A Texas Gem at Colorado Bend

I spent last Thursday and Friday on the Colorado River at Colorado Bend State Park, just west of Lampasas, where the Colorado River forms the border between San Saba and Lampasas counties. It is a beautiful State park in the Colorado River valley bounded by bottom lands and high scenic bluffs. The water runs in long winding pools and shallow, rock-strewn rapids. In places, beautiful waterfalls cascade to the river below. The park is famous for the spring white bass run. The white bass swim up river to spawn out of the depths of Lake Buchanan. Fisherman come from all over the State to fish for the white bass just as we were doing on this trip. We saw lots of wildlife on our trip including a ton of birdlife, feral goats, raccoons, deer, armadillos and a rookery of nesting Great Blue Herons. The purpose of this week’s blog was to tell you about the park and it is really a neat place to go camping, hiking, fishing and exploring. You can hike to Gorman Falls or explore the other trails and caves in the park for days. You can learn more about the park at

http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/spdest/findadest/parks/colorado_bend/

What I really saw this last week in the park was a place to enjoy friends and family. I saw people enjoying each other and sharing the experience of Colorado Bend. I was witness to a father taking the time to make memories with his very young daughter. He had the patience of Job and spent much of his fishing time helping his young daughter have a great experience even though I do not think this trip was exactly what she wanted to do. I ran into couples older than my wife and I that were still sharing the outdoor experience with each other. We saw some of the typical jerks you experience in such places as public parks but over and over I witnessed people sharing the outdoors and offering help and advice to those around them. Take time to take someone you care about into the wild and share the experience of making memories. Colorado Bend is a great place to start, Wild Ed

Real Free Range Eggs

Farm fresh egg vs commercial egg

How many of you have ever tasted a real egg. I am not talking about the eggs you buy at the grocery store even if they say cage free, organic or whatever label they put on them. I am talking about real farm fresh free range eggs. Eggs from chickens that roam around on pasture eating natural foods like bugs, grasshoppers, worms, greens and such with maybe some grain supplemental food. The yolks of these eggs are not flat and yellow but stand up firm and have a fresh orange color to them. They make wonderful omelets and bakery goods. A couple sunny side up make a great breakfast and the taste is so much better than what we get from commercial layers. It has been some twenty five years since we had our own free range chickens, but I am looking forward to having them again. I still stop and buy free range eggs from chicken farmers every now and then just to enjoy them again. Many local farmers markets have someone that sells real free range eggs and they are worth the money.

With the turn in the economy and everyone going back to green living many towns and municipalities are again allowing residents to have backyard chickens. You might check your area and see if you could have them. A small coop with 3-4 laying hens or even bantams could supply your egg needs and they would not be laced with antibiotics and chemicals. Get out and find a source for some real eggs and see if you agree that they just taste better, Wild Ed

Brazos Boat Works Custom River Boats, Canoes and Kayaks

Two buddies and I recently left early one Saturday morning and made a trip to Gatesville, Texas to spend the day learning boat building techniques from master boat builder Gerald Kennedy, owner of Brazos Boat Works. Gerald had designed and drawn the plans for a 16 foot five panel boat called the Challenger. He guided us through laying out the drawing of the plans on marine plywood, then cutting out the pieces and stitching them together with small gauge wire.

You may follow along on the build at the following link.

http://texaspaddler.com/wordpress/bbw-forum/brazos-boat-works-forum-group3/bbw-projects-forum2/bbw-project-boat-challenger-thread17/

Gerald has all sorts of custom boats and plans for sale and even some free boat plans. You can join his forum and talk with others that paddle some of Gerald’ custom boats or have built some of his designs. Feel free to drop in and look around at the Brazos Boat Works Website. It is pretty amazing, Wild Ed

http://texaspaddler.com/wordpress/brazos-boat-works/

THE FEED MILL GATESVILLE, TEXAS
PS: I always try to let my readers know when I run across a good place to eat as I travel across this great State. Saturday we went to one of Gerald’s favorite places in Gatesville. We paid for our meal just like you will have to do so I can say with all honesty that the food was first class. Hamburgers start at just $3.75, Chicken Fried Steak at $8.95 and the Rib-eye Steak on the lunch was $9.95 The Feed Mill is one of those hole in the wall out of the way places you will want to stop at every time you go through town. They also had Catfish and BBQ on the menu, but I will have to try it another time. The fresh battered onion rings were fantastic. The Feed Mill is located at 108 N. 6th Street in downtown Gatesville. Tell them Wild Ed sent you, like they will know who that is!

Ngorongoro Crater, Ngorongoro Conservation Area: December 29, January 2, 2011

The start of our five-day trek in the Ngorongoro Crater highlands was a half-day game drive on the crater floor. This is the most reliable site in Tanzania for black rhinoceros, and there are unusually large numbers of big game, including lion, buffalo, and elephant, as well as leopard and cheetah. It was a game drive that Aimee and I had been fantasizing about for many months, but within a few minutes I knew that something was wrong with me. Slipping quickly into a delirious and feverish state, I could hardly raise my binoculars to witness the incredible wildlife around us, electing instead to lie down on the backseat of the Landcruiser with a sleeping bag wrapped around me. From the photographs that Aimee took, I can see there were thousands of Lesser Flamingos on the alkaline lake, large numbers of Grey Crowned Cranes, and a distant rhinoceros, as well as a number of lions blocking traffic in the road.

At the picnic site, Aimee, Mark, and the guides discussed what to do with me, as our five-day adventure had already been paid for and begun, while I started shaking uncontrollably and hyperventilating. Wisely, Aimee called the trip off and had the driver take us into a village a few hours away where there was a health clinic run by an American doctor. After receiving some muscle relaxants and malaria medication, I settled down into a sedate but very sick state, slowly regaining my strength at a hotel over the next few days under Aimee’s care. Mark smartly made the trek on his own, visiting Olmoti and Empakaai Craters as well as Lake Natron, which is supposedly an excellent birding site. This was a disappointing and costly end to our adventure in northern Tanzania, but I was lucky to get medical attention in such a short time. Had we been several days along in the trek, I would have had to walk out twenty kilometers on my own.

Notable birds seen: White Stork, Grey Crowned Crane, Blacksmith Lapwing, African Harrier-Hawk.

