First, however, here are the selection criteria for my recommended:
Top Lodges for Birders in Tanzania
Might I suggest the Three Criteria which we could use for providing what amounts to a
– Gold Blend of Top Lodges
for Keen Birders and any “Serious Naturalists” when they are visiting Tanzania.
By the way, this selection is based on my ten years of safari guiding here in the field.
Criterion 1)
the variety, and “quality” of bird species that is visible, or audible, from the lodge; allowing of course for inevitable biological constraints: i.e. the lodge’s ecological location – some parts of Tanzania, and therefore some of the habitats surrounding any lodge there, are richer in birds and other wildlife species than are some of the others. For example there will be a greater “pool” of bird species at a lodge along an unspoiled river, e.g. the Mbalageti, which flows through a vast National Park, the Serengeti, than one could find around a lodge in a densely inhabited montane area, e.g. Mambo View Ecolodge, at Mtae in the West Usambaras.
Criterion 2)
the commitment that is being demonstrated by the lodge owners and/or managers to the “ReWilding” of the grounds of their property, in order that it might support as diverse a more diverse ecological community. BUt please bear in mind that in Tanzania’s National Parks the “wilding”options permitted by the authorities (TANAPA) are inevitably somewhat restricted.
Criterion 3)
the willingness of the lodge to accommodate the specific and, what may seem to them, at least initially, the rather peculiar requirements of the “birding-type” of guest whose quest is to find all those “good birds”, and the smaller mammals and perhaps to see as many of the special insects and/or plants as possible. “A big ask” compared with those who want to kick-back, and use the place as a comfortable base from which they will be taken-out in a safari vehicle on a “game drive” to snap-up the Big Five, or Six or even Seven.
So there’s my three criteria. Tomorrow I’ll post the list!
And always remember what has become, for me, a mantra :
Review, rewild, rejoice!
Vagrant Mind 