Hix Does Tanzania - Sure As Kilimanjaro Rises Like Olympus Above The Serengeti

Day 15 / 30th September

The lions roared intermittently throughout the night, but despite this I still slept soundly, waking a little after 6:00am. I lay in the very comfortable bed listening to the avian dawn chorus, wishing I recognised just one of the calls. At around 6:30 I heard the camp staff and the rattle of some buckets at the back of the tent, and minute later someone said “shower ready”.

After a quick shower and breakfast I had a quick look around the camp. The grass was long, in some places knee-high, and wet with dew. At the back of the camp, where the buffalos had been the night before, there was an animal path through the grass running parallel to the camp, about 70 metres behind my tent. Beyond that the ground sloped down for another 30 metres before rising again, and I got the impression there was a small stream there during the wet season, but it was dry now. All around there were shrubs and bushes between the trees, and more animal paths through the grass and foliage. The other side of the dry stream was more thickly vegetated and the sloped upwards into a hill. I had hoped to see some of the birds that had been vocalising earlier but they had gone quiet and all I saw was a white-backed vulture in the top of a tree.

While I was in the shower I had heard Innocent start the 4WD and drive off to the airstrip to collect the inverter, and now he returned to collect me. I grabbed my cameras and broken binoculars and jumped in and we headed into the park. Innocent told me the plane did not have the inverter or spare parts he was expecting – maybe tomorrow. I would just have to use my laptop sparingly. Luckily I had spare batteries for my cameras, and in case my laptops battery dies and I couldn’t upload photos, I also had spare memory cards.

“What do you want to see today?” asked Innocent as we left camp.

“Lions, Leopards and Cheetahs” I replied without hesitation.

The words were barely out of my mouth when I saw my first lifer for the day – only a couple of hundred metres from camp – a plain looking antelope that looked a little different to the other I’d seen: a Bohor Reedbuck female. She froze and looked at us for a few seconds before bounding away, but not before I got a couple of photos.
Continuing on I saw more of the common birds from the day before – Lilac-breasted Roller, Magpie Shrike and White-crowned Shrike – and some zebra and impala. And then another lifer, a small group of four Coke’s Hartebeest, including two juveniles, some wildebeest, a lappet-faced vulture, a pair of marabous in a tree, and then three lions under tree. They weren’t in a good position, and my binoculars weren’t much good so I did most of my wildlife gazing through my camera, as the 300mm zoom was almost as good as the binoculars. They were about 30 metres from the road and lying in the grass, which wasn’t ideal, but 30 minutes later we came across a group of eight lying down right beside the road and I was able to get some nice shots of them. And those weren’t the last lions we saw that day either.



One of the roads we took crossed a small stream and when we arrived five giraffes were about to cross from the other side, using the road as it was a more secure footing (I imagine). Innocent stopped the car and we waited while they walked sedately along the road towards us, yellowbilled oxpeckers hanging off their necks and rumps, before turning away to walk alongside the stream. The first to cross was the tallest animal, a male although his skull was not as lumpy as others I’ve seen, suggesting he was a mature male, but not a very old one. His coat pattern was also very different to the others, looking very pale, and I later leant this was a form of mange.



A short time later we came across a Leopard Tortoise by the side of the road and I had just enough time to get a few photos before he determinedly (and relatively quickly, for a tortoise) made his way into the grasses. Another lifer.

But it was the birds that were most visible (apart from the zebra, wildebeest and impala) – Wattled Starlings, Brown Parrots, Purple Grenadiers, Red-cheeked Cordons, Emerald-spotted Wood Pigeons, Tawny Eagles, Rufous-tailed Weavers, Egyptian Geese, Little Bee-eaters, Helmeted Guineafowl, Grey-backed Fiscals, Grey-breasted Spurfowl, White-headed Buffalo Weavers, Blacksmith Plovers and Barefaced Go-away Birds.

At one point we stopped so I could photograph a bird flying overhead and I noticed a black bird sitting on an exposed branch almost directly above the vehicle. The only way I could get a good angle for a photo was to lie down on the seat and shoot upwards.

“What is it?” asked Innocent, whose lack of bird knowledge had become apparent the day before.

“A drongo” I answered, “though I don’t know which”.

Innocent pulled out his field guide and went straight to the contents, found the page for drongos and turned to it. (Most bird people I know don’t use the Contents or Index of a field guide, they tend to flip through the plates until they find the family they are looking for. And they usually know if the plates they want are in the front, or back, or middle of the book).

Three drongos were illustrated – Fork-tailed, Velvet-mantled and Square-tailed. And all look almost identical. Innocent looked at the illustrations, then at the bird, then stabbed one with his finger. “This one!” he said.

From my vantage point on the seat I couldn’t see the book at all. “Which one?”

“Velvet-mantled” he replied. And it could have been, because from below there was no way I could see the mantle, let alone if it was velvety or not.

“Why?” I asked.

“Because it has red eyes.”

I paused for a second before responding “All drongos have red eyes”.



Innocent looked at the bird and the pictures again before saying “this one”.

Again I asked “Why?”

“Because it has a forked tail”. To which I replied immediately “But all drongos have forked tails”.

He looked at the book again and after a minute said “I don’t know” and handed the book to me. I sat up and had a quick look at the plate, then handed it back and said “it’s this one”, pointing at the Common (or Fork-tailed drongo).

“Why?”

“Because it’s the only one found in this part of Tanzania” and I showed him the maps that clearly illustrated the other two species being found several hundred kilometres away in opposite direction.

But despite his lack of ornithological knowledge, Innocent was very good at his job. Every time we stopped so I could take a photograph he would turn off the engine so there would be no vibrations. And if we were driving and I wanted to take a scenic shot out the window, and he saw me, he would immediately slow down, and would have stopped had I not told him to keep going.

