountains, a spectacular and isolated pair of coastal ranges with more than a few endemic bird species. I'd like to go on safari a few more times too, including a visit to the massive and diverse Ruaha National Park in southern Tanzania. I have some vacation time coming up soon, so hopefully I'll be able to add substantially to my country list before rejoining Aimee someplace new.

Regarding our stay in south beach, it was terrific, but we did have an unpleasant experience on the hotel's nature trail, which passes through coastal scrub and riverine forest. Having noted several good birds, including the Trumpeter Hornbill, Yellow-Breasted Apalis, and Giant Kingfisher, I suddenly fell through a rotten board on a footbridge. One moment I was walking quietly through the forest, and the next moment I was in agony, swinging precariously above a ravine. Unfortunately, I slammed my camera against the bridge, and it appears as if the individual lenses in my telephoto lens are out of alignment, which is giving the autofocus fits. Although I have another lens, it seems that my future photographs of Tanzania will be of much lower quality and detail than previous (I've edited these two much more than usual). As for me, I'm still a little banged up with bruised ribs and a hyperextended big toe. Aimee and I did see a few other nice birds afterward, including a female Greater Honeyguide, my first species seen of this cryptic family.

Notable birds seen: African Fish Eagle, Palm-Nut Vulture, Hamerkop, Greater Crested Tern, Giant Kingfisher, Malachite Kingfisher, Pied Kingfisher, Trumpeter Hornbill, Greater Honeyguide, Yellow-Breasted Apalis, Olive Sunbird.

Serengeti National Park: December 31, 2010

2011-03-05T05:13:00.000-08:00

Although Lake Ndutu is technically inside Ngorongoro Conservation Area, lying on the extreme western border of the reserve, it is clearly part of the magnificent ecosystem of Serengeti National Park. Indeed, the endless grassland plains of the Serengeti continue well past the park’s borders, and the millions of migrating wildebeest certainly know no bounds as they follow the rains during the year through several countries in East Africa. Although Aimee, Mark, and I were staying near the shore of Lake Ndutu for four nights with Serengeti Savanna Camp and had already seen most of the great mammals and bird life that the Serengeti offers, including all but one of the endemic bird species, I simply had to drive into the park itself. We decided to make the three-hour drive to Seronera, a tourist hub deep within the plains, with the goal of finding one of the famous leopards that prowl along the tree-lined Seronera River. This would make for a very long day of driving, as we would spend over twelve hours in the car, but the trip would quickly prove worthwhile.

After paying our entrance fees ($50 per person per 24 hours) at the monumental Naabi Hill Gate, set on a massive koppes that rises abruptly out of the plains, we continued along the main road for several hours, the rough washboard keeping our average speed under 30 kilometers per hour. Wildebeest, Thomson’s gazelle, and zebra numbered in the hundreds of thousands grazing on either side of the road as far as the horizon. Among them Kori Bustard, Common Ostrich, and a variety of confusing kestrels and harriers could be seen. We passed a solitary cheetah in the distance, resting sphinx-like on a small butte, and we watched a few spotted hyenas wrangle over a carcass with dozens of aggressive vultures. After fruitlessly searching around several smaller koppes, or rocky hills, where a variety of chats and rock-thrushes can usually be found, we pressed on to Seronera with unabashed hopes of finding a leopard.

As soon as we neared the river, I spotted a large pile up of Landcruisers along an adjacent road, and we sped off to join the crowd. By the time we arrived, there were almost forty vehicles jostling for position to observe a leopard that had just killed an impala. Over the next twenty minutes the number of cars on the scene doubled, as every safari group in the park seemed to converge on the site. Along with the other drivers, I did my best to deliver good views to Aimee and Mark, as we struggled to catch a glimpse of the leopard dragging the impala into cover along the river, but ultimately it wasn’t the intimate wildlife experience we had had in mind. Abandoning the fray, we drove off to Maasai Koppes, finding a pair of Secretary Birds, Grey Crowned Crane, Grey-Backed Fiscal, and Coqui Francolin among the tall grass along the way. Again, we didn’t see anything of note among the rocks, although it was already well past noon and activity was no doubt low. Returning back to the main road along the Wandahu River, we found an impressive group of elephants drinking in a marshy depression, stopping to watch as a newly born elephant clowned around in the water.

On our way to a popular picnic site, Aimee asked me to stop the car and back up a few meters, thinking she had seen something move in the grass nearby. Mistaking a log for a lion is easier than you would think, especially when you’re scanning the environment all day for game, but there was no mistaking the giant male lion that emerged from the grass and stalked towards our car, its mane blowing dramatically in the wind. Frantically we cranked up our windows as the lion approached within a meter of the door, sidestepping the car nonchalantly at the last moment and crossing the road to lay down in the grass on the other side. Our hearts now racing, we scanned around and found the rest of the pride, including several cubs trying to climb a tree. Within minutes there were dozens of Landcruisers approaching from all sides, so we continued on to the picnic site, proud of our recent encounter but desperate to stretch our legs. Unwinding over lunch in the shade of a large acacia tree, I watched Superb and Hildebrandt’s Starlings, Red-Billed Buffalo-Weaver, and the endemic Rufous-Tailed Weaver battle each other over table scraps as other visitors tossed aside their crusts.

Passing by the site where we had seen the leopard, we noticed another large congregation of safari vehicles nearby; this time they were lined up to watch a cheetah stalk around nervously in the shade. Noticing it was growing late in the afternoon, we agreed to head back towards Lake Ndutu. Arriving at Naabi Hill Gate near sunset, we took a break from the car and climbed up to an outlook offering 360-degree views of the Serengeti and the famous wildebeest migration. Sure, the volume of tourist traffic had been a bit offensive, and, yes, there are plans to construct a two-lane tarmac road that cuts straight through the park, but from our perspective that evening the environment couldn’t have looked more wild and pristine. Picking up Silverbird, Banded Parisoma, and Montagu’s Harrier on the way down the hill, we got back in the car to race back to Lake Ndutu before darkness fell. Within minutes though we were flagged down by a group of Kenyans that were standing around their car, which had suffered two flat tires on the ruthless drive in. Amazingly, these were the only other independent tourists we had seen all day. Offering them our remaining spare tire temporarily, we drove back to the gate together so they didn’t have to spend the night stranded in the plains.

Notable birds seen: Common Ostrich, Black-Headed Heron, Egyptian Goose, Secretary Bird, Black-Shouldered Kite, Hooded Vulture, Lappet-Faced Vulture, African White-Backed Vulture, Brown Snake-Eagle, Montagu’s Harrier, Tawny Eagle, Lesser Kestrel, Helmeted Guineafowl, Coqui Francolin, Grey-Crowned Crane, Kori Bustard, Black-Winged Stilt, Blacksmith Lapwing, Crowned Lapwing, Little Bee-Eater, Lilac-Breasted Roller, Fisher’s Sparrow-Lark, Capped Wheatear, Banded Parisoma, Silverbird, Grey-Backed Fiscal, Northern White-Crowned Shrike, Cape Rook, Superb Starling, Hildebrandt’s Starling, Rufous-Tailed Weaver, Red-Billed Buffalo-Weaver.

Ngorongoro Crater, Ngorongoro Conservation Area: December 29, January 2, 2011

2011-02-15T20:36:00.000-08:00

The start of our five-day trek in the Ngorongoro Crater highlands was a half-day game drive on the crater floor. This is the most reliable site in Tanzania for black rhinoceros, and there are unusually large numbers of big game, including lion, buffalo, and elephant, as well as leopard and cheetah. It was a game drive that Aimee and I had been fantasizing about for many months, but within a few minutes I knew that something was wrong with me. Slipping quickly into a delirious and feverish state, I could hardly raise my binoculars to witness the incredible wildlife around us, electing instead to lie down on the backseat of the Landcruiser with a sleeping bag wrapped around me. From the photographs that Aimee took, I can see there were thousands of Lesser Flamingos on the alkaline lake, large numbers of Grey Crowned Cranes, and a distant rhinoceros, as well as a number of lions blocking traffic in the road.

At the picnic site, Aimee, Mark, and the guides discussed what to do with me, as our five-day adventure had already been paid for and begun, while I started shaking uncontrollably and hyperventilating. Wisely, Aimee called the trip off and had the driver take us into a village a few hours away where there was a health clinic run by an American doctor. After receiving some muscle relaxants and malaria medication, I settled down into a sedate but very sick state, slowly regaining my strength at a hotel over the next few days under Aimee’s care. Mark smartly made the trek on his own, visiting Olmoti and Empakaai Craters as well as Lake Natron, which is supposedly an excellent birding site. This was a disappointing and costly end to our adventure in northern Tanzania, but I was lucky to get medical attention in such a short time. Had we been several days along in the trek, I would have had to walk out twenty kilometers on my own.

Notable birds seen: White Stork, Grey Crowned Crane, Blacksmith Lapwing, African Harrier-Hawk.

Selous Game Reserve: February 7-11, 2011

2011-02-14T22:26:00.001-08:00

One of the perks of being in education is chaperoning school trips, which at expensive international schools can seem like once-in-a-lifetime vacations. Just consider some of the excursions that teachers and students at the International School of Tanganyika take during the year: a six-day ascent of Mount Kilimanjaro; five days of scuba diving off the north coast of Zanzibar; a week in the Hague to participate in Model United Nations; or a five-day trek in the Ngorongoro Crater Highlands. Fortunately, I was able to maneuver my way onto an excellent five-day safari in the Selous Game Reserve in southern Tanzania during IST’s Extended Studies Program. Although Aimee and I had already visited the Selous in November, my interest was piqued by the packed itinerary of the trip: one full-day game drive, two full-day walking safaris, and one afternoon boat safari in what is Africa’s largest protected area and home to probably the largest populations of elephants, buffalo, hippopotamus, and lions in the world. Even if the students were loud and rambunctious at times, there’s no way we wouldn’t see a ton of wildlife, especially birds.

Arriving at Hippo camp located outside the Mtemere Gate on Monday afternoon, we boarded four boats for a safari on the Rufiji River, with expectations of encountering hippopotamus at close range. Having taken some remarkable bird photographs in November with the help of our skilled boat driver, I was poised to fire away again, but it started to pour within minutes of our departure. Amazingly, these were the first rains of the year in the Selous, and everyone grew anxious as the skies grew darker, particularly to the remote northwest where we would be driving and walking during the rest of the week. After watching some African Golden Weavers worry over their nests in the rain, we sped around an island to meet the hippos on the other side, passing several Pied and Malachite Kingfishers along the way. As soon as the students had seen the hippos, they clamored to return to shore as none of them had brought a raincoat and many were now soaking wet. Motoring to the riverbank, we noticed that the skies were clearing and decided to continue upriver with the handful of students that were still enthusiastic.

Scores of Trumpeter Hornbills sailed overhead as they crossed the river for the night, dipping and rising in flight with a burst of hurried wing beats, unmistakably like toucans, their South American cousins. A variety of pigeons were also steadily on the move, until a Lanner Falcon burst out of the trees and scattered them in all directions. Along the islands we had fleeting looks at White-Crowned Lapwing, Water Thick-Knee, and Goliath Heron, but compared to November the bird activity was significantly lower and less interesting. Having really talked up the quality of birding in the Selous with my colleagues on the trip, I was worried that we wouldn’t see much during the next few days, especially if the weather was poor. Happily, things turned around quickly the next morning as we broke down camp and prepared to enter the reserve for the next three days. A juvenile African Pygmy Kingfisher was absorbed in its preening ritual in the bushes near the toilet, and I was able to show off its fancy plumage to several students and teachers who passed by.

Our luck continued at the entrance gate, as we watched Southern Ground Hornbill, Black-Backed Puffback, Southern Cordonbleu, and a fabulous Green-Winged Pytilia while our guides from AfriRoots secured our entrances to the reserve. Twenty-five students, four teachers, and a variety of guides, cooks, drivers, and armed rangers were distributed in half a dozen battered Landcruisers and Defenders. We were certainly a huge party, and it was wise to spilt up into two groups for the game drive, while the armed rangers and cooks drove ahead to our campsite at Lake Tagalala, sixty kilometers deep into the reserve. The four students in my car were an interesting mix, although they were alike in that none of them had been on a serious safari before. I gently let everyone know that we’d be stopping for birds as well as mammals, and tried to get the students interested as well by allowing them to take photographs with my camera or look through my binoculars on occasion. Our driver, John Bosco, was a real sport, and he made sure to stop the car every time we passed a good photographic opportunity, such as an African Spoonbill feeding along the shore or a Northern Carmine Bee-Eater perched low just off the road.

The most prized sight in the Selous Game Reserve is that of the endangered African wild dog, and despite finding sixteen individual lions throughout our full-day game drive, we were ultimately disappointed to miss this rare canine. The lions were quite active though, and we watched several groups of them feast on recent wildebeest kills. We also found a male lion in the open drinking from a small pool in the heat of the day. The most interesting birds we encountered included a single Pink-Backed Pelican, several Crested Barbets, and a spectacular Giant Kingfisher perched on a dead tree amidst dozens of Cattle Egrets. I was also surprised to see Von der Decken’s Hornbill as far south as the Selous. Migratory bee-eaters were present in huge numbers, especially the glorious Northern Carmine Bee-Eater, which was widespread in a variety of habitats within the reserve. We arrived at our fly camp along Lake Tagalala in the afternoon, setting up camp closer to the water than I was comfortable with, especially considering the group of twenty hippopotamus wading a few meters off shore. The armed rangers would patrol the area all night, we were assured, and with multiple campfires going there was no danger of hippos trampling one of our tents on its way to feed in the tall grass.

The next day we set off on foot in two groups towards Beho Beho Hot Springs, several kilometers away in the hills to the northwest of the lake. Having seen so many active lions the day before, it was a bit unsettling to be walking around far from the safety of a car, but our concerns melted away as the sun rose higher in the sky. Our armed ranger Apollo definitely knew his birds, but he was intent on marching us as fast as possible along a circuitous route to the springs. I managed to catch a glimpse of a few birds though, including Spotted Morning-Thrush, Common Scimitarbill, Pale Batis, and Southern Red Bishop. As it was my first authentic walking safari, I tried to be content seeing the familiar mammals on foot, albeit at a much greater distance than usual. Indeed, impala, giraffes, and waterbuck scattered back into the woodland whenever they sensed our presence, sometimes from many hundreds of meters away. While it’s certainly wise to be alert to the presence of lions in the area, the far greater danger is that of encountering elephants, buffalo, or hippos. In fact, in the last few months there have been three tourist deaths on walking safaris in Ruaha National Park, two caused by elephants one by hippopotamus. After enjoying the hot springs for a few hours, we drove back to camp, searching for wild dogs but finding an exquisite Red-Necked Falcon along the way.

On the following day, we planned to walk from Lake Tagalala to Lake Manze, again breaking into two smaller groups for safety. The teachers switched groups, and I immediately noticed an improvement as one of the guides pointed out a group of Grey Go-Away-Birds high in a tree. Stopping to examine tracks and discuss animal behavior, we covered many kilometers on foot this morning, passing through open dry areas, woodland, and marsh habitat. African Fish Eagle, Collared Palm-Thrush, Red-Necked Falcon, Brown-Necked Parrot, and Grey-Headed Kingfisher were among the better birds seen, but the highlight was no doubt passing within five meters of a female lion concealed in a bush. Our group was walking quietly along in single file when one of the guides signaled for us to stop and waved me and the other trailing students to the front of the line. He carefully explained that there was a lion in dense cover nearby, which I quickly confirmed with my binoculars, and cautioned us to back up slowly and silently. Later, he shared that this was only the second time he had seen a lion in ten years of leading walking safaris in Tanzania, explaining that usually they hurried away at first sight or smell of humans on foot. Exhilarated but exhausted, we concluded our hike with a picnic lunch under a massive baobab tree, a spot from which another guide told me had seen an African Crowned Eagle kill a young impala a few years ago.

That afternoon we returned to the Mtemere Gate in our vehicles, stopping occasionally for a bird or mammal but again failing to catch sight of a wild dog. At one point, we saw dozens of vultures circling low over some woodland near the road, and thinking it was a fresh kill, we drove off to investigate, finding only a dead wildebeest with a metal snare around its leg (African White-Backed Vultures, of course, were busy pulling out its entrails). Whether for meat or profit, poaching in the Selous is a serious problem, and there are stories of boatloads of elephant tusks being shipped off to East Asia each month. Back at the Hippo Camp, where we would be camping for the final night of the trip, we boarded the boats for another attempt at a safari on the Rufiji River. Although the weather was much improved from Monday afternoon, the bird activity was again disappointingly low, and our boat driver had a poor eye for spotting birds and an even poorer ability to maneuver the boat close enough for good photographs. Considering I had spent the whole week in a game reserve instead of a classroom, it wasn’t hard to be content with observing the gorgeous Malachite Kingfishers from a distance.

Notable birds seen: Great Egret, Goliath Heron, Pink-Backed Pelican, Long-Tailed Cormorant, African Darter, Striated Heron, Black Egret, Grey Heron, Hamerkop, Yellow-Billed Stork, African Open-Billed Stork, Marabou Stork, Sacred Ibis, Hadada Ibis, African Spoonbill, Egyptian Goose, Fulvous Whistling-Duck, White-Faced Whistling-Duck, Black Kite, African Fish Eagle, White-Headed Vulture, African White-Backed Vulture, Lappet-Faced Vulture, Tawny Eagle, Bateleur, Lanner Falcon, Red-Necked Falcon, Helmeted Guineafowl, African Jacana, Black-Winged Stilt, Blacksmith Lapwing, White-Crowned Lapwing, Crowned Lapwing, Common Ringed Plover, Water Thick-Knee, Common Sandpiper, Brown-Necked Parrot, Grey Go-Away-Bird, Black-and-White Cuckoo, White-Browed Coucal, Speckled Mousebird, Pied Kingfisher, Grey-Headed Kingfisher, African Pygmy Kingfisher, Malachite Kingfisher, Woodland Kingfisher, Giant Kingfisher, White-Fronted Bee-Eater, Little Bee-Eater, Blue-Cheeked Bee-Eater, Northern Carmine Bee-Eater, Broad-Billed Roller, European Roller, Lilac-Breasted Roller, Green Wood-Hoopoe, Common Scimitarbill, African Grey Hornbill, Southern Ground Hornbill, Trumpeter Hornbill, Von der Decken’s Hornbill, Crested Barbet, African Pied Wagtail, Common Bulbul, Spotted Morning Thrush, Collared Palm-Thrush, Red-Faced Crombec, Spotted Flycatcher, African Paradise-Flycatcher, Pale Batis, Grassland Pipit, Wire-Tailed Swallow, Collared Sunbird, Long-Tailed Fiscal, Isabelline Shrike, Black-Backed Puffback, Fork-Tailed Drongo, Red-Billed Oxpecker, White-Browed Sparrow-Weaver, African Golden Weaver, Red-Billed Firefinch, Green-Winged Pytilia, Southern Cordon-Bleu, Southern Red Bishop.

