Tanzania – the heart of East Africa (Part 3)

Extending from the Taita Hills of Kenya south to the Udzungwa Mountains of southern Tanzania lies the endemic-rich Eastern Arc Mountains. Nicknamed the Galapagos of Africa, several of the ranges such as the Udzungwa, Uluguru and Usambara Mountains hold scores of endemics and some of the best birding in East Africa. Due to the lack of glaciations and relatively steady climate, the flora and fauna of these tropical forests had plenty of time to evolve becoming a very unique ecosystem.

After having to pass up the Udzungwa and Uluguru Mountains, I was eager to spend four days birding the East Usambara Mountains. Upon arriving back to the mainland, I met up with the owners of Emau Hill Forest Camp who offered to give me a lift to camp – a three hour journey up a terrible mountain road. Emau Hill offers a great base point for exploring Amani Nature Reserve and the rest of the Usamabaras.

Emau Hill Forest Camp

 The first three days were spent birding around camp and nearby trails; you don’t have to go very far to find great birds. On my first morning I woke to the loud calls of Silvery-cheeked Hornbills and Fischer’s Turacos – no need for an alarm clock! Leaving my tent I explored around the garden adding countless birds to my trip list – Olive and Uluguru Violet-backed Sunbirds, Montane White-eye, Southern Citril, Red-backed Manikin, Yellow-bellied Waxbill, Black-throated Wattle-eye and several species of Greenbuls mostly restricted to the Eastern Arcs.  This place was phenomenal! 

East Usambaras near Emau

 Day by day I was adding endless trip birds – Mountain and Gray Wagtails, Evergreen Forest-Warbler, Kenrick’s and Waller’s Starlings, Cabanis’s Bunting, Baglafecht Weaver, White-browed Barbet, Long-crested Eagle – my list was getting an enormous boost. The ultimate highlight though was an Usambara Eagle-Owl - one of the most difficult endemics – that I had early on the second morning calling from the opposite side of the valley.

Following a successful three days around camp I hitched a ride back down the mountain with one of the tour groups that were present during my stay. Obviously you don’t stop birding once you enter a vehicle so on our way down we were adding several more good birds including Yellow-rumped Tinkerbird, Mombasa Woodpecker, Red-tailed Rufous-Thrush, Red-capped Robin-Chat, Black-and-white Flycatcher, Little Yellow Flycatcher and the highlight of the day – Usambara Hyliota! This little known, minute, endemic is mainly recorded from the foothills of the East Usambaras. It is listed on the endangered list as its entire population is roughly 1,000 – 2,500 individuals, according to Birdlife International, and its habitat is disappearing at a rapid pace.  

It was hard to leave what I would consider my favorite region of Africa yet, but there was still more birding to be done. After returning to civilization, I took a bus 8-9 hours to Arusha and settled down at a backpackers for the night.

About an hour north of town lie the Angyata Osugat Plains, east of the village Engikaret in the rain shadows of Mt. Kilimanjaro and Mt. Meru. These Massai lands are well-known for one of the rarest birds on the African continent – the Beesley’s Lark. A recent split from the more common Spike-heeled Lark, these birds number no more than 100 individuals. After a much needed goodnights rest, I headed north in search of these rarities. With tips from local birding legend, James Wolstencroft, I was able to find two Beesley’s after about three hours of searching! I can’t even explain the rush that went through me as I watched one of the rarest birds in Africa with Mt. Kilimanjaro in the distance. Other birds of note include Montague’s Harrier, Kori Bustard, Temminck’s Courser, Athi Short-toed Lark and Fischer’s Sparrowlark.

Angyata Osugat Plains

Beesley's Lark

 Although nothing could come close to topping the Beesley’s, I continued birding the final hour of daylight in the nearby Acacia-commiphera woodlands. Being a new area I haven’t birded, I was able to pick up quite a few new birds including White-bellied Go-Away Bird, Von Der Decken’s Hornbill, Red-tailed Shrike, Superb and Hildebrandt’s Starlings, Beautiful Sunbird, Kenya Rufous Sparrow and White-bellied Canary. Before I knew it, it was dark and I headed back to Arusha.

Drive back to Arusha

Mt. Kilimanjaro

Unfortunately, this ended my last day of birding in Tanzania as it was time for me to start heading back south - I needed to be in Cape Town by December 10th (20 days away) and I still needed to travel through Malawi, Mozambique and across South Africa.