Selous Game Reserve: February 7-11, 2011

One of the perks of being in education is chaperoning school trips, which at expensive international schools can seem like once-in-a-lifetime vacations. Just consider some of the excursions that teachers and students at the International School of Tanganyika take during the year: a six-day ascent of Mount Kilimanjaro; five days of scuba diving off the north coast of Zanzibar; a week in the Hague to participate in Model United Nations; or a five-day trek in the Ngorongoro Crater Highlands. Fortunately, I was able to maneuver my way onto an excellent five-day safari in the Selous Game Reserve in southern Tanzania during IST’s Extended Studies Program. Although Aimee and I had already visited the Selous in November, my interest was piqued by the packed itinerary of the trip: one full-day game drive, two full-day walking safaris, and one afternoon boat safari in what is Africa’s largest protected area and home to probably the largest populations of elephants, buffalo, hippopotamus, and lions in the world. Even if the students were loud and rambunctious at times, there’s no way we wouldn’t see a ton of wildlife, especially birds.

Arriving at Hippo camp located outside the Mtemere Gate on Monday afternoon, we boarded four boats for a safari on the Rufiji River, with expectations of encountering hippopotamus at close range. Having taken some remarkable bird photographs in November with the help of our skilled boat driver, I was poised to fire away again, but it started to pour within minutes of our departure. Amazingly, these were the first rains of the year in the Selous, and everyone grew anxious as the skies grew darker, particularly to the remote northwest where we would be driving and walking during the rest of the week. After watching some African Golden Weavers worry over their nests in the rain, we sped around an island to meet the hippos on the other side, passing several Pied and Malachite Kingfishers along the way. As soon as the students had seen the hippos, they clamored to return to shore as none of them had brought a raincoat and many were now soaking wet. Motoring to the riverbank, we noticed that the skies were clearing and decided to continue upriver with the handful of students that were still enthusiastic.

Scores of Trumpeter Hornbills sailed overhead as they crossed the river for the night, dipping and rising in flight with a burst of hurried wing beats, unmistakably like toucans, their South American cousins. A variety of pigeons were also steadily on the move, until a Lanner Falcon burst out of the trees and scattered them in all directions. Along the islands we had fleeting looks at White-Crowned Lapwing, Water Thick-Knee, and Goliath Heron, but compared to November the bird activity was significantly lower and less interesting. Having really talked up the quality of birding in the Selous with my colleagues on the trip, I was worried that we wouldn’t see much during the next few days, especially if the weather was poor. Happily, things turned around quickly the next morning as we broke down camp and prepared to enter the reserve for the next three days. A juvenile African Pygmy Kingfisher was absorbed in its preening ritual in the bushes near the toilet, and I was able to show off its fancy plumage to several students and teachers who passed by.

Our luck continued at the entrance gate, as we watched Southern Ground Hornbill, Black-Backed Puffback, Southern Cordonbleu, and a fabulous Green-Winged Pytilia while our guides from AfriRoots secured our entrances to the reserve. Twenty-five students, four teachers, and a variety of guides, cooks, drivers, and armed rangers were distributed in half a dozen battered Landcruisers and Defenders. We were certainly a huge party, and it was wise to spilt up into two groups for the game drive, while the armed rangers and cooks drove ahead to our campsite at Lake Tagalala, sixty kilometers deep into the reserve. The four students in my car were an interesting mix, although they were alike in that none of them had been on a serious safari before. I gently let everyone know that we’d be stopping for birds as well as mammals, and tried to get the students interested as well by allowing them to take photographs with my camera or look through my binoculars on occasion. Our driver, John Bosco, was a real sport, and he made sure to stop the car every time we passed a good photographic opportunity, such as an African Spoonbill feeding along the shore or a Northern Carmine Bee-Eater perched low just off the road.

The most prized sight in the Selous Game Reserve is that of the endangered African wild dog, and despite finding sixteen individual lions throughout our full-day game drive, we were ultimately disappointed to miss this rare canine. The lions were quite active though, and we watched several groups of them feast on recent wildebeest kills. We also found a male lion in the open drinking from a small pool in the heat of the day. The most interesting birds we encountered included a single Pink-Backed Pelican, several Crested Barbets, and a spectacular Giant Kingfisher perched on a dead tree amidst dozens of Cattle Egrets. I was also surprised to see Von der Decken’s Hornbill as far south as the Selous. Migratory bee-eaters were present in huge numbers, especially the glorious Northern Carmine Bee-Eater, which was widespread in a variety of habitats within the reserve. We arrived at our fly camp along Lake Tagalala in the afternoon, setting up camp closer to the water than I was comfortable with, especially considering the group of twenty hippopotamus wading a few meters off shore. The armed rangers would patrol the area all night, we were assured, and with multiple campfires going there was no danger of hippos trampling one of our tents on its way to feed in the tall grass.

The next day we set off on foot in two groups towards Beho Beho Hot Springs, several kilometers away in the hills to the northwest of the lake. Having seen so many active lions the day before, it was a bit unsettling to be walking around far from the safety of a car, but our concerns melted away as the sun rose higher in the sky. Our armed ranger Apollo definitely knew his birds, but he was intent on marching us as fast as possible along a circuitous route to the springs. I managed to catch a glimpse of a few birds though, including Spotted Morning-Thrush, Common Scimitarbill, Pale Batis, and Southern Red Bishop. As it was my first authentic walking safari, I tried to be content seeing the familiar mammals on foot, albeit at a much greater distance than usual. Indeed, impala, giraffes, and waterbuck scattered back into the woodland whenever they sensed our presence, sometimes from many hundreds of meters away. While it’s certainly wise to be alert to the presence of lions in the area, the far greater danger is that of encountering elephants, buffalo, or hippos. In fact, in the last few months there have been three tourist deaths on walking safaris in Ruaha National Park, two caused by elephants one by hippopotamus. After enjoying the hot springs for a few hours, we drove back to camp, searching for wild dogs but finding an exquisite Red-Necked Falcon along the way.