Sadaani National Park: February 12-14, 2011

2011-02-14T20:37:00.001-08:00

A migrating Crab Plover might travel from Dar es Salaam to Sadaani National Park in under an hour. Arriving by car takes more than four though, and the lack of a direct route has no doubt discouraged many expatriates from visiting this relatively new and unique park that protects over one thousand square kilometers of coastal woodland, scrub, and grassland habitat. Indeed, Sadaani is the only national park in east Africa along the Indian Ocean, and although there’s not as much large game to be seen as in the country’s more established parks and reserves further inland, it’s definitely worth a weekend of relaxed exploration. Having procured luxurious accommodation right on the deserted beach at Sadaani Safari Lodge, Aimee and I decided to spend our last three-day weekend together in Tanzania here, looking forward to a variety of activities, including driving, walking, and boating safaris.

Leaving home before dawn, we arrived via Chalinze at the park entrance after four hours of relatively easy driving, making a weekend trip from Dar to Sadaani slightly more feasible than to Mikumi National Park. After paying our entrance fees ($20 per person per 24 hours), we drove slowly through open grassland and acacia habitat, spotting a few birds, such as Dark Chanting-Goshawk and Northern Carmine Bee-Eater along the way. Waterbuck, bushbuck, and yellow baboon were common, although in small numbers. Aside from the inhabitants of the village of Sadaani, a small fishing community located within the boundaries of the park, we encountered no other tourists while driving the well-signed network of roads. We checked into our room, having received a generous upgrade to an excellent suite, and took a long nap after lunch, which would have been perfect if it weren’t for the large party of obnoxious Chinese guests sitting at a table nearby. Indeed, China has recently increased its investment in Tanzania, creating a significant tension between western diplomats and aid workers long used to their wealthy, almost kingly, status here and the newly rich Chinese expatriate business class who are simply looking for a good time.

Amid the peaceful din of the wind and waves, I drifted in and out of sleep, slowing becoming aware of a substantial amount of bird activity outside. A few minutes of investigation in some fruiting bushes nearby yielded a host of good birds: Red-Fronted Tinkerbird, Black-Collared and Brown-Breasted Barbets, Eurasian Golden Oriole, Blue-Naped Mousebird, Black-Bellied Starling, and Common Rock-Thrush. Aslo, in a large conifer overhead were dozens of bee-eaters, including Blue-Cheeked and Northern Carmine Bee-Eaters. In fact, there were birds everywhere around our banda, including swallows overhead and terns just offshore. After reeling off hundreds of photographs, including decent shots of a restless pair of Black-Headed Batis, I returned to our room, where Aimee was reading a back issue of African Birds and Birding. An offshoot of Africa Geographic, this terrific South African magazine is focused entirely on the continent’s avifauna, highlighting individual species and notable conservation projects. From the issues I glanced through that were scattered about the lodge, there’s very little on east Africa. With variety of protected areas and well-developed infrastructure, South Africa looks simply like birding heaven.

Back on the road for an evening game drive, Aimee and I puzzled long over several confusing birds. The first simply appeared to be African Grey Hornbill, but upon closer inspection all the birds in this group clearly had creamy-yellow lower mandibles along with an orange-red tip. According to the field guide, the Pale-Billed Hornbill is restricted to miombo woodland and is rarely found further afield; it’s a species I’ve yet to see despite having spent considerable time in miombo woodland in southern Tanzania. Eastern Yellow-Billed Hornbill, another possibility, has been recorded at Sadaani, but I was confident that this wasn’t the correct identification, as the birds we were watching had dark grey wings and mantle, like the common African Grey Hornbill. We continued on with the issue unresolved, soon encountering a massive black and white eagle along the road. At first glance, I was convinced it was a juvenile African Crowned Eagle, as it alighted in a nearby tree with its crown raised high in agitation. With its thighs and talons out of sight though, it could just have easily been a juvenile Martial Eagle, and we would see a pair of adult Martial Eagles the following day.

Birding in Tanzania is so easy compared to Ecuador that it was nice for once to have some identifications to mull over that evening, and I was still pondering the following morning as Aimee and I drove out to Zaraninge Forest on the southwestern side of the park. Unfortunately, the weather and tidal conditions prohibited a boat safari on the Wami River, so we decided to explore one of the largest swaths of protected coastal humid forest left in Tanzania, hoping to see some forest bird species. Just a few kilometers down the entrance road to the forest, we turned back due to heavy rains and treacherous road conditions; I had spun out several times already in the wet black cotton soil. Having now been foiled twice on our excursion, we glumly drove back to the lodge. Suddenly, Aimee pointed out a huge eagle perched in the distance, and we approached it carefully by car. A soaking Martial Eagle sat out in the open directly above the road. For the next hour as the storm receded, we watched this magnificent specimen as it dried and preened itself in the growing light. Note the delicate black spotting on the bird’s pure white underparts.

Several kilometers later we found another adult Martial Eagle perched in the open, this time far from the road. In fact, there were several eagles on the wing in the improved weather, including a Black-Chested Snake-Eagle rising on a thermal in the distance. Thwarted again the following morning by the weather and tides, we never did have the chance to explore the Wami River by boat, which passes through mature mangrove and riparian forest habitat and is supposedly excellent for birding. Again, there were great birds to see in the fruiting bushes by our room, including a pair of the territorial Spotted Morning-Thrush. A final pass through the savanna on our way back to Dar yielded Flappet Lark, Red-Backed Shrike, Common Scimitarbill, Levaillant’s Cuckoo, and Yellow-Rumped Seedeater, concluding our restful but still engaging visit to Sadaani National Park.

Notable birds seen: Open-Billed Stork, Black Kite, African Fish Eagle, African White-Backed Vulture, Black-Chested Snake-Eagle, Dark Chanting-Goshawk, Bateleur, Martial Eagle, Black-Bellied Bustard, Caspian Tern, Gull-Billed Tern, Levaillant’s Cuckoo, Blue-Naped Mousebird, Pied Kingfisher, Striped Kingfisher, Grey-Headed Kingfisher, Little Bee-Eater, White-Throated Bee-Eater, Blue-Cheeked Bee-Eater, Northern Carmine Bee-Eater, European Roller, Common Scimitarbill, Crowned Hornbill, Trumpeter Hornbill, Brown-Breasted Barbet, Collared Barbet, Red-Fronted Tinkerbird, Flappet Lark, Yellow-Throated Longclaw, Zanzibar Sombre Greenbul, White-Headed Black-Chat, White-Browed Scrub-Robin, Spotted Morning Thrush, Red-Faced Crombec, Scarlet-Chested Sunbird, Isabelline Shrike, Red-Backed Shrike, Eurasian Golden Oriole, Lesser Masked Weaver, Bronze Mannikin, Black-Headed Batis, Common Rock-Thrush, Palm-Nut Vulture, Yellow-Rumped Seedeater, Black-Bellied Starling.

Lake Ndutu, Ngorongoro Conservation Area: December 29-January 2, 2011

2011-02-13T05:18:00.000-08:00

Even for residents of Tanzania, visiting the Serengeti is generally a once in a lifetime experience, so Aimee and I wanted to take our time and see as much as possible. Arranging a visit independently can be daunting though, as there is no budget or even mid-range accommodation in the region, and public campsites are nearly impossible to reserve in advance. To make matters more complicated, Serengeti National Park is 15,000 square kilometers in size, and offers a wide array of habitat beyond its famous endless plains. We had discussed our options for months, it seemed, making little progress in answering practical questions about our trip. My colleagues were of little help as well, as many of them haven’t visited the region yet, or simply flew in and stayed at one of the expensive, high-volume hotels in Seronera. Finally, a few weeks before our vacation I stumbled upon a website for a movable bush camp called Serengeti Savanna Camp that followed the wildebeest migration throughout the year while offering hefty discounts for residents. In January, the camp would be at Lake Ndutu, which is just on the other side of the park’s boarder with the Ngorongoro Conservation Area ($50 per person per 24 hours). It was all part of the same ecosystem, I figured, and if the wildebeest migration were in this area at the time, then the predators would surely be there, too.

This turned out to be a fortuitous decision, as we would find out later after comparing the driving safari experience at Ndutu with that around Seronera in the national park itself, which we would visit on a long day trip. The drive from Mto Wa Mbu to Lake Ndutu was first an ambitious undertaking though, and we didn’t get started until close to noon, as I bounced around town with a mechanic all morning to repair the car. After u-bolt repairs, tire pressure adjustments, fluid replacements, and even a weld to our front grill, we raced into the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, which protects one of Africa’s most awesome landscapes, the world’s largest intact volcanic caldera, Ngorongoro Crater. The fertile grasslands covering the 260 square kilometer crater floor is densely populated with big game, including rhinoceros, elephant, lion, and cheetah, and we stood around in amazement at the first viewpoint from the crater rim. In a week’s time, we would be driving along the crater floor and then trekking many kilometers to the north to explore the crater highlands, so after a few photographs and some scanning with our binoculars we pushed on past the crater and towards the Serengeti.

The NCA is also home to the colorful Maasai, who live in traditional villages and raise cattle in the plains of northern Tanzania and southern Kenya. There’s a palpable tension between tourist and pastoralist around the crater rim, as most visitors long for an authentic wildlife experience while the Maasai gaze longingly with their cattle at the prohibited crater floor. There’s a fair amount of cultural tourism here too, and tour groups make short stops at Maasai bomas, or villages, so that visitors can negotiate the price of a photograph of a Maasai warrior or ornately decorated woman. While I’m certainly interested in the traditional people of east Africa, especially the few remaining groups of nomadic hunters, the vibe at the bomas didn’t feel right to me, and we only made one other stop along the crater rim to check out a Martial Eagle perched in the distance on an acacia tree. This massive black and white eagle was unflappable as several Cape Rooks harassed it from above. After winding down the back of the crater, the packed dirt and gravel road points straight ahead to the Serengeti, but its surface has been shaped by wind and traffic into a rigorous washboard that would cost us several hours. A few Capped Wheatears reluctantly left their territories along the road where we stopped to change a tire, after Mark nailed a sizable rock; meanwhile, the Landcruisers jammed past us at over 100 kilometers per hour, spraying dust and rock all directions.

Finally, we reached the turnoff to Lake Ndutu, and the rest of the way across the plain looked smooth and free of traffic. Thousands of Thompson’s Gazelle, zebra, and wildebeest munched cautiously on the short green grass, while Common Ostrich and Kori Bustard stomped about on their powerful legs. Larks, sparrows, and whydahs abounded in great quantities, but it seemed almost sacrilegious to ignore one of the great animal migrations for the sake of a few minor bird identifications. Plus, after a long day of uncomfortable driving, Mark and Aimee weren’t enthusiastic about parsing plumage differences between lark species. Approaching Lake Ndutu, we came to the edge of the woodland that surrounds the lake, spotting a Secretary Bird perched in the top of a large tree. After it flew off, we were surprised to see another adult pop out of the top of the tree, an obvious sign that this was a nesting pair. One of the most unique birds of prey in the world, the Secretary Bird is shockingly tall and gangly as it prances about the grasslands in pursuit of snakes and lizards. They’re also capable of soaring to great heights, appearing like a stork with its massive wings and long legs trailing in flight.

After cruising around the huge alkaline lake, we arrived at our bush camp and had a few sundowners around the campfire as the Maasai guard told us about the leopard he sees regularly stalking through the camp at night. Although I am principally interested in learning about the birds of the region, our primary goal during the next few days was to see the big game of the Serengeti Plains, especially lion, cheetah, and leopard. Hopefully, we would see plenty of birds in their pursuit, on game drives I was planning to follow other safari vehicles and to ask other drivers where we could find big cats, instead of aimlessly driving around and stopping for every bird call or flutter of wings. We breakfasted at sunrise the following morning, noting the Red-Cheeked Cordon-Bleu, Beautiful Sunbird, and distinctive Silverbird around the camp while we enjoyed an elegant spread. Although Seregenti Savanna Camp is advertised as an “everything you need, and nothing you don’t” experience, we were all impressed with the food and service during our four-night stay.

After consulting with two other drivers, I drove us out to the small marsh area a few kilometers from the camp, where big cats had been seen regularly. Within minutes we were meters away from two exquisite cheetahs that had languidly trotted down to a stream for a drink. A true pinnacle of evolution, the cheetah’s long and sleek body is capable of running at 70 kilometers per hour, as it chases antelope in the open plains. I had told Aimee repeatedly that I only needed to see a cheetah and a Secretary Bird to be satisfied with my Serengeti experience, and we had encountered both in just a few short hours of driving safari. An hour later we moved on, finding a large pride of lions asleep under tree, their legs and tails strewn about in apparently extreme exhaustion. Perhaps these lions were simply lazy, as they didn’t move their position until late that afternoon. Continuing past the marsh, we headed out to an open plain where there were thousands of migrating wildebeest, as well as several spotted hyenas loping around. Massive groups of Wattled Starlings consorted together, and a few Marabou Storks stood about, but the landscape was simply dominated by large mammals. Heading back to the camp for lunch, we spotted a striking Long-Crested Eagle perched on top of a bare tree. I circled around the tree in the car to photograph this small but impressive bird of prey, whose long, thin crest was blowing about rakishly in the wind.

Successive game drives in the marsh and woodland around Lake Ndutu proved equally rewarding, and we quickly grew familiar with the network of roads that wound about the confusing landscape, to the point where I could return to camp after nightfall without getting lost. Highlights include seeing mating lions, gorging hyenas, and a delightful bat-eared fox, as well as a host of new birds, including Steppe Eagle, African Cuckoo, White Stork, and the Serengeti endemic Grey-Breasted Spurfowl. The Silverbird around our camp would prove to be one of my favorites, a vocal and distinctive flycatcher that never quite let me approach close enough to photograph satisfactorily. The only Serengeti-Mara endemic we missed was the Grey-Crested Helmet-Shrike, which is thinly distributed in the hilly woodland in the northern section of the park.

From our base at Lake Ndutu, we made two long driving exursions, one into the Seronera region of Serengeti National Park (covered in a separate post) and another to Olduvai Gorge, several hours’ drive back into the Ngorongoro Conservation Area. The latter site is, of course, more interesting to an archaeologist than a naturalist, but it’s really a must-see for all visitors to the area. Aimee, Mark, and I elected to take a guided walk down into the gorge to see exactly where Mary Leakey and her team discovered the famous remains of early hominids, as well as of other Paleolithic animals that used to inhabit the area, including bizarre-looking giraffes and antelopes. The lookout above the gorge is a popular site for picnics, and several guidebooks promised a hoard of bird species would be in attendance at midday. All I observed were Vitelline Masked Weaver and Common Bulbul, missing Red-and-Yellow Barbet, Rufous Chatterer, and Purple Grenadier, among others. After our final night at Lake Ndutu, we drove back to the Ngorongoro Crater to meet up with the safari company that was running our five-day trek in the highlands to the north. By the early afternoon, though, I had fallen terribly sick with malaria, and Aimee and I were forced to bow out of the trek, leaving Mark to explore this remote region on his own.

Notable birds seen: Common Ostrich, Marabou Stork, Black Kite, Secretary Bird, Lappet-Faced Vulture, Augur Buzzard, Tawny Eagle, Steppe Eagle, Bateleur, Long-Crested Eagle, Lesser Kestrel, Grey-Breasted Spurfowl, Kori Bustard, Crowned Lapwing, Fischer’s Lovebird, Abyssinian Scimitarbill, Capped Wheatear, Wattled Starling, Silverbird, Greater Flamingo, Lesser Flamingo, Beautiful Sunbird, Purple Grenadier, Black-Faced Waxbill, Blue-Capped Cordon-Bleu, Hamerkop, White Stork, Egyptian Goose, Black-Shouldered Kite, Two-Banded Courser, Ring-Necked Dove, Woodland Kingfisher, African Cuckoo.

Tarangire National Park: December 28, 2010

2011-02-06T05:03:00.000-08:00

Tarangire National Park is just two hour’s drive from Arusha, but we had to double back and head south to reach it from our base at Mto Wa Mbu. Although it was two months too late to visit the park during its peak season, which is the height of the dry season, Tarangire is simply too celebrated a destination by safari connoisseurs to pass up. For example, travel writer and historian Graham Mercer, who used to teach at the international school where I work in Dar and who has lived in country for three decades, calls it easily his favorite park, praising its diversity of habitat as well as its high concentration of game along the river during the dry season. Several of my colleagues also visited in October and were treated to huge herds of elephants and several family groups of cheetah. It’s also noteworthy for the relative lack of crowds compared to Manyara, Ngorongoro, and Serengeti. There are plenty of expensive lodges to stay inside and outside the park, but we decided to save our money by making a day trip from the Lake Manyara region, where there is a wider range of accommodation.

