Tanzania Day 16 - PEMBA ISLAND. THE END!

With all 4 endemics done and dusted we just had a few more personal targets for the group today, so we set off towards Msuka Beach after breakfast. A quick pre-brekky look around the gardens produced the endemic race of African Goshawk, Brown-headed Parrots, many Broad-billed Rollers and a White-browed Coucal. 

African Goshawk - phonescoped

Along the way we had much, much better views of Dickinson’s Kestrel than yesterday and spent quite a while admiring a pair loitering on telegraph wires and a post in some fields. 

The stunning Dickinson's Kestrel

Moving on we had our first Black-winged Red Bishop of the trip and the male certainly looked stunning in the scope and a brief African Pipit as well. Once at the coast it was a little disappointing to see the tide was already way out but within a few seconds of setting up the scope we were on the hoped for Crab-Plover, well there were quite a few once we started scanning. 

Crab-Plover

They were a bit distant so the only thing to do was take off our shoes and socks and head out across the mudflats and we had further views although the tide was receding quicker than we could walk! We also found a pair of Black Herons, Common Greenshank, Grey Plover, Western Reef Herons and other padders. 

Happy with this we walked back to the car and set off in search of our next target, which we duly found at a small wetland and pool. At least 7 impressive Madagascar (Olive) Bee-eaters were sallying forth from a leafless tree after insects and flew quite close to us. Out on the pool were many White-faced Whistling-Ducks and I counted an impressive tally of 22 White-backed Ducks. And that left us just one more target, which was a lifer for most of us – Mangrove Kingfisher. And this didn’t take long to track down either and we had a very impressive individual parading around us, calling all the while and perching on prominent bare branches in a small patch of woodland. 

Mangrove Kingfisher

And so we were done. Back to the lodge at 1.30pm for lunch and we had a restful afternoon, celebrating with some ice-cold beer, swimming in the sea and enjoying a siesta. Most unusual…!!! And that was our birding in Tanzania over! What an epic trip!

Tanzania Day 15 - PEMBA ISLAND

We left Morogoro at 5.30am and set out on the 4+ hour drive to Dar Es Salaam, where Aidan was due to fly back to Ireland at 3.30pm and the rest of us had a 2.30pm flight to Pemba Island. Just over halfway we stopped to look for Ruvu Weaver, but our search was halted as someone told us it was a military area and we had to cease immediately. We did see Coastal Cisticola, Marsh Tchagra, Common Waxbill and a single Fulvous Whistling-Duck in a flock of White-faced Whistling-Ducks flying over. Anyway, despite several police checkpoints, a car crash (not us!) and few other hold-ups we still reached the airport by 11:30am. After saying our goodbyes to Aidan, our great driver George and amazing guide Abdul,  we spent a few hours in the domestic terminal’s private lounge before boarding our 14 seater aircraft for the 80 minute flight to Pemba that included a touchdown in Zanzibar. 

On our way to Pemba....

Upon arrival we met up with local guide Eddie and set off towards Gecko Lodge in far north Pemba. We birded our way there, seeing Pemba White-eye, Pemba Green-Pigeon and Pemba Sunbird at our first stop! 

Pemba Green-Pigeon

Pemba Sunbird - the only photo I managed to get

Pemba White-eye

A Dickinson’s Kestrel perched on a telegraph post then caused us to screech to a halt a bit later on the drive, although it was a little distant and didn’t linger very long but still a cracking looking bird! We eventually reached Ngezi Forest Reserve just after sunset where a Pemba Scops-Owl was easily tracked down for superb views, meaning we’d nailed all four endemics in just over two hours on the island! 

Pemba Scops-Owl

Feeling quite smug, we celebrated at the lodge with numerous Safari beers and a fine meal, which was interrupted by a Garnett’s Greater Galago next to the restaurant.

Tanzania Day 14 - UKAGURU MOUNTAINS

Our destination this morning was the impressively forested Ukaguru Mountains, where we had four specific targets. On the way up we stopped when a Southern Fiscal was spotted beside the road – or, more importantly, it proved to be the Marwitzi race and a really good candidate to be split as Uhehe Fiscal. 

The very distinctive Marwitzi race of Southern Fiscal

So we managed to get some record shots of it and whilst we were here a pair of Angola Swallows were seen perched on wires and an Augur Buzzard also appeared. Not a bad start!

Augur Buzzard

Angola Swallows

Our first main target up in the forest was Yellow-throated Mountain Greenbul, which duly obliged and showed its distinctive yellow throat. 

Yellow-throated Mountain Greenbul

Shortly after we saw the first of many Moreau’s Sunbirds feeding in nearby bushes. Walking along a narrow trail into the forest a pair of Rubeho Warblers gave point-blank views and in a burst of activity we also had Bar-throated and Chapin’s Apalis as well – the latter with a white throat and different to the more orange throats of the birds in the Uluguru Mountains…. 

Bar-throated Apalis

Chapin's Apalis

Our last target was Rubeho Akalat and this took more effort but eventually everyone had decent views as it circled us as we sat on the forest floor. It always stayed low to the ground in the dense understorey but with a bit of patience everyone managed pretty decent views. Along the same trail, an Olive-sided Ground-Chat also performed very well along the trail, but unfortunately only Abdul saw an Oriole Finch. 

Olive-sided Ground-Chat

With all of our targets seen well before 10am, we birded along the road a while, seeing an Evergreen Forest Warbler quite well for a change, saw a Livingstone’s Turaco, heard a Barred Long-tailed Cuckoo and enjoyed further very good views of a pair of Rubeho Warblers. 

Rubeho Warbler

And that was us done. So we then headed to Morogoro, a drive of several hours, where we spent the night in a decent hotel.