On the following day, we planned to walk from Lake Tagalala to Lake Manze, again breaking into two smaller groups for safety. The teachers switched groups, and I immediately noticed an improvement as one of the guides pointed out a group of Grey Go-Away-Birds high in a tree. Stopping to examine tracks and discuss animal behavior, we covered many kilometers on foot this morning, passing through open dry areas, woodland, and marsh habitat. African Fish Eagle, Collared Palm-Thrush, Red-Necked Falcon, Brown-Necked Parrot, and Grey-Headed Kingfisher were among the better birds seen, but the highlight was no doubt passing within five meters of a female lion concealed in a bush. Our group was walking quietly along in single file when one of the guides signaled for us to stop and waved me and the other trailing students to the front of the line. He carefully explained that there was a lion in dense cover nearby, which I quickly confirmed with my binoculars, and cautioned us to back up slowly and silently. Later, he shared that this was only the second time he had seen a lion in ten years of leading walking safaris in Tanzania, explaining that usually they hurried away at first sight or smell of humans on foot. Exhilarated but exhausted, we concluded our hike with a picnic lunch under a massive baobab tree, a spot from which another guide told me had seen an African Crowned Eagle kill a young impala a few years ago.

That afternoon we returned to the Mtemere Gate in our vehicles, stopping occasionally for a bird or mammal but again failing to catch sight of a wild dog. At one point, we saw dozens of vultures circling low over some woodland near the road, and thinking it was a fresh kill, we drove off to investigate, finding only a dead wildebeest with a metal snare around its leg (African White-Backed Vultures, of course, were busy pulling out its entrails). Whether for meat or profit, poaching in the Selous is a serious problem, and there are stories of boatloads of elephant tusks being shipped off to East Asia each month. Back at the Hippo Camp, where we would be camping for the final night of the trip, we boarded the boats for another attempt at a safari on the Rufiji River. Although the weather was much improved from Monday afternoon, the bird activity was again disappointingly low, and our boat driver had a poor eye for spotting birds and an even poorer ability to maneuver the boat close enough for good photographs. Considering I had spent the whole week in a game reserve instead of a classroom, it wasn’t hard to be content with observing the gorgeous Malachite Kingfishers from a distance.

Notable birds seen: Great Egret, Goliath Heron, Pink-Backed Pelican, Long-Tailed Cormorant, African Darter, Striated Heron, Black Egret, Grey Heron, Hamerkop, Yellow-Billed Stork, African Open-Billed Stork, Marabou Stork, Sacred Ibis, Hadada Ibis, African Spoonbill, Egyptian Goose, Fulvous Whistling-Duck, White-Faced Whistling-Duck, Black Kite, African Fish Eagle, White-Headed Vulture, African White-Backed Vulture, Lappet-Faced Vulture, Tawny Eagle, Bateleur, Lanner Falcon, Red-Necked Falcon, Helmeted Guineafowl, African Jacana, Black-Winged Stilt, Blacksmith Lapwing, White-Crowned Lapwing, Crowned Lapwing, Common Ringed Plover, Water Thick-Knee, Common Sandpiper, Brown-Necked Parrot, Grey Go-Away-Bird, Black-and-White Cuckoo, White-Browed Coucal, Speckled Mousebird, Pied Kingfisher, Grey-Headed Kingfisher, African Pygmy Kingfisher, Malachite Kingfisher, Woodland Kingfisher, Giant Kingfisher, White-Fronted Bee-Eater, Little Bee-Eater, Blue-Cheeked Bee-Eater, Northern Carmine Bee-Eater, Broad-Billed Roller, European Roller, Lilac-Breasted Roller, Green Wood-Hoopoe, Common Scimitarbill, African Grey Hornbill, Southern Ground Hornbill, Trumpeter Hornbill, Von der Decken’s Hornbill, Crested Barbet, African Pied Wagtail, Common Bulbul, Spotted Morning Thrush, Collared Palm-Thrush, Red-Faced Crombec, Spotted Flycatcher, African Paradise-Flycatcher, Pale Batis, Grassland Pipit, Wire-Tailed Swallow, Collared Sunbird, Long-Tailed Fiscal, Isabelline Shrike, Black-Backed Puffback, Fork-Tailed Drongo, Red-Billed Oxpecker, White-Browed Sparrow-Weaver, African Golden Weaver, Red-Billed Firefinch, Green-Winged Pytilia, Southern Cordon-Bleu, Southern Red Bishop.

Sadaani National Park: February 12-14, 2011

A migrating Crab Plover might travel from Dar es Salaam to Sadaani National Park in under an hour. Arriving by car takes more than four though, and the lack of a direct route has no doubt discouraged many expatriates from visiting this relatively new and unique park that protects over one thousand square kilometers of coastal woodland, scrub, and grassland habitat. Indeed, Sadaani is the only national park in east Africa along the Indian Ocean, and although there’s not as much large game to be seen as in the country’s more established parks and reserves further inland, it’s definitely worth a weekend of relaxed exploration. Having procured luxurious accommodation right on the deserted beach at Sadaani Safari Lodge, Aimee and I decided to spend our last three-day weekend together in Tanzania here, looking forward to a variety of activities, including driving, walking, and boating safaris.

Leaving home before dawn, we arrived via Chalinze at the park entrance after four hours of relatively easy driving, making a weekend trip from Dar to Sadaani slightly more feasible than to Mikumi National Park. After paying our entrance fees ($20 per person per 24 hours), we drove slowly through open grassland and acacia habitat, spotting a few birds, such as Dark Chanting-Goshawk and Northern Carmine Bee-Eater along the way. Waterbuck, bushbuck, and yellow baboon were common, although in small numbers. Aside from the inhabitants of the village of Sadaani, a small fishing community located within the boundaries of the park, we encountered no other tourists while driving the well-signed network of roads. We checked into our room, having received a generous upgrade to an excellent suite, and took a long nap after lunch, which would have been perfect if it weren’t for the large party of obnoxious Chinese guests sitting at a table nearby. Indeed, China has recently increased its investment in Tanzania, creating a significant tension between western diplomats and aid workers long used to their wealthy, almost kingly, status here and the newly rich Chinese expatriate business class who are simply looking for a good time.

