Friday, December 14, 2012

A Taste of Ruaha & Arusha National Parks


Forest birding. Photo by Pietro Luraschi.
Having won the tender to train rangers in Ruaha National Parks to conduct safe walking safaris, I headed down to Ruaha for a quick recce with friend, fellow birder, and fellow guide trainer Pietro Luraschi. The task of finding the site for the training camp distracted from birding but we managed to see over a 100 species adding the following to my list. 

276
White-crowned Lapwing
277
Spur-winged Lapwing
278
Spotted Thick-knee
279
Heuglin's Courser
280
Purple-crested Turaco
281
Square-tailed Nightjar
282
Broad-billed Roller
283
Ruaha Hornbill
284
Collared Palm-Thrush
285
Grey-capped Social Weaver
286
Gabar Goshawk
287
d'Arnaud's Barbet
288
Yellow-bellied Greenbul
289
Pale Flycatcher
290
Great Egret
291
Amur Falcon
292
Grey Kestrel
293
Red-necked Falcon
294
Common Cuckoo
295
Böhm's Spinetail
296
African Firefinch
297
African Golden-breasted Bunting


Ruaha is Tanzania's largest national park and has a phenomenal bird list that includes quite a few "new" species. During the training in January and after I hope to see some of the special Miombo species and Ruaha specialities.

Not only birds in the forest.
With Pietro in Arusha for only a couple days, we headed off to have a look at Hatari Lodge in Arusha National Park and to get up into the forest on Mt. Meru. Forest birding is a whole different story to savannah birding and I was pleased to add the following birds to the list including some we saw on the way in.

Hartlaub's Turacco

Dusky flycatcher

Starred robin

Cinnamon breasted bee-eater

Eastern double collared sunbird


298
Lesser Spotted Eagle
299
Peregrine Falcon
300
Alpine Swift
301
Sand Martin
302
Red-throated Tit
303
Avocet
304
Diederik Cuckoo
305
Slender-tailed Nightjar
306
Lesser Flamingo
307
Greater Flamingo
308
Southern Pochard
309
Lammergeyer
310
Grey Crowned Crane
311
Spot-flanked Barbet
312
White-naped Raven
313
Rüppell's Robin-Chat
314
White-starred Robin
315
Common Stonechat
316
Olive Thrush
317
Hunter's Cisticola
318
Blackcap
319
Grey Wagtail
320
Mountain Wagtail
321
Eastern Double-collared Sunbird
322
Abyssinian Crimsonwing
323
African Moustached Warbler
324
African Dusky Flycatche