Overnight in Tarangire

If you’ve read any of my other blogs, you’ll know that I love Tarangire. I’ve been travelling to Tarangire since I can’t remember and it’s just a classic savanna habitat with all sorts of cool stuff and tons of elephants. This weekend, I decided to boost my list to over 200 with a short overnight trip to a place I’m really comfortable with. We left Saturday morning stopping en-route at a dam with GPS points South 03.44465, East 36.38680. You have to be careful birding on the Arusha-Tarangire road because the land on the southern side is military land and they have a hard time understanding why you’re walking around with GPS, notebook, and binoculars.

We quickly racked up 33 species with the following 19 additions to the Big Year List. Admittedly, there are a few repetitions in my master list, but I should get time this week to sort through that. It’s only a couple, but it will be reflected in the next post.

162	Coot, Red-knobed
163	Dove, Namaqua
164	Eagle, Bateleur
165	Egret, Intermediate
166	Fiscal, Long-tailed
167	Goose, Spur-winged
168	Harrier, Marsh
169	Jacana, African
170	Lark, Fischer's sparrow
171	Plover, Blacksmith
172	Plover, Common ringed
173	Plover, Three-banded
174	Sandpiper, Common
175	Shrike, Magpie
176	Spoonbill, African
177	Starling, Wattled
178	Swift, Mottled
179	Teal, Red-billed
180	Weaver, Red-billed buffalo

Without wasting too much time, we headed on to the park. Tarangire is a special park and deserves a lot more birding time than an overnight. It has hills with forests that have forest birds, its got dry Commiphora woodlands with specials like Vulturine guinea fowl, and it’s a hotspot for endemics like Ashy starling and Yellow-collared lovebirds. Its early in the wet season so I was a little disappointed not to get any whydahs, widow-birds, and some other very common birds just seemed to elude us. That said, we managed to list over 100 species just in the park with highlights like great viewing of African quail finches drinking.

200	Hornbill, Red-billed
201	Hornbill, Southern ground
202	Hornbill, Von der Deckens
203	Kingfisher, Striped
204	Kingfisher, Woodland
205	Lovebird, Yellow-collared
206	Ostrich, Common
207	Owl, African scops
208	Owl, Barn
209	Parrot, Brown
210	Plover, Senegal
211	Pytilia, Green-winged
212	Roller, European
213	Roller, Rufous-crowned
214	Ruff
215	Sandgrouse, Chestnut-bellied
216	Sandgrouse, Yellow-throated
217	Shrike, Northern white-crowned
218	Silverbird
219	Snipe, Common
220	Sparrow, Swahili
221	Spurfowl, Red-necked
222	Starling, Ashy
223	Stilt, Black-winged
224	Stint, Little
225	Sunbird, Marico
226	Swift, European
227	Swift, Little
228	Swift, Palm
229	Thick-knee, Water
230	Vulture, Lappet-faced
231	Vulture, Ruppels griffon
232	Vulture, White-backed
233	Weaver, Rufous-tailed
234	Woodpecker, Bearded
235	Woodpecker, Grey

Tarangire wasn’t only about birds- we also saw the following mammals and we’ll add a mammal and reptile page to this blog soon.