Amid the peaceful din of the wind and waves, I drifted in and out of sleep, slowing becoming aware of a substantial amount of bird activity outside. A few minutes of investigation in some fruiting bushes nearby yielded a host of good birds: Red-Fronted Tinkerbird, Black-Collared and Brown-Breasted Barbets, Eurasian Golden Oriole, Blue-Naped Mousebird, Black-Bellied Starling, and Common Rock-Thrush. Aslo, in a large conifer overhead were dozens of bee-eaters, including Blue-Cheeked and Northern Carmine Bee-Eaters. In fact, there were birds everywhere around our banda, including swallows overhead and terns just offshore. After reeling off hundreds of photographs, including decent shots of a restless pair of Black-Headed Batis, I returned to our room, where Aimee was reading a back issue of African Birds and Birding. An offshoot of Africa Geographic, this terrific South African magazine is focused entirely on the continent’s avifauna, highlighting individual species and notable conservation projects. From the issues I glanced through that were scattered about the lodge, there’s very little on east Africa. With variety of protected areas and well-developed infrastructure, South Africa looks simply like birding heaven.

Back on the road for an evening game drive, Aimee and I puzzled long over several confusing birds. The first simply appeared to be African Grey Hornbill, but upon closer inspection all the birds in this group clearly had creamy-yellow lower mandibles along with an orange-red tip. According to the field guide, the Pale-Billed Hornbill is restricted to miombo woodland and is rarely found further afield; it’s a species I’ve yet to see despite having spent considerable time in miombo woodland in southern Tanzania. Eastern Yellow-Billed Hornbill, another possibility, has been recorded at Sadaani, but I was confident that this wasn’t the correct identification, as the birds we were watching had dark grey wings and mantle, like the common African Grey Hornbill. We continued on with the issue unresolved, soon encountering a massive black and white eagle along the road. At first glance, I was convinced it was a juvenile African Crowned Eagle, as it alighted in a nearby tree with its crown raised high in agitation. With its thighs and talons out of sight though, it could just have easily been a juvenile Martial Eagle, and we would see a pair of adult Martial Eagles the following day.

Birding in Tanzania is so easy compared to Ecuador that it was nice for once to have some identifications to mull over that evening, and I was still pondering the following morning as Aimee and I drove out to Zaraninge Forest on the southwestern side of the park. Unfortunately, the weather and tidal conditions prohibited a boat safari on the Wami River, so we decided to explore one of the largest swaths of protected coastal humid forest left in Tanzania, hoping to see some forest bird species. Just a few kilometers down the entrance road to the forest, we turned back due to heavy rains and treacherous road conditions; I had spun out several times already in the wet black cotton soil. Having now been foiled twice on our excursion, we glumly drove back to the lodge. Suddenly, Aimee pointed out a huge eagle perched in the distance, and we approached it carefully by car. A soaking Martial Eagle sat out in the open directly above the road. For the next hour as the storm receded, we watched this magnificent specimen as it dried and preened itself in the growing light. Note the delicate black spotting on the bird’s pure white underparts.

Several kilometers later we found another adult Martial Eagle perched in the open, this time far from the road. In fact, there were several eagles on the wing in the improved weather, including a Black-Chested Snake-Eagle rising on a thermal in the distance. Thwarted again the following morning by the weather and tides, we never did have the chance to explore the Wami River by boat, which passes through mature mangrove and riparian forest habitat and is supposedly excellent for birding. Again, there were great birds to see in the fruiting bushes by our room, including a pair of the territorial Spotted Morning-Thrush. A final pass through the savanna on our way back to Dar yielded Flappet Lark, Red-Backed Shrike, Common Scimitarbill, Levaillant’s Cuckoo, and Yellow-Rumped Seedeater, concluding our restful but still engaging visit to Sadaani National Park.

Notable birds seen: Open-Billed Stork, Black Kite, African Fish Eagle, African White-Backed Vulture, Black-Chested Snake-Eagle, Dark Chanting-Goshawk, Bateleur, Martial Eagle, Black-Bellied Bustard, Caspian Tern, Gull-Billed Tern, Levaillant’s Cuckoo, Blue-Naped Mousebird, Pied Kingfisher, Striped Kingfisher, Grey-Headed Kingfisher, Little Bee-Eater, White-Throated Bee-Eater, Blue-Cheeked Bee-Eater, Northern Carmine Bee-Eater, European Roller, Common Scimitarbill, Crowned Hornbill, Trumpeter Hornbill, Brown-Breasted Barbet, Collared Barbet, Red-Fronted Tinkerbird, Flappet Lark, Yellow-Throated Longclaw, Zanzibar Sombre Greenbul, White-Headed Black-Chat, White-Browed Scrub-Robin, Spotted Morning Thrush, Red-Faced Crombec, Scarlet-Chested Sunbird, Isabelline Shrike, Red-Backed Shrike, Eurasian Golden Oriole, Lesser Masked Weaver, Bronze Mannikin, Black-Headed Batis, Common Rock-Thrush, Palm-Nut Vulture, Yellow-Rumped Seedeater, Black-Bellied Starling.

Lake Ndutu, Ngorongoro Conservation Area: December 29-January 2, 2011

Even for residents of Tanzania, visiting the Serengeti is generally a once in a lifetime experience, so Aimee and I wanted to take our time and see as much as possible. Arranging a visit independently can be daunting though, as there is no budget or even mid-range accommodation in the region, and public campsites are nearly impossible to reserve in advance. To make matters more complicated, Serengeti National Park is 15,000 square kilometers in size, and offers a wide array of habitat beyond its famous endless plains. We had discussed our options for months, it seemed, making little progress in answering practical questions about our trip. My colleagues were of little help as well, as many of them haven’t visited the region yet, or simply flew in and stayed at one of the expensive, high-volume hotels in Seronera. Finally, a few weeks before our vacation I stumbled upon a website for a movable bush camp called Serengeti Savanna Camp that followed the wildebeest migration throughout the year while offering hefty discounts for residents. In January, the camp would be at Lake Ndutu, which is just on the other side of the park’s boarder with the Ngorongoro Conservation Area ($50 per person per 24 hours). It was all part of the same ecosystem, I figured, and if the wildebeest migration were in this area at the time, then the predators would surely be there, too.

This turned out to be a fortuitous decision, as we would find out later after comparing the driving safari experience at Ndutu with that around Seronera in the national park itself, which we would visit on a long day trip. The drive from Mto Wa Mbu to Lake Ndutu was first an ambitious undertaking though, and we didn’t get started until close to noon, as I bounced around town with a mechanic all morning to repair the car. After u-bolt repairs, tire pressure adjustments, fluid replacements, and even a weld to our front grill, we raced into the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, which protects one of Africa’s most awesome landscapes, the world’s largest intact volcanic caldera, Ngorongoro Crater. The fertile grasslands covering the 260 square kilometer crater floor is densely populated with big game, including rhinoceros, elephant, lion, and cheetah, and we stood around in amazement at the first viewpoint from the crater rim. In a week’s time, we would be driving along the crater floor and then trekking many kilometers to the north to explore the crater highlands, so after a few photographs and some scanning with our binoculars we pushed on past the crater and towards the Serengeti.