Tanzania Day 13 - MIKUMI NATIONAL PARK

Mainly a travelling day as we had 300kms+ to get to our next hotel. Well, saying that…. As we drove along the main road that passes through a section of Mikumi National Park we stopped a few times to look at herds of Impala, Masai Giraffe, Plains Zebra, some Water Buffalo with attendant Yellow-billed Oxpeckers, and best of all, an immature Martial Eagleperched in classic pose on top of an acacia. We called in to the entrance gate to the National Park, where we saw a Tawny Eagle, Lappet-faced & White-backed Vultures, Yellow-throated Bush Sparrow and a few other previously seen species. On a whim I asked if we could do a game drive and maybe see a few birds……? After half an hour of negotiating we were in and setting off into the National Park, with Southern Ground Hornbill high on a few of the group’s wish list. The park itself must have been hit by a major fire as every mile we travelled the grassland was burnt to a crisp and there was very little bird life or even animals at all. 

Yellow-throated Longclaw was the first bid of the game drive

Still, the open ground looked perfect for our quarry. We did see a Yellow-throated Longclaw, a couple African Elephants, more Giraffes, Nile Crocodile and Wildebeest. At a pool we saw 5 Water Thick-knees, a pair of Blacksmith’s Plovers and a Collared Pratincole flew around us for a few minutes. 

Water Thick-knee

Blacksmith's Plover

We searched and searched the burnt savanna, with only Long-tailed Fiscals being anything like numerous, along with some African Green Pigeons, Greater Blue-eared Starlings, Wattled Starlings and Capped Wheatears. Eventually, on our way back towards the entrance we did find 5 Southern Ground-Hornbills walking sedately off to our left, much to everyone’s relief. 

Capped Wheatear

Shortly after we received word of Lions on a kill so sped off and tried to locate a group of jeeps surrounding the kill. Along the way we saw 2 adult and 3 large immature Saddle-billed Storks, as well as a Marabou Stork. 

Saddle-billed Storks are always impressive

However, we passed many jeeps along the way but if it wasn’t for some Hooded Vultures circling we wouldn’t have found the right place, which was thankfully devoid of jeeps with goggling tourists and we came upon the Lions and had the place to ourselves. 

Hooded Vulture

More accurately we discovered 3 Lionesses snoozing in the shade of a couple of acacias, next to their kill – with 8 small cubs in attendance. Wow! 

Loved spending a bit of time with this group of Lions and cubs...

The cubs were sleepy but we watched some of them climbing over the adults, trying to find a comfy position to sleep. One cub looked rather uncomfortable trying to rest its head on the horn of the recently deceased Wildebeest. Driving back to the entrance gate we passed a lagoon with a few not-so-hungry Hippo’s(no Malteser references please!), and at least 3 African Jacanas. There was also a few Chestnut-backed Sparrow-Larks and a brief Fischer’s Sparrow-Lark.  Leaving here we had several hours more driving to reach a small guesthouse not too far away from our next birding site, up in the Ukaguru Mountains.

Tanzania Day 12 - KILOMBERO FLOODPLAIN

After breakfast we headed to the Kilombero floodplain, which was about an hour and a half from Hondo Hondo. We were stopped at the police checkpoint on the approach to the area and scanning from the vehicle gave us a pair of Rufous-bellied Herons, Coppery-tailed Coucal, Long-tailed & Great Cormorants, some flyby White-crowned Lapwings, Wattled Lapwing, White-faced Whistling-Duck, and more importantly, our first views of White-tailed Cisticola that popped up right beside us. 

White-tailed Cisticola

A short drive down to the river then followed and here we had amazingly close views of the rather plain-mantled Kilombero Cisticola and another streaky-backed White-tailed Cisticola. Both species were originally discovered in the 1960’s but not formally described until 2021. There were quite a few largish weavers around in non-breeding plumage that were the other key target species here – Kilombero Weaver. 

Kilombero Cisticola

Kilombero Weaver

Further exploration of the area gave us Malagasy Pond-Heron, several Squacco Herons, Blacksmith Lapwing, Pink-backed and Great White Pelicans, Malachite & Pied kingfishers. There were quite a few flocks of small passerines out in the fields and reed beds, so we spent quite a while searching for Zanzibar Red Bishop, but only found non-breeding bishops that might have been this species, along with Fan-tailed Widowbirds, Red-billed Firefinches, Crimson-rumped Waxbills, and a few more delightful Orange-breasted (Zebra) Waxbills. 

Orange-breasted (Zebra) Waxbill

By 10:30am the heat and humidity started to kick in so we drove back to Hondo Hondo and had some downtime before lunch. At 3pm we drove along some rutted farm tracks to a woodland that was devoid of any bird activity, and any hope of finding Kretschmer’s Longbill faded fast. We’d missed this species at Amani in the East Usambaras but Abdul had this back-up site of what is potentially a future split as it has distinctive red eyes, calls a little differently and inhabits slightly different habitat. But none of that matters when you haven’t seen the bird! Another short, bumpy drive took us to another woodland, where at the edge of a sugarcane plantation our only Arrow-marked Babbler of the trip was found. 

Arrow-marked Babbler

There was also a flock of Eastern Golden Weavers feeding here and further scrutiny revealed a cracking adult Lesser Seedcracker and a stunning Red-throated (Peter’s) Twinspot. With the sun fading fast our time seemed just about over to find the longbill, but lady luck was on our side and amazingly Abdul’s persistence paid off and we secured several views of it skulking in the vine tangles. Result! We also added African Fish-Eagle to our list and saw a few more African Openbills feeding in the fields.