We traveled to Lake Manyara for our second safari day.
Driving around the lake and environs we saw many beautiful birds, all new to us, one elephant, some impalas, 2 lizards, and three types of wonderful monkeys. Let’s start with the Blue Monkey who greeted us at the entrance to the park.
The blue monkey almost always looked kind of depressed to us. Their posture, their expression – they just seem down. The little vervet monkeys, on the other hand, always seemed cheerful as they raced through the bushes, hanging on to the long thorns along the way. Of course I am just anthropomorphizing! Here are the vervet monkeys seen only on that day.
Here is a mother with her progeny, not really a baby now. The pictures of the vervet monkeys are some of my favorites from the trip. They have such character!
Once again, there were lots of baboons. First 3 little babies seen during the day, already quite independent.
At a picnic sight late in the day we saw lots more baboons, especially very active little ones and adolescents while the old guy looked on.
A little distance from the lake we saw a troupe of impalas coming through. These are sweet looking antelopes, all females and one young male.
The lake area had some beautiful lizards! We saw a colorful agama lizard and then, swimming along side an egret we had stopped to watch, was a Nile Monitor lizard, the largest African lizard.
I’ve seen Egrets roosting in trees but I don’t recall ever having seen one just resting on land like this. We saw plenty of egrets, but since they are the same as what we see in New England, these are the only pictures I took specifically of egrets.
This day was mostly about birds, but before delving into the many species we saw, I would like to share the elephant we encountered, coming out of a gully. We were so close and the light was so fortuitous that I could really catch the “essence of elephant” in the many details.
Now on to the birds. At our lunchtime picnic area we were treated to another wonderful Barbet – the aptly named Red and Yellow Barbet. I spent the entire lunchtime trying to get him in flight but never succeed well enough to share the pictures. Nonetheless, here are some portraits of this stunning, almost gaudy bird!
Adam thought he knew an area where we might see Bee-eaters. The name alone made me anxious to see them, even though it was a bit out of our way. We did spot them at a distance and also saw them close up in the Serengeti later on, but the first sight of them was thrilling. A very colorful and sleek small bird.
Here is one with a Black-capped Bulbul and then another digging in the sand, which is where they build their nests.
The African Crowned Eagle is spectacular! Check out the patterns on his chest, legs, wings, and tail feathers! There were actually two of them in the tree but the other was hidden in the lower branches so I only focused on this one. I have read that they are considered the most powerful eagle in Africa and can kill prey of up to 44 lbs.
Soon after the visit with the Harrier, we spent several minutes with this immature Martial Eagle. The adults have very dark feathers on their back. The Martial Eagle is the largest in Africa and so beautiful! They can fly over 140 mph and are certainly one of the apex predator birds. These eagles, while not yet endangered, are consider vulnerable with relatively few breeding pairs.
We saw 2 new types of Kingfishers at the lake. This is a female Pied Kingfisher. The males have a double ring on their neck. She did the typical Kingfisher hover routine, as you see, and caught 2 fish while we watched.
The smaller Grey-headed Kingfisher was beautiful but, in the time we were there, he was not too interested in flying or fishing, so here are just a couple of nice portraits of this colorful little guy.
Imagine flying around with such an appendage on your head the way the Silver-cheeked Hornbill must. I have read that it is actually a sort of honey-comb structure and quite light. Apparently it helps project their call. These birds mate for life. The female encloses herself inside a tree with her brood and the male is responsible for bringer her food, passing it to her through a slit only big enough for the tip of his beak.
Another fascinating bird is the Southern Ground Hornbill, native only to Africa. These are males with their red throats. The females have blue down the center of their throats. They typically live 50-60 years, mating first around 10 years. Sadly, they are also considered now to be vulnerable with declining numbers.
Adam, our wonderful guide, noticed these two little Purple Grenadier Finches (isn’t that a terrific name?) foraging in the ground. To me they just looked like tiny brown birds in the dirt until I saw them up close.
We also saw the Crested Francolin for the first time and the Fork-tailed Drongo who was particularly interesting to us because we stayed in the Drongo cabin at one of the lodges but had no idea what that was. Fun fact about the Drongo, according to Wikipedia, is that they mimic alarm sounds of other birds causing those to drop their food which the Drongo then steals!
And finally, here’s the Speckled Mousebird with its very long tail. I asked Adam to back up when I saw a group of 5 of these birds climbing up this dead tree in single file and then take off from the point of this broken limb. By the time we got close enough, I could only photograph the last 2 birds in the row. It was really a funny sight! The final shot is of one we had seen earlier in the day.
And that was Day 2!
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