After our trip to Speke Bay Lodge back in September we had long planned to return with our car so we could self-safari in Serengeti National Park. This we eventually did from 25 Feb to 2 March.
We'd been told the road between here and Mwanza was almost all sealed now but our car sits on about 85-90 comfortably so we expected a long drive there and back. As it happened we completely misunderstood where the new sealed road goes, never found the new bit and took a long way there and an even longer way back.
Never mind. We survived with just a dusty car and stretched nerves. The scenery was magnificent along the way and it was fun comparing and contrasting village life along the way with the now familiar scenes around Kagera.
Speke Bay Lodge was most welcome at 3pm on Friday with a new host, familiar faces among the staff and the same excellent service (great cold beer and meals). The bush was quite dry as they had largely missed out on the little rainy season (Oct-Dec). Rice crops had failed etc in the district and everyone is anxiously awaiting the arrival of the big rains (any time now).
Birds were plentiful however and walking to the bar on the first afternoon I spotted three Three-banded Coursers snoozing in the garden behind the office. This is a fairly hard bird to find because it is largely nocturnal. The Speke Bay birds are quite well known now and I'm sure they have been a tick for many visiting birders. Subsequently there were up to nine in the garden most days. Also in the same patch of garden were several Square-tailed Nightjars roosting. There were a couple behind the tents as well but these were more flighty. The garden ones sat still for photos and even spread their wings and tails to show several important identification points.
Being late February rather than September there were a number of migrants birds from Europe around and I had fun getting better acquainted with WIllow Warblers, Sedge Warblers and Eastern Olivaceous Warblers. Every acacia tree seemed to have one or two of these foraging away.
The waders provided lots of entertainment on the beach in front of the breakfast and lunch tables. Some of the ruffs were colouring up nicely but they apparently don't develop their ruffs until after they leave Africa. Three species not seen on the September trip were White-fronted Plover, Greater Sand Plover and Collared Pratincole. The first two are of particular interest to the Tanzanian Atlas project as few individuals make it this far from the coast.
We stayed at Speke Bay for 4 nights. Day one was spent recovering from the drive and just relaxing. Days 2 and 3 were spent in the nearby Western Corridor section of Serengeti National Park. The Serengeti has been an almost mythical place for me for as long as I can remember. Every African wildlife documentary series showed lots of Serengeti scenes with the huge herds of Wildebeest and their attendant predators. These well known scenes are a fair bit to the east of the section we visited however. Nevertheless we saw all the big mammals except the big cats and the Rhinoceros. The large expanses of open grassland meant that the grazers were easy to spot but well dispersed generally. There was an interesting contrast between the two days. Day 1 there were relatively few animals grazing but the second day they were much more active and visible. Possibly day 1 was hotter.
There are almost no places where it is safe to get out of the car in this section of the park. I can't comment on the other areas. This meant that 99% of the time were were in the car. This also meant that identifying the smaller birds was quite difficult. Still, we managed 68 and 70 species on the two days and 94 combined. After day 1 I was stressing that I would have to return to Australia and explain to birding friends how I'd managed to spend a year in East Africa without seeing an Ostrich. A bit like how I spent several days in New York without seeing the Empire State Building.
The day 1 highlights were Wooly-necked Stork, Lappet-faced and White-headed Vultures, Bateleur, Montagu's Harrier, Dark Chanting Goshawk, White-eyed Kestrel, Coqui Francolin, Black-bellied Bustard, Two-banded and Temminck's Courser (giving me a three Courser day), Three-banded Plover, Blue-naped Mousebird, Eurasian Roller, Tanzanian Red-billed and Von der Decken's Hornbills, Usambiro Barbet, Fischer's Sparrowlark, Isabelline Wheatear, Magpie Shrike, Northern White-crowned Shrike, Chestnut and Swahili Sparrows, Red-billed and White-headed Buffalo Weavers.
Day 2 additions include Common Ostrich, Abdim's and White Stork, White-backed Vulture, Secretarybird (this and Ostrich are worth two ticks apparently), Grey Kestrel, White-bellied Bustard, Senegal Lapwing, Black-faced Sandgrouse, Black Coucal, Green Wood Hoopoe, African Grey Hornbill, Wattled Starling, Speckle-fronted Weaver and Steel-blue Whydah.
Jenny has already mentioned something of the other wildlife including the crocodile attack on the wildebeest. So, I hope you enjoy some of these bird pics and other scenes from Speke bay and Serengeti.
Bukoba, 10 March 2011