Tanzania - the heart of East Africa (Part 2)

Off the coast of Tanzania lies Zanzibar, a semi-autonomous archipelago consisting of two main islands and numerous smaller islets. The larger and more populated Unguja Island, informally known as Zanzibar, is a popular tourist destination offering white sandy beaches, shop browsing in Stone Town, and some of the best scuba diving off the coast of Africa. The smaller, less frequently visited Pemba Island to the north is less developed and more appealing to naturalists. If this wasn’t a bird/nature orientated blog, I would go on forever talking about the fascinating, rich Muslim culture of the islands but for the meantime, I will try to keep it bird related.

Stone Town

 From Dar es Salaam, I hopped on a ferry to Stone Town, the largest city in the archipelago where I spent three nights exploring the historical town and the rest of Unguja Island. Although bird-wise it’s not that exceptional, there are two endemic mammals – the endangered Zanzibar Red Colobus (Monkey) numbering around 1,000-1,500 individuals and the presumably extinct Zanzibar Leopard. The local belief that the leopards were kept by witches to wreck havoc on the villagers combined with habitat encroachment caused their decline. Unguja is also home to an endemic subspecies of the Servaline Genet.

Paja Beach

 Besides observing a few shorebirds on the beaches, the only real birding I did on the island was an hour at Jozani Chwaka Bay National Park, particularly to see the Zanzibar Red Colobus, being at their stronghold in this 19 sq mile park. It took no effort to find them as they were hanging along the main road and around the parking lot. Birding was considerable slow but Black-bellied Starling, East Coast Boubou and Dark-backed Weaver made a showing.

Jozani Forest

Zanzibar Red Colobus

 On the fourth day I hopped on another ferry to Pemba, an island off the tourist route, which still holds on to its very traditional Muslim heritage. During my four night stay, I only saw 3-4 other ‘westerners’. Based out of Wete, the largest town on the island, my goal was to see all four endemics: Pemba Scops-owl, Pemba Green-Pigeon, Pemba White-eye and Pemba Sunbird as well as the incredibly massive Pemba Flying Fox – a species of bat that went nearly went extinct but now numbers around 20,000. To see what they look like, check out (http://tinyurl.com/892m4ut)

Upon arriving to Wete in the evening, I watched as thousands of the crow-sized Pemba Flying Foxes were leaving their roost to forage for fruit and later that night heard my first of the endemics – a Pemba Scops-owl. The following two days I easily picked up the more common of the endemics, the sunbird and white-eye just around town leaving the Pigeon – the most difficult of the four. North of Wete is the Ngezi Forest Reserve – one of the most reliable areas to find them. Due to the lack of a vehicle and dalla dallas (local transportation) I decided to chat to the locals instead as they usually know more about the local birdlife than anyone else. Shortly later I was watching three Pemba Green-Pigeons, or ninga as the locals call them, in a known roost tree. No need heading all the way to Ngezi when you have help from the locals! Other interesting birds I had on the island include Brown-headed Parrot, Mangrove Kingfisher, Broad-billed Roller and Palm-nut Vulture.

Mangroves on Pemba

 Before I knew it, I was on a flight back to the mainland ending my week on the Zanzibar archipelago. It was time to head to the endemic-rich East Usambara Mountains and Mt. Kilimanjaro! (End of part 2)

(Note: sorry for the lack of bird photos, after nearly 3 months, my photo taking became lazy)

Tanzania – the heart of East Africa (Part 1)

Home to some of the oldest human fossils on earth, the vast Serengeti where the great wildebeest migration occurs, Mt. Kilimanjaro – Africa’s tallest mountain, Zanzibar and it’s incredible beaches, and some of the most fascinating cultures, Tanzania should be on the top of everyone lists of places to visit.

Mt. Kilimanjaro

This geographically diverse country has everything from montane forests, tropical coast, deserts, savannah grasslands, scrub and the largest freshwater lake in the world – it’s no wonder the bird list surpasses 1,000 species! Not only that, the endemic-rich Eastern Arc Mountains and the coastal forests are part of two major Biodiversity Hotspots in eastern Africa.

