Temptations of Tanzania
INTREPID travellers and Ashbourne U3A members John and Louise Sykes gave a very interesting Zoom presentation on their trip to Tanzania in 2019.
John, who is an active member of the U3A Photography Group, is a talented photographer and illustrated their talk with beautiful photos of the birds and animals that they found at each location.
They recorded 316 different bird species and 47 mammal species during their visit.
The United Republic of Tanzania is an East African country bordering the Indian Ocean. Its neighbours are Kenya and Uganda, to the north, Rwanda, Burundi and Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the west, and Zambia, Malawi and Mozambique to the south.
The country comprises 947,000 square kilometres and the highest mountain in Africa, Mount Kilimanjaro.
They booked a specialist tour arranged by Birding Africa which visited five national parks during their stay: Arusha, Tarangire, Lake Manyara, Ngorongoro and the Serengeti.
The Arusha National Park is often overlooked by birding tour operators but bird life in the forest is prolific, with many forest species more easily seen here than elsewhere on the northern circuit.
The park surrounds Mount Meru, a prominent volcano. The park is small but varied with a spectacular landscape in three distinct areas; a crater of grassland in the midst of forest, the Jekukurmia river and the shallow alkaline Momella lakes known for wading birds and where they saw mantled guereza and whitethroated monkeys.
The lakes were teeming with wildlife, including lesser flamingo, African cuckoo, a rufous-napped lark and a banded mongoose. Their hotels were within the parks – in this case it was on the edge of Lake Manyara and surrounded by birdlife while giraffe, plains zebra, blue wildebeest and Thomson’s gazelle roamed the area. Security guards escorted visitors from their lodge to the main hotel buildings just in case predators lurked within the grounds. Early starts ensured optimal opportunity to capture birdlife activity.
The Tarangire National Park is home to 550 species of birds including yellow-billed stork, emerald-spotted wood dove, hadada ibis, blacksmith lapwing, Cape turtle dove, whitebellied canary (with not a very white belly), Swahili sparrow and red-billed hornbill. The Tarangire river is the primary source of fresh water for the wild animals during the annual dry season.
The Serengeti National park is famous and well known for its annual migration of over 1.5 million wildebeest. The park is 5,700 sq miles of grassland plains, savanna, riverine forest and woodlands.
The Skyes witnessed a feeding frenzy by multiple birds of prey: ruppell’s griffon, whitebacked vultures and lappetfaced vultures – more than 24 birds shredded the wildebeest victim, while hyenas lurked nearby. This was an amazing spectacle and a demonstration of life and death in the African savannas.
The couple were privileged to see a pride of 14 lions and other cats of differing sizes: leopards, cheetahs, serval and, very unusually, a caracal.
They also visited the Ngorongoro Crater, the world’s largest inactive crater, with a fully intact and unfilled volcanic calderam which was formed when a large volcano exploded and collapsed on itself 2-3 million years ago. Approximately 25,000 animals live in the crater, which captures a microcosm among its high walls and offers a unique sanctuary for scarce animals such as the black rhino.
The crater floor was alive with herds of buffalo, wildebeest and zebra, with the occasional warthog family running about.
The final treat was to see a black rhino with its calf.
The number and variety of birds that they saw was phenomenal and too many to mention here, but this is what they rated as their favourite six birds: schalow’s turaco, grey crowned crane, tawny eagle, spotted owlet, cardinal woodpecker and tacazze sunbird.
To find out more about Ashbourne U3A, visit u3asites.org. uk/ashbourne/home