Tanzania: Kilimanjaro to the Serengeti

Day 1: Upon arrival at Kilimanjaro International Airport, you will be transferred for a two night stay to a nearby and delightful historic lodge situated near the principal gate of Arusha National Park on the southern slopes of Mount Meru. Depending on everyone's arrival times, we should have time to walk around the well-timbered grounds studded with old growth evergreen trees and a variety of exotic flowering shrubs and search for local bird specialties along the bubbling trout stream beside which the lodge is situated. We will certainly recognize that we really have arrived in “the old continent” with breeding African Black Duck and African Jacana on the lake, African Goshawk and delightfully duetting African Fish Eagles in the trees, the mellow hoots of African Wood Owl at night, and the chip notes of African Yellow Warblers in the morning. Night near Meru.

Day 2: The wonderful wildlife sounds of tropical Africa will wake us early. We’ll likely spend a breakfast hour observing new sights around the lodge grounds and be greeted by some of the more common birds of the region. However, we’ll devote today to an exploration of nearby Arusha National Park. Once inside we’ll find ourselves among a wealth of birds: evocatively named species, such as Hadada Ibis, the Hamerkop, Giant Kingfisher, Emerald-spotted Wood-dove, White-fronted Bee-eater, Yellow-breasted Apalis, Red-winged Starling, Tropical Boubou, Black-backed Puffback, Chin-spot Batis, Kilimanjaro White-eye, and a variety of glittering sunbirds including Variable, Collared, Scarlet-chested, Bronze, Amethyst, and the less iridescent Eastern Olive Sunbird.

We may encounter our first large African mammals as soon as we enter the park. Typically the first will be Maasai Giraffe quickly followed by African Buffalo, Eastern Bushbuck, Plains Warthog, Common Zebra, and Common Waterbuck. Further inside, within the moist evergreen forest, primates may perform. The magnificent black and white Guereza Colobus in the canopy and dainty Blue (or Gentle) Monkeys in the undergrowth frequently forage together with troupes of the near ubiquitous Olive Baboon. Hiding on the dappled floor of this magnificent evergreen forest, we may also find the tiny Suni, a woodland antelope often in close proximity to the somewhat larger and brightly bay-colored Harvey’s Duiker. If we are exceptionally lucky, we might catch sight of a carnivore, perhaps a Leopard or its smaller cousin the delightful pointy-eared Serval.

There will be much to see during our day here. We’ll pay particular attention to the skies, searching for the monkey-eating African Crowned Eagle, and to the canopy of the evergreen forest where hard-to-see Hartlaub’s Turacos shout-out with their gruff voices. A good variety of swifts nest within this park, particularly within the towering ramparts of Mount Meru itself. We should find both Nyanza and Horus together with a few individuals of the two larger montane species Alpine and Mottled. Hopefully the enigmatic Scarce Swift will appear as well.

In the park and its forests, there are several pigeon species: Speckled, Eastern Bronze-naped and African Olive Pigeons, Red-eyed and Lemon Doves, and Blue-spotted Wood-dove; at least five cryptic greenbul-brownbul species, and four more splendid looking Afrotropical starlings including the rare and remarkable black-and-white Abbott’s Starling.

We’ll encounter a completely different community of birds in the drier and more open areas, especially around the Momella lakes, including the recently split Sentinel Lark, the rare Pangani Longclaw, the scarce Little Rockthrush, skulking African Moustached, Broad-tailed Grass and Cinnamon Bracken Warblers, confusingly similar looking Trilling, Rattling, Singing and Siffling Cisticolas, and the gloriously golden, range-restricted Taveta Weaver.

Many centuries ago great boulders hurtling-out from a cataclysmic “Mount Helen’s” type of eruption within Mount Meru impounded tiny montane streams wherever the boulders landed in the foothills. This has led to the formation of numerous ponds and small lakes. Most of these are today somewhat brackish and together they support a healthy non-breeding population of both African species of flamingo. These waterbodies often provide us with good views of the elusive Greater Painted Snipe and numerous other migrant shorebirds. Certainly we should see the stiff-tailed Maccoa Duck here together with Grey Teal and a sizeable flock of Southern Pochard. There will be large rafts of Little Grebe and in the surrounding brackish rush-land Sacred Ibis, Blacksmith Lapwing, Pied Avocet and Black-winged Stilt. Night near Meru.

