278 : Collared Sunbird

Collared Sunbird - Hedydipna collaris

The fifth sunbird in my small jewel collection. This taken towards the end of holiday in July when I was starting to worry about not having picked up enough material for the site to keep me going.

This isn't a particularly good shot and it was taken at some range (both shots having been taken at range and hand held with a 400 mm lens up into a bush. We caught up with this small sunbird as part of a lovely game drive in which we took in the river.

Not the sort of place you can take an amble along - but certainly a good place to park up for half and hour. African rivers that concentrate the game and the birds. Along them usually figs (ficus) and palms and other trees - Its hard to go 20 yards without bumping into something. A monitor, a nest, an eagle or a flock of small birds - then a woodpecker, a clearing loaded with impala - a world away from everyday  life. This site started next to a river in Sri Lanka - the same feeling of bounty - but strangeness - not somewhere you can walk with crocodiles and leopards. We live in concrete boxes in Dubai, air conditioned out of the natural world. Just stepping down out of a safari truck for 30 seconds in Africa and turning the engine off - as the world gets faster we need to try harder to slow down.

Collared Sunbird, Hydydipna collaris
Great Ruaha River, Tanzania
July 2013

277 : Green Wood-hoopoe

Green Wood-hoopoe - Pheoniculus purpureus

Time for a quick post this morning before my daily swim. There are lots of sunbirds around the pool at the moment so its not all about exercise. I keep promising myself that I will set aside time for my blog and push it forward to 300. I seem to be getting to bed at 2 am  and starting the day at 6 am with a bunch stuff jammed into the intervening 18  hours - mostly work and work travel. I have a 2 day weekend this weekend rather than the  broken weekends of the last few weeks so hopefully I can get to sorting through a few more birds. I would like to move on from Ruaha but we are nowhere near ! It was that kind of trip.

We have just completed the family world-cup of holidays. The clear messaging from the other 3 was that I would not get away with a Safari next year. I guess thats OK - two years in a row was special and Africa will always be there...So we put the names of 32 places in a hat after a few times around the table. The destinations were varied - from Fiji (or some other South Pacific island) to Norway through to China, Costa Rica or Ireland.  A real mix bag, beaches (the Maldives) or Bavaria (that'e me - I have real thing about the Alpines in the Summer and pork based German food. I note that the Ockertoberfest has a copycat event in Dubai can you believe so I might try for that - or maybe not I find a hangover a waste of half a day these days). Anyway the world cup. The places all went in the hat and two destinations at a time were drawn with each family member (started mostly by the advocate of the place) making some kind of comment. We were aiming for 2 places for the next 18 months. 32 destinations were whittled down to 16 after round 1 with a further draw then occurring for the second round (producing 8) - the quarter finals, semi finals and thats where we stopped because of the results and the timing potentials and so on. One Northern and one Southern hemisphere place. Some real family dream holidays were ousted - New Zealand for example, Vietnam, Thailand and a return to Sri Lanka, Northern India for the tigers ! All gone in the furious debate about relative merits - not al destination based but "thats one we could knock off on a half term for example type considerations).

We ended up with Canada (interesting - Jane has a burning desire to see Vancouver and I am ignorant about the place) and Madagasacar. Now I am definitely up on the delights of the latter - lemurs, chameleons and more endemic birds than you can shake a stick at. It has a whole Attenborough narrated wildlife epic devoted to it. It split off from the super-continent a long time ago so has whole Groups of birds that are unique with one Group I think the Vangas taking up a good slew of the incumbents - descendants mutating to take up the untaken ecological niches on offer. There is even a Crossley Vanga from memory. So I think that's now looking like Canada for Summer or Autumn 2014 and Madagascar could be Spring 2014 or even Xmas 2014 - a Xmas lemur special. We have a quick sprint to  Rome booked for about 3 weeks time and we will back in the UK for this Xmas with family. As if by magic 15 months gets mapped out by a family "balloon" game holiday debate.

Green Wood-hoopoes ! All I can say is that these were another noisy inhabitant of the trees and I managed this half decent shot pretty much on our final main game drive. These are adolescents as the adults have a bright orange bill as far as I can see from text books. Other Wood-hoopoes are ruled out by the distribution maps.