The NCA is also home to the colorful Maasai, who live in traditional villages and raise cattle in the plains of northern Tanzania and southern Kenya. There’s a palpable tension between tourist and pastoralist around the crater rim, as most visitors long for an authentic wildlife experience while the Maasai gaze longingly with their cattle at the prohibited crater floor. There’s a fair amount of cultural tourism here too, and tour groups make short stops at Maasai bomas, or villages, so that visitors can negotiate the price of a photograph of a Maasai warrior or ornately decorated woman. While I’m certainly interested in the traditional people of east Africa, especially the few remaining groups of nomadic hunters, the vibe at the bomas didn’t feel right to me, and we only made one other stop along the crater rim to check out a Martial Eagle perched in the distance on an acacia tree. This massive black and white eagle was unflappable as several Cape Rooks harassed it from above. After winding down the back of the crater, the packed dirt and gravel road points straight ahead to the Serengeti, but its surface has been shaped by wind and traffic into a rigorous washboard that would cost us several hours. A few Capped Wheatears reluctantly left their territories along the road where we stopped to change a tire, after Mark nailed a sizable rock; meanwhile, the Landcruisers jammed past us at over 100 kilometers per hour, spraying dust and rock all directions.

Finally, we reached the turnoff to Lake Ndutu, and the rest of the way across the plain looked smooth and free of traffic. Thousands of Thompson’s Gazelle, zebra, and wildebeest munched cautiously on the short green grass, while Common Ostrich and Kori Bustard stomped about on their powerful legs. Larks, sparrows, and whydahs abounded in great quantities, but it seemed almost sacrilegious to ignore one of the great animal migrations for the sake of a few minor bird identifications. Plus, after a long day of uncomfortable driving, Mark and Aimee weren’t enthusiastic about parsing plumage differences between lark species. Approaching Lake Ndutu, we came to the edge of the woodland that surrounds the lake, spotting a Secretary Bird perched in the top of a large tree. After it flew off, we were surprised to see another adult pop out of the top of the tree, an obvious sign that this was a nesting pair. One of the most unique birds of prey in the world, the Secretary Bird is shockingly tall and gangly as it prances about the grasslands in pursuit of snakes and lizards. They’re also capable of soaring to great heights, appearing like a stork with its massive wings and long legs trailing in flight.

After cruising around the huge alkaline lake, we arrived at our bush camp and had a few sundowners around the campfire as the Maasai guard told us about the leopard he sees regularly stalking through the camp at night. Although I am principally interested in learning about the birds of the region, our primary goal during the next few days was to see the big game of the Serengeti Plains, especially lion, cheetah, and leopard. Hopefully, we would see plenty of birds in their pursuit, on game drives I was planning to follow other safari vehicles and to ask other drivers where we could find big cats, instead of aimlessly driving around and stopping for every bird call or flutter of wings. We breakfasted at sunrise the following morning, noting the Red-Cheeked Cordon-Bleu, Beautiful Sunbird, and distinctive Silverbird around the camp while we enjoyed an elegant spread. Although Seregenti Savanna Camp is advertised as an “everything you need, and nothing you don’t” experience, we were all impressed with the food and service during our four-night stay.

After consulting with two other drivers, I drove us out to the small marsh area a few kilometers from the camp, where big cats had been seen regularly. Within minutes we were meters away from two exquisite cheetahs that had languidly trotted down to a stream for a drink. A true pinnacle of evolution, the cheetah’s long and sleek body is capable of running at 70 kilometers per hour, as it chases antelope in the open plains. I had told Aimee repeatedly that I only needed to see a cheetah and a Secretary Bird to be satisfied with my Serengeti experience, and we had encountered both in just a few short hours of driving safari. An hour later we moved on, finding a large pride of lions asleep under tree, their legs and tails strewn about in apparently extreme exhaustion. Perhaps these lions were simply lazy, as they didn’t move their position until late that afternoon. Continuing past the marsh, we headed out to an open plain where there were thousands of migrating wildebeest, as well as several spotted hyenas loping around. Massive groups of Wattled Starlings consorted together, and a few Marabou Storks stood about, but the landscape was simply dominated by large mammals. Heading back to the camp for lunch, we spotted a striking Long-Crested Eagle perched on top of a bare tree. I circled around the tree in the car to photograph this small but impressive bird of prey, whose long, thin crest was blowing about rakishly in the wind.

Successive game drives in the marsh and woodland around Lake Ndutu proved equally rewarding, and we quickly grew familiar with the network of roads that wound about the confusing landscape, to the point where I could return to camp after nightfall without getting lost. Highlights include seeing mating lions, gorging hyenas, and a delightful bat-eared fox, as well as a host of new birds, including Steppe Eagle, African Cuckoo, White Stork, and the Serengeti endemic Grey-Breasted Spurfowl. The Silverbird around our camp would prove to be one of my favorites, a vocal and distinctive flycatcher that never quite let me approach close enough to photograph satisfactorily. The only Serengeti-Mara endemic we missed was the Grey-Crested Helmet-Shrike, which is thinly distributed in the hilly woodland in the northern section of the park.

From our base at Lake Ndutu, we made two long driving exursions, one into the Seronera region of Serengeti National Park (covered in a separate post) and another to Olduvai Gorge, several hours’ drive back into the Ngorongoro Conservation Area. The latter site is, of course, more interesting to an archaeologist than a naturalist, but it’s really a must-see for all visitors to the area. Aimee, Mark, and I elected to take a guided walk down into the gorge to see exactly where Mary Leakey and her team discovered the famous remains of early hominids, as well as of other Paleolithic animals that used to inhabit the area, including bizarre-looking giraffes and antelopes. The lookout above the gorge is a popular site for picnics, and several guidebooks promised a hoard of bird species would be in attendance at midday. All I observed were Vitelline Masked Weaver and Common Bulbul, missing Red-and-Yellow Barbet, Rufous Chatterer, and Purple Grenadier, among others. After our final night at Lake Ndutu, we drove back to the Ngorongoro Crater to meet up with the safari company that was running our five-day trek in the highlands to the north. By the early afternoon, though, I had fallen terribly sick with malaria, and Aimee and I were forced to bow out of the trek, leaving Mark to explore this remote region on his own.