And his spotting skills were excellent. He found me a cheetah, some distance from the road under a tree, my first (and only) cheetah, and he also spied a dikdik in the scrub. And there was the jackals seen in the rain on the previous day when we drove into the park.

At about 1pm, having been out for several hours, we arrived at the Serengeti Visitor Centre for lunch. The centre consisted of a restaurant/cafe, souvenir shop and information centre. We sat in the carpark eating our sandwiches and I discovered the wildlife here was fairly bold and were not to botherd by all the people. Grey-capped Social Weavers and Speckle-fronted Weavers hopped around on the ground looking for leftover titbits, and Bush Hyrax wandered about amongst feet with impunity. There was even a dwarf mongoose lolling around under a thornbush.



After lunch I went to visit the Information Centre, which is designed as a path through a kopje with information plaques along the way. Very informative, and I saw more hyrax, mongooses and a several brightly coloured red-and-blue Mwanza Flat-headed Agamas. At the end was a small building, the top floor of which was mostly dedicated to Bernhard Grzimek and his sons, and the work they did in the Serengeti in the 1950’s.



Before leaving I visited the little shop and bought myself several bottles of Coke and Ginger Beer so I would have something to drink for the next few days. I thought we were at least an hour away from camp, but I was back in my tent in about 15 minutes.

As the grey clouds were looking ominous, and we could hear thunder and see the lightning, we decided to spend the rest of the day in camp where I relaxed in my tent, doing some reading and uploading the photos onto my laptop.

Around 3:30pm, while reading, I heard a loud cracking sound coming from the far end of camp, the sound of breaking branches. I recognised the sound immediately and knew what was creating the noise. Grabbing my camera I looked outside and at the edge of camp was a herd of elephants, and one in the lead was pulling off and eating branches from one of the smaller trees.

I watched them for about ten or fifteen minutes as they followed the animal trail behind the camp, about 50 metres behind my tent. There was about 30 in the group, including six youngsters, and one that appeared to be only a few months old. The lead animal that was breaking the larger branches had ventured a few metres from the track toward camp and although she was happily munching away on bark and leaves, she kept her eye on the camp and never turned her back on us. So I remained in the open, in clear view, and was able to approach close enough to get some nice close-ups, about 30 metres away. She didn’t seem perturbed, but she watched me like a hawk. Once I had the photos I wanted I returned to my tent and watched the herd move off into the bush.



So Day 2 in the Serengeti had been a good day, with 47 species of bird, 18 species of mammal and two species of reptile. Day 3 would be spent here as well, and on Day 4 we would head up to the northern part of the park where I would spend the night in a hotel where I could recharge my computer and camera batteries.

Innocent went back to the airport in the evening to see if the inverter and engine part were on the plane. At dinner he returned empty-handed and with bad news. Lobo Lodge had cancelled. He couldn’t tell me why, just that they had cancelled my booking. I asked what we were going to do instead, to which he replied he had no idea. This is not what you want to hear from a guide, and I don’t like people telling me there’s a problem and not offering a solution. He suggested another day in camp and then continue on to Lake Natron, which also had no electricity and nowhere to recharge my equipment. I wasn’t happy, and I got rather grumpy and a little frustrated that I didn’t know what was going to happen the day after tomorrow.

But I went to bed thinking that if the inverter comes on the plane tomorrow then it won’t be quite so bad. And there was always more Coke at the Visitor Centre 15 minutes away.

New Bird Species: Red-billed Duck, Coqui Francolin, Black-breasted Snake Eagle, Steppe Eagle, Little Stint, Slate-coloured Boubou, White-bellied Canary, White-headed Buffalo Weaver, Speckle-fronted Weaver.

New Mammals: Bohor Rhebok, Coke’s Hartebeest, Cheetah

New Reptiles: Leopard Tortoise, Mwanza Flat-headed Agama


Hix

Attached below is the Entrance to the Kopje, The Grzimek Room, a quote from Grzimek and the lead elephant in camp.

 

Day 16 / 1st of October

I awoke a little after midnight. Nothing had disturbed me, I just woke up. I lay there for a little while just listening to the night sounds and slowly drifting back to sleep when I heard something large moving through the grass on the path at the back of camp. Grabbing my torch I stuck my head out of the tent and had a quick look around. One of the buffalos stared back at me belligerently, the way they do, then went on grazing. But the sounds I had heard had come from three or four spotted hyenas loping along the path, and they giggled a little as the torch beam hit their eyes. Seeing nothing else, I went back to bed.

Several hours later I saw Innocent at breakfast and the first thing I asked was not about what we were doing that day, but where we would be staying the following night. He said the office still hadn’t arranged anything. So I offered a suggestion: “How about Serena Game Lodge, or Seronera, or Sopa, or Ikoma?”

He replied they were all full – Lobo had moved all their guests out and filled up the other places.

So I suggested Ndutu Game Lodge, to which he replied he didn’t have a voucher for Ndutu. Apparently, once I had booked my safari, Eastco arranges all the accommodations, park entry fees etc. and the guides are given vouchers for everything confirming the bookings, so the guides aren’t carrying around large amounts of cash. But he said he would pass my suggestion on to Eastco.

As we set out on another cloudy day Innocent once again asked me what I wanted to see. Our relationship had been strained by the accommodation business (much of which was my fault) so I made a deliberate attempt to be jovial. “Well, we didn’t see a leopard yesterday, so one of those would be good today, otherwise I’d be happy to see anything else I haven’t already seen.”

A few moments later I thought of something else: “And something I would really LOVE to see – a pangolin! “

“What’s a pangolin?” he asked

I described it, and he knew what I was talking about, but he had never seen a live one and said they were hard to see. Which I expected, but I thought I would let him know anyway.