Day 3: We’ll depart early in order to easily skirt the southern edge of Arusha city on the new ring road, before descending gently westwards to the drier savanna of Tarangire National Park. As soon as we are within the park, the scene is  dominated by majestic ‘upside-down’ baobabs that rise out of the acacia thorn bush. This vista provides a perfect backdrop for the large herds of African Savanna Elephant who stroll between them. Other fascinating mammals that share this habitat range from carnivores such as the African Lion, Spotted Hyena, and Black-backed Jackal to Kirk’s Dik-Dik, Dwarf and Banded Mongoose, Impala, Fringe-eared Oryx, Bohor Reedbuck, Scrub Hare, the amazing and strictly nocturnal Spring Hare, and with luck a Crested Porcupine. The large grounds of our accommodation blend into the surrounding savanna with no fence or other impediment to the free ranging of the wild animals. Such an area within a “game park” is bound to attract a great variety of birds. At this lodge the selection is superlative. Less intensive grazing around the buildings themselves ensures that there is usually a plethora of both seed eating and insectivorous passerines, especially warblers, weavers, bishops, mannikins and finches. And the endemic Ashy Starlings frequently walk into the lodge’s restaurant. The ‘peacefulness’ immediately around the lodge encourages owls and nightjars to come and roost here too. Night inside Tarangire National Park. 

Day 4: We’ll spend another exploring Tarangire as it is so exceptionally bird-rich. We should see Maasai Ostrich, Rüppell’s and hopefully the now critically endangered White-headed Vultures, the delightfully unique Secretary Bird, lots of Crested Francolin, both Yellow-necked and Red-necked Spurfowl, frequent White-bellied and the scarce Hartlaub’s Bustards, comically ostentatious White-bellied and Bare-faced Go-away Birds, tame Black-faced Sandgrouse, cryptic Water Thick-knees, Crowned Lapwing and Three-banded Plover, Lilac-breasted Roller (probably the most photographed bird in Africa), Green Wood-Hoopoe and Abyssinian Scimitarbill, Bearded, Nubian, Eastern Grey and Cardinal Woodpecker, the unbelievably clown-like Red-and-Yellow Barbet, Spot-flanked Barbet and Red-fronted Tinkerbird, White-browed Coucal, African Hoopoe, Foxy Lark, Magpie Shrike, Northern White-crowned Shrike, and the endemic Yellow-collared Lovebird. This is good habitat for African Hawk-Eagle and the handsome Bateleur, who will share the wide savanna sky with Black-chested Snake-Eagle, numerous resident Tawny Eagles, and many African White-backed Vultures. Mottled Spinetails, Mosque Swallows and Fork-tailed Drongos will swoop around the crowns of the baobabs, while in the shorter trees and scrub below we may find Striped and Grey-headed Kingfishers, the Silverbird, White-browed Scrub-Robin, Purple Grenadier, Green-winged Pytilia, White-bellied Canary, and with luck, an approachable trio of roosting Bronze-winged Coursers. Among the Red-billed and White-headed Buffalo Weavers the similar-sized yet endemic Rufous-tailed Weaver remains very common in Tarangire. While we should see a good selection of arriving or departing migrants, birds from farther south (the Afrotropical migrants) or much farther north (the Palearctic migrants) could range from Dwarf Bittern, Rufous-bellied Heron and Striped Crake to Sooty Falcon, Steppe Eagle, Eurasian Rock Thrush, and Red-backed Shrike. Night inside Tarangire National Park.

Day 5: No doubt somewhat reluctantly we must leave Tarangire behind. After a drive of about an hour, and at the base of the western wall of the Great Rift Valley, we’ll divert south into the relatively compact Manyara National Park and visit its well-watered forests, before returning into the highlands by late afternoon. We’ll be stopping for the night at Tloma Lodge, above the town of Karatu.

