Making the most of the last few weeks

As the final weeks and days ticked by we tried to fit in a few activities. We had a day in Arusha National Park. Unlike recent visits it was damp after rain, cool and not dusty. For some reason it was also quiet with few safari cars. We reversed our usual route and got to the rainforest on Ngurdoto Crater early. At the main lookout there was a large family of Guereza Colobus in the trees. Several crossed the road at one point. I don’t remember seeing them on the ground before. As we headed back down Jenny noticed something on the side of the road and we backed up to see a huge Crowned Eagle with a freshly killed Colobus.

Guereza Colobus monkey as they normally show themselves.

Unusual to see them on the ground and they seem quite unsuited to it.

I wonder if this Crowned Eagle caught the Guereza on the ground.

We headed to the Momella Lakes and found about 10,000 Lesser Flamingos. What a sight! With recent rain some of the other lakes in the country are unsuitable for Flamingos and we had never seen so many here. Of interest here were Greenshank and Marsh Sandpipers in full breeding plumage as they prepared to fly up to the arctic for the breeding season. I found an Upcher’s Warbler in the acacias near the lakeside picnic site (this was a lifer). 

Saddle-billed Stork with Cape Buffalo and Plains Zebra in the background.

Little Bee-eaters are very photogenic.

Cape Buffalo close to the lakeside picnic site.

One day recently at home I heard a commotion of birds in the hedge outside a window and eventually found a pair of tree snakes hunting. They are pencil thin and very well camouflaged. Apparently they hunt the chameleons in the garden but probably take birds as well. 

Battersby's Green Snake.  There are two in this photo.

A bird guide from Melbourne - Clint Schipper - was back in Arusha to guide some clients that had been scheduled back when COVID arrived. After his tour we met up and went birding to the acacia woodland north of Oldonyo Sambu. Isihaka Salim Saidi joined us and we had a good day’s birding cut a bit short by looming storm clouds. Highlights included Common Rock Thrush, lots of Common Whitethroat, Rosy-patched Bushshrike, Red-tailed Shrike and Tiny Cisticola. 

Clint and Isihaka comparing their bird lists while a few local kids
wonder what on earth we are doing in their backyard.

Red-tailed Shrike

Nubian Woodpecker (female) extracting ant larvae from these galls.

Foxy Lark

Common Rock Thrush

One of the more elusive birds in Africa is the African Emerald Cuckoo. It is common and often heard but calls from inside trees and seems to be able to teleport from tree to tree. The male is particularly beautiful with emerald green head, back and chest and bright yellow underparts. I have heard them many times but only seen a male once and a female (mostly brown with heavy white banding below) a couple of times. We have them calling regularly near home and the Rüppell’s Robin Chat regularly mimics the call. So I was pleased to get OK photos of a male a few days ago.  The Robin Chat has been out in the open a bit more recently and I have managed some decent shots of it as well.

African Emerald Cuckoo

Rüppell's Robin-Chat

Our first local birding friend, James Nasary, was back in town from his job as a guide in Serengeti National Park and we arranged for a half-day’s birding in Chama Forest above Usa River. Paul Kivuyo joined us and we arrived at the forest entrance just as the light rain stopped. Birds were calling but very hard to see. I of course don’t know all the calls so missed a couple of species that the others recorded. Nevertheless I added 6 to my year list and enjoyed the company and the peace of the forest. 

James Nasary

Narina Trogon (female)

We have finally been getting rain. It’s a case of careful what you wish for. We awoke around midnight a couple of weeks ago to heavy rain and loud, close thunder. This kept up for 6 hours. I don’t know how much we had here but it was apparently heavier to our west and caused some flash flooding and lots of eroded soil washing across the highway and into shops and houses. The deepest gutters could not cope and excavators were required to scoop out the soil. Sadly it seems at least one child was swept to her death. I have heard totals of 120 to 180 mm from the event. It has rained regularly ever since and our nearly empty water tanks are now full. 