As we drove out I saw some more of the blue blankets with the black stripe in the middle hangng up in the scrub and I asked him what they were. I had seen them near the Gate when we drove a couple of days previously, and thought they belonged to the rangers. But there were several of them out here in the middle of nowhere

“They’re for Tsetse Flies. They are sprayed with poison. Don’t touch them.” He told me.

“Why the black stripe in the middle?” I asked.

“They are attracted to the blue, but they really like black, anything that is black.”

“I wish I’d known that before getting dressed this morning” I said, looking at my black t-shirt, black jeans, black socks and black boots.

“No, no, this is good“ Innocent said, looking at me. “The flies will not bother me now”.

The day started out much like the previous day with zebra, wildebeest and topi, but after a short while we also saw a pair of dainty steenboks bounding away from the road, and ten minutes later a pair of eland, a lifer for me. This was followed by a couple of avian lifers – a small flock of Chestnut-bellied Sand Grouse and a larger group of Yellow-throated Sandgrouse – each drinking from puddles in the road.





Today we ventured into a different part of the park, where the plains were punctuated by kopjes, those small hills made up of piles of giant rocks and boulders. Surrounded by grasses the kopjes were vegetated by trees and shrubs and provided havens for smaller prey species of mammal. Bush Hyrax were commonly seen on the bare rocks, along with the occasional Mwanza Flat-headed Agama (males only, females are the same colour as the rocks), and on another kopje three Spotted Hyenas were seen sunning themselves on the warm rocks at the base.



Soon afterwards we came to a small waterhole that had some hippos in it, the usual waterbirds, and not far away a pride of eleven lions sleeping under a small tree. Again I was able to get some nice photos of them, including some close-ups.


For much of the day we saw mostly the common wildlife – Thommies, Warthogs, Elephants, Secretary Birds, Guineafowl, Little Bee-eaters, Superb Starlings. At one point Innocent stopped the car and peered out the window into the distance. Then he looked through the binoculars. I zoomed my cameras out that way but could see nothing except some trees, shrubs and lots of grass. Eventually he said “Leopard”

I couldn’t see anything that looked vaguely like an animal, let alone an orange spotted cat. It took a few moments with Innocent describing which tree, and where exactly it was, before I found it. It was probably 300 metres from the road, and unrecognizable without binoculars or a long lens, but Innocent saw it while hurtling along at the breakneck pace he liked to drive at. Very impressive spotting skills, but he wasn’t done yet. (Note: the photo below is with a 300mm zoom, and then cropped).



We stopped for lunch at one of the few picnic spots in the park where you can get out of your car. This one was on a slight rise above the surrounding grasslands. There were a number of other visitors here too, and a few birds looking for scraps – White-headed Buffalo Weavers, Speckle-fronted Weavers, the endemic Rufous-tailed Weaver and the omnipresent Superb Starlings. And I got some nice photos of a Silverbird.



When we left the picnic area we had gone only a very short distance – a few hundred metres – when Innocent stopped the car again and grabbed the binoculars. Another leopard in a tree. Again, a fair distance from the road, this one was in the canopy and almost invisible. I took a few photos, and was surprised by the number of tour vehicles that went past us while we were there without seeing the leopard. Well, not really surprised considering how damned hard it was to see. A car coming from the picnic ground pulled up behind us and a tourist poked her head out the pop-top and asked me what I was photographing. I told her, and four more heads with cameras all popped up to see it. Another car stopped behind them and the same conversation took place. Then a vehicle heading towards the picnic spot stopped, and they then completely blocked the road. At that point I suggested to Innocent that we leave.

The only thing of any note that happened on the way back to camp was a herd of a few hundred wildebeest that had decided to cross the road. They were following a well-trodden path that had no grass and was just dirt, and as they ran the dust rose into the air around them. This was not part of the annual migration (they were heading in the wrong direction) but it gave me an idea of what the migration might look like, albeit on a much small scale.

It rained again in the afternoon, and during dinner Innocent returned from the airport empty-handed once more but with some good news. We had accommodation booked at Ndutu Game Lodge. This was good – the battery in my laptop had run down, and I had already swapped my DSLR battery out for the second battery, and done the same with my memory card. But tomorrow night I would be able to charge them all.

Today’s wildlife count was not as diverse as yesterday, probably due to the rain – 35 species of birds, 13 species of mammal and one reptile. But leaving the Serengeti tomorrow might not give me more species, but the different habitat should produce more lifers.

And once again I fell asleep to the sounds of lions roaring and elephants trumpeting.

New Bird Species: Chestnut-bellied Sandgrouse, Yellow-throated Sandgrouse, Rufus-naped Lark

New Mammal Species: Eland.

Hix

Attachment below is of the second leopard in the canopy, and the wildebeest on the run.

 

No, just someone who is fatter than he wants to be. Black is soooooo slimming ....

And I don't have to worry about anything clashing. And when I go spotlighting it's harder to be seen.



Hix

 

Do you not become boiling hot if you wear black?

 

Not if the clothes are loose.

Some years ago I heard someone answer a question I had never asked. In the Middle East most people wear white robes. But some tribes, including those in North Africa, wear black robes. I've often wondered why, when white should be cooler by reflecting the heat. But apparently black robes can be cooler than white.

When we get hot we sweat. Under the loose robes the air between the body and the robes heats up, and as it heats up it rises, the movement of the rising air over the body cause the sweat to evaporate creating a cooling affect. As the warmer air rises up and out the tip of the robes it draws in the cooler air from the bottom. If you are wearing black robes the air heats up faster and moves faster, creating a better cooling effect.

But this only works with loose robes - if your robes are tight against your body there is no air to move and the heat from the robes is transferred directly to your body.

But I wasn't wearing robes. My T-shirt is Under Armour brand which is designed to keep you cool anyway. My black jeans can sometimes get hot, but riding around in a pop-top Landcruiser all day didn't make me uncomfortable. Had I been walking like I did on Kilimanjaro, or around Speke's Bay Lodge, then I wore a pair of loose black walking pants, especially designed to breathe and keep you cool.