Again, the author of the Bradt Guide to Tanzania, Philip Briggs, who is certainly a bird enthusiast if not an expert birder, informed me of the special birds to focus on during our short visit. Two east African endemics, the Yellow-Collared Lovebird and Ashy Starling, are reported to be easier to see here than any other site in Tanzania, and we found both species feeding on the ground together within the first hour of our visit ($35 per person per 24 hours). The lovebirds were particularly dramatic as they fanned over the ground in tight formation, their green and yellow plumage looking even more brilliant against the dusty ground. We spent the next several hours exploring the Little Serengeti Circuit, a dense network of roads that pass through savanna grasslands, finding a host of new birds, including Black-Faced Sandgrouse, Two-Banded Courser, White-Bellied Bustard, Brown Snake-Eagle, and Common Ostrich. At two and a half meters in height, the latter is an incredible sight no matter how many times you’ve seen an ostrich in a zoo, and Mark, Aimee, and I gazed out the windows in amazement as a group of six birds strode about the plain.

Tarangire is easily the most confusing national park or game reserve that we’ve driven through on our own. Despite having multiple maps of the road system, we had no clue where we were at times and struggled to orient ourselves in the overcast morning. Obtaining directions from another driver would only help for a hundred meters or so, until we reached the next unmarked fork in the road. Sure, seeing Red-and Yellow Barbet, Red-Billed Hornbill, and Lilac-Breasted Roller at seemingly every turn was a nice consolation, but ultimately we wanted to reach Lake Burunge and perhaps even Gursi Swamp, sites that promised Long-Crested Eagle and cheetah. Eventually, my confidence was shaken to the point where we had to stay in sight of the main road and be content with the path more traveled along the Tarangire River. Happily, this allowed us to stop in for lunch at the lovely Tarangire Safari Lodge, where we feasted for once after several days of eating out of the cooler in the car. The grounds of the lodge were also excellent for birds, including Ashy and Superb Starlings, White-Bellied Go-Away-Bird, and Grey Woodpecker.

After lunch we continued south along the Tarangire River, where we saw several herds of elephants walking along and feeding in the adjacent woodland. We watched one huge tusker in particular tear down an entire tree to eat the small green leaves on its thorny upper branches. Indeed, elephants had destroyed many trees throughout the park; perhaps a third of them in total had been damaged to some degree. There is a nice viewpoint in this area south of the Tarangire Safari Lodge that overlooks the river from a cliff. We stopped here for a while to take a break from driving the main road, whose washboard surface made for a brutally bouncy ride. A group of White-Headed Buffalo-Weavers was extremely confiding here, where at Mkomazi National Park, for example, they were very wary. In fact, birds at all the viewpoints and picnic sites in the busy national parks are more or less habituated to humans, as they’ve learned to pick up the scraps that tourists leave behind from their box lunches. For once, birders can view and photograph various sparrows, starlings, weavers, and waxbills at their leisure.

Towards the end of the afternoon, we decided to drive back around to the entrance and head south towards Lake Burunge again to look for waterbirds and birds of prey. Again, we were forced to drive along the rough main road, as any attempt to take the smaller and smoother dirt roads would end up with us getting lost. I stopped once to inspect some birds feeding on the ground just back from the road, which proved to be a group of Rufous-Tailed Weavers, another Serengeti endemic species. This unique bird, both in appearance and behavior, has been placed in its own genus, and is described sometimes as a cross between a sparrow-weaver and a babbler. When we got back on the road, I noticed the car was riding poorly and stopped to examine the suspension. Another u-bolt had broken off, and the springs were dangerously close to coming loose like they did a week ago outside of Kilimanjaro National Park. Mark encouraged me to drive it slowly to the entrance gate, where a mechanic could hopefully replace the bolt and straighten out the springs.

We limped into the park, covering less than five kilometers in thirty minutes and had to all plans of continuing our driving safari that day. Unfortunately, we still had to drive back to Mto Wa Mbu that evening, which was another two hours away. While it’s generally difficult to get things accomplished in the country, I must say that so far Tanzanians have always proven happy to help foreigners in distress, especially when it involves a potentially lucrative car repair. Indeed, within a few minutes there were half a dozen rangers and mechanics discussing our problem. They discussed the situation for a long time, in fact, and I had to send Aimee away to enjoy the viewing tower near the park gate as she was getting distressed. Since no one had any spare u-bolts that were the appropriate size, the head mechanic decided to switch two of them around and then tie up the springs held by one bolt with lots of wire. This took a few hours to accomplish, after which he informed us that we could only drive at ten kilometers per hour back to the main road; otherwise, the remaining u-bolt would break and the springs would collapse. We made it, of course, but would experience considerable delay the following morning as we had the car repaired for our long drive out to Serengeti National Park.

Notable birds seen: Common Ostrich, Egyptian Goose, African White-Backed Vulture, Black-Chested Snake-Eagle, Brown Snake-Eagle, Tawny Eagle, Helmeted Guineafowl, Common Kestrel, White-Bellied Bustard, Spotted Thick-Knee, Two-Banded Courser, Blacksmith Lapwing, Black-Faced Sandgrouse, Yellow-Collared Lovebird, White-Bellied Go-Away-Bird, Grey-Headed Kingfisher, Woodland Kingfisher, Little Bee-Eater, Red-Billed Hornbill, Von der Decken’s Hornbill, Southern Ground Hornbill, Red-and-Yellow Barbet, d’Arnaud’s Barbet, Nubian Woodpecker, Grey Woodpecker, White-Browed Scrub-Robin, Northern Pied Babbler, Magpie Shrike, Slate-Coloured Boubou, Ashy Starling, Rufous-Tailed Weaver, White-Headed Buffalo-Weaver, Black-Faced Waxbill, Red-Cheeked Cordon-Bleu.

Lake Manyara National Park: December 27, 2010

2011-02-05T04:55:00.000-08:00

With a thunderstorm on the horizon to the north, snow-speckled Mount Meru to the east, and the great Rift Valley opening up before us to the south, it felt as if we were truly entering one of the last great wild areas on the planet as we drove from Arusha to Lake Manyara National Park late one afternoon. Actually, we had arrived on the most popular and expensive safari circuit in east Africa, and almost every other vehicle on the road was a Toyota Landcruiser with a pop-up top, two spare tires, and jerry cans strapped to the back. All of them were, of course, filled with tourists burdened with camera equipment, guidebooks, and high expectations, and the drivers of these vehicles were more than ready to deliver the big game. Over the course of the next few weeks, we would encounter the same Landcruisers at park entrances, picnic sites, and animal kills, and the names of all the safari companies would eventually blur together into one great nemesis as the trucks jostled for prime viewing position in front of us. Africa Dream Safaris, Leopard Tours, Tanzania Adventure, Nature Discovery, and Wild Frontiers ironically became obstacles for us to experience all that they promised to their clients.

Lake Manyara National Park is the first stop made by these expensive guided tours that are eventually headed out to Serengeti National Park. It protects a shallow alkaline lake that stretches out from the western escarpment of the Rift Valley, as well as some excellent riparian forest, acacia woodland, and grassland habitat. The park is famous for its tree-climbing lions, a behavior that is as enigmatic to biologists as it is uncommon for tourists to observe. Philip Briggs, author of the excellent Bradt Guide to Tanzania, more suitably describes the park as the country’s finest birding site as it boasts over 400 species, 100 of which can be seen in a day even by casual birders. This is by far the more reliable claim about the park, although we fell a few species short of this figure during the full day we spent driving its complex system of roads. While I had built up the site considerably in my mind, I certainly wasn’t disappointed by what we encountered, and some observations we made here were some of the finest of our entire trip, including Grey Crowned Crane, Usambiro Barbet, Fischer’s Lovebird, and Great White Pelican.

What will always color my memories of the park is the miserable physical condition I was in. We had stayed the previous night in a decent room at Njake Jambo Lodge and Campsite in Mto Wa Mbu, which is a busy tourist town with plenty of amenities. Mto Wa Mbu means River of Mosquitos, though, and I’m pretty confident that I was bit that night with a malaria-bearing mosquito. The next morning I felt incredibly sore and achy, as if I were sick and hung-over from drinking a case of spoiled beer, and at points during the day I couldn’t even summon the energy to raise my binoculars to my eyes, much less determine the identification of a cryptically-colored weaver. I even relinquished the driving responsibilities to Mark, which shocked Aimee as I regularly spend eight to twelve hours behind the wheel on our vacations. Ten days later I would indeed be crippled by malaria, cutting our visit to the Ngorongoro Crater short. Given the incubation time of the parasite, which is seven to ten days, it would certainly make sense that I contracted malaria here (for the record, I did not drink a case of beer the night before).

After paying the entrance fee ($35 per person per 24 hours), we made our way slowly towards the hippo pool, passing through tall and lush ficus forest filled with Silvery-Cheeked Hornbills and olive baboons. We spotted a dozen Fischer’s Lovebirds perched in a tall tree, preening each other’s rainbow-colored plumage in the early morning sun, and along a rushing stream we found a pair of Mountain Wagtail busy bobbing their tails as advertised. Too tired to stop for various weavers in the bush and canaries on the ground, I pushed us on ahead to the pool, where we could see vast numbers of waterbirds, including a few Great White Pelicans and African Jacanas. The was a large group of hippos, a pair of African Fish Eagles, and hundreds of weaver nests in a tree overhead, but the views from this viewpoint weren’t very rewarding as the landscape is flat and the grass rises high along the water. Supposedly, this is also a good place for Greater Painted-Snipe, but I was hardly in the state to scan for it. Happy to tick a few new species for my country list, including White-Faced Whistling-Duck, I slouched back into the car to continue the search for the mythical tree-climbing lions.

Many kilometers later we finally caught up with a lion laying far from the road in a dry river bed, but these pitiful looks would be put to shame in just a few days as we would literally have to dodge lions on the road while driving in the Serengeti. A far more spectacular sight was the thousands of Lesser Flamingos we saw in the shallows of the lake from the Maji Moto hot springs viewpoint. This site immediately at the base of the escarpment was of great interest to Mark who is trained as a geologist and works as an environmental consultant, often on oil drilling projects. I’ve always appreciated his ability to read a landscape and deduce the narrative of its formation, and I was amazed to hear him describe how the entire continent of Africa was being ripped apart at the very place were standing. I was also growing increasingly fatigued, and it’s a wonder that I stopped the car to investigate a barbet-like call along the road. A pair of Usambiro Barbets, one of a few bird species endemic to the Serengeti region, hopped up briefly from the ground, their silver beaks and more subdued plumage clearly distinguishing them from the dapper d’Arnaud’s Barbet.

Notable birds seen: Great White Pelican, Common Squacco Heron, Grey Heron, Hamerkop, Marabou Stork, Hadada Ibis, Sacred Ibis, Lesser Flamingo, Greater Flamingo, Spur-Winged Goose, Egyptian Goose, White-Faced Whistling-Duck, African Fish Eagle, African White-Backed Vulture, Palm-Nut Vulture, Augur Buzzard, Tawny Eagle, Bateleur, Helmeted Guineafowl, Crested Guineafowl, African Jacana, Grey Crowned Crane, Pied Avocet, Speckled Pigeon, Fischer’s Lovebird, White-Browed Coucal, Blue-Naped Mousebird, Speckled Mousebird, Grey-Headed Kingfisher, Crowned Hornbill, Silvery-Cheeked Hornbill, Usambiro Barbet, African Pied Wagtail, Mountain Wagtail, Beautiful Sunbird, Common Fiscal, Black-Crowned Tchagra, Northern White-Crowned Shrike, Fork-Tailed Drongo, African Grey Flycatcher, Red-Billed Oxpecker, Superb Starling, Red-Winged Starling, Swahili Sparrow, Blue-Capped Cordon-Bleu.

Mafia Island: January 28-30, 2011

2011-01-31T20:14:00.000-08:00

Aimee and I found out recently that this would be our first and last year living and working in Tanzania, so we’ve decided to make the most of it, taking trips to new places as frequently as our schedules and budgets permit. This weekend it was time to head out to Mafia Island, actually a small archipelago of atoll islands offshore from the Rufiji River Delta, one of east Africa’s most important marine ecosystems. We planned to do some diving on Saturday in Chole Bay, in the storied Mafia Island Marine Park, and then search for whale sharks off the mainland side of the island. As always, I hoped to do a bit of birding on the excursion but didn’t expect to see much more than migratory shorebirds, most notably the dapper Crab Plover.

The coastal area around our hotel had some decent mangrove and coral rag forest habitat, where I had the chance to bird for an hour on Sunday morning. Despite the heat and wind, I found a few decent birds, including the Blue-Cheeked Bee-Eater, Purple-Banded Sunbird, and Pale Batis. Although similar in behavior to flycatchers, the latter is a localized representative of a striking family of birds that includes wattle-eyes and shrike-flycatchers. Very similar in appearance, batises are all small and dimorphic and boldly patterned. I’ve seen a few species before, including this one, but I never hoped to photograph any of them, as they’re extremely active and not very confiding. This time, though, I was able to mimic the male’s clear whistling call, quickly drawing both the female and male in defense of their territory. Note the crown and breast band of both birds, key identification features that distinguish this species from the Black-Headed Batis.

The birding on the beach in front of the hotel was decent too, although I didn't see any Crab Plovers here or around Chole Bay on the other side of the island. Sooty Gull and Greater Crested Tern were common, and I noted the Dimorphic Egret a few times poking through the seaweed that had been washed ashore. Black Kites, Pied Crows, and Indian House Crows contributed further to the general business along the beach. Serious birders looking to explore the island further should consult this excellent article on birding the Mafia Archipelago.

As for the whale sharks, we were lucky to catch up with three spectacular individuals on Sunday morning, heading out after breakfast in a boat from our hotel near Kilindoni (we stayed at Butiama Beach, having purchased a package deal advertised by Coastal Aviation). In less than ten minutes from the shore, we were jumping in the water to swim with these gentle giants as they fed open-mouthed for plankton, filtering rivers of water through their gills. Aimee and I both were able to keep up with the whale sharks for a minute or two, observing the veritable ecosystem that exists around their gaping mouths, including hundreds of remoras, sardines, and other small fish. Despite being over eight meters in length, the only threat they posed was bashing us with their massive tails as they pushed past in the water.

Notable birds seen: Notable birds seen: Sooty Gull, Dimorphic Egret, Greater Crested Tern, Blue-Cheeked Bee-Eater, Pin-Tailed Whydah, Pale Batis, Purple-Banded Sunbird, Collared Sunbird, Pied Kingfisher, Grey Plover, Lilac-Breasted Roller, Broad-Billed Roller, Ringed Plover.

Mikumi National Park: January 22-23, 2011

2011-01-24T03:52:00.000-08:00

If only Mikumi National Park were closer to Dar es Salaam, I find myself saying in the midmorning after already four hours of driving. Then, we could slip out of the city on Friday for the entire weekend, instead of only for one night. I could also put a serious dent in the park's bird list, the surface of which I've barely scratched in my three visits. It's tough working long hours during the week, only to shake oneself awake on Saturday morning for a predawn escape from the heat and traffic of east Africa's busiest port city. The promise of birds, both new and old, and even more spectacular game like lion and wild dog, though, is stronger than any coffee I might be sipping as I dart past tractors and trucks along the road. The allure of Mikumi was particularly strong this weekend as the rains had finally soaked into the grasslands of the Mkata Plain, sprouting green grass almost waist high in areas where previously there had been only dry chaff and dusty dirt.

Opting for new accommodation to pair with the change in scenery, Aimee and I stayed at the only tented camp deep within the park's boundaries, Foxes Safari Camp, far from the busy road that passes through the heart of the protected area. From here, we planned to do a few game drives and enjoy the wildlife from the patio of our platform, upon which sat an oversized furnished canvas tent. Indeed, staying in a luxurious tent is practically half the fun of going on safari in east Africa, although it's easy enough to find budget accommodation outside most parks and reserves. In these colonial bush camps, I can't help myself sometimes from speaking in clipped sentences stripped of adjectives and staring off into the distance as if towards the snows of Kilimanjaro. Aimee doesn't go for that Hemingway crap, though, and she usually snaps me out of my charade when I start using sexist language. One thing's for sure: we're certainly not roughing it out here on our birding trips.

The entrance of the park, near the waterhole in front of Mikumi Wildlife Camp, is arguably the most interesting area of the park in terms of wildlife, and each time we pass through the gate we always see something new and striking. This time it was a pair of challenging raptors to identify, the Eurasian Hobby and the melanistic Gabar Goshawk. The latter was particularly difficult, as the cere of the bird was clearly black instead of red, but I was forced to accept this anomaly due to the lack of alternatives. It's certainly a unwieldy method for identifying a bird species, eliminating all of the other five hundred possibilities, but it's not the first time I've had to resort to extreme measures to tick a new bird. Before moving on, we also noted a male Beautiful Sunbird chattering away noisily while flashing it's showy chest in the sun.

After the initial rush of observations, we settled back in our seats to absorb the landscape, which was softened by grassy plains and leafy trees. Our last visit in November, the park was so barren and arid that Aimee was inspired to write a blog post entitled Death in Mikumi, containing gruesome photographs of starving antelope, salivating scavengers, and stripped carcasses. The dominant color this time was clearly green, and the game had spread out gloriously over the plain, instead of huddling together tightly at a watering hole. Of course, the predators were still out and about, and we shortly ran into two female lions resting in a drainage pipe along the road, breathing hard despite lying motionlessly in the relatively cool shade. One lioness was nursing a newborn cub, and it was clear from the wildebeest bones littered about that they were using this ditch as a camp of their own while the cub gained strength.

As we continued back towards Mwanamboga Waterhole, near where the camp is located, I was surprised not to see more birds. I had imagined huge flocks of whydahs were present in the rainy season with the males in magnificent breeding plumage, but aside from one flock of Pin-Tailed Whydahs I was generally disappointed by the volume of birdlife. Indeed, apart from one terrific Yellow-Throated Longclaw, we didn't see much of note after passing Millenium Dam, another waterhole where we spotted an African Darter. Arriving at the camp after a few hours of driving safari, we settled in to lunch in the huge thatched hut that sits on top of a rocky hill, referred to as a Stanley's Koppies, named after one of Africa's greatest but most problematic 19th century explorers. From this privileged vantage point, we could look out over the plains where several of his Arabic counterparts used to march prisoners off to the slave market on Zanzibar.