Yesterday I went with Erwin Kinsey (my boss at ECHO from 2019-20) to visit the Bandari School in Mto wa Mbu. They had land and water and want to develop an income stream from cropping and livestock enterprises. We were able to give them lots of ideas (possibly too many!) for things they can try. 

Erwin Kinsey from ECHO with Seif Sakate (in red cap),
founder of the Bandari School Project in Mto wa Mbu.

We are emptying the larder and sorting out what we will pack and what we will leave behind.  Sadly, none of our neighbours in the compound are in residence at the moment so we have to say our goodbyes to them via Whatsapp etc. It will be sad also to say goodby to the team of guards and Gladness our housekeeper. I will miss the birding, the mountain, the climate, Arusha National Park and the amusing things we see every day. I won’t miss the driving, the touts or the shouty church folk. As I write there’s one screaming at the top of his voice nearby. Not sure what he is saying but he sounds quite demented. Why they need to shout, why they need loudspeakers, why they often start up at 5am and why their neighbours put up with it are mysteries.

Our wonderful friend Stanley will come and collect us on Tuesday for the drive to the airport and we'll jet off to London.

 A fairly quiet 6 weeks.

In my last post we had just sent Liz and Sophie off to Zanzibar after 10 days with us in Arusha and on safari.  Immediately Jenny and I came down with cold symptoms that laid us out for a few days (longer for me of course).  The annoying cough made us wonder if we had finally caught COVID.  We didn’t lose our sense of smell and didn’t get tested.  Interestingly, neither the girls nor our guide Stanley reported any symptoms.

I was not feeling up to much birding away from home for a month but finally managed to get out to Eluanata Dam about an hour’s drive west of Arusha.  I went with my friends Abdul and Collins.  This wetland was originally a swamp that has been expanded with a dam.  It is an Important Bird Area (IBA) but receives little attention except from the occasional birder.

(See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Important_Bird_Area for a discussion of IBAs).

Abdul (left) and Collins

I have visited before and it holds a good variety of waterbirds - Great Crested Grebes notably.  It dried up in 2021-22 but is now holding water again.  There is little emergent vegetation and the food chain will take years to build back up to support a wide variety of ducks, geese, storks, herons, terns, gulls etc.  We saw a few Egyptian Geese and Blue-billed Teal and a lone Spoonbill on this visit.  The surrounding dry bush holds many birds however and we enjoyed a variety coming down to drink.  The whole area is grazed by cattle and goats of course and they all come down to drink as well - damaging the edge vegetation.  All up we saw 75 or so species of birds on a very hot day with highlights such as Horus Swift, Common Ringed Plover, Temminck’s Courser, Verreaux’s Eagle-owl, Red-fronted Barbet, Lesser Honeyguide, Red-backed Shrike, Northern Pied Babbler, Common Rock Thrush, Northern Wheatear, Southern Red Bishop and Cut-throat Finch.

Southern Red Bishop

Kenya Sparrow

Red-backed Shrike

One of Jenny’s workmates - Daniel, a young pilot from Costa Rica (via Alaska) - has just left and we broke our ‘no driving at night’ rule to have a nice evening send-off for him at the Olkokola Mission.  Driving home was just as awful as I thought it would be with nearly invisible pedestrians, vehicles of all sorts with minimal lights or overly bright lights (an unlit safari car suddenly appearing out of the gloom was particularly scary) and weak or non-existent street lighting.  But we made it!

Last weekend, Jenny and I had two nights in Tarangire National Park (two hours sw of Arusha).  We stayed at the Safari Lodge and this is one of our top favourites in all our travels.  It has great tent rooms, an excellent dining room, food, swimming pool, staff etc.  For me though the highlight is the view.  We went through a big list of lodges one night over dinner and couldn’t think of a lodge with a better view.  You take a chair, grab some complimentary snacks, order a beer or a vodka tonic and sit and watch the late afternoon evolve over the Tarangire River valley.  Elephants, giraffes, zebra, baboons, impala etc all come down for a drink.  Vultures and other raptors soar overhead while bush birds and mammals such as Dik-diks and Jackals appear in the bush below the viewing platform.  You chat to other visitors from all over the world or listen to their (often entertaining) conversations.  Each night we were there this visit we were serenaded by Lions in the wee hours.

