Next week I’m taking two lucky guides from Bush2Beach safaris out for the day to the wetland area in the aerial photograph (above), which lies south-east of Arusha, here in northern Tanzania.
It’s an area where the birds of the dry country, acacia-commiphora scrubland, birds of the Somali-Maasai biome, meet a wealth of migrant birds at a seasonal freshwater wetland. So, being mid-April, migrant birds, both Afro-Palearctic and intra-tropical African “rains migrants”should be there in good number.
A recent visit by some good friends yielded the scintillating Golden-breasted Starling, amongst several other scarce and local specialities, birds of our northern “Maasai steppe”.
In addition I’m hoping for species as diverse as e.g. Dwarf Bittern, Allen’s Gallinule, Temminck’s Courser, White-headed Mousebird, the quite widespread “intercedens” taxon of Foxy Lark, Pink-breasted Lark, just possibly Red-winged Lark, Ashy and Tiny Cisticola, Red-fronted Warbler, Mouse-coloured Penduline-Tit, Black-bellied Sunbird, Black-capped Social-Weaver and Somali Golden-breasted Bunting.
Vagrant Mind 