After a quick encounter with a Pearl-Spotted Owlet, followed by a long nap in the tent, we headed out for an evening game drive, exploring a circuit that passes the Mwanamboga Waterhole. Here we found a lovely colony of European Bee-Eaters, whose fashionable blue and chestnut plumage earned Aimee's approval. Later, we encountered a massive flock of Wattled Starlings, containing several hundred birds, including many males in their bizarre breeding plumage, complete with yellow mask and black wattle. A calling Black-Bellied Bustard rounded out the evening, which we had secretly hoped would end with a lion kill, as always. During dinner we were treated to the sound of a pair of African Scops-Owl, but I didn't have my act together to seriously go owling, an activity requiring so much more dedication than mere birding that it deserves its own name. Amazingly, the following morning we were more or less blanked on our morning game drive and opted to skip back to Dar to enjoy the late afternoon at the pool. As if it were only that easy.

Notable birds seen: Northern Pied Babbler, European Bee-Eater, Tropical Boubou, Red-Billed Buffalo-Weaver, Black-Bellied Bustard, Southern Cordon-Bleu, White-Browed Coucal, African Darter, Bateleur, Long-Tailed Fiscal, African Grey Flycatcher, Gabar Goshawk, Helmeted Guineafowl, Hamerkop, Black-Headed Heron, Eurasian Hobby, African Hoopoe, African Grey Hornbill, Southern Ground Hornbill, Common Kestrel, Grey Kestrel, Crowned Lapwing, Blacksmith Lapwing, Yellow-Throated Longclaw, Pearl-Spotted Owlet, Yellow-Billed Oxpecker, European Roller, Lilac-Breasted Roller, White-Browed Sparrow-Weaver, Red-Necked Spurfowl, Greater Blue-Eared Starling, Superb Starling, Wattled Starling, Marabou Stork, Open-Billed Stork, Beautiful Sunbird, Scarlet-Chested Sunbird, Barn Swallow, Black-Crowned Tchagra, African White-Backed Vulture, White-Faced Whistling-Duck, Pin-Tailed Whydah.

Staying Healthy

2011-01-14T15:12:00.000-08:00

Trips to Tanzania are extremely expensive, even for residents, and great care should be taken to stay healthy during one's travels in the region. During the year I spent living and traveling here, I suffered from a wide variety of maladies that either reduced my enjoyment of trips or cost me valuable opportunities to see and experience wildlife. For example, Aimee and I had just begun a five-day trek through the Ngorongoro Crater highlands when I fell ill with malaria, forcing us to cancel our trip and absorb the cost of the exorbitant park fees. Indeed, during our only game drive on the crater floor itself, I was so delirious with fever that I could barely lift my binoculars to observe my first Black Rhino in the distance. Dengue, malaria, yellow fever, typhoid, and hepatitis are just some of the familiar viral and bacterial diseases one could contract by mosquito bite or water ingestion, and the list of more exotic sounding diseases is even more impressive, and scary. Taking a malaria prophylaxis is strongly advised, but common sense measures against getting sick are equally important, such as wearing long and loose-fitting clothing, using insect repellent, and avoiding eating uncooked vegetables.

Aside from getting malaria, my largest personal struggle with health involved tsetse flies. These large biting flies feed on the blood of vertebrate animals and are famous for transmitting human sleeping sickness, which is rare in most parts of Tanzania. During my stay in the region, I became increasingly sensitive to their bites, culminating at the end of my stay in intense allergic reactions where my entire appendage would swell up painfully for days if I sustained just one bite on my arm or leg. As the flies swarm slow-moving vehicles passing through woodland and often bite through thick clothing, I was reduced to doing much of my birding from inside a car with windows rolled up, wearing a rain jacket for extra protection. Mosquitoes, sand flies, ticks, fleas, and lice can all transmit disease, so wearing insect repellent and shoes, socks, and long pants and shirts is highly recommended even when the temperatures soar midday. Remember that the price of being uncomfortable is a lot less than the cost of sitting out a safari.

Deforestation and Charcoal Production

2011-01-14T14:59:00.000-08:00

Daily life in Dar es Salaam, especially in Msasani where many foreigners live and work, is permeated by the steady grind of diesel generators. The electricity is off almost as much as it's on, and businesses, schools, and homes are left to generate power for themselves for irregular periods of the day and night. Of course, most Tanzanians can't afford electric power to begin with, and in urban areas their principle means of fueling stoves to cook and boil water is charcoal. The country burns roughly one million tons of charcoal annually, outpacing the reforestation rate by three to one. Using charcoal as fuel is significantly more damaging than firewood because its production requires the destruction of the entire tree, and a considerable part of the energy content of wood is wasted in the production of charcoal as well. Deforestation around urban zones like Dar es Salaam is particularly bad, and the forests of Pugu Hills Reserve just west of the city have been completely degraded despite modest attempts at conservation. Indeed on several birding excursions in the area, I have encountered men cutting down trees with machetes and processing charcoal, both inside and outside the reserve boundaries.

There are similar pressures on forests up and down the coast, although transportation costs add considerably to the price of charcoal the further one gets from Dar (not surprisingly diesel is almost $1.50 USD per liter). Charcoal production is typically conducted on a small scale, where farmers and colonists produce small quantities in local forests and sell them on the highways to middlemen passing through in lorries. Often, you'll see men on bikes peddling huge bags of charcoal to the nearest collection point or market, looking to add a modicum of value to their product by delivering it themselves. Similar economizing occurs on the demand side as well, and on trips in and out of the city, I've witnessed drivers stop at small farms along the highway to buy charcoal directly from the producers (our safari driver did this once on a trip to the Selous Game Reserve). What's the solution, then? Electric stoves certainly aren't feasible, and the cost of kerosene and gas stoves remains too high. On the supply side, making charcoal briquettes from wood waste products would be an improvement over lump charcoal, even better making briquettes out of paper and biomass waste, but production requires special machinery and binding materials. Creating more efficient stoves would certainly reduce the need for charcoal, but Tanzania's high population growth rate, which hovers around 3%, is a serious obstacle to a demand-side solution.

For a more detailed discussion of the issue, check out Jean Kim Chaix's article "Is a Charcoal Crisis Looming for Tanzania?"

Mount Meru, Arusha National Park: December 23-26, 2010

2011-01-13T04:21:00.001-08:00

Foreseeing the fatigue that a three-week driving safari in northern Tanzania could inspire, Aimee and I made sure to schedule some activities during our long vacation that would force us to get out of the car and stretch our legs a bit. The first of these was a four-day climb of Mount Meru, Tanzania’s second highest peak at 4566 meters (it’s the continent’s seventh highest mountain). In clear sight of Kilimanjaro, Meru is generally recognized as being the more rewarding, beautiful, and fun climb, as the ascent is more varied and difficult, the habitat more pristine, and the trail and huts far less crowded. Indeed, the experience didn’t disappoint as Aimee, Mark, and I were treated to fabulous wildlife while enjoying an interesting and dynamic hike, culminating with our arrival at the summit at dawn of the third day.

I’ve been on several excursions now that have promised to be a dual trekking and wildlife viewing experience, most notably our 8-day adventure on Sumaco in Ecuador, where we birded up and down an isolated jungle volcano. Although the climbing involved on Meru was much less intense, there was still a fair amount of pressure on the trail to hurry along and stay on schedule. While it had been my original plan to linger long at each hint of birdsong, I was frequently forced to abandon pursuit of a bird to avoid being left behind. Normally, it’s not a bid deal for a climbing party to spread out over a trail, but on Meru it’s imperative that hikers are accompanied by an armed ranger at all times, as elephant, buffalo, and even leopard pose a serious threat. Taken out of context, this was a bit frustrating, but ultimately I was grateful for opportunity to watch birds from a perspective other than behind a steering wheel.

The entire morning of our first day was spent organizing our expedition party, which included an armed ranger, half a dozen porters, and several guides connected to Safari Makers, the company we paid to set up the trip ($180 per person per day). Actually, I’m not sure exactly how many people contributed to our ascent, but I’m confident it was at least a three to one ratio. One noteworthy reason for the impressive size of our party was that there are such strict regulations about the number of kilograms that porters can carry. In fact, the system of climbing Meru, and I imagine at Kilimanjaro, is so organized and regulated that it’s almost an out of country experience for expatriate residents accustomed to the splendid chaos that permeates so many activities in Tanzania, from catching a bus to buying some bananas. So, while the team packed and weighed, and unpacked and weighed, each porter’s pack, we sized up the mountain over lunch.

Mount Meru is a spectacularly blown-out crater with a massive resurgent cone. Its lower flanks are covered in gorgeous montane forest filled with large game, monkeys, and birds. The forest become more stunted as the elevation increases, leading eventually to high-altitude moorland and rocky bare earth along the crater rim. There are two huts, Miriakambo and Saddle Huts, and climbers typically summit on the second night arriving at the summit in the early morning after climbing for approximately six hours in the dark. The views of Arusha National Park and Mount Kilimanjaro to the northwest are simply breathtaking, making this one of the most unique climbing experiences in all of Africa. As with all other tourist activities in Tanzania though, climbing Meru is ridiculously expensive and nearly impossible to arrange and conduct independently.

The birding is similar to what Aimee and I had experienced the previous three days while exploring the park in our car. My two target birds for the hike were the east African endemic Hartlaub’s Turaco, a large arboreal crested bird, and the bizarre Lamergeier, a massive bearded vulture that sticks to barren rocky heights where it is sometimes seen dropping animal bones on boulders to access the marrow. Along the way, I was hoping to pick up several of the stunning long-tailed sunbirds of the region as well as some of the more common montane forest species that we had missed on our drives, including the Montane White-Eye, Yellow-Bellied Waxbill, and Mountain Greenbull.

On that first afternoon, we took the long route to the Miriakamba Hut, passing through beautiful forest draped in mosses and epiphytes. We encountered a raucous group of Silvery-Cheeked Hornbills, dozens of Olive Pigeons diving overhead, and many male Eastern Double-Collared Sunbirds. The Montane White-Eye indeed proved to be common, and Olive Thrush was shy but also frequently seen. As Mark and I stopped every few meters to gaze at our surroundings or consider a thoughtful point in our conversation, we fell further and further behind, irritating our ranger to the point where he questioned our ability to summit the mountain. This misunderstanding cost me my first look at Hartlaub’s Turaco, one of which I had determined to be in the crown of a tree but not quite located. The bird of the day ended up being a lovely White-Starred Robin, which I saw briefly as it passed along the forest edge in a clearing during one of our many breaks.

The following day was easily my favorite of the trip, as we ascended slowly up the steep trail to the Saddle Hut. The weather was clear and sunny, and the shrubs along the trail were in glorious bloom attracting hordes of nectar-feeding sunbirds, including Tacazze, Golden-Winged, and Eastern Double-Collared Sunbirds. Elegant, iridescent, and a bit hyperactive like hummingbirds, these high-altitude long-tailed sunbirds are worth lingering over as they argue over territories and display for females. At one point, Aimee and I witnessed eight male Tacazze Sunbirds on a single giant lobelia flower, one of the region’s more exotic flora standing at over five meters tall. Of course, on this day I finally lock onto the Hartlaub’s Turaco, leaf green except for its striking red, white, and blue facial pattern. The birds are best seen actually in swift flight overhead, as their crimson-colored wings make a powerful impression against the blue sky.

Reaching the summit at dawn after only a few hours of sleep and a long, slow march to the top, I realized irritably that I wouldn’t discover the Lamergeier on this trip. None of the guides on the mountain that night had seen one for several years, and the crater itself just seemed too isolated to support a mating pair. Supposedly on Kilimanjaro they are seen regularly, and according to my guidebook a few years ago a juvenile would hang around one of the huts on the popular Marangu Route during the day. Initially disappointed, I was soon gladdened by the sight of hundreds of Alpine Swifts soaring around the summit. Eventually, I warmed up to the spectacular scene with the massive crater plummeting down before my feet, and Kili standing sentinel in the rosy distance. It’s just like a birder to miss the forest for the bird.

Our two-day descent was plagued by poor weather, and Aimee and I were thoroughly soaked by an afternoon thunderstorm on my favorite section of the trail. Before nearly catching hypothermia and having to do jumping jacks in the rain to stay warm, I did find a few new birds, including Scaly Francolin and another east African endemic, Hunter’s Cisticola. Yellow-Bellied Waxbill was easy to find along the trail from the Miriakamba Hut to the Momela entrance gate, and we also noted White-Fronted and Little Bee-Eaters in the plain just before the hike ended. This final stretch is a remarkable one, as the trail passes through an open area frequented by buffalo, giraffe, warthog, and various ungulates, making for a true walking safari experience.

Notable birds seen: Scaly Francolin, Olive Pigeon, Silvery-Cheeked Hornbill, Little Bee-Eater, White-Fronted Bee-Eater, White-Starred Robin, Olive Thrush, Mountain Greenbull, Common Stonechat, African Dusky Flycatcher, Variable Sunbird, Tacazze Sunbird, Golden-Winged Sunbird, Eastern Double-Collared Sunbird, Montane White-Eye, Common Fiscal, Hartlaub’s Turaco, White-Naped Raven, Alpine Swift, Hunter’s Cisticola, Yellow-Bellied Waxbill, Streaky Seedeater.

Arusha National Park: December 20-22, 2010

2011-01-13T04:10:00.000-08:00

Short on big game, such as the elephant and lion, Arusha National Park ($35 per person per 24 hours) draws relatively few visitors compared to other national parks on the northern Tanzania tourist circuit. The park is a marvel, though, encompassing a wide variety of habitats and including two spectacular volcanic features, Mount Meru (4,566 meters) and Ngurdoto Crater, which is fully intact at 400 meters deep and 3 kilometers in diameter. Aimee and I first had two full days to explore the lower-elevations of the park on our own, and then we would embark on a four-day ascent of Meru along with our friend from Ecuador, Mark Thurber, who would join us after working on an environmental consulting project in Libya.

The Arusha area is littered with places to stay, offering everything from budget options in the city to high-end camps inside the park’s boundaries. We decided on a modest but comfortable lodge just outside the park, Meru Mbega Lodge, owned by the same folks who ran the lodge we stayed at just outside the Selous Game Reserve in October. After getting settled, we made the short drive to the park entrance, where we greeted with the welcome sight of intact montane forest covering hundreds of square kilometers. Given the impressive rate at which Tanzania is converting its forests and woodland into charcoal, even within its parks and reserves, I’m always relieved to witness a successful conservation effort.

With the plan of exploring the Momella Lakes on the far side of the park, saving the crater for the following day, we drove off across the park on its principle gravel road, stopping to admire some zebras, warthogs, and buffalo in a clearing along the way. We were surprised to see packed busses bouncing along the same road, as well as lorries barreling down it at high-speeds, but unfortunately this is the norm as the park straddles the ridge between two cities, with this road being the most direct route connecting them. The high volume of traffic made our next bird sighting even more surprising, a pair of African Crowned Eagles hunting vervet monkeys from a roadside perch within the forest.

Aimee and I had pulled over to the side of the road as soon as we had spotted these massive eagles swooping from perch to perch as they pursued a terrified troop of monkeys. Meanwhile, busses and safari vehicles raced past us sending up dust and gravel in all directions. Much like Harpy Eagles in size, stature, and stoicism, the African Crowned Eagles continued to stalk the moneys ruthlessly, unperturbed by noisy vehicles or the amazed birders who were observing them at close range. Raising their crests expressively, they worked together, one to distract the monkeys in the open while the other approached them from deeper cover. The male in particular appeared powerful enough to kill a young impala, which makes the monkeys they were hunting more of an appetizer than a main course. Eventually, they retreated into the forest unsuccessful, leaving Aimee and I thrilled with what would be our most impressive bird observation of the entire trip.

Near the Momella Lakes, the park’s habitat changes abruptly from moist montane forest to arid savanna and acacia woodland. Fed by underground streams, the alkaline lakes are large and shallow, supporting a rich avifauna highlighted by the gaudy Lesser Flamingo. Indeed, the larger of the two lakes is home to more individual birds than I’ve ever seen at one time, and Aimee and I were transfixed by the sight, sound, and smell of more than ten thousand Lesser Flamingoes feeding together. Other good bird observations made while driving around the lakes included the Great Crested Grebe, Great Cormorant, and African Moustached Warbler, and we also noted giraffe, Kirk’s Dik-Dik, and waterbuck. Exiting the park at sunset, we were treated to the magnificent site of a full moon rising over Mount Kilimanjaro to the northwest.

The following morning, we returned to the park, this time to explore the crater rim, which requires some fearless 4x4 driving up steep, forested tracks. Hoping for a glimpse of the east African endemic Hartlaub’s Turaco, I stopped frequently along the way and we figured out the identification of a few new bird species, including the White-Eared Barbet, Stripe-Cheeked Bulbul, and Cinnamon-Chested Bee-Eater. We then checked out the crater floor from two viewpoints, the neatest perspective offered by The Glade, which afforded spectacular views of both Meru and the crater. Aside from a few buffalo and hippopotamus, we didn’t see much wildlife down below on the marshy floor, but the forest on the outer walls of the crater was magnificent, with much larger trees than those found along the principle park roads.

Relaxing in the gardens of the lodge in the afternoon, Aimee and I were delighted by a pair of African Hoopoe feeding in the grass. These clownish birds were so absorbed in the act of searching out grubs and beetles deep in the ground that we were able to approach them within two meters as they probed into the soil with their long decurved bills. The male would periodically raise its crown feathers and flash its beautiful crest, and at one point it crowed in celebration after delivering a savory morsel to its mate. They stuck around all afternoon, dashing about the garden in dipping, woodpecker-like flight as they methodically worked over one patch of earth after another.

The following morning we picked up Mark at the Kilimanjaro International Airport, stopping in Arusha briefly to pick up some extra supplies for our climb beginning on the next day. Although Mark had been on the road for weeks in Libya, and had to take typically arduous route to get to northern Tanzania, we dragged him immediately into the park, where we had set up a canoe safari on the Momella Lakes with Green Footprint Adventures. If you’re serious about seeing wildlife in Tanzania’s National Parks, you’ll have to suffer through long hours of driving in 4x4 vehicles, so it’s imperative that you take advantage of every opportunity to get out of the car and do something different. Paddling around the lakes in the late afternoon light was definitely a welcome treat, and we witnessed some excellent wildlife, including hippopotamus, giraffe, and an albino baboon. Mark even spotted a Serval Cat, which is a beautifully spotted predator that hunts shorebirds by stalking them within the cover of tall grass.

