193 : African Pied Wagtail

African Pied Wagtail - Motacilla aguimp

I have written before about how on safari the birds can provide the glue between the big animals. Taking time out from the giant Hippos at our first real Safari stop at Lake Manyara I soon got onto this small wagtail feeding on the side on the flies. This is a very long range shot so you will forgive the lack of detail. The head pattern is the reverse of "alba" - the pied wagtail that is seen in the UK. Here you have a black eye with a white throat and crown rather than the reverse for "alba".

One fact about wagtails that I can share is that they are the smallest family of birds that can walk. Many perching birds of course hop. I would be interested to know on their way up the evolutionary foodchain from dinosaurs via Archeopterix where the perching and hopping and walking divide came in. The simple difference between a sparrow that hops and a lark that runs. If the dinosaurs walked did Archeopterix (the first known bird with feathers) hop or walk ? If the first birds hopped did birds then reinvent walking as clearly a Tyransoaurus rex walked ? Or did some birds forget how to walk and start hopping and what advantage did that give ?

When you a look at a bird walking, surveying the ground and then picking at a piece of food on the ground you are looking at a dinosaur in miniature. Look at the feet of a bird and the nails and then visit a Natural History Museum. Designs that have barely changed over hundreds of millions of years.

African Pied Wagtail, Motacilla Aguimp
Lake Manyara NP, Tanzania
July 2012

192 : Egyptian Goose

Egyptian Goose - Alopochen aegyptiacus

I am glad I got a shot of one of these in Africa rather than at Holkham Hall or some other stately home in the UK. There is a fairly substantial population of these derived from wildfowl collection escapes back home. Here the original goose on its original continent.

I have seen reliefs of Pharoes hunting geese with sticks ! These then are the fellows. You must be quite brave to be a goose in Africa with all the potential threats to life and limb. So we have the wild African goose - at home near the Mara River.

Serengetti, Tanzania
July 2012

191 : Usambiro Barbet

Usambiro Barbet - Trachyphonus darnaudii

This is an "endemic" for the Serengetti region and treated in many text books as a seperate species from D'Arnaud's Barbet. It is seperated by being a little larger, having a more greyish bill and a "suffused greenish tone to the head". I am not going to engage in scientific debate over whether it is a true sub-species or race - I will just take it while it is there with a seperate piece in Stevenson's (Helm) Birds of East Africa.

These are one of the ground Barbets - they nest in holes in the ground rather than holes in trees and forage on the ground. You may recall that the Barbets are one of my new families (along with probably Hornbills and Sunbirds) that have really grabbed my attention since I started focusing on more exotic birds.

I do have a problem now in that I will need to justify why the next picture that goes up is in fact a D'Arnaud's Barbet. It was never going to be easy when I got down to some of the finer detail. Imagine if I did make it all the way and then some Bird Geek cried "foul" and indicated that my Barbets were misidentified. I think I would be long past caring and would ask them how many pictures of Barbets they had - put up or shut up sunshine. Yeah ! I was snapping Barbets when you were eating Farleys Rusks mate.

Serengetti, Tanzania
July 2012

190 : Grey Kestrel

Grey Kestrel - Falco ardosiaceus

I identified this bird from a series of picture showing that the wingtips ("primary projections") were shorter than the tail. I was able to distinguish the picture from Sooty Falcon where the wingtips project just past the length of the tail.

These smart little falcons uncommon across their grassland/bush range. They nest in Hammerkop nests. This bird sat watching the hirundines skitting across the grass. They are quite small - not much bigger than a pigeon and slighter.

Serengetti, Near Mara River, Tanzania
July 2012

189 : Von der Decken's Hornbill

Von der Decken's Hornbill - Tockus deckeni

Long range shot of a bird with a fabulous name. A common bird of the Savanah.

Serengetti, Tanzania

July 2012

188 : Coqui Francolin

Coqui Francolin - Francolinus Coqui

Another species of bush partridge that we picked up on our last game drive in the Serengetti. Above is the male bird. Below - the female - a shame I did not get it quite in focus.