The ground water forest of Lake Manyara supports a host of bird species and we’ll be keeping a look-out for Eastern Crested Guineafowl, Hildebrandt’s Francolin, Palm-nut Vulture, Purple-crested Turaco, Crowned and Silvery-cheeked Hornbills, Broad-billed Roller, Sulphur-breasted Bush-shrike, Eastern Nicator, Grey-olive and Yellow-bellied Greenbul, Collared Palm-Thrush, White-browed Robin-chat, Ashy Flycatcher, Familiar Chat, Montane Wagtail, Southern Black and Yellow-crowned Bishop, Holub’s Weaver, Eastern Paradise Whydah, and Peter’s Twinspot, among others. After a picnic lunch overlooking Lake Manyara we’ll make our way slowly through the forest back to the main gate and exit the park before sunset. We’ll then climb the 1,500 meters of the western wall of the Great Rift Valley into the town of Karatu to our super comfortable lodge, near to the boundary of the extensive hill forests of Endoro. Night near Karatu.

Day 6: Tloma is situated on the edge of the extensively forested Crater Highlands, and this morning we’ll be able to explore these wooded environments on foot while we search for Ayres’s Hawk-Eagle, Narina Trogon, Grey and Purple-throated Cuckoo-shrikes, Black-throated Wattle-eye, the dazzling Black-fronted Bush-shrike, retiring African Hill Babblers, the exquisite White-tailed Blue Flycatcher, the expertly ventriloquial Grey-capped Warbler, skulking Red-capped Robin-chat, Oriole Finch and the dapper Grey-capped Nigrita, among others.

After a sit-down lunch at Tloma we’ll continue our ascent by road into the Crater Highlands, to what is probably Africa’s most compelling wildlife destination — the breathtakingly beautiful Ngorongoro Crater. The sides of this vast caldera are covered by a mosaic of highland grass and woodland, and as we begin to climb we’ll stop to look for some of the birds that have made this area their home. These may include the secretive African Snipe, showy Red-collared Widowbirds, the males resplendent in full breeding plumage, and perhaps some Jackson’s Widowbirds at a lek. Striking male Yellow Bishops may be in display, buzzing around over the grass, and pied African Stonechats and Streaky Seed-eaters will share the bush tops with Eastern Double-collared and gloriously iridescent Malachite Sunbirds. 

Our lodge is in woodland and bush near the crater rim, and we may arrive in time for a walk among the grounds where we may find Schalow’s Turaco, Golden-winged and Tacazze Sunbirds, and family parties of the exuberant Hunter’s Cisticola. This is also a wonderful place to see raptors, including scarcities such as African Marsh Harrier and the far more widespread Augur, Steppe and Mountain Buzzards, birds who sail on the updrafts from the side of the crater, giving eye-level views as they hang there motionless. Night at Rhino Lodge.

Day 7: The Ngorongoro Crater is unique…a place that has to be seen to be believed as words alone could never do it justice. Leaving our lodge on the rim early in the morning, we’ll drive down into what was once the fiery heart of a volcano. Today this huge natural amphitheater has a much more peaceful atmosphere. It’s a place where huge herds of Wildebeest and Common Zebra together with many thousands of gazelles - Thomson’s and somewhat fewer Grant’s - hundreds of Eland and scores of Coke’s Hartebeest feed contentedly, or at least as contentedly as the ever-present Lions will allow. Although the elderly African Savanna Elephants who retire down here and the  ‘thirty something’ rigorously protected Black Rhinoceros are far less concerned about any of the four-legged predators.

The bird life of the crater varies according to the season, but during our visit we normally see over one hundred species, including Blue-billed and Red-billed Teal, Yellow-billed Duck, Grey Crowned Crane, Shelley’s Francolin, White and Abdim’s Storks, Lappet-faced Vulture, Dusky Turtle Dove, Black-bellied and Kori Bustards, Whiskered and White-winged Terns, Long-toed and Spur-winged Lapwings, Double-banded Courser, Fischer’s Lovebird, Grey-rumped Swallow, Fischer’s Sparrow-Lark, Sentinel and Red-capped Larks, Pectoral-patch and Winding Cisticolas, Capped Wheatear, Northern Anteater Chat, Long-billed Pipit, and Rose-throated Longclaw among many others. Night at Rhino Lodge.