Notable birds seen: Little Grebe, Great Crested Grebe, Great Cormorant, Long-Tailed Cormorant, Lesser Flamingo, Greater Flamingo, Spur-Winged Goose, Egyptian Goose, Cape Teal, Southern Pochard, Hottentot Teal, African Crowned Eagle, African Fish Eagle, African White-Backed Vulture, Mountain Buzzard, African Jacana, Black-and-White Cuckoo, White-Browed Coucal, Narina Trogon, African Hoopoe, Silvery-Cheeked Hornbill, Crowned Hornbill, White-Fronted Bee-Eater, Cinnamon-Chested Bee-Eater, White-Eared Barbet, Grey Woodpecker, Mountain Greenbull, Stripe-Cheeked Greenbull, African Dusky Flycatcher, Common Stonechat, Black Cuckoo-Shrike, African Moustached Warbler, Chin-Spot Batis, African Paradise Flycatcher, Montane White-Eye, Bronze Sunbird, Variable Sunbird, Common Waxbill, Crimson-Rumped Waxbill.

Kilimanjaro National Park: December 19-20, 2010

2011-01-13T04:06:00.000-08:00

While approaching massive Mount Kilimanjaro, which was obscured by clouds on an otherwise sunny day, we decided on staying in the town of Marangu for the night, before continuing on to Arusha National Park the following day. The Marangu Route up Kilimanjaro is also known as the Coca-Cola Route, and the town, despite its green and deliciously cool setting, has an unpleasant edge to it as guides quickly swarm newly arrived foreigners. In fact, on our way towards the entrance gate of the park, our car had its first breakdown of the trip, a busted u-bolt that supports the suspension, and within minutes we were being hassled by people offering their guiding services up the mountain.

Fortunately, we finally encountered a man who was willing to fix our car, a roadside repair that turned out to be relatively simple. Our confidence weakened though, we retreated to the Marangu Hotel for the evening, whose gorgeous grounds offered a highly civilized setting for our first glimpse of Kilimanjaro, which surfaced spectacularly at sunset. Instead of driving out to the national park early the following morning, which is devoid of game and greatly deforested in parts, we decided to enjoy the lavish gardens of the hotel, which were filled with birds, including the flashy Bronze, Amethyst, and Variable Sunbirds. My favorite sighting was of a striking male Red-Headed Weaver preening for a few minutes before going to work weaving his nest.

Climbing Kilimanjaro (5895 meters) itself is an impressive undertaking, as it requires at least five days, with an extra rest day recommended to aid acclimatization. The going rate, which includes porters, park fees, food, transport, and accommodation in the climbing huts, is $200 per person per day. With confirmed plans to climb it in May, I felt little pull to explore the lower-elevation regions of the park on this vacation, especially considering that the unique avifauna is really only found in the high moorlands towards the summit, where the lovely Scarlet-Tufted Malachite Sunbird and the striking Lammergeier are sometimes seen. Our next destination, Arusha National Park, would offer the same montane forest habitat in a much better state of conservation.

Notable birds seen: Laughing Dove, Silvery-Cheeked Hornbill, Brown-Breasted Barbet, White-Browed Robin-Chat, Olive Thrush, Yellow-Breasted Apalis, White-Eyed Slaty Flycatcher, Bronze Sunbird, Amethyst Sunbird, Variable Sunbird, Tropical Boubou, Grosbeak Weaver, Red-Headed Weaver, Black-and-White Manakin.

Mkomazi National Park: December 18-19, 2010

2011-01-13T03:51:00.000-08:00

After months of planning, Aimee and I finally lighted out to explore northern Tanzania, leaving Dar es Salaam well before dawn to avoid the traffic that clogs the modest single-lane highway that serves as the city’s primary entrance and exit road. Our ambitious plans for the three-week adventure would take us through the entire northern Tanzanian safari circuit, as we explored in our own car most of the country’s national parks and game reserves in the region. Would our aging 4x4 Mitsubushi Pajero really make it all the way to the remote Serengeti and back? And what else might go wrong along the way, we wondered, as Tanzania has consistently placed obstacles before us ever since we arrive in August. Pondering these questions as we pounded coffee, we tried to reset our attitudes to better reflect that today was the first day of a long and much-deserved vacation.

Eight hours of remarkably easy driving later, we pulled into the Elephant Motel, a comfortable roadside stop in the town of Same, roughly halfway from Dar to Arusha. This would be our base for several days while we investigated the little-known Mkomazi National Park, a newly upgraded reserve along the northeastern border with Kenya. In fact, Mkomazi is basically an extension of the much larger Tsavo National Park in Kenya, and it is home to a large number of arid acacia-country bird species, none of which I had ever seen before. The park is also beautifully scenic as hills roll gently in all directions, and Kilimanjaro can be seen sometimes in the far distance. Given the paucity, and timidity, of large game in the reserve, it is permissible for visitors to get out of the car occasionally and stretch their legs, as long as they stay within 25 meters of the vehicle, of course. Indeed, without lions and leopards stalking about, there aren’t many visitors to the park, and we drove around for hours without ever choking on a Toyota Landcruiser’s dust.

Mkomazi is also notable for two conservation projects involving the reintroduction of the Black Rhino, which has been decimated throughout the continent by poaching, and the charismatic African Wild Dog, which has been victimized by exposure to diseases transmitted by domesticated dogs. Aimee has yet to see either animal, so it was easy convincing her to spend a few days in the park, ostensibly searching them out while I was actually hunting for a handful of obscure birds, such as the Three-Streaked Tchagra, Shelley’s Starling, and Somali Long-Billed Crombec. Throughout our visit, which consisted of a long afternoon and the following half day, we hardly saw anything out of the ordinary or really unique to the park, but we were entranced by the picturesque beauty of the landscapes and thrilled by all the new bird species we encountered, including such acacia and savanna standouts as the Red-and-Yellow Barbet, Secretary Bird, and White-Bellied Go-Away-Bird.

After paying our 24-hour entrance fees ($25), we rolled slowly into the park, cruising through glorious woodland that even at midday was filled with birdsong. Yellow-Throated Spurfowls and Crested Francolins scattered occasionally in front of our car, as I stopped frequently to admire an Augur Buzzard, a group of Von der Decken’s Hornbills, and the ubiquitous Northern White-Crowned Shrikes. As we continued, the habitat opened up into grassland, and we noted several predators perched in the few remaining treetops, including Eastern Chanting-Goshawk, Black-Shouldered Kite, and Pearl-Spotted Owlet. It felt great just to be birding again after months of hard work, and it was especially thrilling to have to look up almost every bird observed in the field guide, as they all seemed new.

Driving towards Babu’s Camp, the only luxury tented camp inside or outside the park, which is set against a lovely hill dotted with massive baobab trees, we ticked several more new species, including European Roller, African Orange-Bellied Parrot, and Hildebrandt’s Starling, an east African endemic that bears more than a slight resemblance to the common Superb Starling. The atmosphere at the camp looked outstanding, offering front-porch opportunities for birding, but I had decided it was simply too expensive to stay in one luxury camp after another for three weeks. Indeed, the cost of traveling in northern Tanzania is radically high, even for tax-paying residents such as myself. Park entry can be as much as $50 per person per day, and rustic camps are typically $200 per person per day. When added to fuel costs, which are over $1 per liter, even independent travelers of reasonable means are looking to economize in almost every financial decision they make.

Before leaving the park in the early evening, we stopped to check out the campsite, having brought camping equipment along with us as a back-up plan in case our reservations fell through or we simply wanted to improvise. Camping in Tanzanian parks is supposedly an edgy experience as large mammals frequently walk through campsites at night. I’ve seen plenty of photos from my colleagues at work who have woken up to the sight of lions stalking around their tents or elephants probing around their car for food. Mosquitoes, scorpions, and snakes are other hazards. The site was gorgeous in the dying light, though, and if it weren’t for the costs involved ($50 per person per night), it would have made for a great first night of our trip. We stopped for a final bird before the entrance gate, a Pangani Longclaw that we had flushed along the road, and then spent a relaxing evening back at the quiet Elephant Motel.

The following morning was as exciting as the previous day, with high levels of bird activity and more new species seen. Our best early morning discovery was a Pygmy Falcon, an attractive but diminutive raptor standing at only eight inches in height. Heading towards Dindera Dam instead of Babu’s Camp, we encountered our first pair of Red-and-Yellow Barbets, stunningly colored in the dry brown and green landscape. This delightful bird graces the cover of the Princeton Field Guide, Birds of East Africa. Our next find was even more impressive, as we watched a massive bird soar up from the plains on a thermal. At first, I though it was one of the region’s huge storks, as the bird’s long legs trailed it in flight. Then, I realized that the bird also had a long tail trailing it, making this observation our first of the spectacular Secretary Bird, a predominantly terrestrial raptor whose long legs and tail trail its body in flight. Indeed, I was so excited to find this unique east African endemic so early in our trip that I climbed onto the roof our car later to observe another individual that was hunting through the grasslands in the distance. Just try to imagine a 1.5-meter raptor striding through the high grass on long legs in search of snakes and lizards to stomp on and eat, and you’ll understand why I was so jazzed.

After failing to find any standing water at Dindera Dam, or anywhere else in the park, we decided to move on to Kilimanjaro National Park in the afternoon, having run out of time on our 24-hour entrance passes to Mkomazi. The birding had been excellent, and the experience of relaxed and solitary driving along the park roads would prove to be highly unique as we explored the more popular parks in northern Tanzania. Back at the entrance gate, we picked up a few more new species, including several colorful waxbills like the Purple Grenadier and Red-Cheeked Cordon-Bleu, before heading off on our way.

Notable birds seen: Secretary Bird, Wahlberg’s Eagle, Bateleur, Pygmy Falcon, Black-Shouldered Kite, Eastern Chanting-Goshawk, Augur Buzzard, Helmeted Guineafowl, Crested Francolin, Yellow-Necked Spurfowl, Buff-Crested Bustard, Emerald-Spotted Wood-Dove, African Orange-Bellied Parrot, Black-and-White Cuckoo, Pearl-Spotted Owlet, White-Bellied Go-Away-Bird, White-Browed Coucal, Little Bee-Eater, Blue-Cheeked Bee-Eater, European Roller, Red-and-Yellow Barbet, Von der Decken’s Hornbill, Red-Billed Hornbill, African Grey Hornbill, Pangani Longclaw, Northern Pied Babbler, Red-Backed Shrike, Northern White-Crowned Shrike, Isabelline Shrike, Black Cuckoo-Shrike, Fork-Tailed Drongo, White-Naped Raven, Superb Starling, Hildebrandt’s Starling, Red-Billed Buffalo-Weaver, White-Headed Buffalo-Weaver, Green-Winged Pytillia, Purple Grenadier, Red-Cheeked Cordon-Bleu, White-Winged Widowbird, Pin-Tailed Whydah.

Msasani Peninsula, Dar es Salaam: December 3, 2010

2010-12-05T04:05:00.000-08:00

I've heard the months of December and January are an exciting period for birders in Tanzania as palearctic migrants stream south through the country, including a variety of bee-eater species. Indeed, I noticed a lovely group of Blue-Cheeked Bee-Eaters late Friday afternoon as I was riding my bike home from work. Waiting on power lines strung over a washed-out dirt road, they swooped gracefully after wasps, returning to their perch as they shook loose the stingers and squeezed out the venom with their powerful beaks. These elegant migrants were joined by a pair of Swallow-Tailed Bee-Eaters, which I've not recorded before on the Msasani Peninsula but have seen in more wooded habitat near Saadani National Park. While not migratory to the extreme of the Blue-Cheeked or European Bee-Eater, which I also recorded the following morning at Pugu Hills, the Swallow-Tailed Bee-Eater almost certainly moves in response to climate patterns and could have simply been wandering a bit with the Blue-Cheeked Bee-Eaters.

Although I haven't done much serious birding recently here in southern coastal Tanzania, I'll be heading up to the northern part of the country in just a few weeks, for over twenty days of exploring various parks and reserves. Aimee and I will first visit Mkomazi National Park in search of a few regional endemics as well as keeping watch for Black Rhinoceros, which has been reintroduced here along with the African Wild Dog. Then, we'll be covering Arusha National Park, first birding for several days and then climbing towering Mt. Meru. Next, it's off on a safari to Lake Manyara and Tarangire National Parks, where we'll encounter tree-climbing lions and cheetahs as well as a wealth of new birds in the great Rift Valley. To top it off, we'll be visiting the Ngorongoro Conservation Area and Serengeti National Park for over a week, spending more money just on national park fees than I care to think about. With so many new important bird areas to be explored, I'm guessing my country list is about to double, hopefully including target species like the unique Secretary Bird. While we will obviously miss visiting many sites and seeing many birds in the region, any recommendations are very much welcome.

Msasani Peninsula, Dar es Salaam: November 25, 2010

2010-11-25T19:49:00.000-08:00

Several times a day my colleague is visited in his office by this Brown-Breasted Barbet, which comes to his window and thrashes itself against the glass. The bird's strange behavior is highly ritualized, he explained to me, and I was able to stake it out and capture some nice photographs of the bird as it recovered in a nearby tree (the photographs were still taken through a thick pane of glass). I've heard of other barbet species in the region acting similarly, and my guess is that the birds are using the glass, or the screen, to file down and sharpen their beaks. Perhaps, though, they're just confused by the reflected image or are simply trying to get inside the room? At any rate, it's a marvelous bird with its gorgeous head color, hefty double-toothed beak, and delicate streaking, and certainly one of the best birds in Dar.

Mikumi National Park: November 6-7, 2010

2010-11-07T21:40:00.001-08:00

Aimee and I were waiting to visit Mikumi National Park for the second time in the rainy season, but the period of the short rains has yet to arrive, at least here in Dar es Salaam, and the long rains aren’t until late February. During the wet season, supposedly, the floodplains explode in a burst of color, as lush green grass grows a meter tall and wildflowers dot the landscape. This dramatic transformation coincides with the breeding season for many birds, and male widowbirds, whydahs, queleas, and bishops sprout striking red plumage and grow spectacularly long tails. The concentrated groups of large game for which Mikumi is famous disperse into the hills or are obscured from the road by the verdant new growth, but for the birds, and the birders, the rainy season is the best time.

As soon as we arrived at the park on Saturday morning, having left Dar well before dawn, we realized that the landscape had become even more parched and denuded since August, the time of our first visit. Even the artificial pools that are constructed and maintained by the park had mostly dried up, and the plains were littered with the bleached bones of impala, wildebeest, zebra, and buffalo. Near the entrance is the excellent Mikumi Wildlife Camp, where we stayed in August and which still had one pool filled with water. Huge groups of buffalo, elephant, and zebra were loitering nearby seemingly taking turns at having refreshment while warthog and baboon came and went without hesitation. Between the road and the pool were hordes of vultures, mostly African White-Backed Vultures, picking through the remains of several recently deceased animals.

Driving towards another pool about 15 kilometers from the entrance, we passed giraffe feeding on the acacia trees and more elephants wandering the plain. Common birds along this stretch included the Long-Tailed Fiscal, Lilac-Breasted Roller, Red-Necked Spurfowl, Helmeted Guineafowl, Black-Bellied Bustard, Ring-Necked Dove, African Grey Hornbill, Crowned Lapwing, and Superb Starling, all birds we had noted on our first visit. Approaching the pool, which had dozens of vultures already spiraling down from above, we first stopped at a tree to admire a pair of perched White-Headed Vultures, looking with what was perhaps longing at the chaotic scene of the pool in the distance. These not unattractive vultures are generally chased off from kills by the larger and more aggressive scavenging birds.

Indeed the spectacle of the pool was gruesome, as harried impala, zebra, and wildebeest stalked around in the deep mud attempting to reach the small muck-filled pool in the center. In this unsightly watering hole, a single flatulent hippopotamus lay still, covered in black mud, as acrid bubbles rose to the surface around it. Animal carcasses in various stages of decay littered the area as vultures worked the scene, establishing their feeding hierarchy with a horrid display of posturing and violence. Stunned by the struggle for survival, we surveyed the scene from the car, noting some pacific birds also in attendance, including the Saddle-Billed Stork, Hamerkop, Blacksmith Lapwing, and Grey Heron. Hundreds of Ring-Necked Doves came and went as well, easily negotiating the mud with their ultra-light bodies.

With five species of vultures noted, we turned back in the direction towards the entrance gate, attempting to make an obvious loop judging from the map we had purchased of the park. Several detours later, we were back on the road we had come into the park on, having encountered a few dodgy ravines that I wasn’t comfortable enough to charge through in our car (our trustworthy old Toyota Landcruiser would have surmounted these obstacles with ease). Unfortunately, having left the road a few times to turn around, I became a bit lax with the park’s driving rules, and spotting a huge raptor in a nearby tree, approached in the car for a better photograph. A passing vehicle reported this violation to the park rangers at the entrance, and we almost had to pay a steep fine that I narrowly, and unethically, escaped. Deservedly, I still can’t determine what type of eagle it was despite the close-range photographs, although I’m now thinking either Steppe or Tawny Eagle (Update: Ron Eggert at Tanzanian Birds confirmed the Tawny Eagle identification).

Embarrassed by having flaunted the rules and then lied about it, I retreated with Aimee to our accommodation in the wooded hills on the other side of the highway that passes directly through the park. Vuma Hills Tented Camp is a classic, luxury safari camp, where visitors stay in private canvas tents set up on raised and covered platforms. It sounds much more rustic than it really is, although as the bush comes just to the edge of the platform the effect is certainly like camping. After a terrific lunch and a few Safari beers, we retired to the tent for a rest. Relaxing on the porch and studying the field guide, which I hadn’t touched for several weeks in favor of Jonathan Franzen’s excellent new novel Freedom, I noted a few new birds. Broad-Billed Roller called noisily from several treetops, Yellow-Bellied Greenbull moved about in the brush, and Marico Sunbird fed ostentatiously along a few flowering branches. Following up on some scratching sounds coming from the leaf litter, I found a small family group of Crested Francolin, and then enjoyed a pair of delightful White-Browed Scrub-Robin, displaying by cocking and spreading their tail feathers and quickly flashing their wings.

