175 : Bataleur

Bataleur - Terathopius ecaudatus

A Bataleur is a french tight-rope walker and this small member of the buzzard family takes its name from its habit of tipping its wings as if to balance on the air. "Ecaudatus" is latin for tailless - the tail is very very short and its probably the lack of a large fin for flight adjustment at the back that the leads to the characteristic wing action in flight.

They have a large range across the middle part of Africa across woodland and more arid areas. This is a male bird - identified by the thicker black trailing edge on the flight feathers on the underside  of the bird.

The birds spend 8-9 hours each day on the wing searching for food which includes carrion but also live prey including birds, snakes, rodents and even small antelopes - I suspect its the young they target that are hidden by the parents in the long grass. You can even see the sun's reflection catching in the bird's eye. The exposed facial skin and legs are red so overall the appearance is beautiful for a bird of prey.

I got the shots of this bird circling over the edge of lake Manara.In the pictue above I think you can see the reflection of either sunset or sunrise off the water - the colours projected onto the white feathers of the underwing. I think we could do with a few more birds named after french circus artists.

I'll leave you with a picture of my first giraffe in the wild from the same day. At the same time that I was seeing these birds for the first time we were also seeing things like warthogs, impala, zebras, for the first time outside of a zoo or safari park. A running giraffe has to be one of natures most elegant things. You pinch yourself really - they just feel like entirely different animals. They are obviously familiar but they do seem more vital. I am spending my lunchtimes dreaming of Botswana, Zambia and even Madagascar at the moment - that bush bug is well and truly caught. If you didnt feel that you had to move on to see what was around the corner I would happily watch a giraffe for an hour or two. In the Serengetti I could see giraffe from my tent flap off in the distance loping in family parties through the acacias - that was something.

I really loved Manyara as a park - it was small, intimate, close up, beautiful. Lots of people miss it out or they just dip in for a day before pushing on toward the Ngorogoro crater and the Serengetti. The lake gives it a lovely aspect and the scarp behind. The widllife and the park are hemmed in in a ribbon between the lake edge and the scarp of the Great Rift Valley. It helped that we had stunning accomodation in the form of individual treehouses as well. At night the lions could be heard roaring down by the lake. The woodland hummed with noise. It goes straight onto my list of places to go back to and sit and read a book ! We were in the park for just 24 hours and it deserved more. I would happily stay in the park for 3 or 4 days and just watch the pelicans fly up and down the lake.

A Bataleur above - probably the same bird circling over the scarp at Manyara. Don't leave Lake Manyara off the itenary if you going to Tanzania - it deserves more than the quick drive in to the Hippo pool that many safari trips give it. I didn't see Bataleur anywhere else from memory on the trip - or at least I didn't get any decent shots.

African wildlife is a collection of moments - serenaded mostly by silence  (unless you ar ein teh middle of the mega-herd !) - the engine vehicle is switched off and you are in the vista. Its Stunning.

Bataleur, Terathopius ecaudatus
Lake Manyara National Park, Tanzania
July 2012