The idea of going to Tanzania was on the spur of the moment. My three month travel visa for Namibia was about to expire and I was planning my route back to Cape Town via Botswana. I really did not want my trip to come to an end so after getting word of a train that takes you from central Zambia all the way to the coast of East Africa; I was on that train within a couple days! You must understand, I had no knowledge on Tanzania, the birds, the culture, nothing - I was headed to foreign lands. I did some quick research on the internet creating a basic itinerary and picked up the Birds of Africa south of the Sahara (which includes East Africa) in Lusaka before boarding the train.

Waiting for the train at Kapiri Mposhi

There’s no doubt, the train ride was one of the top highlights of my four month trip. If you want to experience Africa off the tourist route and into the heart of the countryside – take the Tazara. Connecting Kapiri Mposhi, Zambia to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, the railway was originally built by the Chinese in the 1970’s to encourage trade. Little maintenance has occurred in the past four decades leaving the train far from Western standards but it was still an enjoyable trip. November 4^th at 6pm I set off on the train with two fellow travelers I just met – a South Korean and a Zambian. We passed time by chatting, playing guitar, looking out the window and birding. The train stops every couple hours at rural train stations, which allowed us to interact with the locals, buy goods and practice our limited Swahili with the children.

Bananas for sale

Village kids having fun

Meals were surprisingly good, believe it or not, which is probably due to that fact that everything we were eating was just bought a few minutes before from the villagers and cooked by the chefs on board. It was interesting watching the live chickens be carried onboard and shortly later, a plate of chicken, nshima (ground maize flour), soup and vegetables served for only $3. About a day later we arrived at the Tanzania border where the customs agents boarded as well as money changers. 

The second full day we traveled through Tanzania passing the Eastern Arc Mountains including the Udzungwa Mountain Range (home to over 600 endemic plants, 5 endemic primates and several endemic birds including the unique Udzungwa Forest Partridge) and the Uluguru Mountain Range (also home to numerous endemics including the Uluguru Bush-shrike which was only just rediscovered in 2007). Unfortunately for me, I only had a total of two weeks to spend in Tanzania before I had to start heading back south so I had to skip these incredible mountains for now. I’m already planning a return trip to be able to explore these areas along with the nearby Kilombero Swamp, which holds a few endemics itself. 

Udzungwa Mountains

Fifty-five hours later after we left, the train arrived at the Dar es Salaam train station at 1am. Due to the high crime in the area, the security guards locked all ‘hundreds’ of people in the station where we all shared the hard floor for the night. (End of part 1)

Namibia Wrap-up

          It’s been another lengthy gap since my last update two months ago and a lot has transpired. Backpacking in Africa without a laptop, regular internet, and time makes it incredibly difficult to maintain a blog. It’s safe to say that from today on forward, I won’t be able to use that excuse anymore as I have returned to Cape Town with regular internet and will be back to the states in three weeks.

African Jacana

 Starting where I left off on October 12^th, I remained in the Caprivi through the end of the month filling in those gaps on my Namibia list with help from returning summer migrants. Various highlights in those remaining weeks include Hooded Vulture, Lizard Buzzard, Long-toed Lapwing, six species of cuckoos, Rosy-throated Longclaw, and two Northern Grey-headed Sparrows at their most southern limit. Finally having time to tally up my Namibia list – I can now say that I’ve finished at 362 species (10 out of 14 endemics/near-endemics) putting me in first place on eBird for Namibia. Quite impressive for relying on hitchhiking and public transportation only! With a car, I probably could have surpassed 400 with some effort. Other highlights include the dozens of mammals such as Lions, Black Rhinos, Sitatungas, Hippos, various buck species and my favorite – Leopard.

Avis Dam - Windhoek

 While staying in Katima Mulilo preparing to head back to South Africa via Botswana, I caught word of a local train that connects Zambia to Dar es Salaam on the coast of Tanzania. Within a couple days I was eastward bound - my trip just took a new direction…

Dunes near Walvis Bay

Namibia Update (Shamvura, Caprivi, Big Sit results)

A lot has occurred since my last update two weeks ago. After completing my volunteering stint at Shamvura Camp I travelled a few hours east into the heart of the Caprivi region of Namibia. For the next couple weeks I will be volunteering for the IRDNC (Integrated Rural Development and Nature Conservation) training local birding guides, producing area checklists and translating local bird names into English among other activities. Currently I’m staying deep in the bush at the Sijwa Training Centre – a rustic field camp shared among other field workers with the IRDNC, WWF etc. As with a lot of my previous blog write-ups, I’m going to backtrack through the past couple weeks.

