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

Avian Adventures in Tanzania

We’ve recently returned from another very enjoyable Avian Adventures tour, this time in Northern Tanzania.

The itinerary included Tarangire, Lake Manyara and Serengeti National Parks and Ngorongoro Crater and was a repeat of previous tours that we have blogged about in the past here, here, here, here and here.  On this occasion our local driver/guide was Allen Kweka.

Once again we had a great time with plenty of birds and huge numbers of mammals. Without any doubt this is one of the world's top wildlife destinations.

 Writing about it in detail would involve a great deal of repetition so instead we’re just going to share a few photographs, starting with some from Tarangire.

Maasai Giraffes (Giraffa camelopardalis tippelskirchi), the largest subspecies of Giraffe

 Baobab trees (Adansonia digitata) - the upside down tree

 Breakfast in the National Park - bacon, sausage, egg, yoghurt, fruit and more

 Tarangire Sopa Lodge - our accommodation for two nights

 The Tarangire River

 Our transport - a Toyota Land Cruiser safari vehicle

 Northern White-crowned Shrike (Eurocephalus rueppelli) - seen almost every day

 Lilac-breasted Roller (Coracias caudatus) - another everyday bird but always appreciated

African Elephant (Loxodonta africana) - particularly numerous in Tarangire but elsewhere in Tanzania suffering badly at the hands of poachers

Scarlet-chested Sunbird (Chalcomitra senegalensis)  - common in Tanzania and widely distributed in much of sub-Saharan Africa

Avian Adventure in Africa

Peter has recently returned from leading another Avian Adventures tour, this time in Botswana, Namibia and Zambia.  The tour was operated by Letaka Safaris, based in Maun, and the local guide was Gabatsholwe Disho, known to his friends simply as Disho.

Leopard

After an overnight flight from Heathrow to Johannesburg and an onward flight to Maun, the tour began in the Moremi Game Reserve on the eastern side of the Okavango Delta.  Here we camped for three nights and explored the surrounding area of mopane and acacia woodland, floodplains and lagoons.

Lilac-breasted Roller

Camping in the African bush is a great experience!  The night sky in an area with absolutely no light pollution is magnificent.  Lying in a flimsy tent listening to Lions roaring and to the howls of Spotted Hyaenas can be a worry for some, but waking to a dawn chorus that includes the calls of Fiery-necked Nightjar, African Fish Eagle, Black Cuckoo, Black-collared Barbet and Red-billed Hornbill is simply wonderful.

Burchell's Sandgrouse

Great White Pelican

From Moremi we moved just a short distance to Khwai River for another three nights camping and then to Lake Ngami for our last night under canvas.  The whole camping experience was most enjoyable and something I would recommend for at least part of any trip to this part of the world.

Lion

African Fish Eagle

After that we were in comfortable lodges for five nights - Drotsky’s in Botswana, Caprivi River Lodge next to the Zambezi River in Namibia and finally, Taita Falcon Lodge in Zambia, close to Victoria Falls.

White-faced Whistling Ducks

Victoria Falls isn’t the highest or the widest waterfall in the world and November isn’t the best time of year to see it as the volume of water in the Zambezi is relatively low but it’s still a very impressive sight.

Wattled Cranes

Just a small part of Victoria Falls

Highlights among the many birds seen were Pel’s Fishing Owl, African Finfoot, White-backed Night Heron, Lesser Jacana, Slaty Egret, Wattled Crane, Rock Pratincole, African Skimmer and Schalow’s Turaco.  We saw five different Leopards, more than twenty Lions and about thirty other mammal species.  All in all it was a really great trip and there are lots more photographs!

Tanzania - Part 1

This month's Avian Adventures tour in Tanzania followed a familiar itinerary that took us to Tarangire, Lake Manyara, Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater, places that can provide some of the most wonderful wildlife spectacles available anywhere on Earth. Our local driver/guide was Peter Loishiye Laizer who was excellent throughout and had a good knowledge of the birds, something that isn't guaranteed from safari guides in East Africa.

After a night in Arusha on arrival, we began in Tarangire National Park and enjoyed a two-night stay at the very comfortable Tarangire Sopa Lodge. Birding began on the way there with roadside species such as White-headed Buffalo-Weaver, Lilac-breasted Roller and Northern White-crowned Shrike providing a taste of things to come.

Northern White-crowned Shrike

Red-headed Rock Agama (female) - common around the lodge

The park is at its most attractive to large concentrations of wildlife in the dry season (June to September) when the Tarangire River offers a permanent water source. The rolling landscape was otherwise mainly dry and dusty red with huge baobab trees, acacia thorn-bush and large areas of parched grassland. During our stay we saw in good numbers most of the expected large mammal species. There were hundreds of Elephants, Zebra, Wildebeest and Impala for instance, plus Giraffes, Grant's Gazelles, tiny Kirk's Dik-diks and many more. We found our first of many Lions seen on the tour soon after lunch on the first day, always an impressive sight even when just 'lion around' doing nothing.

African Elephants

It was the birds, though, that were our main focus and there was always something to see ranging from the large, easy to see and identify, Ostriches to the more challenging cisticola species and weavers and bishops most of which were not unfortunately in their brightest and most helpful plumage. As many as 550 species are said to have been recorded in the park, amongst them the endemic Yellow-collared Lovebird and Ashy Starling both of which were very easy to see. Not surprisingly, showy species such as Saddle-billed Stork, Long-crested Eagle, Martial Eagle and Bateleur were among the favourites but a delightful Two-banded Courser was also particularly popular.

Ostrich

Martial Eagle

Saddle-billed Stork

Ashy Starling

Two-banded Courser

More to follow...