Hix

 

Day 17 / 2nd of October

I was up the following morning to the usual breakfast – cereal, fruit juice (from a carton) and a fruit platter. Dinner also followed a set pattern – soup, a hot mains (like a stew) and a fruit platter. And avocado was very common. Sliced avocado seemed to be a mainstay of fruit platters, and there was even some in a fruit salad I had somewhere. Not that I mind avocado, but I saw it more than any other fruit.

After breakfast I packed and then had about an hour to kill until Innocent returned from the airstrip, so I wandered around camp photographing some more of the wildlife. A small troop of Olive Baboons were sunning themselves on a fallen tree, there were impala in the scrub, a Eurasian Black-shouldered Kite hovering above, and a Marabou in camp. I think Marabou must be one of the ugliest of all birds, and up close they look even uglier. But there were also some prettier birds in the shrubs too – colourful Melba Finches (or Green-winged Pytilias), spectacular Purple Grenadiers, Nubian Woodpeckers and Rattling Cisticolas.



When Innocent returned it was again without the inverter or spare part. So we put my luggage in the Landrover, I said goodbye and thanked the camp staff, and got into the Landrover. This is when I committed a major faux paus, but didn’t realise it until Innocent gave me an earful about it several days later. I didn’t tip the camp staff.

When I was on the Kilimanjaro climb, the company had said we should give the tip to the Head Guide, who would distribute it amongst the porters, cook and other staff. That way we wouldn’t miss anybody, and the Head Guide knew who had been working hard and who had been slacking off, and would tip them appropriately. Stupidly I assumed I would do something similar on safari – pay Bernard at the end of the safari, and he would split the money with Innocent and other camp staff along the way. However, this was not the case. I should have tipped them immediately, and not to do so was to suggest I wasn’t happy with their service at all.

Tipping is not something I’m used to. In Australia, we generally only tip in restaurants, and then only if the service is very good. And where I live now, tipping is not commonplace in restaurants either. In the past when I visited the USA I had to remember to tip. But Tanzania has not only embraced the concept of tipping, but they’ve run away with it. Everybody has their hand out. Police put a chair under a tree by the side of a main road and randomly flag down drivers, give the vehicle a quick lookover, have a friendly chat with the driver, and let you go for 10,000 shillings (about $5.00, or £3.50, or 4 euros). And people who live near certain roads are putting up barriers and charging their own tolls. Without doubt, tipping is the thing I disliked most about Tanzania.

Rant over. The itinerary for the day was to head for Naabi Gate in the south to exit the park, then continue on across the plains to Lake Ndutu and the Game Lodge. I had not put Ndutu on my original itinerary but reading through my “Mammals of Tanzania” by Charles Foley I learnt that the best place to see Common Genets is at Ndutu Lodge – a family of genets live in the roof of the main building and come out at night to watch the guests in the restaurant. When Lobo Lodge cancelled my booking, Ndutu seemed a logical suggestion.

So we headed off into the park one last time. It was overcast again, and there was some rain but not too heavy. The sliding rear window that kept jarring open and letting in the rain had been fixed by Innocent, sort of; he’d simply tied it shut with some rubber. Naabi Gate, the exit we were heading for, is 50 kilometres from camp in the south of the park, and so we drove past a number of kopjes along the way but we didn’t see anything new or exciting. Another Kori Bustard, an Ostrich, ten Hyenas, twenty Hartebeest, twenty Topi, and a few thousand each of Thomson Gazelle, Zebra and Wildebeest.

A small hill - about 800 metres by 1500 metres in length - rises from the surrounding plains and the road leads straight up the hill. The entrance/exit gate is on top and while Innocent was in the ranger’s office I occupied myself with what wildlife I could find, while staying out of the drizzle. There were a few wild mice darting around in the bushes – I never actually identified the species as they were rather shy and quick – and a few birds in the trees: Marabou, Superb Starlings, a Silverbird, some Mourning Doves, and a few Red-billed Buffalo-Weavers (a Lifer).

Leaving Naabi Hill we found ourselves on the plains again, but outside the National Park. We followed a road for a short while before veering off and following a couple of well worn tyre tracks through the short grass. There were a few of these tracks and they all looked the same, but Innocent seemed to know where he was going.

There wasn’t a lot to see out here, just the occasional car, and not necessarily on the road we were on. We drove fast, because I think Innocent liked driving fast, but at what speed I don’t know as the needle was jumping around like it was epileptic, and the vehicle was shaking and vibrating both from the engine and the unsealed road.

After about 20 minutes we came across a Golden Jackal, another Lifer, near the side of the road and Innocent stopped so I could get some photos. It was searching through the grasses for something, presumably something edible. It was not perturbed by the vehicle and I got some reasonable photos before we took off again. By the time we got to the woodlands ten minutes later I had seen seven more jackals and a few hyenas.



The track went through the woodland, between the trees and shrubs, and was even less well marked than out on the plains. Eventually it seemed to disappear altogether but Innocent just kept driving, but at a much slower pace. And then I saw something I had been waiting to see – Fischer’s Lovebirds. Many years ago I had kept Fischer’s Lovebirds in an aviary in my backyard, and I was very happy to actually see the species in the wild.

A short time later, just as I was becoming convinced that we were lost, we came upon a road that took us over bridge over a channel that connected Lake Masek and Lake Ndutu, and a few minutes later we were at the Ndutu Game Lodge. Surprisingly, it is only 20 kilometres as the crow flies from Naabi Hill Gate.

