Tanzania April 2014

In April this year I made a very nice trip to Tanzania, Kibaha Education Center. I was lucky to be one of two teachers who spent 3 weeks with 10 students from my school. The trip is a part of an exchange program between our schools. We spent a lot of time around the school and some local farmers. We also made one day trips to Bagamoyo, Morogoro and Dar es Salaam. During these days a tried to bird as much as I could at these places. As a final we went 4 days up north and visited Ngorongoro Crater, a local Masai village and some plantations on the slopes of Mt:Meru. At this time of the year it rained a lot (so much as one bridge on the road between Dar es Salaam and Arusha crashed and the trip to Arusha took more than 24 hours). Birding around Kibaha was ok even if I did´t see large amounts. A nice bird I saw many days just next to our hostel was this Striped Kingfisher. At a local fish farm I also saw this beautiful Pin-tailed Whydah.

One day we went to Bagamoyo, which is a city by the coast north of Dar es Salaam. The city used to be the trading centre for the slave trading, so the history is quite violent. As a part of the trip we visited a crocodile farm with some massive African Crocodiles as well as some colonies of weavers, like this Black-headed Weaver. By the sea some terns were resting, like this Lesser Crested Tern with 4 Common Terns and close by a group of stunning N. Carmine Bee-eaters.

An other day we went west to the university town of Morogoro. Here we also visited a local farmer who the university had supported with some vaccination for his animals. In his garden I saw the very handsome Little Bee-eater.

As my students study animal care and nature resources, we also made a trip to the stunning national parks up north. The following pictures are all from a magic day in the Ngorongoro Crater. As we descended down the crater the first bird I saw was this Schawlow´s Wheathear. Soon many of the star mammals were seen. 2 male Lions, family of Common Zebras, many Blue Wildebeests, a family of Spotted Hyenas, several Thomson´s Gazelles and a family of Black-backed Jackals.

In the crater there were of course also lots of great birds like this Kori Bustard and this group of Wattled Starlings.

As we climbed up the other side of the crater a family of Olive Baboons showed some interest of us.

It was a great trip and experience and even it was not a birding trip I managed to see 180 bird species. At the end of my blog from Tanzania 2016 you can see a full report of all birds and animals seen.