262 : Red-billed Hornbill

Red-billed Hornbill - Tockus erythrorhynchus

I think I left my safari tales with the Crossley's arrived at Msembe airstrip. We were picked up by a small man called "Tony", a trainee guide and a drivers mate from Kwihala camp. Tony was all smiles and after completing our paperwork we off on the 45 minute/15 km drive to the camp. Kwihala is a semi-permanent camp located up towards the escarpment that runs along to the North of the Ruaha river and Mgwesi sand river. So typically we were straight off the plane and into a game drive.

The first option given to us involved a leopard that had been sighted by one of the guides from our camp - it was about a 20 minute drive away. Mrs C and I have discussed this type of thing at length and take a fairly balanced approach. Yes on some occasions you might opt to drive to a sighting - especially for something like a leopard or lion or cheetah that are active. You are always losing something when you do that though in the strangest of ways. We thought we might regret the decision but the boys had been up since the early morning and the call of lunch and the excitement of seeing out billets for the first time were just too much for us ! Storing up karma is another belief - we would see a leopard later in the week - or that's what we thought.

So off we pottered or "bimbled" as one guest letter described safari drives where you do not go on a mission. I have to say it is my preferred modus operandi. Just let the bush unfold, trust your own eyes and the Park will give itself up. We had 6 nights and basically 12 or 13 game drives (if you count the trip to the airstrip at the end) so lots of opportunity and blessed time to see what we could see. I had a nagging doubt as to whether we had made the right decision - but it was the right decision for us given that the boys needed to eat and it was good also just to spend our first hour in the park taking in the scenery and topography.

The sports tension soon cranked up a notch though as a small hornbill flew across the road and I had not managed to get unpacked and get the big canon 100-400 mm lens attached to my new camera body. My theory having thought about last year's photos was that I did not have enough shots of scenery or of the family - the reason - I would have the telephoto on most of the time for obvious reasons and did not want to continually change lenses. The solution was to upgrade my camera body and attach that to the long lens and use the entry level 550 D with a normal 15-55 mm lens for everyday work around the van and in camp. It was a good choice and made the whole process of recording the trip 3000 % better. I actually have a record that we have been to Ruaha and I have some great big panoramas that will remind us what the place looked like.

Back to the Hornbill, I was told it was a Red-billed Hornbill and my next worry was that we might not bump into one again - I needn't have worried - they were everywhere and sometimes in huge flocks of hundreds of birds. The scrub is sometimes burned in a controlled fashion by the park rangers in order to  keep up some open areas to support a diversity of game. One area in particular that had been recently burned seemed to attract these small hornbills in huge numbers.

So these birds became a constant companion - I need to check to see whether there is a race that is particular to Ruaha national park as there was some talk from the guides throughout the week of an endemic hornbill. I haven't found that in my Helm field guide so I will have to check the Birdlife world list to see what's what. We have talked about lumpers and splitters before - but basically as DNA analysis and other studies advance more and more seperate species are emerging - even by analysis of voice where calls are distinctly seperate. The key is that two groups of birds do not typically interbreed and over time with slight adaptations a new species emerges. For now though lets describe these as red-billed Hornbill - a small ground feeding hornbill about the size of a small pigeon with a clear red decurved bill and spotted flanks that tell it apart from Von der Deckons Hornbill that we ran into in the Serengetti last year.  In fact tap in Hornbill into the search box on my site and I have small collection to be proud of now. They are noisy and obvious birds once you are in the right habitat. I can honestly say that having seen 1000's of them last week I did not grow tired of them. The tiring thing was checking every single hornbill at times as there were other species on offer if you bothered or were lucky.

Our drive into the camp turned up elephant and giraffe and more of those later. We had a fantastic lunch that augured well for the week's dining and settled in before being introduced to Lorenzo who would be our assigned guide for the week. I had taken the option to pay a supplement to have a private vehicle. As things stands it probably was not necessary as the camp was never full in the week we were there. I am not sure that the camp did normally just put out 2 vehicles rather than 3 where it could so it was probably the right choice. The issue is that we really wanted to go at your own pace - another couple might be bemused by us stopping for a lecture on a plant or a butterfly. Equally a small brown bird that no one else can see is not everyone's cup of tea. We spent a small fortune to stay at & Beyond's Tree House lodge at Manyara last year and then on our evening game drive were put with an Australian couple who on their last night on a 3 week trip of a lifetime "ordered" up a leopard. I can understand that but it meant that we spent a good 3 hours returning again and again to a baboon kill that I had managed to spot hanging in a tree. As things stood the noisy van crammed with a dozen dutch people saw a leopard walk across the road briefly and we did not. I was quite clear in my head that in future I will always try and secure us a private vehicle. My attitude is that you are invested already in the whole thing so why compromise. Perhaps I am spoilt but there is also the option of cutting a game drive short for the boys if after 4 hours they got a bit restless.  So we had Lorenzo to ourselves for the week with the adorable and hobbit like (as far as the boys were concerned) Tony. Perfect. On a future drive we would not be "denying" anyone else a siting of an animal if we chose because of our bimbling tendencies not to crash across the park at 50 km an hour to try and spot some lion cubs. The vehicles we did not share with saw probably far more leopards and spent more time with cats an so on. We probably saw a much more diverse range of things - each to their own. All good things come to those who wait. We are not cat fever people and in fairness neither was anyone in the camp that week. There was a good attitude around the camp fire each evening and everyone was pleased for everyone elses sitings which were shared in the main in any event if within range and so on.  Some of the most magical moments on safari are with cats and we did on occasion divert or even drive out of the camp at the speed of a firetruck without having been to the loo to connect with something special. That was a long diatribe justifying my monopolisation of a vehicle and guide for ourselves when in Africa - I think its good for us and for other people not to have to share with us (as we are off the deep end at times) so I will stop feeling guilty about the whole thing.

So that afternoon at 4 pm we got into the rhythm of our week's safari with a first 3 hour game drive until the sun went down. We were rewarded with a fantastic view of Kirk's Dik Dik - a family favourite.

One thing that I had not noticed about these tiny deer before was the proboscis ! This is a female I believe from the lack of horns - but look at that tiny furry trunk bending to sniff for danger. The large eyes are not because they are nocturnal but because they spend a lot of time in dense bush in the dark. I will save a picture of the comical male for a later post - but for now I think I have my portrait of a female Kirk's Dik Dik to last me a lifetime. I can't top it and gave up photographing them after that afternoon and enjoyed just being able to watch them. Lorenzo would have turned off the engine and we rolled in perfectly still and quiet to get this close to what is a naturally shy animal. This is where time with our boys in nature reserves from the age of dot pays dividends. They intrinsically understand that there are times when you need to sit still and be quiet. They did very well through the week with the odd lapse but actually being asked to sit still in a safari van for upwards of 50 hours through a week for a 9 and 11 year old was pretty good going.

I took the laptop with me and everything I needed to sort my photos in the evening. By that evening I was drooling over this little proboscis ! I had never really noticed it before. To say that I am pleased with this photo is an understatement. I am retired from having to take a picture of a Kirk's Dik Dik in future unless it is doing something spectacular like mating, being chased or being eaten by an eagle owl.

Red-billed Hornbill, Tockus erythrorhynchus
Ruaha National Park, Tanzania
29 June 2013