Ndutu Game Lodge (or Ndutu Safari Lodge, or Ndutu Wildlife Lodge) has views of Lake Ndutu in the distance, but you can’t walk to the lake. There is a very small area around the lodge where you can walk, and then signs warning you not to continue because of the animals (there are elephant and buffalo, and probably hippo near the lake). And, because it was the dry season, the water levels in the lake were low.

The accommodation was excellent and well appointed, and as soon as I got into my room and settled I started charging my laptop and camera batteries and then went to the restaurant for a late lunch. While I was waiting for my order I looked at the rafters in the roof and noticed some that seemed out of place and guessed they were for the genets. I was proven right when an adult female and a juvenile wandered out onto them a few minutes later – I was rather surprised to see them in the middle of the day! So I hurried back to my room, grabbed my camera (which still had the spare battery in it, and went back to take a few shots. They stayed out for about 15 minutes and then disappeared through a hole in the roof by one of the rafters.



Outside the restaurant was a large, dead hollow tree, with some small shrubs around the base and a concrete bird bath built into the ground. The tree itself was a favourite for the Fischer’s Lovebirds who perched on its dead branches, or popped in and out of holes in the trunk. In the shrubs were dikdiks and another unidentified rodent, a species of rat, and at or around the birdbath were Rufous-tailed Weavers, White-crowned Shrikes, Superb Starlings and Swahili Sparrows. Wandering about the parts of the grounds where it was permitted I saw more Dikdiks, Mourning Doves, Laughing Doves, Ringneck Doves, Blacksmith Plovers, Silverbirds, Grey-breasted Spurfowl, Spotted Dikkop, Helmeted Guineafowl, Grey Woodpecker and Red-billed Buffalo-Weavers. I also saw a new reptile species – Green-headed Agama – while Striped Skinks were common on the stone walls of my cottage.





It rained off and on for the afternoon, and so I spent much of my time indoors, downloading photos, sorting and labelling them on my recharged laptop. Every hour or so during a break in the rain I would head out for a walk with the camera to see if I could find anything new, but without much luck. At one point I put on a wider-angle lens and photographed one of the acacias highlighted by the sun which had broken through the clouds, but with a backdrop of solid grey rain clouds and a rainbow. My attempt at being arty.



I took my camera to dinner again, and again the genets did not disappoint, joining the other guests for about hour, which gave me plenty of time to try for more shots. Eventually they decided they should dine too, and they went back through the hole in the roof presumably to go hunting in the dark.

I didn’t see Innocent until the following morning – I learned that the guides stay in other quarters especially for the guides, which are generally kept well away from the paying guests so they are out of sight. This happened at a few other places where I stayed, and I realised it had happened in Uganda the previous year too. Whenever Joseph disappeared I thought he was off visiting friends, and I remember a couple of places where we wanted Joseph to join us for dinner, there was usually some discussion with the hotel, and Joseph did appear reluctant at times. Now I know why. Looking back on both trips, with the exception of times when I (or my group) requested it, I can’t remember a single time when I saw a guide in part of the hotel other than the carpark when they were picking up or dropping off. I can understand why the hotels do this, but I don’t like it.

It rained during the night, not heavily, but enough to discourage me from any spotlighting. And I still had plenty to do on the laptop, anyway. Around midnight I crawled into bed and almost immediately fell asleep.

New Bird Species: Black-shouldered Kite (Eurasian), Rattling Cisticola, Red-billed Buffalo Weaver, Fischer’s Lovebird, Swahili Sparrow

New Mammal Species: Golden Jackal, Common Genet.

New Reptile Species: Green-headed Agama

NB: I made a note in my travel journal “Ndutu is a great place to stay”, this despite the inclement weather.

Hix

 

This picture actually shows a rock hyrax

It is interesting to hear your stories about tipping and the police. Tipping is indeed very common throughout Africa and many restaurants have a 10% "service charge" already included in the prices, though tipping is most common in touristy places and people in more rural areas are genuinely happy for any small tip and certainly do not demand them.

The police has changed a bit in Tanzania though, mainly due to the new president who is very tough against corruption. We were only stopped once by the police and that is because we were overspeeding (80 where 50 was allowed). We had to wait for the proof and then we had to pay and a receipt was issued. This is slightly different then my experiences with Kenyan police and my drivers also took detours there to avoid the police who where always at a certain spot to collect some bribes...

 

A fantastic continuation of this travelogue, with some stunning pictures too - I love the jackal, in particular!

I think there is a big difference between tipping, and bribery / extortion. the latter - from police, in particular - is a blight, annoying for outsiders, desperately damaging to locals. Whether it is caused by greed, or a lack of wages, or by a 'broken' society is another discussion. As Lintworm says, though, there is a real drive in Tanzania to clamp down on corruption, under the leadership of President John Magufuli; people whose opinion I trust respect him, and think he will make a real difference. We will see.

Tipping of staff who have provided a service is a whole other matter. Although such guides will be very well paid in relative terms, their wages will still be really limited in absolute terms, especially in relation to what tourists will be paying for a safari. If they have provided a good service, I believe they deserve generous recompense - particularly when, in many cases, they will have extended families depending on their munificence.

That said, it does sound as if Hix's guide was fairly clueless in some respects (although outstanding in others). The impression I have - although this is anecdotal rather than empirical - is that the guides in tanzania are not always as well-trained as in, say, Zambia.

 

Quite right! My pictures have it labelled as Rock Hyrax, why I called it Bush Hyrax I'm not sure. Possibly due to the similarities and the fact that Bush Hyrax are also found on rocks!


Regarding the tipping: I brought it up at this point because this is where I should have paid the camp staff. Had I known that was the norm, then I would have paid before leaving. I agree if people have done a good job then they deserve something extra; I don't agree with the idea that they deserve something extra no matter what their performance was like, because then there is no incentive to work to the best of your abilities.