Below we did score a hit with these Defassa Waterbuck which were in the wrong place on a pool at the end of a sand river - they usually stick to the far more flooded environs of the Great  Ruaha river which is has a god volume of water all year round. These deer like creatures never usually stray far from the water margins. So these were out of place and actually not an animal that we typically saw much of. Our guide thought they may have been moved on by lions or some other disturbance. It certainly would not have been grazing opportunities as against the floating grass and rushes etc. of the main river.

So Canada and Madagsacar to plan and save up for actually because I think both are big event holidays. I think I have a direct flight for both on Emirates from Dubai so happy days ! I think a bit of driving in Canada and an RV and motels and checked shirts all round ?? Certainly must be some new birds up there - we don't have much from the Americas at all ! Madagascar well there's another book purchase. We have our eye on an eco lodge that has access to Lemur forest but also beach type activities and so on.

Time a swim - thats quite a positive post to push me out into the world with a lot to look forward to. I am happy with those two as choices.

Green Wood-hoopoe - Phoeniculus purpureus
Ruaha National Park, Southern Tanzania
July 2013

276 : Purple-crested Turaco

Purple-crested Turaco - Tauraco porphyreolophus

I'll start the week with a posting of a trophy bird. Despite being the one of most raucous creatures I've come across this bafoon really doesn't want to make the headlines by giving up a decent picture of his poor behaviour. If you have ever seen that delightful Pixar film Up then this gobby over coloured individual has to be some sort of relative to the prehistoric creature in that film. You cannot make out the colours here so well in this early morning shot but he is clothed in a combination of olive greens, salmon pink, violet and blue with an imperial purple crest. To cap it all the eye is detailed in striking red - this seasons Bozo the Clown of the bird world.

In every shot beak wide open - *wide* open to take over rather than simply contribute to the dawn chorus. I was doing some research and found a link to a cage bird society called the International Turaco Society. All I can say is that those people cannot have neighbours.

He's made his home in these shots in a Sausage Tree - you can see the big gourds or fruits hanging down.

So perhaps I am exaggerating as in this shot he has his bill closed. These are a characterful bird though, larger than life - really just ridiculous. They are related to the Bare Faced Go Away Bird which is always a favourite because of its name and looks.

Finally as its safari an animal encounter from the same game drive. Here some elephants that were hoovering up some nuts or large fruit stones that were raining down from a group of baboons feeding in a tree. We really had to be still and quiet as we were in an open sided vehicle and surrounded by a small elephant family. The noise of the snuffling and munching, low rumbles, tearing of young plants, cracking of whole branches is a strange symphony - but relaxing.

Your breath and heart catches in your mouth when you are this close. You are always just on the edge of an elephant getting a bit annoyed or thats how I felt at times. These were relaxed in our company - if the ears start going and the trunk shortens then they are agitated. I really have no desire to be charged by an elephant - I don't think you'd stand a chance - so its time to be quiet and respectful around these beasts and to delight in the skill with which they hoover up the world.

I didn't manage to capture this on film so well but this is a young palm. Each elephant has different favourite foods and a menu or spread of items that they learn to tackle from their mother. This elephant had clearly learn't a neat trick. She would warp the young leaves around her trunk and then scheer the young plant off at its base with a slice from the side of the foot - deft, precise, a gourmand in action. I think we sat for half an hour watching these goliath's feeding - a fascinating little tableaux that will stay with me. Safari is a series of pictures, sounds and smells that contribute to a mood and perhaps just a small new piece of understanding. All the little parts of the jigsaw just laid out on the table and one by one coming together to the whole. Even dust on safari is just part of the picture or the quality of the light. Its good for the soul.

Purple-crested Turaco, Turaco porhpyreolophis
Ruaha National Park, Tanzania
July 2014

275 : Black-faced Sandgrouse

Black-faced Sandgrouse - Pterocles decoratus

Another favourite family the Sandgrouse, beautiful birds with cryptic plumage and endearing habits. I first encountered the Yellow-throated in the Ngorogoro crater on safari in 2012. Click the link for a good description of the family. Closer to home in Dubai earlier this year I found some Pin-tailed Sandgrouse out at a new reserve carved from the desert. A lucky encounter after a radio interview on Dubai Eye turned up Chestnut-bellied. I was delighted to chalk up my fourth species in Ruaha. We would generally see these birds most days. Close to the end of our stay in the reserve (6 nights at Kwihalia Camp) this bird was determined to walk slightly ahead of the safari truck in the middle of the track. It was close to sunset and the colours were spectacular.