Instead of returning to the floodplain for an afternoon game drive, Aimee and I decided to drive through the wooded hills, attempting to make another obvious loop on the map. A few minutes into the drive, though, and our car was filled with tsetse flies, which transmit sleeping sickness and also bite shocking hard and deep. The flies are supposedly attracted to movement, and swarm into moving cars whenever they stop, such as the case was when I stopped for a pair of Crowned Hornbill. As the air conditioning doesn’t work in our car either, we quickly had to abandon the game drive and turn back to the camp. Sitting on the porch again and looking out over the plain, where with out binoculars we could see elephants passing along over ten kilometers away, we watched a thunderstorm break spectacularly at sunset. Suddenly a small owl jumped up from the ground into a tree nearby, an African Barred Owlet, and it scrutinized us boldly before dashing out into the woodland.

With a few hours left on our 24-hour entrance passes, we embarked on an early-morning game drive through the plains, hoping to find lion and leopard, as well as any new birds. On our way over to the hippo pool, we first found a pair of beautiful Northern Carmine Bee-Eaters, a species that wasn’t on the park list that I picked up from the Vuma Hills office. I also found a Caspian Plover with a group of Crowned Lapwings, and Aimee pointed out a pair of Wahlberg’s Eagle preening each other in a tree. Returning across the plain to the pond from the day before, we encountered a pair of Northern Pied Babblers and several migratory Northern Wheatears, their white rumps flashing starkly in the drained-yellow landscape.

Nearing the pool, we stopped to inspect another vehicle through our binoculars, in which every one was gazing up at tree above the pool and pointing in amazement. I could see a long appendage draped casually over a branch, and prematurely declared to Aimee that we were about to see our first leopard. Indeed, this is usually how you see cheetah, leopards, and lions on safari, by following up on the finds of other safari groups. Circling the tree in our car, we were first dismayed and then fascinated to see that it wasn’t a leopard at all, but a disemboweled impala that was strung over a high branch. Clearly it had been killed the night before, most likely by a leopard, and then carried up into the tree, where the animal could feed on it in peace without having to defend its prey from lions or hyena. We watched the carnage for another half an hour before it was time to leave the park and make the drive back to Dar, which took almost six hours in the sweltering afternoon traffic.

Notable birds seen: Hooded Vulture, Lappet-Faced Vulture, Ruppell’s Griffon Vulture, White-Headed Vulture, African White-Backed Vulture, African Hawk Eagle, Bateleur, Wahlberg’s Eagle, African Black Kite, Caspian Plover, Crowned Lapwing, Egyptian Goose, Hamerkop, Hadada Ibis, Saddle-Billed Stork, Marabou Stork, Open-Billed Stork, Grey Heron, Black-Bellied Bustard, Crested Francolin, Helmeted Guineafowl, Red-Necked Spurfowl, African-Barred Owlet, Lilac-Breasted Roller, Broad-Billed Roller, Northern Carmine Bee-Eater, Little Bee-Eater, Green Wood-Hoopoe, Red-Billed Oxpecker, Nothern Pied Babbler, Long-Tailed Fiscal, Black-Crowned Tchagra, Yellow-Bellied Greenbull, White-Browed Scrub-Robin, Northern Wheatear, Pale Batis, Spotted Flycatcher, Superb Starling, Marico Sunbird, White-Browed Sparrow Weaver, Pin-Tailed Whydah.

Bwejuu, Zanzibar: October 21-23, 2010

2010-10-24T02:57:00.000-07:00

Having spent a week scuba diving and exploring the island’s cultural points of interest, including taking a spice tour of the island and visiting historic Stone Town, Aimee and I retired to the southwest coast for a bit of rest and relaxation. Although I had no substantial plans for birding during this vacation, aside from a morning’s visit to Jozani-Chwaka National Park, this side of the island appeared to harbor much more birdlife than the northern coast, where we had stayed earlier. The scrub and garden habitat around our small hotel harbored a few lovely birds, including the Lilac-Breasted Roller and Scarlet-Chested Sunbird, and each day the tide would go out dramatically, exposing over a kilometer of reef to shorebirds. For once, birding for me was a leisurely activity, as I lounged in the hammock all afternoon reading a book with my binoculars around my neck.

A fruiting tree next to the dining area provided a few hours of entertainment each morning, as I watched waves of garden birds come through and snatch a few berries away from the resident Zanzibar Sombre Greenbulls. The most delightful of these was the Yellow-Rumped Tinkerbird, a member of the diminutive genus of African barbets, which would calmly choke down relatively massive berries as the greenbulls cautiously looked on. A group of noisy Black-Bellied Starlings would also make an appearance, although they weren’t nearly as disruptive as the hotel staff, which insisted on yelling to each other all morning as they went about their duties just nearby. I find this high-volume interpersonal communication to be one of the most challenging aspects of living in Tanzania, but I imagine I’ll get used to it eventually.

As the tide dropped late each morning, I would walk around on the exposed reef in my shoes, joining the rest of the village communities along the coastline as they scoured the tidal pools for stranded fish, crabs, and eels. Of course, I was just looking for shorebirds, and eventually found a few solitary Crab Plovers slowly patrolling open sandy areas. This uniquely large-headed plover stabs about in the sand occasionally with its stout bills, running about on long grey-blue colored legs. It looks rather like a tern but has slightly webbed feet, making it something of an anomalous bird; indeed, it has been placed in its own family. Common enough along the coastline in the Indian Ocean, it’s still one of my favorite birds of the region so far.

Notable birds seen: Crab Plover, Lilac-Breasted Roller, Yellow-Rumped Tinkerbird, Scarlet-Chested Sunbird.

Jozani-Chwaka Bay National Park, Zanzibar: October 22, 2010

2010-10-23T03:06:00.000-07:00

Thanks to years of steady hype from the Zanzibar tourist industry, Tanzania recently elevated the status of the modest Jozani Forest to the level of a national park, joining it with the adjacent estuary to the north. The main attraction of this swamp-forest habitat is the endemic Kirk’s Red Colobus, a striking monkey whose world population stands at about 2,500. Most visitors to Zanzibar typically arrange a short stop at the park on their way to the island’s western beaches to see the much-promoted monkey, a group of which have been habituated and are easily seen from the road that passes along the park’s southern border. The park also boasts a network of nature trails that visitors are free to explore, as well as a short boardwalk that passes through mangrove habitat, located a kilometer south of the main entrance along a dirt road.

After considerable expectation, Aimee and I finally visited at the end of our stay on Zanzibar, hoping to encounter the endemic race of Fischer’s Turaco among other coastal east African birds. Arriving around eight in the morning, we first birded the mangroves, hoping to catch the end of the early morning bird activity in this homogeneous habitat. After marveling over a male African Paradise Flycatcher, but finding not much else, we crossed the tarmac road and entered the forest, which first appeared to be little more than a red mahogany farm. Eventually, we entered more authentic looking swamp forest, but bird activity was low, except for a few pairs of chatty Dark-Backed Weavers. Within an hour or so my injured knee grew uncomfortably stiff, and we decided to cut short our visit and return to the coast, having seen a small fraction of the avifauna that the park purportedly offers.

Notable birds seen: Mangrove Kingfisher, African Paradise Flycatcher, Blue-Mantled Crested Flycatcher, Forest Batis, Dark-Backed Weaver.

Bagamoyo: September 25, 2010

2010-10-04T06:36:00.000-07:00

Aimee and I escaped from Dar a few weekends back to a small, historic coastal town about an hour to the north called Bagamoyo. Once a thriving port in the slave trade during the colonial era, where over a million Africans were shipped off for sale in nearby Zanzibar, Bagamoyo has since passed into a long and steady decline, now with only a few thousand residents. While staying at the Traveler's Lodge or one of several other atmospheric resorts in the area, visitors can explore the decrepit but interesting buildings in town and learn more about it's dark past at various landmarks, including the Holy Ghost Mission, which contains perhaps east Africa's oldest church, located a kilometer to the north along the tarmac road. Indeed, Bagamoyo is affectionately known as the Town of Palms, and tens of thousands of long and narrow palms blowing about in the sea breeze create a fine affect as you wander about. Of course, there are good birds to be found in the area too, especially on the lush grounds of the lodge where we stayed, where highlights included the Brown-Breasted Barbet, African Green Pigeon, and Scarlet-Chested Sunbird. On Sunday morning, Aimee and I also drove a few hours north to the Waimi River, which forms the southern border to Sadaani National Park, spotting the uncommon Swallow-Tailed Bee-Eater along the way. The park itself warrants several days of exploration, although it's difficult to access and will require at least four days to make a proper visit from Dar.

Notable birds seen: Water Thick-Knee, African Green Pigeon, Brown-Breasted Barbet, Speckled Mousebird, Scarlet-Chested Sunbird, Bronze Mannikin, Green-Winged Pytilia.

Bongoyo Island, Dar es Salaam: September 18, 2010

2010-10-04T06:29:00.000-07:00

Bongoyo Island is a lovely retreat a short boat ride away from Dar es Salaam, with trips leaving every few hours from the Slipway, a dock near our house on the peninsula. The island is uninhabited and has been established as a marine reserve (5 USD), protecting the surrounding coral reefs from overzealous fisherman as well as the coastal scrub and woodland on the island itself from charcoal production. Although the earliest you can arrive on the island without your own boat is around 10am (the first boat leaves at 9:30am, and the cost is 12,000Tsh), the access to untrammeled coastline and woodland is unparalleled in central Dar, and visiting birders should consider the island as a safe and easy introduction to coastal scrub and woodland habitat. Aimee and I spent a half day lounging around the beach a few weeks ago, and I took a short walk around the self-guided trails after lunch to get a sense of the birding potential of the site. Activity wasn't high, but I found a few good birds, including African Fish Eagle, Mangrove Kingfisher, and Klaas's Cuckoo. Aimee also saw her first African Paradise Flycatcher, a tiny but spectacularly long-tailed bird that isn't seen as much in Dar since the introduction of the mischievous House Crow. The island looks to be a good spot for the migrant Crab Plover as well, a unique wader which is one of Dar's finer birds.

Notable birds seen: Sacred Ibis African Fish Eagle, Black Kite, Mangrove Kingfisher, Pied Kingfisher, Klaas's Cuckoo, African Paradise Flycatcher, Black-Throated Wattle-Eye.

Selous Game Reserve: September 9-12, 2010

2010-09-13T02:57:00.000-07:00

This 45,000 square kilometer reserve in southern Tanzania is the largest of its kind in Africa, protecting the continent’s most prodigious large mammal populations, including 150,000 buffalo, 70,000 elephants, 40,000 hippopotamus, and 4,000 lions. Although visitors really only have access to about 1,000 square kilometers, this particular section of the park is remarkably scenic, encompassing the conjoining of the great Ruaha and Rufiji Rivers, a series of five shallow lakes, and the beautiful surrounding miombo woodland and forest. The rest of the reserve is cut up into privately leased hunting concessions, which, along with the $65 per day entrance fee for visitors, covers the costs of management of this UNESCO World Herritage site, perhaps even lining a few pockets along the way. (If I sound bitter, it’s a sore point among expatriates living here in Tanzania that no discounts are offered to tax-paying residents.)

Located a short plane ride, or five-hour drive, from Dar es Salaam, the area boasts a wide variety of accommodation, including several exclusive lodges within the reserve and a range of budget tent camps and mid-range lodges along the banks of the Rufiji a few kilometers from the entrance. Aimee and I recently visited the reserve during a four-day holiday weekend celebrating the end of Ramadan, opting to stay at the comfortable and moderately priced Selous Mbega Camp, where we enjoyed a spacious raised-pole tent overlooking several river islands complete with groups of hippopotamus and a wide variety of birds. From any camp around the Mtemere Entrance you can easily arrange a driving safari through the reserve (approximately $80 per person), a boat safari along the Rufiji River but outside the reserve ($40), and a walking safari both inside and outside the reserve ($40).

Indeed visiting Tanzania’s national parks and game reserves is notoriously expensive, and Aimee and I are attempting to control the costs of our vacations by driving to destinations ourselves instead of flying, using guidebooks and eschewing guides, and budgeting our activities carefully in advance. Camping in your own tent and self-catering are ways to limit expenses as well, although camping at a site within a national park is often as expensive as staying in one of the camps or lodges nearby and ice melts quickly in coolers. There’s also the question of comfort and ease, which we both place a high priority on, especially during a short vacation, and we’ll regularly justify staying at a nicer camp or lodge to ensure we’ll have a pleasant visit, instead of an adventurous one.

Still, getting in the car before dawn on Thursday morning and driving ourselves out of Dar and into one of the more spectacular and little-visited reserves in the country certainly felt adventurous. It was our first independent safari, and we were expecting at least to get lost a few times, have a minor breakdown in our car, or be harassed by the police while passing through towns and villages along the way. Remarkably, though, the trip there was without a snag, and we encountered some excellent wildlife along the last 3-hour leg of our journey, along a narrow 70km dirt road. Baboons were common, and we noted Southern Ground Hornbill, Eastern Chanting Goshawk, and a pair of Violet-Backed Starlings in the surrounding woodland. An African Harrier-Hawk was the highlight, as it swept in to a tree just along the road and probed deep into a hole with its long legs in search of a nest to rob.

After settling into our accommodation at Mbega Camp, we had a walk around the grounds noting several groups of White-Fronted Bee-Eaters, and Crowned Trumpeters, a female Blue-Mantled Crested-Flycatcher foraging with a Yellow-Breasted Apalis, and two solitary Robin-Chats, the White-Browed and Red-Crowned. Enjoying a pre-prandial beer at the restaurant overlooking the river, we scanned the islands below, noting Yellow-Billed Stork, African Fish Eagle, African Skimmer, and Egyptian Goose, as well as two groups of submerged hippopotamus. Occasionally, one of these massive animals would yawn magnificently above the surface of the water or stride out onto the island and graze for a few minutes. The sun was shining, the wind was blowing through the trees, and it simply felt great to be there instead of stressing about my job in Dar.

At 4pm we went on a boat safari with a young Dutch couple who were the only other guests at the camp. We motored down river around various islands, as our driver and guide took great care to put us in good positions for viewing and photographing the wildlife, particularly the birds. Aimee and I were in awe of the quantity of species of kingfishers present, including the Pied, Brown-Hooded, Malachite, and Giant Kingfishers, the latter of which is an impressively stout and densely patterned bird that shocked us on first sight. We were also treated to several huge colonies of beautiful White-Fronted Bee-Eaters that burrow holes in the vertical riverbanks in the hundreds, swooping in and out and chattering sociably in the mornings and evenings. Speaking of social birds, we watched dozens of male African Golden Weavers constructing neatly woven nests out of grass right in front of us in the reeds along one island, hoping that a female would find their work suitable.

The shorebirds were also a treat to see up close, including the bizarre White-Crowned Lapwing, the mammoth Goliath Heron, and the mostly nocturnal Water Thick-Knees, the same bird that we used to hear calling all night when we lived in the Upanga neighborhood in Dar near the estuary. We also came within extremely close range of the hippos, which I didn’t feel very comfortable with, as there were other boats on the river harassing them in the same manner, but the animals simply submerged themselves fully whenever we came too close. On this section of the river, we didn’t see many mature crocodiles, but later along one of the lakes Aimee and I would watch aghast as a group of thirty of them would ravenously tear apart a dead hippopotamus. Supposedly, this site is also good for spotting Pel’s Fishing Owl, but the guide said he only sees it occasionally flying above the river at dusk. We missed this huge and unique owl during our visit.

The following morning, we drove into the park, first passing a large relic from World War I outside the gate (the “Battle of the Bundu” between Britain and Germany was fought nearby in 1917, where the famed hunter, guide, and Captain Frederick Courtney Selous was shot and killed by a German sniper). We spent the entire day driving around the miombo woodland on unsigned dirt roads, circling several lakes that are visited in the dry season by densely populated groups of large mammals, such as impala, elephant, giraffe, greater kudu, eland, and wildebeest. Consequently, these lakes are also frequented by Africa’s famed feline predators, such as the lion and leopard, making the Selous one of the continent’s most reliable places to witness a kill.

As in most parks and reserves in Africa, the safari drivers are in radio contact with each other, reporting observations and sharing information on the location of desirable game. It’s common, then, for dozens of vehicles to converge quickly at the site of a kill or of a leopard lounging in a tree, which can spoil the quality of a sighting for a lot of visitors, especially in heavily trafficked parks such as the Serengeti. Without a radio, Aimee and I missed seeing any lions or the endangered wild dog on our day in the park; however, we did encounter a fantastic array of birds and also some new game, including the spotted hyena and greater kudu. The experience begs the question of whether you want to see everything or if you’re satisfied to see less but find it, and enjoy it, on your own. As always, Aimee and I have the luxury of being residents here and visiting places multiple times, relieving us from pressures that other tourists may experience.

In the early morning before we arrived at the lakes, we stopped to watch a number of groups of woodland birds. The first was thrilling for me as it contained all new species, such as the Green Wood-Hoopoe, White-Crested Helmet-Shrike, Pale Batis, and Southern Blue-Eared Starling. The second was almost equally interesting as it contained a pair of Common Scimitarbills, long-tailed birds similar to the sociable wood-hoopoes, that inhabit woodland and probe along the tree branches in search of arthropods with their unusually decurved bills. Other notable species in this area included the glorious Lilac-Breasted Roller, a large group of bizarre Helmeted Guineafowl, several small groups of Crowned Hornbill, and a soaring Bateleur eagle. The most common bird was the White-Browed Sparrow-Weaver, groups of which seemed to be calling from everywhere and whose nests appeared to be hanging from the branches of every other small tree.