I should also state at this point that most of the hotels I stayed at either included a tip in the final bill (or allowed you to add one your self), and one place had a Tip Box so you could put what you liked into it. The tips were then distributed evenly amongst the staff. This way staff that you didn't see (like chefs, dish-washers, handymen, security etc.) shared in the tips.

The rant in my post is also based on other incidents that I will be referring to in subsequent posts, incidents that 'left a bad taste in my mouth'. The police in the street was something so akin to corruption that I had to mention it. There was a case where we had stopped in a town on the way to Mkomazi, Bernhard had to get some money and I waited in the car. A hundred metres ahead was cop sitting on a chair under a tree. She would periodically stop a car chat to the driver, get her 'tip' and sit down again.

A car drove past me that looked like it was about to fall apart, quite literally. All four wheels wobbled, none were attached properly. There was no windshield, just some clingwrap where the windshield should be, the rear door (it was a hatchback) was detached and was being held in place with octopus straps. It slowed down to almost a stop when it went over a speedhump. As it went past the policewoman who laughed as it went past, as was everyone else. It trundled along the road and out of town. She was happy to let that roll by, but roadworthy vehicles needed to be stopped for a tip.


If the new President is clamping down on this kind of behaviour, I think this can only be a good thing. I'll be interested to see what effect it has had when I return to Tanzania (although I don't know when that will be, probably no time soon).

Glad to know your enjoying the thread. It takes a little while to write each post, so it's good to know I'm not wasting my time! Thanks for the comments!



Hix

 

I am going back in November and stay for over 2 months in Tanzania, and I am looking forward to see whether the fresh wind is still as much there as last year when he was just elected. If so it would be a very good thing for the country and something unlike other countries nearby that seem to be falling apart slowly (even if there is "economic growth").

 

Day 18 / 3rd of October
Another overcast, rainy day.

I may seem to whinging about the weather a lot but there’s a few very good reasons for this:

• I’m on holiday, and if I want grey skies and rain I’ll go to Melbourne, or the UK.
• Africa is supposed to be hot and sunny.
• But most importantly, it makes wildlife photography more difficult.

The last point is the main reason I check the weather. Bird photography has plenty of challenges already, with birds obscured or hidden by vegetation, moving quickly, looking the other way, sticking their head under their wing or preening the side of the body away from you, or just flying off when they see your camera.

Rain obviously makes birds look harder to find, and when you eventually locate one it looks bedraggled. But grey skies are particularly bad, as photographing a bird in flight against grey clouds - and even white clouds – often results in a silhouette as the camera exposes on the background. And if you can get the correct exposure on the bird, the background is overexposed and results in a harsh image. Even a bird in a tree, where the clouds are visible through the foliage and branches, will have the similar results (so I’ve taken to walking around trees to try and get a background of solid green leaves, which works very well). Birds on the ground are not a problem unless they are near a puddle or body of water which is reflecting the sky. And of course, a blue sky makes for a nicer background.

Having the sun shining on your subject increases the available light, and therefore you can get faster shutter speeds, which is crucial for those fast moving smaller species. And without sun iridescence feathers just don’t irides.

I’ve been told many times over the years – by non-photographers – “that cloudy days are better because you get no shadows”, and this is true if you, but not when trying to photograph birds!

Rant over.

After breakfast we left Ndutu Game Lodge under a solid grey sky and decided to go for a drive around the shores of Lakes Ndutu and Masek before continuing on to our next destination. The lakes were drying out, as was much of the country, and the shoreline had receded by a hundred metres or more. The ground between the current shoreline and the previous one looked solid enough, but was actually just a muddy crust and driving on it could have resulted in breaking through and becoming bogged in the mud below. A sign at the lodge warned of this and the charges to tow a vehicle out of the mud was about USD$2,000.

After 45 minutes all we had seen was six Chestnut-bellied Sandgrouse, five Fischers Lovebirds, a couple of Laughing Doves, a White-browed Coucal, a Lilac-breasted Roller, a Long-billed Pipit, an Augur Buzzard, a Tawny Eagle and a Hildebrandt’s Starling. The last one was a Lifer. It looks very similar to the Superb Starling, but has red eyes as opposed to white. The colours on the chest and belly are different too but the eye colour is the easy way to tell them apart.

Heading east we took off across the Ndutu Plains – a large flat expanse that extended to Olduvai Gorge and the highlands. The plains were very flat, short-grassed, and with other set of tyres marks on the ground. At one point the single set of tyre tracks branched off into 5 or 6 directions, and Innocent chose one of them and just kept going.




Although we were well outside any National Park there was still antelope here, and predators as well. Something had been killed and I saw a small group of Hyenas fighting over the remains, while a Golden Jackal, a Tawny Eagle, and a group of about a dozen vultures (comprising White-backed, Ruppell’s Griffon and a Lappet-faced) looked on, waiting for an opportunity.



And the goats. This was my first introduction to the Masai, and in the middle of nowhere, at least 50 kms from anywhere, there would be a group of several hundred goats and sometimes only one Masai child herding them. Larger groups might be managed by three or four adults, wearing nothing but their blue and red cloths wrapped around their waists and over one shoulder. And carrying either a spear or a stick. We saw several of these groups over the next hour or so, and I now know why the plains were all short-grassed, despite the rains.

As well as the above mentioned birds the Ndutu Plains also offered up Capped Wheatears, standing on small mounds, often by the side of the ‘road’, calling loudly, a Pallid Harrier, a Greater Kestrel, an Eastern Chanting Goshawk, and a Common Fiscal Shrike.




After a further hour or so we came upon a real road; a wide, gravel road with three-foot high stone retaining wall on either side. We got onto one of these roads and drove on toward the mountains and some time later started driving up into the hills. Along the way I saw one of the pinkest ostriches I think I’ve ever seen, and another pair of Usambiro Barbets.