Notable birds seen: Common Ostrich, Marabou Stork, Black Kite, Secretary Bird, Lappet-Faced Vulture, Augur Buzzard, Tawny Eagle, Steppe Eagle, Bateleur, Long-Crested Eagle, Lesser Kestrel, Grey-Breasted Spurfowl, Kori Bustard, Crowned Lapwing, Fischer’s Lovebird, Abyssinian Scimitarbill, Capped Wheatear, Wattled Starling, Silverbird, Greater Flamingo, Lesser Flamingo, Beautiful Sunbird, Purple Grenadier, Black-Faced Waxbill, Blue-Capped Cordon-Bleu, Hamerkop, White Stork, Egyptian Goose, Black-Shouldered Kite, Two-Banded Courser, Ring-Necked Dove, Woodland Kingfisher, African Cuckoo.

The Ranch House Ghost

It was a miserable, bitter cold night along the Colorado River in San Saba County. The wind was howling when my wife and I drove up and parked in front of the old wooden house on top of a hill overlooking the river valley. It was pitch black and not a star was visible due to the Arctic blast that had blown down into the Texas Hill Country. I turned my back to the cold and quickly worked to turn the key in the old lock, get into the house and turn on a light. While my wife was getting her things from the car I rushed into the house and lit a couple of old gas heaters to try and take some of the chill off before we went to bed. We had driven several hours in the dark after work and needed to rise early as we were going deer hunting the next morning.

The old pier and beam ranch house had been home to several generations and told its age by moaning and creaking in the howling winter wind. We piled on the quilts and hurried to bed snuggling to stay warm. I had drifted off into that semiconscious state just before sleep when I heard someone walking across the wood floor in the back of the house. I at first thought my wife had gotten up to get something but as I instinctively reached back I felt her next to me. She also had been awakened by the sound of footsteps. As the footsteps got closer to our room I jumped up in the dark and felt for my bag to retrieve my Colt 1911 .45. I slipped quietly over to the door and felt for the light switch. Light filled the room as I flipped the switch and the footsteps moved to the other end of the house. I jerked open the door and ran into the next room ready to confront an intruder and found nothing. My wife and I then went room to room searching the house looking for an intruder. I checked to make sure all the exterior doors were latched and went back to bed, this time with the pistol and a flashlight by my side.

I had a hard time going back to sleep and lay listening to the moaning and groaning of the old house trying to hear any sound out of place. I finally drifted off to sleep from exhaustion. Something made me sit straight up in bed and I again heard the sound of footsteps walking through the old house. This time they were headed straight towards the bedroom where we lay listening. I picked up the Colt and lay in wait. The sound of steps actually came right into our bedroom yet I heard no sound of a door opening in the dark. I turned on a flashlight expecting to confront the intruder but found the room empty. I leaped to the floor, flipped on the light switch and heard the sound of footsteps running through the house. I was freaking out as I chased the sound through the house. I could hear the sound of footsteps but saw no one. The old house was about 120 feet long so try to imagine what was going through my mind as I ran through the house in the dark with my flashlight and pistol in hand. I could hear every step on the cold wood floor yet no one was there. I ran to the end of the house into a sun room that was mostly glass and had an exterior door that went out into a side yard. I threw on the outside light just in time to see a big Armadillo come running out from under the old house.

The house was built on pier and beam at about 24 inch centers. The old wood floor was nailed directly to the solid beams so any sound was amplified right into the old house. The armadillo roaming around under the old house was hitting his back on the bottom of the beams as he moved under the house making the footstep sounds every 24 inches. When I jumped on the floor the sound must have scared the armadillo and it ran to the other end of the house making the running sounds. As I ran chasing the sound, the armadillo ran faster all the way through the house until it got away from the stomping sounds on the floor above. We had found our intruder. I never did sleep well in that old house again, Wild Ed

Quick and Easy Banana Nut Bread

It seems like we have a banana in every bunch we buy that gets over ripe before we use it. I used to put them in the freezer until I had two or three and then make a banana bread, banana pancakes or banana cake from scratch and try to use the ripe bananas so as to not be wasteful. In a hurry one day I grabbed a plain white cake mix out of the pantry and instead of following the directions I mashed up 2 ripe bananas, put in three eggs and a 1/3 cup of oil. I stirred in the cake mix and started to add the water called for on the box, but when I looked at the bowl the density looked just right for banana bread. I have since made some with the water and it makes a light cake but we like the denser bread type product that is produced by not using the liquid called for in the directions.

Next I chopped up some pecans, poured in a little vanilla and stirred it all together. I then poured it into greased loaf pans and turned out some of the best banana nut bread we ever tasted. I have since used yellow cake mix, strawberry cake mix and pineapple cake mix instead of the plain white. Each taste a little different, my favorite is the strawberry cake mix banana bread with pecans and chopped dates. Everyone that tastes this asks what it is and then wants to know where to get it or how to make it. These also come out wonderful baked in individual mini loaves or muffins. I just bought some fresh blueberries to try in the next batch.

Here are the basic ingredients and you can change them or add whatever you like.

1 box cake mix (I use whatever house brand is at the store where I buy groceries)

2 ripe bananas (mashed)

3 eggs

1/3 cup of oil (butter tastes wonderful, but I usually use olive oil)

½ to 1 cup of nuts ( I like pecans or walnuts)

1/3 to ½ cup of chopped fruit or dates

1 teaspoon of vanilla

Just dump everything in a big bowl and stir it up until mixed thoroughly. Pour into greased pans. I just spray mine with olive oil spray. Bake at 350 degrees until a toothpick comes out clean and the bread is a rich golden color. Cool and remove from pans.