Serengetti, Tanzania
July 2012

187 : Helmeted Guneafowl

Helmeted Guineafowl - Numida meleagris

We are creeping up to 200 - 206 will be the 2 per cent mark for the World's birds. The next landmark !

Here is a reptilian looking creature. There were two species of Guineafowl evident on safari - these by far the stranger. A bird that has of course been domesticated and is served up in restaurants the world over. They seemed quite common and we would usually see small parties of this bird early in the morning. Dust bathing seemed to be a regular activity. They were not scared of the vehicle and we would get some good views close up.

Serengetti, Olakira Camp, Mara River, Tanzania
July 2012

186 : Eastern Chanting-Goshawk

Eastern Chanting-Goshawk - Melierax poliopterus

Here is a Daliy Bird dilemma. You see fantastic birds first thing in the morning with fantastic names - take this Goshawk. It's Eastern and it's Chanting. The shame is it's blurred. Early morning light seems to present all sorts of difficulties for the intrepid and sleep deprived Daily Birder. Photography in low light is theoretically possible I guess - you up the "stops". Increasing the aperture to let more light in. The shutter speed will increase a bit. You then need to steady the camera as well - really steady the camera as the shutter speed doesn't seem to drop that significangtly in low light. Anyway I have many caffeine and sugar deprived pictures that are ''soft'' round the edges.

I will have to work on my early morning photography - buy a tripod and fit it - learn to hold my breath. Stuff the birds and mount them on the tree (only kidding).

The "Chanting'' part of the name comes from the male's habit of sitting up on a post during the breeding season and giving out a series of melodic whistles. "Eastern" because this is the Eastern species that occurs in Africa mid-way between "Pale" and "Dark" which occur in the North and South of the continent. Once considered an intermediate bird they are now a clear species in their own right.

I am in the habit of rewarding non-bird lovers with a mammal shot while we on Safari. On the same game drive I came across this beauiful pair of Klipspringers nestled in some rocks. A little antelope that frequents rocky areas it runs or bounces on the nails of its hooves rather than their flat part if that makes sense. The nails have become rubbery and give the animal a nice little bouncy advantage when being chased through the rocks by a leopard.

I think the boys had these on their "Cute 5" - the alternative to the Safari "Big 5". This was a rather sacharine, Disneyesque moment. Where's a leopard when you need one.



Eastern Chanting-Goshawk, Melierax poliopterus

Tanzania, Northern Serengetti

July 2012



185 : Speckle-fronted Weaver

Speckle-fronted Weaver - Sporopipes frontalis 

I have to make sure that I post some of the small brown jobs as I go along otherwise I am going to end up with a month worth of "brown" at the end of my Tanzania splurge. I need to up the pace a bit as well I am never going to get 100 or more East African birds posted before my next trip...I have a business trip to the States planned in a couple of weeks and a good opportunity for a surgical strike somewhere on the West Coast and then again on the East Coast. As long as I do not get mugged for my camera lens it should be happy days as  my list of North American birds (seen and photographed) is pitiful. I am always... well embarrassed to bird in the States. I went to Central Park in New York the last time I was there and then realised that I must have looked like a seedy cottager scurrying through the bushes in search of a pair of Blue Jays. I went off and had a manly pastrami sandwich instead and then walked the length of Manhattan instead looking for a book shop to feed my Civil War addition (yes I paint toy soldiers).



Back to this bird. This is a beautiful seed eater - halfway between a sparrow and a weaver. Very distinctive head markings with the speckled black and white forehead and then gingery orange nape.

Beauty in the detail. Every head feather frosted with a white tip. Both the male and female have the same plumage. This bird was collecting bits and bobs - presumably to line a nest.

No need to feel embarrased about being a birder in Tanzania. The drivers were delighted to spend time other than tearing around the countryside after stuff like this. Again beauty in the detail.

A leopard had left two cubs up a tree and the local guides around our tented camp had picked them up. We did make a drive for this opportunity. A little busy - 4 or 5 trucks and the next day driving through the same area a lot of flattened grass. Our driver was not confortable with how close some of the "strange" trucks from out of town if thats the right word were getting. We hung back a bit but thats the beauty of a 400mm lens. Paid for itself that lens !