Despite the bountiful birdlife, we were a bit anxious to arrive at the famous lakes, expecting to see hordes of game and water birds. Indeed, upon arrival at Lake Siwandu, we were treated to herons, lapwings, stilts, and sandpipers, as well as giraffe, wildebeest, impala, and other ungulates. While other drivers raced on to find any of the big cats, we lingered long at each picturesque turn of the road along the water, stopping frequently to take in the site from the safety of our car (while walking safaris are permitted in the reserve, they are only allowed in the company of an armed ranger, and independent visitors are not allowed to exit their vehicles). A couple of times I climbed up on the steel rack on top of our Mitsubishi 4x4 to escape the confines of our car, although this didn’t afford me any real viewing advantage as most animals and birds permit vehicles to approach within a few meters before scaring away.

As the afternoon progressed, we continued driving along the shores of several more lakes, often within a meter from the water’s edge. Not only did this proximity to such a sensitive area make me feel nervous, I was also worried about getting stuck in the sandy track. Still, these roads were our only option for exploring these lakes, and I observed all the other drivers taking the same routes. Eventually, we reached a magnificent viewpoint high above a waterway where we could see over hundreds of square kilometers. Another colony of White-Fronted Bee-Eaters continually came and went under our feet, as we surveyed the area for birds and game, spotting African White-Backed and Lappet-Faced Vultures, giraffes, elephants, and a variety of herons along the shore. Turning back towards the entrance, where I was told the gate closes promptly at sunset (6:30pm), I considered taking a more direct route away from the lakes. After five minutes we had sailed through three unsigned junctions and had no familiar landmarks in sight. Almost needless to say, I quickly turned us around and traveled exactly the same route we had used to enter.

I felt some pressure to arrive at the gate at least half an hour before it would close, so I sped along the dirt roads at considerable speed, passing birds and mammals left and right, until something caught my eye in the trees above. Stopping the car, I watched as a fierce Red-Necked Falcon tore into a dove it had caught just a few minutes before, flinging feathers in the air as it ripped into the bird’s flesh. Having already watched a large number of crocodiles destroy a hippopotamus carcass in an hour, Aimee and I were starting to appreciate the predatory nature of wildlife in east Africa, where all birds and mammals are either hunting or being hunted. Somehow in Ecuador, where plants and fruit grow in such abundance, this vicious cycle of life seemed less apparent.

Reaching the entrance gate with a few minutes to spare, we walked around and picked up some outstanding birds in the dying light, including African Hoopoe and Brown-Breasted Barbet. Surprisingly, we realized that we would have two hours left on our 24-hour entrance fee that we could use the following morning from 6:30 to 8:30am, and so we returned before breakfast the next day, seeing two spotted hyenas, a gorgeous male Green-Winged Pytilia, and several more Green Wood-Hoopoes and Common Scimitarbills. Perhaps we would have seen much more had we paid another $130 and 50,000 Tanzanian shillings for another day in the park, but we decided it was best to take a day off and rest, as the following day would again be spent in transit back to Dar.

Between naps, I did a small walking safari on my own around the Selous Mbega Camp area, which I’m sure violated the safety rules but also landed me a few new bird species, including African Paradise Flycatcher, African Black-Headed Oriole, Retz’s Helmet-Shrike, and Trumpeter Hornbill. I also briefly spotted a wild dog before it ambled away into the dense woodland. Walking around through protected habitat is certainly daunting, not because you might be stalked by a lion, but because you could surprise an elephant. Over dinner on the previous night, an older German couple told us about their walking safari within the park that morning, where they had come within five meters of a massive female elephant with its young. Their armed guide had whisked them away behind a nearby tree and was fully prepared to shoot the elephant should it have charged them.

Notable birds seen: Black-Crowned Night-Heron, Goliath Heron, Common Squacco Heron, Hamerkop, Yellow-Billed Stork, Marabou Stork, African Open-Billed Stork, Hadada Ibis, African Spoonbill, Egyptian Goose, African White-Backed Vulture, Lappet-Faced Vulture, African Fish Eagle, Eastern Chanting Goshawk, African Harrier-Hawk, Bateleur, Dickinson’s Kestrel, Red-Necked Falcon, Water Thick-Knee, Black-Winged Stilt, White-Crowned Lapwing, Spur-Winged Lapwing, African Skimmer, Kittlitz’s Plover, Helmeted Guineafowl, Ring-Necked Dove, Namaqua Dove, Brown-Headed Parrot, Brown-Necked Parrot, Pied Kingfisher, Giant Kingfisher, Brown-Hooded Kingfisher, Malachite Kingfisher, Little Bee-Eater, White-Fronted Bee-Eater, Lilac-Breasted Roller, Crowned Hornbill, Trumpeter Hornbill, African Grey Hornbill, Southern Ground Hornbill, Green Wood-Hoopoe, Common Scimitarbill, African Hoopoe, Brown-Breasted Barbet, Speckled Mousebird, Wire-Tailed Swallow, Lesser Striped Swallow, African Pied Wagtail, Yellow-Breasted Apalis, White-Browed Robin-Chat, Red-Capped Robin-Chat, Collared Palm-Thrush, Black-Throated Wattle-Eye, Pale Batis, Blue-Mantled Crested Flycatcher, Black-Backed Puff-Back, White-Crested Helmet-Shrike, Retz’s Helmet-Shrike, Black Cuckoo-Shrike, Southern Blue-Eared Starling, Violet-Backed Starling, Olive Sunbird, Scarlet-Chested Sunbird, Purple-Banded Sunbird, African Black-Headed Oriole, African Golden Weaver, Black-Faced Weaver, Southern Cordon-Bleu, African Firefinch, Green-Winged Pytilia, Yellow-Fronted Canary.

University of Dar es Salaam, September 5, 2010

2010-09-05T06:17:00.000-07:00

Having made big plans next holiday weekend to visit Selous Game Reserve, the continent’s largest protected region, Aimee and I were hoping this weekend just to relax and perhaps get caught up on some work. On a whim, though, I responded to an offer in this week’s issue of Advertisement Dar offering guided birdwalks in the Dar area. Sunday morning, then, we spent in the company of Andrew Majembe, a Tanzanian conservationist and bird guide, who took us to several different habitats within the campus of the University of Dar es Salaam and greatly furthered our knowledge of east Africa’s spectacular avifauna.

The morning started off with a lot of excitement, as we got out of the car and Andrew immediately started rhapsodizing about a Brown-Breasted Barbet he spotted in a distant tree, calling it one of Dar’s Big Five birds. Indeed, it was a fine bird, but with all the commotion I forgot to make sure the doors of the car were all locked before we headed out on foot, a mistake that cost us our fancy Thermos travel mug, which was snatched later in the morning by an opportunistic passerby. Andrew continued his ebullient praise of the birds of the region as we passed into riparian woodland and birded along the dry riverbed. “Oh, my god!” he would shout as a Grey-Headed Kingfisher flew overhead or a Sulphur-Breasted Bush-Shrike would call in the distance, describing the particular histories of the birds instead of encouraging us to chase after them.

All the talking and birdcall imitations were starting to get on my nerves until the heat of the morning sapped away some of his enthusiasm, and the birds picked up their activity. The site’s specialty is d’Arnaud’s Barbet, a complex-patterned bird that is usually found much further from the coast. We had little trouble finding several individuals from this isolated population, and at one point we watched a pair duet nicely from some cover. Aimee and I also encountered several species that we had seen for the first time the previous weekend at Pugu Hills, such as the Green-Winged Pytilia, Yellow-Rumped Tinkerbird, Black-Throated Wattle-Eye, Narina Trogon, Red-Capped Robin-Chat, and Black Cuckoo-Shrike, which provided us with a sense of continuity. We also solved some puzzles from the previous weekend, including putting a face and name to the call of the vociferous Tropical Boubou.

Throughout the morning, Andrew’s guiding skills were impressive, and he helped greatly in the identification of the Lizard Buzzard, Terrestrial Brownbul, Red-Faced Cisticola, Tawny-Flanked Prinia, Black-Backed Puffback, and Black-Crowned Tchagra, all common enough but confusing birds that would have had me scratching my head in doubt as I flipped through the field guide all morning. His presence also added an edge to our excursion as he pointed out how many good birds we were narrowly missing, hearing the calls of the Four-Colored Bush-Shrike, Blue-Mantled Crested-Flycatcher, White-Browed Robin-Chat, and Peter’s Twinspot, although I did manage to glimpse the latter after he had given up, calling it almost impossible without playback. (It seems like I’m always spotting birds fortuitously like this, and I’ve often wondered whether my height doesn’t give me an advantage in woodland or forest birding. Then again, I imagine every birder feels he has got a quick and well-trained eye.)

Most importantly, Andrew’s presence alleviated the anxiety I would have felt if we were birding here on our own, as there is practically an entire village living on campus back in the area that we birded and a lot of people were continually walking around and eyeing us. Later in the morning, as we went to check on the artificial ponds on the other side of campus, I was especially grateful for his company as he warded off some guards in Swahili who were trying to extort us for taking photographs of the waterbirds, including the difficult Madagascar Squacco Heron. There were also a dozen delightful Hamerkop present, as well as a pair of Palm-Nut Vultures and a poor Black-Chested Snake Eagle that was driven off by a horde of House Crows. Despite losing our prized coffee mug, it was an excellent morning, and I would highly recommend Andrew’s guiding services to a variety of sites in the area (we paid $20 per person for a half day, and his contact information is 0784 490 399 or birdingdarserengeti@rocketmail.com).

Notable birds seen: Long-Tailed Cormorant, Madagascar Squacco Heron, Black-Headed Heron, Grey Heron, Hamerkop, African Open-Billed Stork, Sacred Ibis, Palm-Nut Vulture, Black-Chested Snake-Eagle, Lizard Buzzard, Black-Winged Stilt, Three-Banded Plover, Common Sandpiper, Common Greenshank, Marsh Sandpiper, White-Browed Coucal, Little Swift, Speckled Mousebird, Narina Trogon, Striped Kingfisher, Brown-Hooded Kingfisher, Grey-Headed Kingfisher, Little Bee-Eater, Yellow-Rumped Tinkerbird, Red-Fronted Tinkerbird, Brown-Breasted Barbet, d’Arnaud’s Barbet, Lesser Striped Swallow, Grassland Pipit, Black Cuckoo-Shrike, Terrestrial Brownbul, Zanzibar Sombre Greenbul, Red-Capped Robin-Chat, Red-Faced Cisticola, Tawny-Flanked Prinia, Bar-Throated Apalis, Black-Throated Wattle-Eye, Amethyst Sunbird, Olive Sunbird, Purple-Banded Sunbird, Scarlet-Chested Sunbird, Collared Sunbird, Tropical Boubou, Black-Backed Puffback, Black-Crowned Tchagra, Black-Bellied Starling, Spectacled Weaver, Grosbeak Weaver, Green-Winged Pytilia, Peter’s Twinspot, Southern Cordon-Bleu, Red-Billed Firefinch, African Firefinch, Black-and-White Mannikin.

South Beach, Dar es Salaam: August 29, 2010

2010-08-30T01:16:00.000-07:00

As you head south along the coastal road after crossing the mouth of the harbor on the ferry, Dar ends abruptly in a series of resorts lining beautiful white-sand beaches. The farther you go, the more exclusive these resorts become, until you reach the pristine peninsula upon which Ras Kutani and Amani Beach hotels are located. On Sunday morning, Aimee and I meant to explore this region further than our previous visits to the region, but the allure of the beach on a sunny morning is sometimes too much to ignore. Eventually, we resumed our journey after a refreshing swim and delicious lunch, reaching well-preserved coastal scrub, woodland, and grassland. Activity was low, as expected, but we did find a busy group of Little Bee-Eaters. The private beach is supposedly excellent for shorebirds, as well as the Fish Eagle and Palm-Nut Vulture, which we’ll hopefully observe next time on a prearranged day visit to Amani Beach ($25 per person with full access to the facilities).

Pugu Hills: August 28, 2010

2010-08-30T01:06:00.000-07:00

Pugu Hills Forest Reserve is located about an hour’s drive from Dar es Salaam, provided that you drive fearlessly on chaotic, bombed-out roads. Although Aimee and I typically leave home for our birding excursions well before dawn, we still encountered some ridiculously congested traffic on route to our destination, only about 30km west from Msasani Peninsula, where we live in Dar. Public transport clogged the roads as people streamed into the city from the rural outskirts, overburdened trucks crashed through potholes and over misshapen speed bumps, pedestrians weaved through moving traffic as densely as a Persian rug, and streams of men on bicycles commanded valuable space on the tarmac with their teetering loads of charcoal, tomatoes, or eggs. Indeed, leaving the city on a Saturday morning is not for the timid.

We were on our way to a small patch of forest, where a few hundred hectares of coastal scrub and woodland are protected, at least in name. Originally, I was hoping to visit the actual forest reserve run by the Tanzanian government, but after investigating my options I was discouraged enough to the point where I thought it best to book a visit to a private reserve, Pugu Hills, which is adjacent to the supposedly protected forest (we heard disturbing accounts of poaching and deforestation from our hostess during our visit, and saw a few shocking before and after photos portraying the decimation of the reserve). Ultimately, this proved to be the best course of action, as the habitat at Pugu Hills was just what I was looking for, and the infrastructure for visiting birders was more than adequate, with several trails for walking and a variety of delicious options for lunch.

Arriving at the entrance around 7am, we first encountered a family group of Crowned Hornbills in a tall and sparsely leafed tree. This transitional habitat between cultivated land and woodland would prove particularly fruitful on this sunny morning, as we found the Speckled Mousebird, Cardinal Woodpecker, Green-Winged Pytilia, Black Cuckoo-Shrike, and Red-Billed Firefinch all in the vicinity. We also briefly witnessed a magnificent raptor on the wing, flying low to the ground as it glided through the trees in search of prey. There are a bewildering number of species of hawks, eagles, and kites in this region, though, and I feel much more helpless than in Ecuador in terms of identifying raptors.

The highlight of our morning was no doubt a moderately sized mixed flock we followed for an hour as it moved slowly though the dense brush along one of the private nature trails. Although each new bird species observed is a delightful surprise, several birds in particular simply stunned us. The Black-Throated Wattle-Eye took us aback with its antbird-like qualities, but instead of having a red-colored eye ring, it actually had raised red skin flaps around its eyes. This pair of smart black and white birds foraged slowly, making a unique clicking noise as it moved along. A mating pair of Narina Trogons was also a nice find, although I’ve never been very enthralled by this phlegmatic family of birds. Perhaps the confiding Red-Capped Robin-Chat was the most enchanting bird of the day, as it swooped in at close range in the undergrowth and proceed to flick through the leaf litter almost at our feet.

Afterwards Aimee and I climbed the hill to check out the actual reserve, walking along the firebreak between Pugu Hills and the forest. As it was near midday at this point, there wasn’t much to see, except for some huge raptors perched in the distance (I had left my scope in the car as always), and we decided to make one last circuit of the nature trail. This time we found a marvelous male Green-Winged Pytilia, one of the region’s many spectacularly colored waxbills. A pair of Cardinal Woodpeckers also caught our attention, but the most unusual bird of the morning was the Eastern Nicator that appeared briefly from dense cover. The field guide describes this species as almost annoyingly vocal but very difficult to see, so perhaps we were simply lucky to get a look at the bird, much less a photograph of it. At any rate, it certainly took me a few hours to identify, as I puzzled over its field markings during lunch.

Before leaving for the day, we made sure to case out the accommodations for a possible future visit, noting that the rooms were made out of canvas and self-contained like a yurt and nicely furnished ones at that, complete with four-post beds. In front of the bandas, were rows of flowering shrubs from which a boisterous group of sunbirds was busy feeding. Lovely and miniscule Collared Sunbirds seemed to be everywhere, but I was struck by a much larger and dull-colored species, the Olive Sunbird, that had a small, orange malar stripe at the base of its bill. Considering the rest of its brilliantly-colored family, this humble-looking bird is truly one of a kind.

Notable birds seen: Speckled Mousebird, Narina Trogon, Brown-Hooded Kingfisher, Crowned Hornbill, Yellow-Rumped Tinkerbird, Cardinal Woodpecker, Black Cuckoo-Shrike, Eastern Nicator, Red-Capped Robin-Chat, Yellow-Breasted Apalis, Black-Throated Wattle-Eye, Olive Sunbird, Collared Sunbird, Green-Winged Pytilia, Red-Billed Firefinch, Bronze Mannikin.

Msasani Peninsula, Dar es Salaam: August 26, 2010

2010-08-27T06:28:00.000-07:00

With keys to the roof of the building where I work, I now have good visual access to the neighboring tree tops of this suburban area of Dar. Each day before I head home from work on my bike, I relax for a while on the windy rooftop and watch as an unidentified bird species streams overhead in impressively large numbers, returning to several trees in the neighborhood where huge colonies of them roost at night (a bird guide recently told me they're just House Sparrows). Over the course of a half hour during dusk, literally over a thousand birds flow by in groups of about fifty, moving together neatly like a swarm of fish. I usually pass them at dawn on the way to work as well, as they prepare noisily to leave the colony and disperse all over the area to forage during the day.

While this particular species of weaver isn’t much to look at, I have had some nice observations of several other common, but more colorful, birds, including the Blue-Capped Cordon-Bleu, Red-Fronted Tinkerbird, Red-Billed Firefinch, and the Spectacled Weaver, most of which I’ve now seen and photographed from the roof. My favorite moment each day, though, is when the sunbirds come by the flowering shrubs outside my office window, chirping loudly to announce their presence as they probe about for nectar. On a few occasions, I have also seen a group of Speckled Mousebirds flipping around in the trees above, but I've yet to take any decent photographs of this unique African family of birds.

As Aimee and I continue to adjust to the challenges of living here, it's a great pleasure to be regularly surprised by seeing new birds in our backyard. The avifauna is so distinct in this region that every new call I hear is most likely an exotic bird, from my novice perspective. Even the kingfishers in this region are spectacular and considerably different from the neotropics: the other day Aimee and I were dazzled by a brilliant turquoise Mangrove Kingfisher displaying from a telephone wire in front of a Striped Kingfisher. Both species are generally found away from water, being classified as woodland kingfishers and eating insects instead of fish. Indeed, being new to a place is a great time for a birder; if only everything else felt so fresh and easy.