The beer o'clock view from the Safari Lodge

Tracks left by elephants and a rather large python.

Von der Decken's Hornbill using the lodges spotting scope.

The park itself is huge and we have only ever been as far as half-way from north to south.  At the half-way point is Silale Swamp which is often full of Elephants and Buffalo as well as many waterbirds species.  We attempted to get to the swamp on this visit but turned around at a long stretch of road covered by water.  Never mind - we spent two days exploring the northern third of the park with little repetition.  The best areas were the grasslands of the Small Serengeti and the tracks that follow the Tarangire River southwards.  In the grassland we found many Ostrich, Bustards, Cuckoos, Lapwings, Raptors, Rollers etc but few mammals.  Along the river we were often surrounded by Elephants heading to drink (a few interesting moments here when we had to wait for them to decide to ignore us).  Here we also followed a couple of safari cars to a pride of lions resting up in a big riverside tree.

Our first sighting of lions in trees.

Lappet-faced Vulture at a waterhole.

Nile Monitor

Common Greenshank

Long-tailed Fiscal

A thunderstorm on Friday evening thankfully meant no dust for the rest of our stay but it seemed to stir up the tsetse flies and in some places they were very unpleasant.  You tell yourself - if it wasn’t for tsetse flies many East African national Parks wouldn’t exist - but it really doesn’t help when you have a dozen in the car with you and more trying to get in all the time.  Stopping for a small bird (or a pee) is particularly fraught.

Rufous-naped Lark

Bateleur

Northern Red-billed Hornbill

Wattled Starling

Lesser Grey Shrike

All up we saw 130 bird species in the two days - quite amazing with no swamp visit this trip.  We also saw the usual assortment of mammals plus a few gazelle, ground squirrels, mongoose, an eland and some hartebeest.  The zebra and giraffe all had many babies.  A small rat was photographed but is yet to be identified.

Crested Francolin

Greater Painted-snipe

Giraffe

Great Spotted Cuckoo

Unidentified rodent.

Another recent highlight was a visit from Lala Keunkel.  Lala was the partner of Paul Oliver who owned our compound in Arusha and who died 15 months ago.  She was here to sort out Paul's business affairs and to catch up with many old friends over many years living in Tanzania.  Lala stayed with us in the compound and we got to hear many stories about her life here - some funny, some sad but all fascinating. 

A rare event when all the compound residents were home at the same time.  
From left: Jenny, me, Lala, Krissie, Andrea.  Photo by Michele Menegon.

Back at home again, the long wet season is yet to commence.  It is very dry here after a failed short wet season.  As I write a water truck is in the laneway filling up the tanks for our apartment.  There isn’t enough water in other tanks to move into ours I guess.  Hopefully we will get some rain soon and fill them all.  Our neighbours to the north (Kenya, South Sudan etc) are much worse off than Tanzania and many people are struggling to feed themselves and wildlife is dying in national parks.  Civil strife is a real possibility.

Now we have 4 weeks left until we leave.  From here we will fly to the UK and have a six-week holiday, spending most of our time in Wales and Scotland.  It will be a dramatic contrast to life in Arusha I suspect.  Buying some warm clothes is my first priority.

On Safari with Liz and Sophie

The much anticipated day arrived and we collected two tired but excited girls from Kilimanjaro airport and took them into town for a nice late breakfast. We mooched around the compound for the rest of the day and the girls were happy with their nice little house all to themselves - once we got the power on.

Day 2 was a sleep-in then a tour of Jenny's workplace and mine with a lunch at the Blue Heron and a drive up through the Maasai villages in the Monduli ranges.  We had planned to visit the cultural centre but ran out of time.

