Armchair Birding IV

Congratulations Gregoire Blond, faithful follower of the Chada blog and winner of the prestigious award, Armchair Birdwatcher extraordinaire for part III.

Of the six possible species in Katavi, this one should be identifiable by its patterns if you have a good book.

And for a bonus, what is the special reason a spoonbill's bill is shaped like a spoon?

The Pride of Chada - Pun intended

All four of the Chada pride cubs are still thriving under the care of four great mothers and aunties.

Armchair Birding part III

Now, with the myriad participants from last time on the edge of their seats, the much anticipated third edition of Armchair Birding is here. (see last week's blog to count the numerous contestants)

Who can identify this immature bird of prey, flying over Katavi National Park, W. Tanzania?

Photoshoot

Here comes an elephant...

Ever since the Oops! blog last season, I carry my camera everywhere now...

Even when I'm walking in camp, because you never know...

Usually, if we stand our ground the elephants back down.

But not without a little intimidation or a temper tantrum.

We've come to an understanding.  They let us pass, and we make them famous.

So we stand facing each other as he poses for the website and I try not to get too much dust in my camera.

Armchair Birding part II - Your turn now.

Last time was just too sickeningly lazy...on your part...no offense intended.

Armchair birding is fine, but we've decided to leave the Identification part up to you.  We're starting off with some easy(ish) ones this time, but there are a couple that might make you nervous.

Whoever can identify these 8 birds first will win a small prize.  Let's say, the right to write a blog, with your own photo(s) on our blog sight, provided it is compatible with our common theme of wildlife or life in the wilderness.  (Except for the Florida Keys blog, but that may also have fallen under the category of wildlife photography of a sort.) Oh, and of course, we reserve the right to edit, crop, chop, mince, mangle and publish anything you send to us. 

A few hints that an armchair birder should know about Katavi when identifying which birds might occur here:

• 900 m above sea level
• Dry, dry, dry from May to December
• Habitat is miombo woodland, acacia woodland, and savannah
• Rivers haven't dried up yet
• Katavi is in W. Tanzania

 Good luck.

Willy the One-eyed Mongoose

  Willy was acting as a lookout for his pack of Banded Mongoose.

We find this slightly ironic.

Armchair Birding

Who needs binoculars when you can let us do the work?

We at Chada will find it, identify it, photograph it, wrap it up and ship it to you in the comfort of your own home.

Here is your morning birdwatching session.  Hopefully this new safari package doesn't put us out of business.

  

Three-banded Plovers, misbehaving.  They just don't realize that the paparazzi are everywhere these days.

A Blacksmith Lapwing, relaxing.  Listening to it's chink chink call reminds some people (the bird-namers for one) of a hammer hitting an anvil.

Grey-headed Kingfisher, looking good in the morning light.  Despite the name, this bird doesn't always live near water, and eats mainly insects.

 A female Saddle-billed Stork, staring into the lens.  Her yellow iris gives her away, while the males have a dark eye.

The Pearl-spotted Owlet, a tiny hunter.  The way to find this cryptic creature is by listening for it's high-pitched calls, and by watching for mobbing behaviour from other birds, who tend to have an intense dislike for the owlet.  Sometimes owlets eat other birds, so they have a right to complain.

 

Crowned Lapwings behaving...but looking longingly into each others' eyes.

The Yellow-throated Sandgrouse...Male, female and a blurry young male.  Sometimes Sandgrouse soak their chest feathers in water and carry it back to the nest to give the little ones a drink.

How to get a free drink in the village

Today we set off to the village of Lalanayo on the border of the park.  Our goal was to meet with the community members to discuss replacing their open wood cooking fires with fuel efficient rocket stoves.  What we got in return was a secretly whispered offer for a drink of local beer. 

This generous offer was proposed by Mama Eliza, the new owner of a freshly built rocket stove.  She had proudly offered to be our “guinea pig” to demonstrate to the community the benefits of having a rocket stove. 