Day 8: Leaving Ngorongoro Crater and the moist highlands, we’ll continue westwards to the very edge of the vast Serengeti National Park and into the open woodlands around the brackish Lakes Ndutu and Masek. In this part of Africa mammals are constantly on the move, and with luck we’ll intercept the large migratory herds of Wildebeest and Common Zebra. There will be all kinds of other wildlife to look for as well, ranging from Bat-eared Foxes in the shorter grassland to Common Genets around the lodge restaurant at night. At Lake Ndutu we’ll observe both Greater and Lesser Flamingos dabbling in the shallower water where the lovely Cape Teal appear to drift between their legs. Along the saline lake edge we should find the range restricted Chestnut-fronted Plover among plentiful Black-winged Stilt, Ruff, Curlew Sandpiper and Little Stints. and in the cropped grassland the increasingly scarce Black-winged Lapwing together with Kittliz’s Plover and Two-banded Courser. Even far away from water Gull-billed Terns will fly past us scouring the plains in search of grasshoppers and dung beetles, while Montagu’s and Pallid Harriers, two snake-eagle species and Bateleurs, Lappet-faced, African White-backed, Ruppell’s and Hooded Vultures circle in the vastness of the Serengeti sky. Night near Ndutu Lake.

Day 9: We’ll spend all day in the calcium-rich, close-cropped, short-grass plains and acacia woodlands on the Ndutu Important Bird Area where the eastern Serengeti National Park lies contiguous with the Ngorongoro Conservation Area. We may opt to take a picnic lunch in order to better investigate parts of this remote area, stopping to observe whatever might catch our attention. As well as further opportunities to study the many mammals which we have already seen, we may concentrate upon finding a family party of hunting Cheetahs. There is a very good chance of unanticipated encounters with both Lions and Leopards. Of course we should also meet with lots of new birds for our list: Spotted Eagle Owl, Pearl-spotted Owlet, flocks of chuckling Chestnut-bellied Sandgrouse, dainty Temminc’s Courser, Usambiro Barbet, hopefully cuckoos galore Common, African, Didric, Klaas’s, Great Spotted, Levaillant’s and Jacobin (!), Red-fronted Barbet, Isabelline and Northern Wheatears, Cardinal Quelea, and Green-winged Pytilia, among many others. Our stay here in such a classic East African setting will we expect be one of the tour’s many highlight, significantly enhanced by being able to sit around the campfire at night listening to the nearby laughing wails of Spotted Hyena, the territorial grunting of Impala and the laughing of the Common Zebra. Night near Ndutu Lake.

Day 10: There will be time for early morning birding close to our lodge before breakfast, and then we’ll continue westward across the southern part of the Serengeti into the center of this vast national park. Here we’ll enter the Africa of what might be every foreign tourist’s initial imaginations: a wide-open landscape of waving yellow and green grasses, dotted with flat-topped acacias and punctuated by isolated crystaline hills (granitic inselbergs or koppies - long eroded rocky outcrops - where herds of large mammals and big soaring birds can appear almost anywhere.

We’ll be looking for a variety of species, including Coqui Francolin, the endemic Grey-breasted Spurfowl, Greater, African (rufescens) and Lesser Kestrel, Amur Falcon, Kori and Harlaub’s Bustards, the truly archaic-looking Southern Ground Hornbill, Brown Parrot, Yellow-throated Sandgrouse, Northern White-tailed, Short-tailed and Somali (Athi) Short-toed Larks, Plain-backed and Red-throated Pipits, Grey-crested Helmet-shrike, Rufous Chatterer, Black-lored Babbler, Red-faced Crombec, Karamoja Apalis, Desert Cisticola, Buff-bellied Penduline-Tit, Black-faced Waxbill, Speke’s Weaver, and Straw-tailed and Steel-blue Whydahs.

Among the many mammal species we’ll hope to see are Cheetah and Leopard, antelope such as Defassa Waterbuck, the chestnut Topi, the shy and retiring Steinbok, and the beautifully delicate Oribi, while Spotted Bush and Rock Hyrax and Klipspringer may be found in the koppies. Herds of Hippopotamus certainly will be wallowing noisily, at least by day, safe in the scattered muddy pools.

Our first night here likely will be at a small and very secluded tented camp, near to a low hill of white stones called “Maui Maupe” in Swahili. This location is only 20 kilometers from Seronera, the administrative hub of the park. At night though, in the sublime space of the Serengeti, the sounds of various frogs and crickets will mingle with the strange cries of galagos (bush-babies) and the whistles, hoots and shrieks of an owl species, or three! All of which experienced together may help to conjure a superb sense of solitude, or something indescribable, an ineffable timeless wilderness feeling that is only possible on an African safari. Night at a tented camp near Seronera, the hub of the park.