We passed by Olduvai Gorge, but it was raining heavily at the time so I decided not to visit, a decision I now regret. However, I plan on returning to this part of the world one day and I will consider visiting Olduvai as ‘unfinished business’.

Eventually, about three hours after leaving the Ndutu lakes, I stood on the rim and looked down into my next destination: the legendary Ngorongoro Crater.




The crater is circular and its diameter varies between about 15 and 18 kilometres; the slopes of the crater are around 600 metres high and quite steep. So steep in fact, there are only two roads leading into the crater, and only one leading out. And those roads are narrow, single lane, and switchback a few times.

There is a Parks Office at the southwest corner of the crater rim and we stopped there so Innocent could register us entering the Park. I took this time to view the crater and photograph a few birds foraging in this area – purple grenadiers, an Abyssinian Wheatear and a female pin-tailed whydah. Then we headed around the rim to where I would be spending the next couple of nights. Surprisingly, at one bend in the road where there was dense forest on either side, we had to stop for a group of Cape Buffalo crossing the road – they had hiked up the steep slope and were continuing to the highlands outside the crater. Apparently lots of mammals make the steep ascent/descend to migrate in or out of the crater – including elephants – but the steep slopes are too difficult to negotiate for one species; that’s why giraffe are absent from the crater floor.

There are a number of luxury lodges dotted around the rim of the crater and the one I was staying at – the Ngorongoro Wildlife Lodge – was right on the edge, overlooking the Lerai Forest in the crater below. The Lodge is opulent, and every room has an excellent and spectacular view of the crater through very large windows. I unpacked my cameras and looked down into the crater where I could see elephants in the forest, and buffalo and wildebeest on the forest edge or on the plains. After 15 or 20 minutes of wildlife watching from afar, I went upstairs to the restaurant and had a late lunch.

The restaurant takes up almost the entire top floor of the complex and has an outside deck with coin-operated telescopes and an almost complete view of the crater interior. I brought my camera up for some more wildlife watching as the extra elevation gave me a view of some areas I couldn’t see from my room. Then the rain set in and I returned to my room to continue working on my laptop, and periodically looking out the window. There was vegetation at the top of the slope behind the lodge and I’d spotted some birds in the shrubbery, and a group of Olive Baboons had been wandering about too.

The rest of the afternoon was non-eventful; dinner in the restaurant was good and I gained access to the lodge’s wifi and logged onto Zoochat for the first time in about a week. I eventually returned to my room when my laptops battery ran out (wifi was only in the lodges reception and bar area).

I spent the rest of the evening going through a Swahili phrasebook, looking for common phrases like ‘Hello’, ‘Thank You’, ‘How are you?’, ‘Well/Fine’ etc. but I had trouble finding them. The book was set out with different chapters for different situations, and greetings and niceties didn’t seem to appear until after page 100. But on page 30 it teaches you Hakuna karatasi ya choo ('There isn’t any toilet paper'). And then I was distracted by a few pages of pickup lines and other phrases categorised as the romance chapter.

That’s when I called it an early night, because the next day we would be descending into the crater and hopefully spending all day there.

New Species of Bird: Hildebrandt’s Starling, Eastern Chanting Goshawk, Pallis Harrier, Greater Kestrel, Capped Wheatear, Long-tailed Fiscal, Abyssinian Wheatear



Hix

Two attachments, the first is the view from my room, and second is the view from the restaurant. This is only a small part of the view, which is essentially 180 degrees.

 

Day 19 / 4th October
I was up early as we would be leaving for the crater early. Breakfast in the restaurant was uneventful apart from a spectacular sunrise over the crater rim which I missed with my camera, unfortunately. There was some patchy cloud about, but predominantly blue skies and sun, for a change. But because we were in the highlands, it was still quite cold.

Innocent collected me and we drove back to the Parks office we visited yesterday which is at the top of the Seneto descent road, collected our Park Permit, and at 07:30 we started down the narrow road which hugged the steep slope. At the bottom of the descent I saw my first lifer for the day, and a bird I’d been wanting to see – Upupa epops, the common Hoopoe (or Eurasian Hoopoe). It was perching in the top of a thorn tree, and a few minutes later I saw another poking around in the dirt. I took this to be a good omen, and hoped it would be a good day for birds. As it turns out, it was a great day for birds, mammals and reptiles.

The bottom of the crater is relatively flat, until you reach the crater walls which are quite steep. A relatively large but shallow lake – Lake Magadi – covers between 5% and 10% of the crater floor, and some swamps occur elsewhere, although being the dry season there was not a lot of water in some of them. The crater floor is crisscrossed by a number of roads, vehicles must remain on the roads at all times, and you cannot get out of your vehicle except at the two designated picnic spots.

Grasslands dominate the crater floor and there was plenty to look at – Thomson’s Gazelles, Zebra and Wildebeest were there in the thousands, but if you looked closely you could also see Grants Gazelles, Warthogs and Spotted Hyenas too. And plenty of birds: Common Fiscal Shrikes, Kori Bustards, Rufous-naped Larks calling from the roadsides, Glossy Ibis, Ostrich, and a large group of 20 Grey Crowned Cranes.



Another feature of the crater is the Lerai Forest, on the southern wall, comprised of mainly Fever Trees (Yellow-barked Acacia) and Fig trees with an understory of shrubs and thornbushes. This looked an ideal habitat for birds and mammals that did not prefer the grasslands. As we headed for the trees we saw some lionesses hunched down in the grass, obviously stalking something. That something turned out to be a warthog, completely oblivious to the danger it was facing. Innocent stopped the car and we watched from a distance as the lions got closer, but then the warthog realised something was wrong, it’s tail went straight up in the air and after spending a minute surveying the grasslands, turned and trotted off into the scrub. Dejected, the lions stood up and wandered slowly off. Although a fair distance away, I got some photos of the lions stalking with the Wildlife Lodge perched on the crater rim overlooking the forest.