I assume the "Black-face" comes from the black pyramidal mark just behind the bill. Some individual bird encounters do last a lifetime, especially now with a reference photograph. I think this will be one of them just because of the light and the moment.

On the subject of encounters I may as well throw in our most exciting lion encounter. We were bumping down a track trying to make some distance to get to a new area away from our camp when, typically, Mrs C called out Lion (she seems to be tuned in) and there crouched by the side of our path was another lioness. The typical reaction is for the driver to hit the breaks and kill the engine all at the time. On this occasion I think we had to reverse due to an over shoot. There hunkered down, ears up and alert was a huge lioness. Just 60 yards away milling through the scrub was herd of buffalo and then we had possibly our once in a lifetime view. She exploded up and across the short distance with giant bounds and in a cloud of dust hurled herself onto the back of a buffalo - dust, roaring, bellowing buffalo and general chaos ensued. All the while I sat dumbfounded with my camera firmly sat on my lap. Rabbit in the headlights or absolute jaw-dropping engagement - not even a picture of a cloud of dust.

She drifted back out of the bush and met up with a companion in close view of us - all the world like a pair of domestic cats. She had missed her kill. She trotted the last the few steps and they nuzzled each other in same was as Dolly and Jasper our two rescue cats would. They are just giant versions of cats at home but obviously completely tuned to the wild and not something you would want to have in your lounge of an Autumn's evening. I was struck by the mannerisms, the way they moved, how they walked, sniffed, their ears pricked up and so on. I haven't looked at my two cats the same way since. I feel I know where they come from, deep deep down in their loins. 

These cats were active and hunting, but not in some sinister way with an orchestral background. Almost just the same way as my cats would look at a bird through the window or even a moth which they will chase. They were interested and wanting to kill to get fed. Its just what they do. Nobody gets upset about a shark eating a big fish - this is no different. Its just up the food chain from say a lizard and a fly and there is a bit more mess. 

So from a place of indifference I am now pretty hooked on lions - I am not bothered if I ever see a lion kill something. I was lucky to see a lion "pouncing". They are faster than you would believe - athletic - graceful and packed with a huge punch of power. To bring down a ton of buffalo you need to have some serious equipment. 

We watched them check out some Giraffe on the horizon and laze around some more. 

It was an exciting couple of hours. I wouldn't necessarily head out to follow lions all day but if you are ever lucky enough to come close to lions that are active it is captivating. Big Cat - thats just about right. 

Black-faced Sandgrouse, Pterocles decoratus 

Ruaha National Park, Tanzania

July 2013

274 : Martial Eagle

Martial Eagle - Polemaetus bellicosus

...Is the bird on the left. This was taken at very long range with a 400 mm lens. The picture before it has been blown up and cropped is below.

Thankfully these are black and white birds with distinctive spotting so I was able to make it out with some bookwork and deliberation with Lorenzo. The bird on the right is some type of Snake Eagle that might deserve its own post - I haven't checked back to see yet. 

I have no excuse for not providing an interesting post on this Eagle (apart from it being 7.45 am and not having had my swim and liking to be in the office before 9 am pour encourager les autres). When I was back in the UK at the Summer there was a book sale up at RSPB Conway - I think my 89 year Mother in Law must have been up there before me as I was gifted a very musty old book which still had its flyleaf - "African Birds of Prey - a study of Africa's 89 diurnal raptors and 31 owls - Leslie Brown". Published in 1970. I think it should be a good book to dip into. 

The Martial Eagle is Africa's largest eagle - thats a good start. It feeds mostly on game birds so in this context I think that Sandgrouse and Partridges were a plenty in Ruaha and also their prey of choice Guinea fowl or Guinea Fools as we called them. (its so cool that I can now build up an eco-system here). There were certainly plenty of Guinea Fowl in Ruaha to support this particular bird. In my book they are in the chapter "Large and Spectacular Eagles". These are wide ranging but nowhere common eagles. They have a large territory of around 50 square miles - requiring a large tract of savannah stocked with suitable prey. Thats 7 miles by 7 miles - perhaps an eighth of the size of Greater London. 

We did well to spot this bird - there modus operandi is to soar at huge heights - often over hills. This was seen in a rocky high area where we had gone for a change. They have fantastic eyesight and have been observed to lock onto a flock of Guinea Fowl from up to four miles away before starting off on an  attack stoop. They will also take Impala calves and Rock Hyrax. I will come back to Rock Hyrax another day but probably described them last year in the context of the Mara River in Northern Tanzania.