Day 11-12: These days of our journey will demonstrate why the Serengeti ecosystem arguably remains the greatest wildlife destination left on earth. Throughout our time within the contiguous ecosystems of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area and Serengeti National Park, we’ll make morning and late-afternoon game drives from our accommodation out into wide grassy valleys of surprisingly narrow  rivers. We’ll visit watering locations where storks, cranes, crakes, and rails haunt secluded corners, while woodpeckers, kingfishers, orioles and gonoleks frequent the undisturbed (at least by modern man) riparian woodlands.

Setting out we’ll travel north far across the Serengeti, from Seronera in the center, to the northernmost borderland which is adjacent to Kenya’s famous Maasai Mara Reserve. All the while we’ll be among the bird and mammal communities of many of the species already indicated.

We very much hope that at some point we’ll be able to insert ourselves into the indescribable magic of being within “The Great Migration”, in the rivers of gently grunting wildebeest and laughing zebra on the move, fidgeting mammals these, as if they are always nervously mindful of the attendant large carnivores!

After completing our transect we’ll sleep (for two nights) at an exceptionally beautiful and luxurious lodge on a high ridge close to the Mara River. This is a far moister environment than anything we have encountered since leaving Lake Manyara. Therefore, there should be plenty of new bird species for our bourgeoning list such as Grey Kestrel, Dark Chanting Goshawk, Harlequin Quail, Senegal and African Wattled Lapwing, Lesser Moorhen, Little Buttonquail, Eastern Grey Plantain-eater, Greater Honeyguide, Miombo Wren-warbler, Green-capped Eremomela, Black-backed Cisticola, Sooty Chat, Greater Blue-eared Glossy Starling, Yellow-spotted Petronia, and Golden-breasted and Cinnamon-breasted Bunting.

Taken as a whole, this sojourn will doubtless demonstrate why the Serengeti ecosystem arguably remains the greatest terrestrial wildlife destination left on Earth. Nights in the Northern Serengeti.

Day 13-14: After a second early morning around our lodge we’ll depart for the seclusion of Speke Bay Lodge for a two-night stay. Traveling along the Grumeti River of the western corridor we’ll stop to look for huge Nile Crocodiles, relics from a seemingly distant era, and of course there will be plenty of birds to see on the way. In particular we’ll search for Grey-crested Helmet-shrike and Karamoja Apalis. The quiet backwater of Speke’s Bay on the southeastern shore of Lake Victoria will provide us with an introduction to several West African bird species, and once there we’ll  spend the late afternoon on foot, birding in the lush grassland along the lake shore and beside the fringing papyrus beds. Right within the grounds we can find Heuglin’s (Three-banded) Courser and Square-tailed Nightjar roosting quietly in the shade, while brightly colored Slender-billed and Yellow-backed Weavers feed among the flowers as Angola Swallows and African Paradise and Swamp Flycatchers dart after insects. The well-vegetated parts of the lake shore attract large numbers of African Open-bill Storks, Striated Heron, and huge flocks of Whiskered and White-winged Black Terns, while wintering Common Greenshank, Ruff, Wood, and Common Sandpipers forage along the lodges narrow sandy beach. Nights at Speke Bay Lodge.

Day 15: In the first part of the morning we’ll continue our investigation of the lovingly protected 100 acres of lodge grounds and the lake shore. New species may include Verreaux’s Eagle Owl, Eurasian Nightjar, African Pygmy Kingfisher, Blue-headed Coucal, Black-headed Gonolek, Red-chested Sunbird, and Northern Brown-throated Weaver. No birder’s visit to Africa would be complete without an examination of those puzzling cisticolas: today, finally we may find time to sort out the Rattling from the Zitting and the Winding from the Red-faced. Later in the morning we’ll make the short journey to Mwanza for the domestic flight back to Kilimanjaro. Night near Kilimanjaro International Airport on the edge of central Tanzania’s Maasailand.