Mount Kilimanjaro showing well from Arusha National Park

Day 3 was a safari to Arusha National Park where they were able to see their first giraffes, zebra, warthogs, buffalo, colobus monkey, flamingos etc.  We had prepared a spotto list for Sophie with 140 odd things to look for as we travelled around so by the end of day 3 she was well through the list.  One of the highlights of this visit to Arusha NP was the clear skies and the views of Mount Kilimanjaro.  Jenny and I have never seen it so clearly from this area.

Grey Crowned Cranes

Giraffe

Day 4 we were collected at 6 am by good friend Stanley in his safari car for our trip to Serengeti NP and the Ngorongoro Crater.  Once past Karatu we entered the Ngorongoro Conservation Area and started to see wildlife such as elephants, ostrich, wildebeest and gazelles.  We crossed into Serengeti NP, Stanley popped the roof and the safari started in earnest.  We quickly found some lions, then a cheetah and then a leopard!  It took Jenny and me over 13 years to see our first leopard!  I managed to see some good birds along the way but it was made clear to me that stopping to study every pipit and lark was not on.  We spent the night at Kananga tented camp - large canvas tents surrounded by long grass, lions and hyenas.

Zebra and Wildebeest appeared in good numbers as we entered Serengeti NP.

First close encounter with an Elephant family.

Cheetah on the prowl

Comfort stop at Naabi Gate, Serengeti NP.

A Leopard on day 1 of a safari!

Kananga Special Tented Camp in the endless grassland

Days 5 and 6 were spent in the park and we stayed both nights at Lobo Wildlife Lodge.  This is a huge lodge perched on a massive koppe.  It has 75 rooms but, as in 2020, we shared it with only a handful of other people.  The girls enjoyed the pool.  Liz (as a butcher) was particularly impressed by the sausage trees.

Banded Mongoose

Nile Crocodile

Not sure what this hippo was doing but it was perfectly fine.

Sausage Tree

Topi

Hyrax at Lobo Lodge

Kirk's Dikdik pair

Spotted Hyena

Warthog

The spectacular setting of Lobo Lodge

Day 7 we drove south through the park and exited back into the Ngorongoro Conservation Area with an overnight at Rhino Lodge.

Lilac-breasted Roller

Hooded Vultures

We encountered some huge herds of Zebra on the way out of the park.

A minor delay with some overheating - Maasai on hand for advice.

Buffalo grazing on lawns of Rhino Lodge

Day 8 we drove down into the crater and had a great day with lions at a fresh kill, a distant rhinoceros to complete their Big 5, a jackal and flamingos.  We overnighted at Eileen's Trees Inn in Karatu and again the pool was most welcome.

A Rhinos keeping its distance

This Wildebeest must have been killed a few minutes before we arrived.

The lion cubs didn't know how to dispatch this very young calf.

You can now buy a latte or an ice-cream in the crater.

Kori Bustard

Great White Pelican

Ready, set, go.

Day 9 we headed home to Arusha but stopped in Mto wa Mbu to buy 100 kg each of beans, rice and maize flour as gifts to the Bandari School which we visited briefly.  This is a private primary school supported by a group of Port Fairy people (including our friends Martin and Kaz Dunstan).  We were impressed with the progress they have made since we were last there a few years ago.

Bandari School, Mto wa Mbu.

The new dining hall (available for hire) is nearly complete.

Liz and Sophie were supposed to fly from Arusha Airport to Zanzibar the next morning with Precision Air. The departure times were changed several times and then around midnight Liz received an email from them to say the flight was now leaving in the evening from Kilimanjaro Airport (60 km away).  This meant that they lost the best part of a day in Zanzibar.  This is why Precision Air is known locally as Indecision Air.  We were able to take them to the cultural centre after all!  

It all worked out and as I write they are safely on Zanzibar, have had a day in Stone Town and have enjoyed a spice tour.  They will move to their beachside hotel this morning for ocean swims and a sunset cruise on a dhow.

It was great having them and showing them our Tanzania.  They will have lots of stories to tell their friends back in Hobart.