Tarangire Day Two and Return to Arusha

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I got up early the next morning for a sunrise breakfast on a camp in the middle of Tarangire National Park. Breakfast was on some tables under a sausage tree and there were a few birds including white-backed vultures, bataleurs, tawny eagles and brown snake-eagles. There were also many ashy starlings. Watching the sunrise was amazing and there was a bushbuck (the only one of the trip) near to the camp in some woodlands by a stream that went next to the camp.



After breakfast there was more safari. Most people on the group were now bored of animals so would rather just sit down and chat. This, however, was great news for me due to the fact that the driver would stop at any point that I wanted him too and this allowed great opportunities for photographs of birds. For the first couple of hours of safari (until about 8) I saw and photographed many new bird species. These included white bellied bustards, Black-bellied bustards, coqui francolins, crested francolins, yellow-necked spurfowl, black-faced sandgrouse, great views of a yellow-collared lovebird, white storks, african drongo, common kestrel, ostriches, grey-headed kingfisher, go-away birds , brown parrots, white-browed coucal, blacksmith plovers , African fishing-eagles , white-rumped helmetshrikes, and more. The best sighting for me though was of a pair of saddlebilled storks sitting next to the Tarangire River. They were truly magnificent birds; very regal looking sitting crouched down with knees bent as they do. I also saw many fantastic mammals. This included a group of Coke’s Hartebeest bounding across the plains but also, early in the morning, deep within the long golden grass, I saw a couple of small family groups of bat eared foxes bounding through the grass, only just visible as well as a few black-backed jackals. I also spotted a group of dwarf mongooses sitting around a large termite mound. I won’t go through everything I did in chronological order because a lot of it was similar to the previous day but I will mention various highlight moments.

At one point while we were stopped to look at a small group of elephants drinking from a waterhole, I saw a group of around five banded mongooses running very quickly directly in front. There were also around three babies and then, couple of seconds later, another adult came and sat on its back legs for a couple of seconds and I managed to snap a photograph which I was very pleased with. A lot of the time that I was driving that day was along the Tarangire River; in and around the river were many of the interesting birds that I mentioned above including saddle-billed storks, blacksmith plovers, sandpipers and black-winged stilts. Another thing I saw from the river was a family group of elephants. This included one tiny youngster; probably only about a month old. It was very interesting to watch the herd being protective of its young, especially towards the vehicles which seemed to agitate the elephants a bit. The group was really interesting to watch as it travelled along the dry river valley.





On top of an acacia tree, I saw a pair of huge lappet-faced vultures. They were huge and magnificent looking, sitting on a nest looking over the plains. I could not see if there were young on the nest but the two parent birds were clearly guarding over something. I also at one point stopped next to a waterhole with giraffes, I was very pleased to see one of the giraffes bend over with the legs stretched out wide to drink from the waterhole . I had seen footage of this behaviour before but never seen it in person so I found it very interesting to watch. At a nearby waterhole I also saw a group of vervets taking it in turns one or two at a time to bend down to drink.

Another very nice thing that I saw was a very large group of baboons travelling along part of a road. It was a really huge group, there were four or five big males and at least ten mothers with babies, often these babies were clinging on to the mother and being carried. This huge troop was walking along the road and then climbing up a small tree. I also saw the very nice scene of an elephant walking slowly under a huge baobab tree, this was such a great view and I really enjoyed watching this majestic animal in its beautiful natural habitat. Fairly nearby to where I saw the elephant was where I saw a rock hyrax sitting on a large rocky cliff by the road. At first I only saw one lying stretched out in the sun on a relatively flat ledge of rock but I soon noticed one or two more sitting in some more shady areas and in some little patches of short, scrubby vegetation.





After about five hours of safari, it was time to head back to the temporary camp - that I had spent the last night - on for lunch. On the way back I saw a couple more very interesting things. I saw a white-browed coucal sitting in the branches of a bush by the side of the track. Actually, it’s a bit unfair to see that I had seen it, there is absolutely no way that I would have spotted it if my guide hadn’t seen it. I still have no idea how he saw it because it was quite deep within a bush and I couldn’t even see it properly without driving around a bit. However he managed to spot it, I really quite liked the bird; it was quietly very attractive looking and although I had seen the species once before in captivity, I think that – as with all animals - you only really see them properly once you have seen them in the natural environment acting completely naturally. An example of this aspect of seeing birds naturally is a behaviour that I saw quite often while on safari in Tanzania and that was birds ‘panting’ in the middle of the day. Though I had seen this behaviour before in Saudi Arabia it is still really cool to watch. I tend to see it most in bee-eaters and rollers but in the middle of the day they sit with their beaks open and wings held in but slightly away from their sides, they are obviously slightly uncomfortable from the heat. Another nice thing that I saw was an unstriped ground squirrel, it ran across the road in front of the jeep so I didn’t get as nice a view as I would have liked or a picture, but it was still nice to see. A surprising thing that I saw was a common zebra . This was not surprising that I did see it but surprising that this was only the third zebra that I had seen in the whole two days. The reason for this was the rains coming early (I went into more detail about this in my last post) so almost all of the large hoofstock had left. I wasn’t so disappointed as I would have been about the lack of ungulates because I have done other safaris in Kenya and South Africa in the past, but I was hoping to see zebras and it was nice to get a good prolonged view of one before leaving.





We got back to the camp by about 2 o clock for lunch. All of the tents had been taken down in preparation for going back to the main camp near Arusha, all that had been left out were tables and chairs for our lunch. After the lunch stop it was time to head out of Tarangire because the safaris had come to an end but there was time to go a longer route to the gate giving about one more hour of safari. On the way out I saw more nice views of elephants, giraffes and many more of the same mammals and birds that I had seen previously. This included a nice view of a brown snake-eagle and a tawny eagle and a nice view of a small group of three magnificent ground hornbills that were very close to the edge of the road, only a few meters away. They were relaxing under a tree, foraging in the long grass that grew at its base, I also saw some silverbills in the tree; after a few minutes the birds decided that there was nothing of interest by the tree so flew off to one further away, they were really amazing in flight! The last thing of interest that I saw on the way out of the park was a fairly large group of grant’s gazelles grazing on a large open area of grass along with a family group of warthogs; this really was a nice ending. After that, we had the long drive back to Arusha. I saw a few more of the same birds that I saw in the park and on the way to the park; including little egrets, superb starlings and abdim’s storks (though fewer than on the way there) but nothing new on the drive back.





We reached back to the main camp which is where I would be staying for the rest of my trip before six that evening, so I had time for a short bit of birding (didn’t see anything new or worthy of note) before dinner before going to bed quite early in preparation for my plan to get up an hour before I was supposed to the next morning so that I would get some time to see birds before a day of hard work. I plan to write reviews about the other days that I was in Tanzania even though they are not completely animal based, though there was some interesting birding on camp; they probably won’t be as extensive write-ups though.

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