Day 16: On this last day of the safari we’ll explore some extensive dry Acacia-Commiphora bush-land that typifies what has become known as the Maasai steppe, a huge semi-arid plateau that constitutes the central zone of Tanzania. Here we may pass some seasonal wetlands, stopping wherever we wish in order to explore this and the intriguing savanna habitats, potentially on foot. With much of the tour having been spent in National Parks where we needed to remain in the vehicle, being out and about in the habitat might be a novel experience. As we wander through this dry habitat we’ll be looking for some special birds, many of them dry-country specialties that we may not have seen earlier in the tour. These will include Buff-crested Bustard, the strikingly patterned White-headed Mousebird, Pink-breasted Lark, the Scaly Chatterer, a scarce and skulking babbler, and the prinia-like Red-fronted Warbler. The soft-toned Fischer’s Starling should be seen, a bird in complete contrast to one of our principal targets the utterly scintillating Golden-breasted Starling, surely the most flamboyant of the African starlings. Other special birds could include the diminutive Pringle’s Puffback, pairs of delightful Pygmy Batis, which usually are to be found foraging very near the ground, active colonies of Black-headed Social Weavers, the Southern Grosbeak Canary, and the somewhat elusive Somali Golden-breasted Bunting.

We’ll also be hoping to see species that are winter visitors or passage migrants to the Maasai steppe from their breeding grounds in Western and Central Asia; birds such as the Pied Wheatear, Irania, Eurasian Rock Thrush, Eastern Olivaceous, Upcher’s and Barred Warblers, as well as Red-tailed (Turkestan) Shrike. We’ll return to our hotel, close to Kilimanjaro International Airport, by mid-afternoon where the tour officially ends with a cooked lunch, a refreshing shower, and change of clothes before we transfer the very short distance to the airport in time for our evening flights home.

2024 Narrative

IN BRIEF: This was a really great tour. Now as it happens I have guided over a hundred safaris across northern Tanzania, yet without doubt I can say this was one of the best. 

Friendly observant folk, kindly companions of good humour, together with a seemingly boundless panoply of wildlife, beings both great and small, creatures who were on occasion right outside our comfortable lodgings, an excellent driver who was happy to expertly chauffeur us around each and every corner of a diverse array of habitats - savanna Africa! I mean really, what more could one ask for? 

IN DETAIL: The group eventually came together after a variety of somewhat difficult intercontinental journeys with various airlines at Ngare Sero Mountain Lodge, only one hour from Kilimanjaro airport, in the lush foothills of Mount Meru. Here we were immediately introduced to various restricted range and difficult-to-find species of East African bird and mammal. A great addition at first light was a cacophony of howler-monkey like chorus of the Pied Colobus who choose to spend their nights in tall trees around the perimeter of the property. 

Next morning there was a family of five African Black Ducks on the beautiful trout lake, there were Abyssinian, a.k.a. Pale White-eyes in the elderflower bushes in front of our rooms and a pair of raucously glorious Giant Kingfishers, intent on smashing crabs in the trees just above us beside the lake. There were Great and Intermediate (or Yellow-billed) Egrets to study and compare at close-range and a pair of Crowned Hornbills who come to eat putty at the windows of the manager’s house. The remarkably human infant-like whining of Trumpeter Hornbills near to the fast flowing stream revealed an unexpected birdy bonus. More predictably there were golden-hued Taveta Weavers building their nests among the dark green clumps of cat-tails in the middle of the lake. They were often together with part of a large but highly mobile flock of two-tone Grosbeak Weavers. 

On our second morning at Ngare Sero we were treated to a Lizard Buzzard who perched obligingly in a tall tree overlooking the car park when we assembled there to leave for Arusha National Park. In Arusha National Park itself we found our first big mammals. These included really tall ones in the shape of Maasai Giraffe and tiny ones, ungulates in the form of the Suni a forest dwelling antelope. There were Cinnamon-chested Bee-eaters in the forest, Waterbuck, African Buffalo, Bushbuck and plenty of small birds especially around the brackish Momella Lakes. There was a fine Black Stork in a green meadow, a winter visitor from easternmost Europe. Near to Maio waterfall at 2,000 metres above sea level we watched White-necked Ravens feeding on epiphytic plant ‘bulbs’ on mossy boughs and above the famous giant fig tree arch there was a male Bar-tailed Trogon lurking. 

The next morning we headed-off as early as possible, skirted Arusha city and descended steadily to Tarangire national park in the much lower elevation and corresponding heat of the Great Rift Valley. As soon as we entered the park just before noon we enjoyed fabulous and prolonged views of an adult Martial Eagle who was perched just beside the road. 

After our picnic lunch and a brief rest at our destination, the incomparable Tarangire Safari Lodge, we went off to explore the dry north-eastern corner of the park. Here we saw plenty of new birds including three of the small bustard species for which these drier savannas of Africa are famous. 

