Kunduchi waders, the Zanzibar ferry crossing and Jozani-Chwaka Bay National Park

Little Egret, Kunduchi

Jenny and I went to the VSO annual conference at Kunduchi - a beach suburb north of Dar es Salaam on 15-17 December.  I attended some of the sessions but spent as much time scanning the beach for waders, gulls and terns.  The largest concentration of birds were out on a sand bar and identification of smaller species was not possible.  Many came closer however and I saw quite a few species.  The highlights were my first sighting of Crab Plover and Sooty Gull - both here in small numbers. Other good waders were Greater and Lesser Sand Plover (nice to be able to compare them side by side), Grey Plover, Terek Sandpiper (only my second ever sighting), Whimbrel and Ruddy Turnstone.

Crab Plover

Little Stint (with a Common Ringed Plover)

Whimbrel

After the conference we headed over to Zanzibar for 6 nights of being tourists.  On the ferry crossing I perched up on top and scanned for sea-birds.  Several tiny Saunders's Terns were new for me.  Other species were Lesser crested, Gull-billed, Sooty and Sandwich Terns and Brown Noddy.

Zanzibar is largely devoid of original vegetation and large numbers of the introduced House Crows have effectively eliminated most native bird species.  The only place to see bush birds in any numbers is the tiny Jozani Forest and the adjacent coral rag scrubland.  I booked a bird guide (compulsory apparently) and birded the forest from 0600 to about 1100 on the 19th. Bakari, the guide was excellent and really knew his stuff.  More than half of the 11 new birds for me were down to his skills and ability to zero in on a bird calling in dense foliage.  We saw 37 species in all - the highlights were Blue-cheeked Bee-eater, Green-backed Woodpecker, Pale Batis, Zanzibar Boubou, African Golden Oriole, Little Greenbul, Green-backed Camaroptera, Black-bellied Starling, Grey Sunbird, Vitelline Masked Weaver and Dark-backed Weaver.

Lilac-breasted Roller, Jozani

Blue Monkey, Jozani

Zanzibar Red Colobus, Jozani

Another highlight here was the good sighting of three new mammals: the Zanj Elephant Shrew, the Zanzibar Red Colobus and the Blue Monkey.

Sunday 26th December, Bukoba

Birding Minziro Forest Reserve

Yesterday Jenny and I went on our first visit to the Minziro Forest Reserve.

This sign greeted us at the start of the forest - not sure what it says...

There is very little forest cover left in Kagera and the Minziro forest is easily the biggest.  To find it type -1.10482, 31.51714 into Google Earth's search and you will see the road through the reserve.

The forest is about 25,000 ha in size and consists of 3/4 seasonal swamp forest and 1/4 seasonally flooded grassland with Acacia woodland.  It is fairly low-lying and flat and large areas are regularly inundated by the flooding of the Kagera River to the south.

Leen, Terri and Jenny watching butterflies and birds.

A flock of butterflies

The forest has been extensively logged for the large, valuable Podocarpus trees in the past and these are now scarce and small.  Illegal logging on an unknown scale continues. The forest is continuous with the Malabigambo Forest Reserve in nearby Uganda border.

Minziro Forest is important because it is one of the largest forests in Tanzania.  It is more important however because it represents a type of forest found nowhere else in the country and one which is more similar to the forests further west in the Congo and Guinea.  It therefore contains plant and animal species that reach their eastern range limits here and occur nowhere else in Tanzania.  58 of the 245 bird species recorded in the reserve are not found outside Kagera in Tanzania and 56 of these have only been seen in Minziro.  Minziro Forest also has over 600 butterfly species - more than any other forest in Africa.

Terri searching for one of the few elephants left in the reserve

There have only been a handful of surveys of the birds of Minziro Forest and there are, no-doubt, other bird species to be found that will add to Tanzania's national tally.

So, with all these facts, we wanted to visit the forest.  The local tour company will take us into the forest with a bird guide for about US$200 per person per day.  There is supposed to be an access fee but they will never tell me who the fee is to be paid to.  We decided to do it ourselves and, if nothing else, have a nice drive.

As it turned out the drive was an easy 90 minutes, the 20 km of gravel road was smooth and the few people we met on the road in the forest were friendly and demanded nothing but our greetings.

With Jenny and I were Terri (from Maryland, Texas and soon New Mexico) and Leen (from Belgium).  Terri has been here for  a year and a half working to empower women through micro-loans etc.  She leaves us to resume her academic career in the USA on Wednesday morning.  Leen has recently arrived and is working on developing the banana industry.  She will be here for a year - possibly two.  Both lovely young women, interested in the plants and animals of the forest.

"What about the birds?" you ask.

Since it was just a first reconnaissance visit I was very pleased with the birds we saw.  Only 34 species for the forest (including adjacent grasslands) but several of the 56 forest specialists and 10 lifers for me in all.  We basically parked the car on the side of the road in a few likely places and walked along the road or on some of the tiny paths that lead into the dense forest.  The forest was quiet but the roadside edges were productive.

Highlights were Great Blue Turaco, Blue-breasted Kingfisher, Blue-breasted Bee-eater, Western Nicator, Plain Greenbul, Whinchat, Moustached Grass Warbler, Black-throated Apalis, Isabelline Shrike and Western Oriole.

Now that we know how easy it is to get to we will make as many visits as we can over the next 6 months.

Isabelline Shrike

White-throated Bee-eater

Blue-breasted Bee-eater

Sunday 5th December, Bukoba