Back to Impala. Many mornings we would spend a good twenty minutes watching the young male Impala fighting for the females. A series of ruts would result in a male taking possession of a harim of up to perhaps 40 antelope. The battles themselves were interesting to watch - tests of skill and strength with a prize thats a a bit of a curse. Once the male Impala takes his herd he then has to spend al of his time shepherding and watching them, mating of course. He will loose condition and is a prime candidate for being knocked off his perch by another male or worse still being eaten as he is unable to avid an ambush predator. I think I will let the pictures speak for themselves. 

If a face could launch a thousand ships eh ! 

Finally after all that pushing and shoving our early morning sunrise - cold and blanket wrapped we would will the sun up out of its bed. The early mornings were crisp and full of promise. Every day different - everyday something new to see. 

But that's everyday anyway if you are tuned in. Even a grasshopper or an ant has something to give up. Now we are into the Autumn and school runs, timetables, meetings and deadlines I am clear that I need to find at least an hour a week and a bird or two. Its cooling down and everything is on the move again.

Martial Eagle, Polemaetus Belicosus 

273 : Brown Parrot

Brown Parrot - Poicephalus meyeri

I am very pleased to post the inaugural Parrot in what should be a large collection over time. A Brown Parrot or Meyer's Parrot was the only Parrot by name we were seeing at Ruaha national park - we were inundated with lovebirds that proved very hard to photograph due to their tendency to stay in the sun - even crossing to the wrong side of the vehicle when disturbed. I think there has to be a "flight behaviour" of heading for the sun. Presumably you are less obvious to a pursuing predator. A bit like the "hun in the sun".

Parrots - These were quite skittish as well. This is the best I could manage in a week. Brown doesn't do them justice as a description - the males had a bright golden head band, and both sexes flashes of golden yellow on the shoulders. The underparts are a very jolly tropical green like a lime opal fruit (or starburst as they have now been disappointingly renamed). Not so big - more Parakete sized I guess but with the short tail of the smaller Parrots.  I was wondering what was the difference between a Parrot and a Parakeet and then again Maccaws, Lorikeets and Lovebirds - not a lot it seems but size. They are all part of one giant family the Psittacidae. 330 strong and together with cockatoos (you can see the resemblance) they form the 361 species strong order of Psittaciformes.

So now we know what we are dealing with here - more different Parrots and their multi-coloured cousins (if they can stay out of a cage) than the total number of species on the Daily Bird to date. It should be a colourful journey this one and it starts with the humble Brown. These fruit and seed eaters are sociable, noisy and at times bedazzling. When you see a group of parrots it will be made up of mated pairs - often mated for life. 89 species are under threat of one sort or another - well three major threats really. They are considered agricultural pests and just exterminated in many parts of the world, secondly the logging industry is having a heavy impact on the larger species that depend on mature trees with holes for nesting and finally of course they are a much prized cage bird.

I will save the stories of parrots I have met over the years for another posting - hysterical though. I did hear a story of a parrot being used as a witness in a drug cartel case - no word of a lie - the parrot was able to give evidence of who the frequent visitors were to the house. Thats bonkers. Its really hard to think of them as wild birds as we are so used to the parrot on the shoulder, the parrot at the aged aunts.

It being a safari posting I will leave you a beautiful portrait of a female impala from the same game drive. Tomorrow I will post up another member of the parrot family and also some impala fighting for the lovely lass below.

I am pleased with these - a bit easier than Parrots which are understandably skittish. Impala are programmed to take notice when you stop though - always just on edge of bolting at a twig snap.

Brown parrot, Poicephalus Meyeri

Ruaha National Park, Tanzania

July 2013

272 : Buff-crested Bustard

Buff-crested Bustard - Eupoditas gindiana

Bustards are very much on my mind this week with the announcement in the UAE of record numbers of Houbara Bustards bred and released through the captive breeding programme. The Bustards of Arabia have been hunted in the wild to near extinction. Originally falconry was practiced by the indigenous arabs in a sustainable way but of course over recent decades the balance was lost such that Gulf arabs will travel widely in order to hunt these birds. Whatever my thoughts on hunting - which are mostly supportive where a particular past time supports a landscape (no grouse no grouse moors etc.) it is a shame perhaps that birds that are not so exciting to hunt and kill do not get bred and released in the numbers that are being reported here. Over 40,000 Houbara's have been bed this year and a quarter of that number released all over the Gulf and North Africa courtesy of the generosity of the UAE.