The next day was a very full one, in a wonderful national park, as we journeyers among the giant ‘granny’ Baobabs. Here we found a variety of raptors including Secretary-bird, a pair of African Hawk-Eagles and several Bateleur. There was also the sighting of two young Cheetah brothers resting in the shade of a mighty baobab. 

On day five, we departed Tarangire Safari Lodge to trek into the highlands west of the rift. On the way out of the park we visited some freshwater pools, not too far from the main gate where we saw lots of Comb Ducks and enjoyed watching two scintillating male Violet-backed Starlings running around catching termites near to a nursing yet comfortably snoozing, lioness. We watched Yellow-billed Oxpeckers as they foraged for ectoparasites all over the bodies of the lofty giraffes. And we really did “get the cover bird“ in the form of four clownish Red-and-Yellow Barbets disporting themselves upon a richly terracotta-coloured termite mound. 

The next day, above Karatu, everyone was glad to get out of the vehicle for a morning walk in the soft green coolness of Endoro forest. Here young Emanuel and an armed ranger were our local guides. In the canopy we saw the very delicate-looking White-tailed Flycatcher, Purple-throated Cuckoo-shrike, Black-fronted Bush-shrike, Abyssinian Crimsonwing, nest-building Grey-headed Nigrita and many other hill forest birds. 

In the afternoon we explored the gardens of the legendary Gibb’s Farm. Later, relaxing with our “afternoon tea” under a giant fruiting fig, we watched a variety of birds species coming for the ripe fruit. These included a delightful Sylvia - the Palearctic’s own Garden Warbler, probably one of the dullest birds that we encountered during the entire 435 or - something - species safari. 
 
Day Seven was the “Ngorongoro Crater Day”. Words can never do any justice whatsoever to the wonder of this location. Every time I visit the crater I come away truly in awe. This day was no different. For me, it was perhaps the close views of an array of shore birds, both resident and migrant, that were foraging along the margins of the largely saline Lake Magadi plus the number of long-legged waterbirds who were feeding in the relatively recently created freshwater marshes around the old Hippo Pools that stole the show. We managed a “write-in” here, in the dainty form of two close Temminck’s Stints. This wee peep is a scarce winter visitor, so far south, and one of of a few observations that made our senior safari guide quite merry! 

However, it was also nice to find here an abundance of small passerine birds along the gravelly track around the rim of the crater in the form of formerly common highland agricultural species such as Streaky Seed-eater, Southern Citril and the recently split African taxon of the Red-rumped Swallow complex. 
 
We spent our one luxury Crater night at the glorious Serena Lodge which overlooks the crater itself. The next morning we sipped our early coffee early, out on the main balcony of the lodge where, in addition to some interesting resident highland species, such as Hunter’s Cisticola, there were stubby migrant Lesser Spotted Eagles to enjoy as they drifted southwards real close by. And, as the equatorial highland sun rose above the mists and began to warm this incredible land we watched, almost spellbound, as a host of male Golden-winged and Scarlet-chested Sunbirds came-in to do-battle for that delicious morning nectar of a gloriously blossom-filled jacaranda, very clearly in peak-blue condition. 

After the Ngorongoro highpoint (both literally and metaphorically) we descended from the Crater highlands via the deeply impressive anthropological museum at Oldupai to the shortgrass plains of the eastern Serengeti. Here we spent two days exploring this magnificent location. Ndutu Safari Lodge itself is full of “good birds” and I think we were particularly impressed with a midday drinking flock of Grey-headed Silverbills and the pugnacious Pearl-spotted Owlets disporting themselves in the ample leafy canopy of two beautiful umbrella acacias who shade the “health and fitness centre” at Ndutu! 

Probably the high point for most, if not all of us at Ndutu was the fantastic experience of being almost surrounded by literally countless numbers of wildebeest and zebra. The “movable feast” (of George Schaller) who were arriving on their legendary migration, in search for drinkable water in these somewhat saline marshes. They came straight to the spot were we had been quietly working-off our shorebird identification skills. Timing as they say is everything. Never more so than on a Big Game and Birding Safari! 