I just found an over ripe pear in the crisper, guess what is going in one of these tasty breads next. Enjoy, Wild Ed

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Tarangire National Park: December 28, 2010

Tarangire National Park is just two hour’s drive from Arusha, but we had to double back and head south to reach it from our base at Mto Wa Mbu. Although it was two months too late to visit the park during its peak season, which is the height of the dry season, Tarangire is simply too celebrated a destination by safari connoisseurs to pass up. For example, travel writer and historian Graham Mercer, who used to teach at the international school where I work in Dar and who has lived in country for three decades, calls it easily his favorite park, praising its diversity of habitat as well as its high concentration of game along the river during the dry season. Several of my colleagues also visited in October and were treated to huge herds of elephants and several family groups of cheetah. It’s also noteworthy for the relative lack of crowds compared to Manyara, Ngorongoro, and Serengeti. There are plenty of expensive lodges to stay inside and outside the park, but we decided to save our money by making a day trip from the Lake Manyara region, where there is a wider range of accommodation.

Again, the author of the Bradt Guide to Tanzania, Philip Briggs, who is certainly a bird enthusiast if not an expert birder, informed me of the special birds to focus on during our short visit. Two east African endemics, the Yellow-Collared Lovebird and Ashy Starling, are reported to be easier to see here than any other site in Tanzania, and we found both species feeding on the ground together within the first hour of our visit ($35 per person per 24 hours). The lovebirds were particularly dramatic as they fanned over the ground in tight formation, their green and yellow plumage looking even more brilliant against the dusty ground. We spent the next several hours exploring the Little Serengeti Circuit, a dense network of roads that pass through savanna grasslands, finding a host of new birds, including Black-Faced Sandgrouse, Two-Banded Courser, White-Bellied Bustard, Brown Snake-Eagle, and Common Ostrich. At two and a half meters in height, the latter is an incredible sight no matter how many times you’ve seen an ostrich in a zoo, and Mark, Aimee, and I gazed out the windows in amazement as a group of six birds strode about the plain.

Tarangire is easily the most confusing national park or game reserve that we’ve driven through on our own. Despite having multiple maps of the road system, we had no clue where we were at times and struggled to orient ourselves in the overcast morning. Obtaining directions from another driver would only help for a hundred meters or so, until we reached the next unmarked fork in the road. Sure, seeing Red-and Yellow Barbet, Red-Billed Hornbill, and Lilac-Breasted Roller at seemingly every turn was a nice consolation, but ultimately we wanted to reach Lake Burunge and perhaps even Gursi Swamp, sites that promised Long-Crested Eagle and cheetah. Eventually, my confidence was shaken to the point where we had to stay in sight of the main road and be content with the path more traveled along the Tarangire River. Happily, this allowed us to stop in for lunch at the lovely Tarangire Safari Lodge, where we feasted for once after several days of eating out of the cooler in the car. The grounds of the lodge were also excellent for birds, including Ashy and Superb Starlings, White-Bellied Go-Away-Bird, and Grey Woodpecker.

After lunch we continued south along the Tarangire River, where we saw several herds of elephants walking along and feeding in the adjacent woodland. We watched one huge tusker in particular tear down an entire tree to eat the small green leaves on its thorny upper branches. Indeed, elephants had destroyed many trees throughout the park; perhaps a third of them in total had been damaged to some degree. There is a nice viewpoint in this area south of the Tarangire Safari Lodge that overlooks the river from a cliff. We stopped here for a while to take a break from driving the main road, whose washboard surface made for a brutally bouncy ride. A group of White-Headed Buffalo-Weavers was extremely confiding here, where at Mkomazi National Park, for example, they were very wary. In fact, birds at all the viewpoints and picnic sites in the busy national parks are more or less habituated to humans, as they’ve learned to pick up the scraps that tourists leave behind from their box lunches. For once, birders can view and photograph various sparrows, starlings, weavers, and waxbills at their leisure.

Towards the end of the afternoon, we decided to drive back around to the entrance and head south towards Lake Burunge again to look for waterbirds and birds of prey. Again, we were forced to drive along the rough main road, as any attempt to take the smaller and smoother dirt roads would end up with us getting lost. I stopped once to inspect some birds feeding on the ground just back from the road, which proved to be a group of Rufous-Tailed Weavers, another Serengeti endemic species. This unique bird, both in appearance and behavior, has been placed in its own genus, and is described sometimes as a cross between a sparrow-weaver and a babbler. When we got back on the road, I noticed the car was riding poorly and stopped to examine the suspension. Another u-bolt had broken off, and the springs were dangerously close to coming loose like they did a week ago outside of Kilimanjaro National Park. Mark encouraged me to drive it slowly to the entrance gate, where a mechanic could hopefully replace the bolt and straighten out the springs.

We limped into the park, covering less than five kilometers in thirty minutes and had to all plans of continuing our driving safari that day. Unfortunately, we still had to drive back to Mto Wa Mbu that evening, which was another two hours away. While it’s generally difficult to get things accomplished in the country, I must say that so far Tanzanians have always proven happy to help foreigners in distress, especially when it involves a potentially lucrative car repair. Indeed, within a few minutes there were half a dozen rangers and mechanics discussing our problem. They discussed the situation for a long time, in fact, and I had to send Aimee away to enjoy the viewing tower near the park gate as she was getting distressed. Since no one had any spare u-bolts that were the appropriate size, the head mechanic decided to switch two of them around and then tie up the springs held by one bolt with lots of wire. This took a few hours to accomplish, after which he informed us that we could only drive at ten kilometers per hour back to the main road; otherwise, the remaining u-bolt would break and the springs would collapse. We made it, of course, but would experience considerable delay the following morning as we had the car repaired for our long drive out to Serengeti National Park.

Notable birds seen: Common Ostrich, Egyptian Goose, African White-Backed Vulture, Black-Chested Snake-Eagle, Brown Snake-Eagle, Tawny Eagle, Helmeted Guineafowl, Common Kestrel, White-Bellied Bustard, Spotted Thick-Knee, Two-Banded Courser, Blacksmith Lapwing, Black-Faced Sandgrouse, Yellow-Collared Lovebird, White-Bellied Go-Away-Bird, Grey-Headed Kingfisher, Woodland Kingfisher, Little Bee-Eater, Red-Billed Hornbill, Von der Decken’s Hornbill, Southern Ground Hornbill, Red-and-Yellow Barbet, d’Arnaud’s Barbet, Nubian Woodpecker, Grey Woodpecker, White-Browed Scrub-Robin, Northern Pied Babbler, Magpie Shrike, Slate-Coloured Boubou, Ashy Starling, Rufous-Tailed Weaver, White-Headed Buffalo-Weaver, Black-Faced Waxbill, Red-Cheeked Cordon-Bleu.