Msasani Peninsula, Dar es Salaam: August 22, 2010

2010-08-22T02:46:00.002-07:00

One of east Africa’s largest port cities, Dar es Salaam is actually recognized as an Important Bird Area (IBA) as well. Aside from being home to a wide variety of avifauna, the coastal scrub and wetlands scattered throughout the city are also part of a critical migratory corridor, especially for shorebirds. Aimee and I recently moved neighborhoods within the city, leaving the wetlands of Upanga for the arid scrub of Msasani Peninsula. Instead of driving past Grey Herons and Greater Flamingos on the way to work each dawn, I’ll now walk under trees harboring Speckled Mousebirds, Red-Cheeked Cordon-Bleus, and a variety of sunbirds.

The Collared Sunbird was my first species observed of this diverse and beautiful family of birds, and I have since noted two other species regularly in the gardens of the peninsula: Purple-Banded and Scarlet-Chested Sunbirds. Coming from the neotropics, where I learned to bird, I recognize sunbirds as the fast-moving, iridescent-plumaged, nectar-feeding cousins of the hummingbird. Also capable of hover flight for brief moments, sunbirds really act more like flowerpiercers or honeycreepers than hummingbirds, and with their decurved bills they usually feed on the nectar of flowers while gripping along their stalks as opposed to hovering in the air in front of the blossom. As you can judge from the photographs above, most species of sunbirds are dimorphic with the males often being gorgeously colored.

Mbezi Beach, Dar es Salaam: August 21, 2010

2010-08-22T02:46:00.001-07:00

Although I had some professional responsibilities this Saturday morning along the north coast, I managed to slip away from the group and walk along the beach at low tide for a half an hour during a break. I was without my camera, but I remembered to bring my binoculars and my field guide, noting some common, but for me new, coastal birds, including a Sacred Ibis flying overhead, several Grey Plovers in breeding plumage, and a solitary Crab Plover. The latter is a distinctive wader in black and white with a big, heavy bill that it uses for stabbing at crabs as it runs along the water’s edge. Also present were a small group of Greater Flamingos and about fifty Whimbrels.

South Beach, Dar es Salaam: August 15, 2010

2010-08-22T02:42:00.000-07:00

Desperate to leave the city and our mosquito-infested apartment in Upanga, Aimee and I fled to the white-sand beaches on Sunday morning just south of Dar. We quickly boarded the ferry across the mouth of the harbor in our car, and then drove to Kipepeo, one of the many beach resorts located along this stretch of the coast. For most of the morning, we swam in the Indian Ocean and relaxed in the shade, noting a few birds of prey hawking above the coastal scrub but failing to identify them. When the tide went out in the afternoon, we walked south along the beach to a small patch of mangroves, where a few Grey Herons, Dimorphic Egrets, and Greater Flamingos were present.

Mikumi National Park: July 29-August 1, 2010

2010-08-08T07:39:00.001-07:00

After a week of orientation at my new job, we were taken outside of Dar es Salaam for a weekend trip to Mikumi National Park, located about four hour's drive west of Tanzania's largest city. This massive park, the fourth largest in the country, isn't as well known internationally as the Serengeti, Kilimanjaro, or Gombe Stream National Parks, but at over 3000 square kilometers in size it is one of Tanzania's largest game reserves, including some of the world's most impressive mammals, such as the leopard, lion, giraffe, elephant, and hippopotamus. Of course, the park is also home to over 400 bird species, which was my principal interest during our visit and will most likely serve as the lens through which I will explore the natural environment of Tanzania and greater east Africa over the next few years. The tradition of Birding Ecuador lives on, then.

Coming from Ecuador, where I basically had the run of the country and birded every remote area on foot and without incident, I found birding in Tanzania to be a decidedly different experience. First of all, the predatory mammals hold dominion within the reserves, and at no point are birders allowed outside of the vehicle when on safari, even in the most basic sense. It's simply too dangerous when lions and leopards are prowling around. For three days, we instead drove along dirt roads through open savanna habitat in search of mammals, stopping on occasion when someone pointed out a bird of interest. Granted, as birds don't appear to be wary of cars, this method of wildlife observation did allow us to approach birds within a few meters on occasion. Still, road birding has never been a great joy of mine, and I was shocked that we couldn't stretch our legs and traverse the earth in a more natural search for birds. Indeed, fuel is quite expensive here at over one USD per liter, and I couldn't help but calculate the true cost per new bird that I saw on the trip as we cruised around on our air-conditioned bus all day.

Second, unless you have your own transport, you are most likely on safari with novice wildlife enthusiasts that don't have much knowledge or interest in birds. As most of them probably won't have good binoculars either, it feels rather insensitive to keep requesting the driver to stop when no one else on the bus will be able to appreciate the bird you've spotted in the distance. As this trip was our maiden safari, Aimee and I generally had a positive attitude about missing birds for this reason, figuring we would catch up with them on another trip when we had our own transport; indeed, we have since purchased a 4x4 Mitsubishi Pajero and are now equipped to explore the country on our own terms, even if it is from the safety of a vehicle. Still, it pained me to miss identifying about twenty species as we sped by in a cloud of dust in search of lions.

Third, birding in Tanzania, at least in savanna habitat, is remarkably easy. In comparison to most habitats in Ecuador, where forests are dense, dark, and usually misty, spotting birds in the savanna is child's play, and terrestrial birds, such as the Helmeted Guineafowl, Red-Necked Spurfowl, and Black-Bellied Bustard, are commonly seen stomping along the roads within the parks. Due to hunting pressure and the general nature of most habitats, encountering a similar bird in Ecuador requires either incredible patience or luck. I'm sure there are rare and difficult birds lurking within the tall grass of the open plains, but my initial impression is that birding in east Africa is considerably more leisurely than in the Andes and Amazonia.

Focusing more on the park itself, Mikumi is one of Tanzania's many Important Bird Areas, recognized by BirdLife International. There is a variety of habitat within the reserve, including modest hills covered in extensive miombo woodland and riverine forest in addition to the vast flood plain of the lowlands. A large number of migrant species have been recorded here, and there are also several pairs of allopatric species that overlap in this area, for example, the African Grey and Pale-Billed Hornbills. This might be due to the great size of the protected area, which conserves transition zones between geographically distinct habitats, although I'm only speculating. Finally, the park has some key species, none of which I saw, including the Broad-Tailed Paradise-Whydah, Racket-Tailed Roller, Dickinson's Kestrel, and Pale-Billed Hornbill.

Our group was fortunate to be guided by resident author Graham Mercer, a former educator who has completed extensive research, and subsequent publication, on the varied natural and cultural splendors of Tanzania. During our excursions, he would sit calmly at the front of one of the buses, pointing out mammals and birds whenever he had the chance to look for them while patiently answering the group's incessant questions about animal behavior and wildlife conservation. His passionate interest in the country was contagious, though, as we all jostled for his attention, hoping he would share some delicious anecdote that we could relay later to the others. One night during our stay, he presented a wonderful slide show of his photographs, taken over several decades of travel in the country, and documenting a surprising array of obscure indigenous groups. In particular, he recounted locating a rare group of hunter and gatherers that wandered like nomads through the northern part of the country, erecting makeshift shelters by weaving bushes together over their heads. Graham used to be a pretty keen birder, too, and his presentation was peppered with terrific photos of the birds of Tanzania.

Arriving just after noon on a Friday, we settled into our luxurious accommodations at Mikumi Wildlife Camp, just off the main highway that passes unfortunately through the middle of the park (thanks to improvements in the surfacing of the road over 450 large mammals were killed during a five-year period in the 1990's). Just in front of the line of comfortable bandas, or shelters, was an artificial watering hole that attracted large groups of elephants, zebras, wildebeests, and of course birds during our visit, which was in the middle of the dry season. In fact, viewing wildlife at the camp was just as easily accomplished lounging around the private patio as bouncing around in the bus on safari. Notable observations at this watering hole included Saddle-Billed and Marabou Storks, as well as Southern Ground and African Grey Hornbills. The Superb Starling, Grey Kestrel, Brown-Headed Parrot, Common Bullbull, and Fork-Tailed Drongo were also seen around the grounds of the camp, while the Bateleur eagle was frequently spotted soaring high above.

Although it was frustrating at times driving around in a bus full of non-birders and passing by many new birds without a look, we were lucky to spend one morning in a private car apart from the rest of the group, searching for birds and stopping whenever we pleased. Consequently, we didn't make it very far from camp, but we did arrive at another watering hole by the end of the morning, having encountered a pair of lions stalking a lone zebra along the way. They didn't come close to making a kill, but one lioness approached our car within a few meters and crossed the road several times right in front of us, which was a good reminder of why visitors aren't permitted to leave the vehicle at any time within the park. Observations on this exclusive birding safari included Blacksmith Lapwing, Yellow-Throated Longclaw, White-Browed Coucal, and Black-Bellied Bustard.

My favorite birds of the trip, though, were seen from the bus with the rest of the group, including the Little Bee-Eater, Crested Barbet, Scarlet-Breasted Sunbird, and Malachite Kingfisher, all gorgeously colored birds that weren't photographed due to the considerable distance from which we spotted them. On both late afternoon safaris with the thirty-person group, we visited yet another watering hole, where Crocodiles and Hippopotamus are regularly seen when it's full. The hole was dry for some reason, but the area still contained a few birds, including the Lilac-Breasted Roller, White-Browed Sparrow-Weaver, and Long-Tailed Fiscal. Here, while enjoying a few beers at sunset one evening, we also spotted a solitary Hamerkop, which is my best bird to date in Tanzania. This large but drab and brown waterbird is the only species in its family, and it's remarkable for its extraordinarily hammer-shaped head when seen in profile; indeed, Hamerkop means Hammerhead in Afrikaans. Flipping through the Princeton Field Guide to the birds of east Africa this summer to familiarize myself with the region's specialties, I was struck by this bird, which is neither heron nor stork, as much as by any other species.

Looking ahead, I'm a bit daunted by the prospect of learning the birds of Tanzania to the extent that I did in Ecuador. Getting around here is certainly more challenging, and important bird areas are located much farther apart than in the Andes. While Tanzania is no doubt one of the poorest countries in the world, ecotourism is shockingly expensive; even car camping in a national park can cost as much as the most exclusive lodge in Amazonia. Living here isn't proving as easy as in South America either, and my colleagues keep telling me how much hotter and unpleasant it will be in just a few months. All that being said, birding is still a wonderful reason to explore, and birds themselves reveal so much about the peculiarities of a country and its geography. Whatever I do manage to see and learn of Tanzania then you can trust will be recorded here.

Notable birds seen: Hamerkop, Saddle-Billed Stork, Grey Heron, Marabou Stork, Helmeted Guineafowl, Red-Necked Spurfowl, Black-Bellied Bustard, Lappet-Faced Vulture, Bateleur, Grey Kestrel, Pied Crow, White-Naped Raven, White-Browed Coucal, Burchell's Coucal, Crowned Lapwing, Blacksmith Lapwing, Ring-Necked Dove, Malachite Kingfisher, Brown-Headed Parrot, Red-Billed Hornbill, African Grey Hornbill, Southern Ground-Hornbill, Red-Billed Oxpecker, Yellow-Billed Oxpecker, Crested Barbet, Yellow-Throated Longclaw, Lilac-Breasted Roller, Long-Tailed Fiscal, Scarlet-Chested Sunbird, White-Browed Sparrow-Weaver, Superb Starling, Little Bee-Eater, Common Bullbull, Fork-Tailed Drongo.

Birds of Tanzania

2010-07-18T06:38:00.000-07:00

African Crowned Eagle, Arusha National Park

Zanzibar Red Bishop, Mikumi National Park

Red-and-Yellow Barbet, Tarangire National Park

Nubian Woodpecker, Tarangire National Park

Martial Eagle, Sadaani National Park

African Hoopoe, Arusha National Park

Secretary Bird, Serengeti National Park

Long-Crested Eagle, Ngorongoro Conservation Area

Grey Crowned Crane, Lake Manyara National Park

Black-Bellied Bustard, Mikumi National Park

Brown-Breasted Barbet, Dar es Salaam

Malachite Kingfisher, Selous Game Reserve

African White-Backed Vulture, Selous Game Reserve

Southern Ground Hornbill, Mikumi National Park

Purple-Banded Sunbird, Dar es Salaam

Lilac-Breasted Roller, Selous Game Reserve

Hammerkop, Dar es Salaam

Red-Headed Weaver, Kilimanjaro National Park

Kilombero Weaver, Kilombero Floodplains

Bateleur, Mikumi National Park

Olive Sunbird, Pugu Hills

African Spoonbill, Selous Game Reserve

Montane White-Eye, Arusha National Park

Cinnamon-Chested Bee-Eater, Arusha National Park

Red-Necked Falcon, Selous Game Reserve

African Fish Eagle, Selous Game Reserve

Pied Kingfisher, Selous Game Reserve

African Golden Weaver, Selous Game Reserve

d'Arnaud's Barbet, Dar es Salaam

White-Fronted Bee-Eater, Selous Game Reserve

Speckled Mousebird, Bagamoyo

Yellow-Rumped Tinkerbird, Zanzibar

Giant Kingfisher, Selous Game Reserve

Northern Carmine Bee-Eater, Sadaani National Park

Pygmy Falcon, Tarangire National Park

African Pygmy Kingfisher, Selous Game Reserve

Green-Winged Pytilia, Selous Game Reserve

Pale Batis, Mafia Island

Grey-Backed Shrike, Serengeti National Park

African Grey Flycatcher, Lake Manyara National Park

White-Headed Buffalo-Weaver, Tarangire National Park

White-Headed Vulture, Mikumi National Park

Red-Fronted Tinkerbird, Sadaani National Park

Black-Crowned Tchagra, Mikumi National Park

Two-Banded Courser, Ngorongoro Conservation Area

Tacazze Sunbird, Arusha National Park

European Roller, Sadaani National Park

Northern White-Crowned Shrike, Mkomazi National Park

Lesser Flamingo, Arusha National Park

Yellow-Collared Lovebird, Tarangire National Park

Red-Necked Spurfowl, Mikumi National Park

Long-Billed Tailorbird, Amani Nature Reserve

Hartlaub's Turaco, Arusha National Park

Black-Crowned Night-Heron, Arusha National Park

Crowned Hornbill, Udzungwa National Park

Little Bee-Eater, Kilombero Floodplains

African Paradise Flycatcher, Jozani Forest

Red-Billed Hornbill, Tarangire National Park

Long-Tailed Cormorant, Arusha National Park

White-Eyed Slaty-Flycatcher, Kilimanjaro National Park

Pin-Tailed Whydah, Amani Nature Reserve

Rufous-Tailed Weaver, Tarangire National Park

Brown Snake-Eagle, Tarangire National Park

White-Browed Scrub-Robin, Mikumi National Park

Crab Plover, Zanzibar

White-Crowned Lapwing, Selous Game Reserve

Yellow-Rumped Tinkerbird, Zanzibar

Common Bulbul, Dar es Salaam

Narina Trogon, Pugu Hills

White-Throated Bee-Eater, Selous Game Reserve

Yellow-Throated Longclaw, Mikumi National Park

Silvery-Cheeked Hornbill, Manyara National Park

White-Fronted Bee-Eater, Arusha National Park

Zanzibar Sombre Greenbul, Zanzibar

Yellow-Necked Spurfowl, Mkomazi National Park

Eastern Chanting-Goshawk, Mkomazi National Park

Black Kite, Mikumi National Park

Red-Necked Falcon, Selous Game Reserve

Wire-Tailed Swallow, Selous Game Reserve

African Pygmy Kingfisher, Tarangire National Park

Brown Snake-Eagle, Tarangire National Park

Tropical Boubou, Arusha National Park

Marabou Stork, Mikumi National Park

Palm-Nut Vulture, Ras Kutani

Von der Decken's Hornbill, Tarangire National Park

African Dusky Flycatcher, Arusha National Park

Saddle-Billed Stork, Mikumi National Park

African Scops-Owl, Tarangire National Park

Water Thick-Knee, Kilombero Floodplains

White-Headed Black Chat, Wami Mbiki Wildlife Management Area

Lesser Swamp Warbler, Kilombero Floodplains

Pearl-Spotted Owlet, Tarangire National Park

Goliath Heron, Selous Game Reserve

Superb Starling, Tarangire National Park

Bare-Faced Go-Away-Bird, Tarangire National Park

Collared Sunbird, Pugu Hills

Blue-Capped Cordon-Bleu, Dar es Salaam

Spectacled Weaver, Dar es Salaam

Mammals of Tanzania

2010-07-14T05:44:00.000-07:00

Giraffe, Mikumi National Park

Black-and-White Colobus Monkey, Selous Game Reserve

Elephants, Mikumi National Park

Serval, Tarangire National Park

Hyrax, Tarangire National Park

Cheetahs, Ngorongoro Conservation Area

Elephant, Mikumi National Park

Zebras, Mikumi National Park

Black-Backed Jackal, Mikumi National Park

Serval, Tarangire National Park

Giraffe, Selous Game Reserve

Hippopotamus, Selous Game Reserve

Elephants, Tarangire National Park

Roebuck, Arusha National Park

Giraffe, Mikumi National Park

Lion, Mikumi National Park

Impala, Mikumi National Park

Greater Kudu, Selous Game Reserve

Lion, Serengeti National Park

Hippopotamus, Selous Game Reserve

Warthog, Selous Game Reserve

Dik-Dik, Arusha National Park

Impala, Tarangire National Park

Olive Baboon, Sadaani National Park

Giraffe, Selous Game Reserve

Lion, Selous Game Reserve

Lion, Selous Game Reserve

Hippopotamus, Selous Game Reserve

Lions, Ngorongoro Conservation Area

Vervet Monkey, Selous Game Reserve

Kirk's Red Colobus, Jozani-Chwaka National Park

Buffalo, Arusha National Park

Bat-Eared Fox, Ngorongoro Conservation Area

Spotted Hyena, Ngorongoro Conservation Area

Leopard, Serengeti National Park