Tanzania - Eastern Arc Mountains Tour Day 1

 Well, here I am in a nice little hotel at Same, at the base of the Pare Mountains. It's been one hell of a ride to get here, starting on Friday back home in the UK when I woke up to the news of a global IT meltdown. Airports were closed, flights cancelled, banking systems down.... Somehow, we dodged the bullet and flew to Dar-es-Salaam without a hitch and took a domestic flight up to Kilimanjaro Airport, seeing a flock of Mottled Spinetails & Little Swifts over the airport.. 

Pre-tour drinks in Dar-Es-Salaam

Our local guide Abdul was there to meet us and we arrived at our hotel in Arusha around 9.30pm, absolutely knackered I have to admit!

So today (Sunday 21st July 2024) we left after breakfast and drove to Nyumba Ya Munga to bird the dry thorn scrub habitat. it took around 3 hours to reach the site, but this is Africa and roadside birding is brilliant! I don't particularly like drive-by birding but it was quite pleasant seeing Trumpeter & Silvery-cheeked Hornbills, African Palm Swifts, Northern and Long-tailed Fiscals, Hammerkop, Black-winged Kite, a Crowned Hornbill for Peter, and quite a few Superb Starlings. 

Our main roadside stop for a quick pee then turned into an excellent session as we had Rock Kestrel and Gabar Goshawk perched up on trees across the road. Our first Grey Wren-Warbler then appeared, along with African Grey Flycatcher, a pair of Tawny-flanked Prinias and a Variable Sunbird. A confiding Spotted Palm-Thrush was stunning, and certainly overshadowed the Red-cheeked Cordon-bleus, non-breeding Vitelline Masked Weavers, and White-browed Sparrow-Weavers! Driving further we screeched to a halt for a Rufous-crowned (Purple) Roller and our first Northern Grey-headed Sparrow in a large tree right beside the road. 

it was around 10.30am by the time we reached Nyumba Ya Munga and turning off the tarmac road onto dirt road suddenly turned the heat up birdwise, despite the cool, overcast conditions. We were targeting Pringle's Puffback and Scaly Chatterer, so drove slowly with the roof up and side windows fully out as well. So we used the safari vehicle as a hide and turned up a feast of great birds, with a group of 7 Scaly Chatterers eventually coming in very close and hanging around for the most brilliant views and certainly the best ever view i've had of this species. 

Scaly Chatterer

At our first stop we also had a pair of gorgeous Green-winged Pytilias, Pin-tailed Whydah, White-browed Scrub-Robin, a group of Blue-capped Cordon-bleus, a lifer Tsavo Sunbird for everyone, a pair of Red-billed Quelea, several Purple Grenadiers, Yellow-spotted Bush-Sparrow,  a few Fischer's Starlings, D'Arnaud's Barbet, White-bellied Canary and a Northern Crombec. 

Tsavo Sunbird

The next stop overlooking some old corn fields was another fab stop, with African Grey Hornbill, Brubru, another D'Arnaud's Barbet, Red-and-yellow Barbet, Slate-coloured Boubou, Rosy-patched Bushshrike, African Bare-eyed Thrush, Black-necked Weaver, Chestnut Weaver, Reichenow's Seedeater, a pair of huge Southern Grosbeak-Canaries, Black-faced Waxbill, another Tsavo Sunbird and a superb pair of Somali Buntings. 

Rosy-patched Bushshrike

Somali Bunting

We also came across a pair of much-wanted White-headed Mousebirds that lingered beside our vehicle, a Black-chested Buzzard-Eagle flew overhead and a few Northern White-crowned Shrikes were seen in a field.

Purple Grenadier

We also walked along a side track after the ever elusive Pringle's Puffback - a bird that would continue to elude us. But we enjoyed fine views of many Southern Grosbeak-Canaries, another Grey Wren-Warbler, Klaas's Cuckoo, Namaqua Dove, Emerald-spotted Wood-Dove, singing Pink-breasted Lark, a confiding Slate-coloured Boubou, and at least 2 pairs of Pygmy Batis. Wow!

Southern Grosbeak-Canary

We eventually reached the lodge at Same at nearly 2pm, so we scoffed fish & chips or Chicken & chips quickly and had a little look around before leaving at 3.15pm. We had nice views of Wire-tailed Swallow, many Reichenow's Seedeaters, African Pied Wagtail, Hunter's Sunbird and surprisingly a group of Pale White-eyes. And then we were off on the hour long drive up into the South Pare Mountains for the endemic and very localised South Pare White-eye. We made one stop on the way up for a Striped Kingfisher and a pair of Trumpeter Hornbills but didn't hang around as time was ticking....

Looking up to the South Pare Mountains...

Well the South Pare White-eye duly obliged, despite the group of Southern Yellow White-eyes that caused a distraction to begin with, but the broad white eye-ring and grey bellies really stood out amongst the all yellow of the 'other' white-eye! If you get my meaning? The forest if really degraded and only remnant patches of what was once a magnificent forest remained and boy was it quiet up here. There wasn't one bird singing.... 

Great forest, or what is left...

Until a Bar-throated Apalis began calling and this skulker only gave glimpses to a couple of us. A Hartlaub's Turaco showed a little better, as did African Dusky Flycatcher, African Stonechat and Baglafecht Weaver. A pair of White-necked Ravens flew over and just before we left, a pair of Usambara Double-collared Sunbirds appeared. 

African Goshawk

Driving back down the mountain, an African Goshawk was perched beside the road and a Brown-hooded Kingfisher posed nicely on a bare branch to round off a really, really good first day's birding in Tanzania. We celebrated with quite a few bottles of the local brew... Kilimanjaro beer.... Cheers!