A few bricks, some mud and some....

....cow manure!

The aim of the new stoves is to reduce the amount of firewood needed for cooking (this obviously includes the cooking of food AND beer), and therefore reduces the trips needed to collect the firewood from the bush.  Eliza currently spends 1 hour every day collecting a bundle of firewood and uses approximately two small trees for each bundle.  Through the stoves we hope to decrease the rate of deforestation along the park boundary, but also to reduce the number of illnesses exacerbated by the daily smoke inhalation and the occurrence of burn accidents suffered by children. 

No cement required, cow dung will doodoo.

We had a very productive meeting and an equally enthusiastic team helping to collect the mud and cow dung to build the stoves.  As I sat there with my hands covered in cow dung I was amazed at how many people were willing to join me!  

After posing with her new stove (despite the fact that it needs a couple days to dry first, she insisted the photo would be enhanced through the use of props) Mama Eliza pulled me aside to make her grand gesture.  A cup of local beer in exchange for 1 rocket stove?  I think I may have come out on top with this one. 

So to sum up our day in Lalanayo:

Time spent building the stove: 45 minutes

Cost of building a rocket stove: US$1

A drink of homemade local beer: PRICELESS

Junior the Lazy

 This young male is named Junior.  Last year we noticed that he had a habit of looking at us upside down while lying on his back.  We make lion I.D. cards here for the ones we know, and he has a special note on his card saying he likes to assume the pose in this photo.

We ran into him again this morning, and though he was, as usual, with his favourite aunt, Sylvia, we weren't sure it was him until he rolled over and gave us "the look." 

Cubs At Last

Back on January 17th we wrote a blog called Waiting For The Cubs.  Our wish was for Katavi's prides to successfully raise some cubs in our absence, and that we would find little furballs bouncing around when we returned in May.

To everyone's delight, so far we've seen one litter in the Chada pride and one litter in the Katisunga pride.

This is a curious little Chada girl having what may be her first ever look at a landrover.

What a cutie!

The Long, Long Road to Katavi

Somehow we managed to complete the entirety of last season without making the trip in to Katavi by road.  Thus we had no idea what a journey we were missing out on.  Now we know.  We drove into camp on the 15th of May.  And the 16th.  And the 17th.  And the 18th.  That is the other way of saying you should fly when you come to Katavi.

Four long days on the road was nowhere near the worst experience we've had, rather it was an adventure in many ways, as we traversed Tanzania from East to West, past the road to Mkomazi National Park, then watching as the Uluguru Mountains loomed ahead, then beside, and eventually behind us. 

Somehow we've always been able to appreciate Tanzania's vastness and its plethora of remote wildernesses from the air, but driving to Katavi leaves one at a loss to describe such wilderness.  In hindsight we wouldn't wish to start the season any other way.  Unfortunately (maybe), driving isn't an option for most people, as they don't have eight extra days to spare, now do they?  And frankly, the flight does a terrific job of impressing on Katavi-goers just how deliciously far into the bush (almost into the past) they are going.

After we passed the first mountain range, yet another one loomed ahead, this being the Udzungwa Mountains National Park, and once more we were treated to lovely views of rugged ridges rising up out of the scrubby dry bushland that surrounded us as we ate up the miles and the scenery simultaneously.
Suddenly, we were driving through the middle of Mikumi National Park seeing giraffe, buffalo, elephant, baboons and impala in the woodland savannahs.  Relative to the 4 day journey, being in Mikumi park was a mere eye blink, but it put us in the mood to get to Katavi ASAP.

So finally we were here and the work began, thus the silence of the blogs, but with the camp shined up and ready came the time to sit down and write a bit, and to run out with the cameras and shoot some photos.  As always, big cats abound and we found this lone male lazing in the morning sun.  This park is many things to not so many people, but it does not disappoint.  Simply stated, visiting Katavi is a privilege, living here a dream.

A Katisunga Pride male, finishing off a yawn.