Our first visit was to the National Park of Tarangire where we saw an enormous variety of wildlife.
The first shocking color we saw was a bright, iridescent blue bird called the Superb Starling. Our guide wasn’t interested in stopping, assuring us that we would see many more and boy! was he right. Every picnic area was filled with these beauties.
As we drove along through the park, the first animals we saw were zebras and antelope, many sorts. I am not good at naming some of the antelopes so I’m making a guess with some. But the zebras are obvious. These first ones we saw wanted nothing to do with us. They turned their backs on us till one got curious. Then they relaxed. Note the young zebra in the last shot.
Other antelope in the beginning of out trip were possibly an Eland and a Reed Buck. Not really sure of either but they are big!
The small Dikdik was also around although I was able to get better shots later in the week. These little antelope mate for life! In fact, if one dies, the other one will sometimes become so depressed that it will simply allow itself to be killed and eaten (or so says google.) In any case, they will not mate again.
Of course, the first sight of free roaming elephants is thrilling! We first spotted one alone not far from the road. Usually I try to get the eyes of the subject, but here, as you can see, the ears are on show. African elephants are larger than the Indian version and have larger ears!
More exciting was the view at the watering hole. Initially I had the long lens 400mm which meant I could only get parts of the elephants in the view finder but that allowed for great detail.
I switched to the 100-500 lens and got the following shots.
Jackie used her cell phone to get a lovely video of this marvelous sight.
We stopped for a picnic lunch and, as with each picnic sight that week, I could barely eat because of the beautiful birds who knew where to find easy food (obviously feeding was forbidden, but crumbs were plentiful.) I began this post with picnic shots of the Superb Starling. Here are the Ashy Starling, the White-headed Buffalo Weaver, and the Northern Red-billed Hornbill with its solid red bill.
Then there were the Von der Decken’s Hornbill whose red bill has a white tip while the female has an all black bill.
I had expected to see few birds but the bird life was thrilling. Nonetheless, I was looking to see all I could of the animal wildlife. Most of all I was also looking forward to seeing lions, but what took me by surprise was the elegance and beauty of the giraffes. It is hard to fathom how large they are until you see them in person amongst the trees and walking serenely through the savannah. According to google, their legs can easily be 7′ + in length and the neck another 8′ beyond that. The males are often 19 feet tall! A kick from a giraffe can decapitate a lion.
We first saw them at another large watering hole that afternoon. There were two and when you see them here next to the zebras and wart hogs, you will see what I mean about their height.
Watching them eat was a treat, unless they were buried in the branches. Check out the tongue in the first shot and the Red-billed Ox-pecker birds in the 2nd. You’ll be seeing lots of these birds in future posts.
Other creatures at the watering hole were the wart hogs having a bath; zebras drinking – seeing them together pointing in all different directions sure looks like op-art to me; a female lion with a partially eaten gnu and the zebras keeping a wary eye on her.
Finally there was a wonderful pair of Secretary birds. They were new to me but Jackie had them on her bucket list and I can see why! They have extremely strong legs with a powerful kick that apparently can kill a snake!
Among the other birds at the watering hole were several Namaqua Doves in the sand, and in the tree above the lion there were 2 White-headed Buffalo Weavers which we had also seen at the picnic sight.
Another thrilling moment on that first day was spotting a leopard. With the naked eye, and the back lighting, I would never have spotted him on my own but our wonderful guide, Adam, was amazing at seeing things in the distance or in the brush! These pictures are heavily edited to allow you to see what I could only see through the long lens – even the binoculars were useless. At one moment it looked as though he might attack the gazelle, and maybe he did after we drove on. I wasn’t really interested in seeing a “kill.”
Quite in a different vein, we also saw our first (but not the last) mongooses of the trip toward the end of the day. (Or are they mongeese?)
And there are still more birds – especially exciting was the first sighting of the Lilac-breasted Roller. This one posed for us. We tried to get it to fly, but with no luck that day! However, an Egyptian Goose had flown into a tree, joining the same roller a few minutes earlier.
Various types of shrikes were ubiquitous on our journey. Here is the very common White-capped Shrike and the larger long-tailed Magpie Shrike.
Additionally we saw our first Barbet (d’Arneaudt’s Barbet) and some White-backed Vultures as we drove through the park.
As far as birds go, last but not least was our first visit with an Ostrich – this one a male. Check out the feathers and think about all of the ladies wearing them in days gone by. And also the nasty flies all around his head!
A couple more silly shots: a real life zebra crossing (old name for the painted pedestrian crossing lines in the road)
and our first visit with baboons. We were thrilled but I think our guide has seen enough of them to last a lifetime. They were everywhere but always fun to see, in my opinion!
All of this on Day 1 – imagine that!