On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
It’s Albatrossity Monday, and the start of the last week of 2022. We are treated to Antarctica with Dagaetch, followed by the Star Man who needs no introduction, then France with Steve from Mendocino and Maine with JanieM.
Albatrossity
Since I haven’t traveled to any exotic places in several years, and since it’s winter here with a relative paucity of birds to photograph, I was becoming concerned that I would not have photos to share on a weekly basis here. When I mentioned that to WaterGirl, she wondered if I had exhausted the trove of photos I got on a trip to Tanzania in 2018, before the plague years. I was skeptical, since I had already posted a lot of pics from that trip in the summer of 2018, and suspected that there would not be enough to fill out very many OTR posts.
I was wrong. Or at least I failed to consider the vast improvements in photo-processing software that have come down the pike since 2018. I had a lot of pics that were not up to my standards in 2018, over- or under-exposed, camera motion blur, subject too distant, etc. But in 2022 I can actually rescue some of those, and I have been doing that happily. So here’s the first batch, one of three that I rescued from the pics taken during my first half-day in Africa, at Tarangire National Park. Hope you enjoy these, and if some are repeats from my last batch of Africa photos, please accept my apologies.
First you need to know the lay of the land, so landscape photos will start us out. Tarangire National Park is a jewel of a wildlife-watching refuge southwest of Arusha (where we arrived by plane from Amsterdam), and near Lake Manyara, one of the lakes of the Great Rift Valley. Additional water sources include the Tarangire River and the Silale Swamp, so it is a perennially lush place in a dry climate. This attracts many grazers, and Tarangire is especially well-known for the large number of elephants (Loxodonta africana), the largest animal walking the earth. In the dry season (June-October) there are an estimated 5000 elephants in the park. Here are some of them, in a typical Tarangire landscape with acacia and baobab trees. Click here for larger image.
Acacia trees are perhaps the iconic image of East Africa, and this one is festooned with the nests of some species of weaver, perhaps the Masked Weaver, which will be featured in a future OTR post. You can also see that the sky is darkening, as we are still at the end of the wet season, and a thunderstorm was brewing. Click here for larger image.
Previous rains had left lots of muddy puddles in the “road”, and those were popular with the birds. Here a White-headed Buffalo Weaver (Dinemellia dinemelli) and a Superb Starling (Lamprotornis superbus). Both of these gorgeous species were common in Tarangire. Both of them seem rather skeptical about this arrangement. Click here for larger image.
This striking couple, found at the same muddy puddle, are Red-billed Firefinches (Lagonosticta senegala), a member of the waxbill family Estrildidae, is allegedly very common in its range, but this was the only time I saw them during my time there. Click here for larger image.
There were a number of lakes and ponds as well as puddles. Many of them were apparently homes for Egyptian Geese (Alopochen aegyptiaca). Abundant in sub-Saharan Africa, they are a highly invasive species in Europe, and there are also isolated populations in Florida, Texas, and California. All of these populations outside of Africa are descended from released or escaped captive birds. Click here for larger image.
Another abundant mammal species in this park is the Giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis). And most of them had at least one Red-billed Oxpecker (Buphagus erythrorynchus) attending them. The giraffe was moving at a pretty fair clip, and the oxpeckers were just hanging on for dear life. There are 9 recognized subspecies of giraffe, and the one found in this park is the Maasai Giraffe. They all can be recognized as individuals, since the pattern and distribution of the spots on their fur is unique. The video at that link will also give you a better idea about the landscape of Tarangire. Click here for larger image.
Here’s a better look at a giraffe with a couple of oxpeckers. These birds pick off ectoparasites from not only giraffe, but also from many other species including antelopes, zebras, buffalos, and elephants. Their populations are doing well since they also perform this service for domestic livestock species. Click here for larger image.
Tarangire was our first encounter with antelope, and the first antelope we saw was this one, an Impala (Aepyceros melampus). Only the males (aka rams) have horns, and this guy certainly had an impressive set. Click here for larger image.
The female Impala (ewes) seemed to be hanging out mostly in large herds with their youngsters. Click here for larger image.
The final critter for today is a spectacular bird, and one that appeared on the bird field guide for East Africa that I took on this trip, which has since been revised and updated and features a different bird.. This is a Red-and-Yellow Barbet (Trachyphonus erythrocephalus), a distinctive East African endemic species. This species nests in burrows that it excavates in streambanks or termite mounds, and since there were a lot of termite mounds here, we sighted them several times. Click here for larger image.
JeanneT
I’m glad you took a second look and rescued these photos of colorful birds and elegant mammals. For some reason the name ‘Supurb Starling’ paired with that yellow eyed glare makes me laugh…..
Rob
Good morning everyone.
The two oxpeckers on the giraffe’s neck is the best thing I’ll see all day. I love the skeptical-looking barbet photo too.
OzarkHillbilly
I find it a little funny that the Red-billed Firefinches appear to not have red bills.
Albatrossity
@OzarkHillbilly: The subspecies that was originally named “Red-billed” apparently has that feature, but not all subspecies do. That seems to be the case for several African birds species; the Rufous-naped Larks we saw in northern Tanzania also did not have rufous napes!
Africa is a big place, with lots of places that are similar in habitat but isolated by long distances between habitat patches. Subspecies diversity can be very high, and it is certainly possible that some of these have diverged enough to be considered separate species
SteveinPHX
Red and Yellow Barbet – Amazing! Thank you!
I hope you’ll keep ’em coming through 2023.
HNY!
J R in WV
Amazing variety of wildlife, almost otherworldly in variation! And as usual, great photos of the great wildlife. Not even disappointed at the mammals photographed, as opposed to the birds.
Thanks for sharing with us!! Happy Solstice time to all ~ !!
Chat Noir
Lovely pictures!
mvr
Cool photos!
Are birds in Africa (or parts of Africa) more colorful than in other places? And if so is there a reason why?
Thanks!
Albatrossity
@mvr:
I don’t know for sure, but I don’t think so. There are a lot more bird species in most tropical and subtropical regions (1388 species described in my field guide for East Africa, vs 700 or so for the USA), and so there are lots of colorful birds simply because there are a lot more birds in general. North America has lots of colorful birds (tanagers, warblers, hummingbirds etc), and East Africa has some dull ones. Check out this Northern Gray-headed Sparrow, which I did see in Tanzania. Dull, dull, dull!
Folks (including me) also probably tend to photograph the pretty ones.
stinger
As always, informative and entertaining commentary on outstanding photos! Thanks, Albatrossity!
Otter
Beautiful —as always.
Due to the background around the Barbet’s head, it took me a bit to separate the head from the background. 🙂
We are all lucky the technology improved..
Thanks for sharing !!
eclare
The look on that Superb Starling’s face…
JanieM
Thanks for pulling these out of storage, Albatrossity. They make me want to go there in a way that no other pictures ever have. The way you combine information and images is a treasure.
sab
I saw all those elephants and thought ” where are the birds?”
Albatrossity
@sab: Me too!