The final week at Shamvura was quite exciting with a couple more boat trips down the Okavango River and various birding jaunts in the surrounding broad-leaved woodlands. Although nothing out of ordinary was recorded, almost daily I was adding another country tick

African Openbills - Okavango River

African Skimmer - Okavango River

Southern Carmine Bee-Eater colony

Hippos - Okavango River

Leaving Shamvura Camp last Thursday, I travelled 300km east to the village, Kongola, where I was transported south to the Sijwa Training Centre along the Kwando River. This rustic, but developed camp is quite exceptional with electricity, internet, kitchen and a viewing platform over the Kwando River. For those familiar with the novel, The Beach, there’s quite a lot of resemblances with life here at camp.

Birding has been excellent as one would expect with several more country ticks including African Paradise-Flycatcher, Swamp Nightjar and summer arrivals such as Common House-Martin, Barn Swallow, Spotted Flycatcher and Willow Warbler. Last Sunday was the annual Bird Watcher’s Digest Big Sit and I registered a team calling us the Sijwa Sitting Cisticolas. Despite lacking an important habitat (Acacia scrub) and a scope, the final tally of 80 species isn’t too bad. Several mammals were also recorded including Hippo, Red Lechwe and African Clawless Otter.

View of Sijwa from Big Sit platform

View of the Kwando River from Big Sit platform

Now that I’m caught up with my blog, hopefully my posts will be published in real-time so keep checking back for updates.

Shamvura update

The past couple days have yielded a dozen or so new birds for my Namibia list. Tropical Birding guides Charles Hesse and Jerry Connolly brought a tour through the past two nights and I tagged along while they birded the area. I knew it was going to be an excellent couple days when I stumbled upon my first Thick-billed Weaver on my way to greet everyone – a common resident to the region but one that has eluded me.

Tropical Birding group

The following morning we headed off to explore the surrounding forests near Shamvura. Our first stop was the nearby quarantine station where cattle are held for a period of time to prevent the threat of foot and mouth disease. A couple small feeding flocks were present but nothing of interest and the area was fairly quiet. However, upon returning to the van, we discovered at least 20 Sharp-tailed Starlings drinking from a leaking pipe – a highly sought after specialty and a lifer for the whole group. Also present was a pair of Southern Black Flycatchers, a species I’m amazed I haven’t run into yet.  As the starlings moved on, we worked our way east along the B8 birding a couple locations where the habitat was still rather intact. Despite the increasing heat, we wondered around the broad-leaved forests in search of more feeding flocks. We found a few including one consisting of a half-dozen Green-capped Eremomelas – an uncommon and localized target bird. Other birds of interest include Purple Roller, Black-crowned Tchagra and a Dark Chanting Goshawk on our drive back to Shamvura. Around the garden I finally found a Purple-banded Sunbird in a good sized feeding flock – another bird that has eluded me this trip.

Observing a feeding flock

Dark Chanting Goshawk

Following lunch and an afternoon swim, the group reassembled and loaded a boat for a 3 hour trip down the Okavango River. As we drifted downstream, we counted numerous species of herons, egrets, bitterns among other waterbirds as well as Fan-tailed Widowbirds patrolling the floodplains. Plenty of great birds were recorded including Comb Ducks, African Skimmers, Collared and Rock Pratincoles as well as trip birds for me such as Wood Sandpiper, Gray-rumped Swallow and an unexpected White-winged Tern flying around the oxbow lake

From here on forward, it’s all target birding for me. My trip list has reached 320 and I hope to achieve 350 before returning to Cape Town. I’m very doubtful but if I remain up here into summer (southern hemisphere), I should be able to pick up quite a few birds including cuckoos and old world warblers.

