Photos from Tanzania

If I said we had seen vultures, eagles, falcons, shrikes, bustards, sandgrouse, storks, rollers and larks, you might well think I was referring to one of our regular trips to the Castro Verde area in the Baixo Alentejo region of Portugal.  Certainly those are birds we might expect to see there and June and I have had a couple of great trips in that direction during this past week.
 
However, these birds are also some of those that were seen during the recent Avian Adventures tour in Tanzania.  The itinerary for this tour that included Arusha, Tarangire, Lake Manyara and Serengeti National Parks, Ndutu and Ngorongoro Crater was very similar to previous years and there have been quite a number of blogs about Tanzania in the past, most recently here, here and here.  So this time I’m just going to share some photographs and I’ve chosen to include those of the nine bird families referred to.

This was my sixth time in Tanzania and it really has become my favourite among the Avian Adventures tours that I lead.  There is nothing not to like about it.  It is definitely one of the world’s top wildlife destinations.  We were there mainly for the birds but we still saw 40 mammal species including the so-called ‘big five’.  Huge numbers of Wildebeest and Zebras provide a great spectacle and backdrop to some really good birding and everyone enjoys seeing the big cats and the small ones – this year, as well as Lions, Leopards and Cheetahs, we saw African Wildcat and Caracal.

And the photography is much easier than it is in Portugal...

 Rufous-naped Lark

 Isabelline Shrike

 Lilac-breasted Roller

 Bateleur

 Saddle-billed Stork

 Yellow-billed Stork

 White-bellied Bustard

 Grey Kestrel

 Kori Bustard

 Yellow-throated Sandgrouse

 Long-crested Eagle

 Tawny Eagle

 Hooded Vulture

 Brown Snake-Eagle

 Lappet-faced Vulture

 Chestnut-bellied Sandgrouse

Common Fiscal

Tanzania - the 'Big Five' x 2

The months March, April and May provide some of the year's best birdwatching in the Algarve. It can be a very busy time for us. In most years we also try to fit in to this period a tour in some other part of the world for Avian Adventures so it's a good thing that there are two of us!

This year we are even busier than ever, partly as a result of having not one but three Avian Adventures tours to lead during this period. It's little wonder that we haven't had much time to add to this blog!

Our last blog post was about our tour in Costa Rica, a trip that we were able to enjoy together. Since then, June has been guiding in the Algarve while Peter has been leading a tour in Tanzania and next week starts another one in Arizona.

Included here are some photographs from Tanzania - two versions of the 'Big Five' that were seen during a tour that included Tarangire, Lake Manyara, the Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater.  We have blogged before after previous tours in Tanzania (e.g. here, here and here).  We can't recommend this tour highly enough; it provides one of the world's great wildlife spectacles.

The 'Big Five' mammals are those regarded by big-game hunters as the most difficult to hunt on foot although, of course, we like to do our hunting with binoculars and camera.  Our 'Big Five' birds are just some of the larger species seen during the tour, included just for fun!

Tanzania - Part 4

Our last three nights in Tanzania were spent at the Ngorongoro Serena Lodge, situated on the rim of the famous Ngorongoro Crater. Here we were at an altitude of 2,300 metres and at least two layers of clothing were essential; we were very glad of the hot water bottles that magically appeared in our beds each night! The view from our rooms was spectacular and the grounds of the lodge provided some worthwhile birding when time permitted.

We spent the best part of two days down in the crater. (Actually, it's not really a crater but it's probably too late now to start calling it 'Ngorongoro Caldera'.) It covers about 260 square kilometres and is reckoned to be home to about 30,000 animals. Because there is ample year-round food and a constant supply of water, there is very little seasonal movement of wildlife in and out and, of course, to some extent they are hemmed in by the crater walls.

A typical view across the crater

The road from the rim descends about 600 metres to the floor of the crater. Other safari vehicles intent on their quest for the 'Big Five' raced past us as we stopped to look at Hildebrandt's Francolins and Schalow's Wheatears on the way down!

Schalow's Wheatear - still treated by some as a race of Mourning Wheatear

Most of the mammal species that we had already seen elsewhere were down there on the vast expanse of grassland (Giraffes were a notable exception) and, in addition, we eventually got a distant look at one of the several Black Rhinos that still inhabit the crater. Unfortunately, apart from an occasional twitch of an ear, it barely moved. Once there were more than 100 of them but they were reduced by poaching to about 20 and although this has now stopped the population shows little sign of recovery. We saw even more Wildebeest here than we had found in the Serengeti, thousands of them in fact, coming to drink along with hundreds of Zebras. Thomson's and Grant's Gazelles were very common and we also found a few Eland and Kongoni.

Blue Wildebeest or Brindled Gnu - they never look happy!

Eland - the largest of the antelopes

As might be expected with all these prey species present, we saw quite a few Lions and there were carcasses attended by Spotted Hyaenas, White-backed Vultures and White-necked Ravens.

A young male Lion

We drove some considerable distance around the crater over our two visits, stopping regularly to look at and photograph the wildlife most of which seemed remarkably confiding. Large birds such as Kori Bustards, Grey Crowned Cranes and Ostriches made particularly easy subjects. Smaller grassland species such as Crowned Lapwings, Red-capped Lark and Grassland Pipit required just a little more effort.

Kori Bustard

Crowned Lapwing

Grassland Pipit

Grey Crowned Cranes

Tanzania definitely lived up to its reputation as one of the world's top wildlife tourism destinations. Thanks go to Sanjay and Peter at Roy Safaris for their contributions to making our birding safari the undoubted success that it was.