Tanzania Day 10: ULUGURU MOUNTAINS

Breakfast at 5.30am followed by beginning our trek at 6.10am up to the forest on the ridge for some very special birds. It only took 80 minutes to get to the forest edge but it was seriously steep most of the way and required a lot of physical exertion and isn’t for the unfit. Saying that we made it! But it was touch and go whether that would be the case and then it was another kilometre up an ever increasingly steep trail inside the forest, but we didn't really notice just how steep the trail was inside the forest as we were birding all the way up. We found our first target, Uluguru Mountain Greenbul quite quickly and watched it feeding on a nearby tree. We then had a couple groups of birds comprised mainly of Loveridge’s Sunbirds, but also the endemic race of Bar-throated Apalis as well. It then took a while to find Mrs Moreau’s Warbler and as we walked along a narrow trail an Olive-flanked Ground-Robin showed for a couple people. The first attempt at the warbler was blank but our second try at an open area covered in secondary scrub was extremely fruitful and we watched two birds creeping inside the dense bushes, only showing occasionally but giving decent glimpses of their red heads. After a while they came in right next to us and we eye-balled them creeping furtively right beside us. Once everyone was satisfied with the view we made another attempt at the ground-robin and did get some more brief glimpses. As we returned to the main trail an Orange Ground-Thrush began singing and eventually we all got on it. 

Livingstone's Turaco

At the same spot we also saw a pair of Livingstone’s Turaco’s and a Bar-tailed Trogon. And that was us pretty much done, but we had a 4 kilometre steep downhill descent to make and it was tough beyond reason. But we did it and once down near the river we saw Red-capped Forest Warbler, a different race to the one we’d previously seen in Amani. After a swim in the river we packed up camp and after a late lunch we drove back to Morogoro and dropped off our excellent camp cook Emmanuelle before driving 2 hours to our lodge near Mikumi.