Namibia Days 12-16 (Ovamboland, Ruacana Falls)

It’s been a month since my last update and during that time I have traveled all along the Kunene, Okavango and Zambezi Rivers in four countries. After reaching my final destination, the incredible Victoria Falls, I have since then backtracked to Shamvura Camp where I’m currently volunteering. Located roughly 110km east of Rundu, Shamvura Camp is well known among birders and has a list exceeding 430 species. In the next couple weeks I’m going to make an effort to finish writing up my trip reports as well as send out updates from Shamvura Camp. I also want to apologize for the lack of bird photos – I’ve been lazy at taking photos in general and have been spending most of my time just observing. Now that I have settled down for a bit, I’ll make a greater effort to do some bird photography. Starting where I left off…

Day 12 (August 25, 2011)

Leaving the vast Namib Desert behind, I took a combi (informal minibus taxi) to Tsumeb the “gateway to the north”. This small mining town of roughly 45,000 residents is world-renown for its productive mineralogical sites where nearly 40 minerals were first discovered. I have little knowledge on minerals but from what I have read, this area is quite exceptional. Tsumeb is also notorious for being the site of the biggest meteorite in the world, known as Hoba, which weights roughly 60-tons! Being a travel day however, I didn’t have enough time for any birding so I met up with my Couch Surfing hosts for the night, a group of Peace Corp volunteers - Quinn (Texas), Gretchen (Oregon) and Rob (Florida).

Day 13 (August 26, 2011)

Starting early in the morning Rob and I hitched out of town heading northwest towards Ondongwa – the heart of Owamboland - far from your typical tourist routes. This region is home to over half the population of Namibia on just 6% of the land and as you can imagine, the environmental degradation proves it. Upon arriving in Ondongwa, Rob headed north and I continued towards Outapi where I stayed with my next host, Ben, a Swiss-German working in the IT industry along with two visiting Algerian friends of his. Today was another travel day but involved some spot-lighting of the resident African Scops-Owls.

Baobab tree in Outapi (prior post office and chapel inside!)

Day 14 (August 27, 2011)

Luckily Ben and his Algerian friends were heading to Ruacana Falls this morning, my next destination. Before getting dropped off at the Hippo Pools Camp where I was going to camp for the next two nights, we stopped by Ruacana Falls to find they were entirely dry! The water flow depends upon whenever Angola decides to release water and our timing was bad. Nonetheless, the area was still incredible and I ticked off a couple more trip birds including Black-checked Snake-Eagle and Rufous-tailed Palm-Thrush – the latter just hardly creeping into Namibia from Angola. After setting up camp, I did some birding along the Kunene River and the surrounding creeks which host the sought-after Cinderella Waxbill, a difficult bird restricted to the area. No waxbill this evening but the birding was phenomenal giving my trip list quite a boost. Some of the additions include Meve’s Starling, Montiero’s Hornbill, Goliath Heron, African Green-Pigeon and an unexpected Rüppel’s Parrot, an endemic to Namibia and Angola. I went to sleep that evening to the deep grunt of Hippos and calling African Scops-Owl and Pearl-spotted Owlets.

View of Ruacana Falls from below

Angola Border Post

Day 15 (August 28, 2011)

Another exciting day packed with scores of trip birds. I started along the river where Red-headed and Chestnut Weavers made an appearance along with a vocal group of Hartlaub’s Babblers before moving inland to a series of creek beds that drain into the Kunene. As I mentioned before, this is one of very few sites in the world where you can find the Cinderella Waxbill; a notoriously difficult bird to find. During normal years, the water in the beds dry up leaving a few scattered puddles which the waxbills visit during the heat of the day. This year however, the region received a lot of rain causing the beds to retain a lot of water. The once localized puddles became too prevalent. No waxbills were found but several other birds made up for it including Bare-cheeked Babbler, White-tailed Shrike and more Rufous-tailed Palm-Thrushes. That evening I joined a French couple (Vincent and Sarah) for a braai and learned they are traveling around Namibia photographing and filming wildlife and in the morning heading east - so was I and they offered me a lift back to Outapi in the morning.

View of the Kunene from my Hippo Pools campsite

Day 16 (August 29, 2011)

After one last failed attempt for Cinderella Waxbill, Vincent, Sarah and I hit the road towards Outapi by 8:30am. Besides a brief stop along the road to look at Yellow-billed Oxpeckers, the rest of the day was spent relaxing, catching up on emails and packing for my next jaunt in the morning – Roy’s Camp, known among birders for hosting Black-faced Babblers.

Yellow-billed Oxpecker on cow