You can read about the programme here at their website. I just hope I can get a picture of one in the wild. I am not sure if a released bird will count - I hope I do not have to travel to Iraq or Iran to get my picture of an Asian Houbara. Anyway its good news that they have the stated aim of recreating a sustainable Gulf wide population - yes they will be hunted in the same way that snipe, woodcock, grouse, pheasant and any game bird is hunted the world over. If they are prepared to spend millions to ensure that the balance is right and put the right controls on then that is fine in my book.

Back to African Bustards -

This is the fourth in my collection of Bustards - I even have a page called "Smaller Bustards" in my Birds of East Africa with just one bird left to photograph - a Hautlaub's Bustard. These Buff-breasted Bustards are supposed to be short legged and to be fair they did seem to hug the ground more. I think this is a female bird but even on the male the head markings were much less developed than the white bellied which was the other Bustard we were seeing in Ruaha.

They are hard to see !! These are the size of a goose and with a long neck but the camouflage is effective in the long dry grass. Ground nesting birds with a need for some stealth feathering. Finding a mate in the correct season is solved by the Males flying up from the bush into  the sky and performing a series of semi back somersaults. That must be something to behold ! Giant bustards cartwheeling down through the sky. I have read that they are somewhat aggressive once the female submits - with their head an necks getting pecked throughout the ordeal.

Perhaps its no wonder she would prefer to stay hidden.

Its a safari posting so its always good to get away from birds and to introduce some of the supporting cast. We were tearing across the park in pursuit of a Cheetah sighting one afternoon. Below a typical view of the back of Lorenzo and Tony bantering and squabling away in a good natured manner at 80 kph on a dusty road ! Tony on the phone getting tree accurate directions from Festo, another guide who had seen the Cheetah earlier in the day with another couple staying at our camp. I should say that Ruaha is nothing like the Ngorogoro crater with 30 vehicles descending on any cat in view. We could go all day without a sighting of another truck. We very rarely "twitched" our game and every day we would find our own lions - hunting, sleeping or slinking off into the bush after a siesta. Lions with cubs, male lions, female lions.

So in pursuit of a Cheetah typically Mrs C shouts out "Lion" and there by the side of a bush was the most beautiful lioness. Just 2 or 3 yards from the truck. 

Now lions have grown on me - I got to watch a lot more of them this year going about the business. Here in Ruaha they are not picking off sick Wildebeeste from the edge of a herd 100,000 animals strong. These are buffalo hunting specialists and we witnessed what they get up to on another occasion. We were near to a river here and this lioness was probably sleeping off her last meal - which was probably buffalo and the rest of her pride would have been dispersed around in favourite sleeping spots. We knew we were due for a lion as my eldest son (aged 11) had negotiated a truck stop/pit stop just a hundred yards up the road. He has a sixth sense for dangerous peeing. 

This was the lioness' view - open bush dotted with Baobabs (which I still don't know how to pronounce correctly). You can see another lioness in the background to the right of the tree in the left foreground. It might have been an ambush line of lions spread into the distance - a picket line. 

The guiding at Kwihala was just superb. After the vehicle stopped and while I was composing portraits like the one below Lorenzo would whisper across to us a steady diet of lion facts and stories, all questions were answered and on the occasion that an answer wasn't known he would hit the books and internet over night to try and find out an answer. Top class guiding, and appreciative that we were not  "cat fever" people. We are as happy with a mongoose or a caterpiller at times. 

This lioness was stunning though - looking at the face markings you can get a sense of the wonder of evolution just in the detail. The lighter detailing under the eyes is designed to reflect more light into the pupils at night - the reverse of American footballers who put on a black stripe to stop glare. Amazing - not by accident or design but by the wonder of natural selection lions that had the eye liner developed a better night hunting capability and over time bred more and took more territory so that over eons all lions took on the adaptation. How wonderful is nature.

Lioness - complete with light eye liner to maximise photon gathering on a dark night - a low tech equivalent of special ops eye glasses.

There is a link between the bird and the beast - the bird I think was photographed immediately before my eldest had his pee which then led onto this lion. I have to remind myself but this post was supposedly about ...

Buff-crested Bustard, Eupoditas Gindiana
Ruaha National Park, Tanzania
July 2013