We didn't see an adult leopard.  We were very privaleged to get this close to cubs. The other cub was curled up like a cow pat in the thin branches at the top of the tree ! If you spend a week on safari expecting shots and views like this every hour you are going to be sorely disapointed. We were very very lucky. A lot of time was spent talking in the evening at the dinner table. Some people were fixed on seeing dramtic Wildebeeste river crossings, some people were desperate for lions and leopards, there were many people just like us for whom everything was spectacular - even the lunch ! Birds just complete a safari - we were happy with tortoises and lizards ! The leopard cubs and such will come - a few very special moments. Have a look at that Speckle-fronted Weaver though again - its just on a different scale and down by your truck's tire on the floor. If you appreciate one you can surely appreciate the other.



Speckle-fronted Weaver, Sporopipes frontalis

Serengetti, Tanzania

July 2012

184 : Grey-Backed Fiscal

Grey-Backed Fiscal - Lanius Exubitoroides

I saw this large member of the Shrike family out on the open grassland of the Serengetti on our first full morning's game drive. We had flown in the day before on the smallest plane I had ever been in - a 12 seater "Caravan" - the pilot had to oversee the baggage being packed into the plane and actually checked to make sure that the weight of the people was evenly distributed around the plane. The flight was about an hour up from a small airstrip near the Ngorogoro Conservation Area to the Northern Serengetti near the Mara river and the Tanzanian border with Kenya.

I could see animals from the plane and thought I could see signs of the great herd we had come to see. Somewhere out there !



So after a first night under canvas in the bush and an eventful drive in to Olakira from our landing strip which I will cover later we found ourselves trundling out over a rolling country dotted with Acacias and ribboned with small woods and streams all flowing down into great Mara River. We heard it before we saw it.

As far as we could see in every direction. We were seronaded by the constant music of a tens of thousands of wildebeeste pumping out their Gnu calls. Males rutting on the move - butting and chasing eachother for the attention of females. Animals swirling across the landscape - puddling - breaking off and reforming. A vast army of herbivores on the move. I am sorry but the nature programmes that suggest that the herd is some vulnerable thing attacked on all sides by lions, crocodiles, leopards etc. They wouldn't even make a dent - the herd has something like 4-500,000 calves in a single month. Yes some don't make it through their first year - but the losses balance out and 1.5-2 million animals are on the move year in and year out across this landscape. It has to be the greatest wildlife show on earth.

As if to the make the point I post a picture of the one (?) lion we saw in the 4 days we were privileged enough to be up there on the Mara with the herd. A lone female....

And then out of the grass two cubs. The herd just parted and let them through. Reforming behind them. The cubs would probably be in more danger of being crushed in the stampede if they took on this lot. More Wildebeeste die of thirst or accidents than get eaten by lions or hyenas or crocodiles - they nibble round the edge.

It was one giant assault on the senses... So much so that apparently many other animals just clear out of an area when a large part of the herd (or the "MegaHeeeerrrrrd !" as National Geographic screams at you during documentaries) arrives. Rhino will move off, Elephant and Giraffe - its the noise and the flies.

Good for Shrikes though I would think - Wildebeeste = dung = beetles = lizards = food for Shrikes. I don't know that scientifically but it must hold true. The herd is one great dinner - it chews hundreds of tons of grass each day like some giant lawn mower - mile wide swathes being visibly cut across the face of the savanah. Apparently there are millions and millions - billions of dung beetles that spend their life getting rid of the 400 tons of dung produced each day. Without the Dung Beetles the herd could not move - it would get stuck fast in its own excrement.

And there waving on a thorn bush my Grey-backed Fiscal - the only tiny splash of white in a vast sea of fawn, black and brown. Animals and grass as far as the eye could see for miles in every direction. For once birds outnumbered by the mammals.

Grey-backed Fiscal, Lanius exubitoroides

Northern Serengetti, Near Mara River, Tanzania

July 2012