Lake Manyara National Park: December 27, 2010

With a thunderstorm on the horizon to the north, snow-speckled Mount Meru to the east, and the great Rift Valley opening up before us to the south, it felt as if we were truly entering one of the last great wild areas on the planet as we drove from Arusha to Lake Manyara National Park late one afternoon. Actually, we had arrived on the most popular and expensive safari circuit in east Africa, and almost every other vehicle on the road was a Toyota Landcruiser with a pop-up top, two spare tires, and jerry cans strapped to the back. All of them were, of course, filled with tourists burdened with camera equipment, guidebooks, and high expectations, and the drivers of these vehicles were more than ready to deliver the big game. Over the course of the next few weeks, we would encounter the same Landcruisers at park entrances, picnic sites, and animal kills, and the names of all the safari companies would eventually blur together into one great nemesis as the trucks jostled for prime viewing position in front of us. Africa Dream Safaris, Leopard Tours, Tanzania Adventure, Nature Discovery, and Wild Frontiers ironically became obstacles for us to experience all that they promised to their clients.

Lake Manyara National Park is the first stop made by these expensive guided tours that are eventually headed out to Serengeti National Park. It protects a shallow alkaline lake that stretches out from the western escarpment of the Rift Valley, as well as some excellent riparian forest, acacia woodland, and grassland habitat. The park is famous for its tree-climbing lions, a behavior that is as enigmatic to biologists as it is uncommon for tourists to observe. Philip Briggs, author of the excellent Bradt Guide to Tanzania, more suitably describes the park as the country’s finest birding site as it boasts over 400 species, 100 of which can be seen in a day even by casual birders. This is by far the more reliable claim about the park, although we fell a few species short of this figure during the full day we spent driving its complex system of roads. While I had built up the site considerably in my mind, I certainly wasn’t disappointed by what we encountered, and some observations we made here were some of the finest of our entire trip, including Grey Crowned Crane, Usambiro Barbet, Fischer’s Lovebird, and Great White Pelican.

What will always color my memories of the park is the miserable physical condition I was in. We had stayed the previous night in a decent room at Njake Jambo Lodge and Campsite in Mto Wa Mbu, which is a busy tourist town with plenty of amenities. Mto Wa Mbu means River of Mosquitos, though, and I’m pretty confident that I was bit that night with a malaria-bearing mosquito. The next morning I felt incredibly sore and achy, as if I were sick and hung-over from drinking a case of spoiled beer, and at points during the day I couldn’t even summon the energy to raise my binoculars to my eyes, much less determine the identification of a cryptically-colored weaver. I even relinquished the driving responsibilities to Mark, which shocked Aimee as I regularly spend eight to twelve hours behind the wheel on our vacations. Ten days later I would indeed be crippled by malaria, cutting our visit to the Ngorongoro Crater short. Given the incubation time of the parasite, which is seven to ten days, it would certainly make sense that I contracted malaria here (for the record, I did not drink a case of beer the night before).

After paying the entrance fee ($35 per person per 24 hours), we made our way slowly towards the hippo pool, passing through tall and lush ficus forest filled with Silvery-Cheeked Hornbills and olive baboons. We spotted a dozen Fischer’s Lovebirds perched in a tall tree, preening each other’s rainbow-colored plumage in the early morning sun, and along a rushing stream we found a pair of Mountain Wagtail busy bobbing their tails as advertised. Too tired to stop for various weavers in the bush and canaries on the ground, I pushed us on ahead to the pool, where we could see vast numbers of waterbirds, including a few Great White Pelicans and African Jacanas. The was a large group of hippos, a pair of African Fish Eagles, and hundreds of weaver nests in a tree overhead, but the views from this viewpoint weren’t very rewarding as the landscape is flat and the grass rises high along the water. Supposedly, this is also a good place for Greater Painted-Snipe, but I was hardly in the state to scan for it. Happy to tick a few new species for my country list, including White-Faced Whistling-Duck, I slouched back into the car to continue the search for the mythical tree-climbing lions.

Many kilometers later we finally caught up with a lion laying far from the road in a dry river bed, but these pitiful looks would be put to shame in just a few days as we would literally have to dodge lions on the road while driving in the Serengeti. A far more spectacular sight was the thousands of Lesser Flamingos we saw in the shallows of the lake from the Maji Moto hot springs viewpoint. This site immediately at the base of the escarpment was of great interest to Mark who is trained as a geologist and works as an environmental consultant, often on oil drilling projects. I’ve always appreciated his ability to read a landscape and deduce the narrative of its formation, and I was amazed to hear him describe how the entire continent of Africa was being ripped apart at the very place were standing. I was also growing increasingly fatigued, and it’s a wonder that I stopped the car to investigate a barbet-like call along the road. A pair of Usambiro Barbets, one of a few bird species endemic to the Serengeti region, hopped up briefly from the ground, their silver beaks and more subdued plumage clearly distinguishing them from the dapper d’Arnaud’s Barbet.

Notable birds seen: Great White Pelican, Common Squacco Heron, Grey Heron, Hamerkop, Marabou Stork, Hadada Ibis, Sacred Ibis, Lesser Flamingo, Greater Flamingo, Spur-Winged Goose, Egyptian Goose, White-Faced Whistling-Duck, African Fish Eagle, African White-Backed Vulture, Palm-Nut Vulture, Augur Buzzard, Tawny Eagle, Bateleur, Helmeted Guineafowl, Crested Guineafowl, African Jacana, Grey Crowned Crane, Pied Avocet, Speckled Pigeon, Fischer’s Lovebird, White-Browed Coucal, Blue-Naped Mousebird, Speckled Mousebird, Grey-Headed Kingfisher, Crowned Hornbill, Silvery-Cheeked Hornbill, Usambiro Barbet, African Pied Wagtail, Mountain Wagtail, Beautiful Sunbird, Common Fiscal, Black-Crowned Tchagra, Northern White-Crowned Shrike, Fork-Tailed Drongo, African Grey Flycatcher, Red-Billed Oxpecker, Superb Starling, Red-Winged Starling, Swahili Sparrow, Blue-Capped Cordon-Bleu.