Here at Lake Ndutu the rarest bird globally-speaking is the utterly delightful and diminutive Chestnut-banded Plover. The online conservation literature would suggest it’s of “Least Concern” owing to the wide range tje species occupies throughout East and Central Africa. The authorities appear not to have recognised that this little bird can only inhabit the narrowest strip of perfectly damp glistening mud, mud that “is just right” as Goldilocks might have said, the right kind of mud which is only to be found around a very few scattered saline lakes and a strip of mud which is at best only a couple of metres wide. 

From Lakes Ndutu and Masek we continued our sojourn west across the vastness of the Serengeti. We passed Seronera, the park HQ, and kept going to reach our one night’s lodging at Kontiki Camp before dark. A camp in the much richer, more lush vegetation of the Serengeti’s western corridor. On the November safaris at least our WINGS itinerary always aims to spend two nights in the lush greenery of the Mara river region which is adjacent to the Kenya border. Here we find a selection of species that most Tanzanian birding safaris will never encounter. And a few other animals too. Among the mammals, for instance, we saw three delightful Oribi, which is another undersized antelope. Pride of place among the birds might be given (at least by an “old hand” such as myself!) to an assembly of over 110 Black-winged Lapwings, foraging on one closely-cropped grassy hillock with a more distant ‘trip’ of five Caspian Plovers in the background. 

Our lovely and relatively luxurious camp was established at Kati-Kati, perched like a fort on a mounded hill, overlooking the Mara Valley with the blue hills of the Maasai Mara far away in hazy Kenya beyond. Now we had the tirad opportunity (around camp and outside of the vehicle) to start studying the “dreaded Cisticolas” and time even to discuss the proper pronunciation of their name! Yet for those who might tire from studying this the ultimate family of Global-LBJs there were dapper Sooty Chats to see and no less than five species of Wheatear, there was a first year Lesser Grey Shrike … and yet more larks and pipits. Oh yes, they also tend to be brown of plumage! 

One morning at “The Mara”, here near Kogatende airstrip, beside a great hippo loafing spot on the river bank, we found a tremendous gathering of fully satiated vultures who had roosted overnight among the old riparian trees. Primarily they were White-backed Vultures (easily over 100 birds) and a much smaller number of dainty pointed-billed Hooded Vultures and half a dozen individuals of the undeniably handsome Lappet-faced Vulture! 

Eventually we had to leave these vast unpeopled spaces of the Serengeti ecosystem and slowly make our way to Speke Bay Lodge. Here beside the gently lapping waters of the Great Lake Nyanza (Victoria) we could at last walk around all day and bird at leisure. Here we could enjoy one hundred bird species at a much more relaxed pace. Birds that included many new species for our lists. Several of these birds are Central African species, for our purposes birds restricted to this northwestern sector of Tanzania. There was a lovely selection of black and yellow lakeside weavers, the improbably crimson-glowing Black-headed Gonolek, metallic blue Red-chested Sunbird, dowdy looking Swamp Flycatchers, the Angola Swallow, the huge-looking Blue-headed Coucal and three species of nightjar at their roost including a long-suffering Eurasian attempting to find peace lengthwise on the bough of a yellow-barked fever tree. 

Eventually it was time to tear ourselves away from this idyllic scene and fly back from Mwanza airport with Precision Air to Kilimanjaro International and to take up temporary residence at the close-by KIA Lodge. We got there in time to bird the naturalised grounds in the late afternoon and even added at least a couple of species to our bulging bird list. 

However the next day, our final morning, was a great surprise for all. We made a final journey out in the Toyota safari vehicle to some dry bush country of the Maasai or Simanjiro plateau. We found several new species typical of what’s called the Somali-Masai biome. A list that included splendid looking Hunter’s and Tsavo Sunbirds, cheeky White-headed Mousebirds and a pair of remarkably tame Pink-breasted Larks foraging in the track. Finally there was the joy of observing a squeaking family party of seven Scaly Chatterers, “shy” birds which yet again we could walk up to and watch on foot beside the somewhat dusty road in midday sun only little after noon. However at this point I decided that we really should “call it a day”: call a wrap of a safari and a great one! 

I decided that we must drive back to the lodge in good order, so that the first three of our departing participants might comfortably draw their safari holiday to a close, with a hot lunch, a warm shower and a change of clothes in order to make their late afternoon flight, commencing their return to dark December days in those far distant Global Northlands.

                                                                                                                                                                               - James Wolstencroft 

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