Within the forest itself I saw Hildebrandt’s Francolin, European Bee-eater (both Lifers), Superb Starlings and Long-crested Eagle. A number of Elephants were feeding or crossing the road, and a few Bushbuck were obvious as well.

As we were leaving the forest Innocent turned the car into a picnic spot under the shade of some of the Yellow Fever Trees and we got out to stretch our legs, use the bathroom facilities, and have something to eat (it was around 9:00am). On the ground, hunting for scraps, were the red-eyed Hildebrandt’s Starlings and I managed to get some reasonable photo’s of them. There were a few small birds in the tops of the trees, but I couldn’t see them clearly. I was hoping a lion or elephant would walk through, but no such luck. After 15 minutes we headed off again.



The forest gets its name from the Lerai Stream, which runs down the south wall of the crater and feeds the forest before draining to the eastwards to form a wide-ish stream outside the forest which eventually leads to Gorigor Swamp (which sounds like something out of Tolkeins’ Middle Earth). Although dry, this stream still had some water in it but it was shallow. However, it still had a few hippos and some Lesser Flamingos, my first sighting of a wild flamingo. But it was fairly distant from the road and the viewing was not that good. Shortly afterwards we saw several hundred flamingos in Lake Magadi, but again, a fair way off.

Driving around the grasslands again we eventually ended up in the middle of the crater at a place called the Hippo Pool, which still had relatively deep water and around 40 or 50 hippos in it. Walking on the Hippos backs were African Black Crakes. On the other side of the pool were Sacred Ibis and Yellow-billed Storks while some White Pelicans paddled around in amongst the reeds. We were not permitted out of our cars here which was a shame as it would make a great picnic location (but a dangerous one, considering the hippos).

There were about a dozen vehicles here, and the people in a Landrover seemed excited about something in the reeds near them. Innocent drove over and I saw there was a green snake in the reeds, very well camouflaged. I managed to get some decent photos of it and later identified it as Battersby’s Green Snake, a mildly venomous colubrid not considered to be dangerous to humans.



On the other side of the road from the Hippo Pools and a short distance away were a few other small interconnected pools that were being ignored by everyone (probably because they were further away and only had waterbirds and no hippos). So we drove as close as we could and I viewed the birds through my camera: Blacksmith Plover, Crowned Plover, Pied Avocet, Red-billed and Hottentot Teal, and Northern Shoveller.

Leaving the Hippo Pool area we headed towards the drier northern and north-eastern parts of the crater. There were 20 Black Rhinos that had been translocated to the park and I was keen to see them as it would be a Lifer, having only seen White Rhinos in the wild. But all we saw were more Zebra, Lions, lots of Buffalo, Wildebeest, Gazelles and some Golden Jackals. So we drove back through Lerai Forest again (as this would be the obvious place to see a browsing species), but without any luck.

At lunchtime we headed for the other picnic spot at Ngoitokitok Springs which feeds the vast Gorigor Swamp. Much of the swamp is covered in tall reeds, but one side still has a large expanse of water which looked ideal for swimming, and would have been very cool and refreshing, as the sun had become quite strong and hot. However, swimming was not permitted, and the resident hippos ensured nobody broke the rules. After eating my packed lunch I went for a walk around the lake as the picnic area was quite large and attracted a lot of birds. The most common species was a small bird that spend most of its time on the ground and was seemingly everywhere. I took plenty of photos but it still took a while to identify them as female and non-breeding male Fan-tailed Widowbirds. There were also Rufous-tailed Weavers and Long-billed Pipits, and in the water and reeds were Jacana’s, Grey Herons, Little Grebes, Longtailed and Great Cormorants, and Yellow-billed Kites(aka Black Kites) soaring overhead looking for scraps.



By now it was around 12:30, and we would have to soon leave the crater as the Permits are only for six hours. So we left and decided to drive through the forest again, this time in the reverse direction, to try for rhinos again. A short way into the forest I saw some spots moving through the scrub off to the left and we stopped the car. I figured it was either a leopard or cheetah, but was really surprised when a Serval walked out of the bushes! It walked alongside the road, crossed the road and eventually vanished into the scrub again, but we (a few other cars had stopped too) had a really good viewing for almost ten minutes. It would have been nice to see it jumping at birds, but I was just satisfied seeing the species in the wild. Made up for the rhino no-show.



We continued on through the forest without luck, turned around and came back through once more still without seeing the rhinos. The ascent road to take us up the slope is at the eastern edge of the forest, and the last bird I saw on the way out was an Augur Buzzard perched in one of the Fever Trees.

The road out has a lot of switchbacks, and is paved with bricks for much of the way, with some spectacular views. Upon reaching the crater rim and the main road it was only a couple of minutes to the Wildlife Lodge which was literally just around the corner. Innocent dropped me off, arranging to collect me the next morning at 7:30 as I had a morning bird walk with the park rangers at 8:00am.

The time was around 2:00pm, and while taking photographs of the forest and swamp from the window in my room, I noticed firstly a female Bushbuck in the bushes at the back of the lodge, and secondly some Baglafecht Weavers and sunbirds feeding in the flowers. So I grabbed my camera and spent the next half-hour trying to photograph the Eastern Double-collared Sunbirds.

Stupidly, I forgot to take my camera to dinner and I missed photographing a spectacular sunset. But no mind; despite not seeing rhinos it had been a really great, productive day with 42 birds seen (of which 13 were Lifers) and 15 species of mammal (of which the Serval was a Lifer) and one snake, also a Lifer.

It was day I will remember for a long time to come.

New Species of Bird: African Black Duck, Northern Shoveller, Hottentot Teal, Hildebrandt’s Francolin, Lesser Flamingo, Pied Avocet, Eurasian Hoopoe, European Bee-eater, Northern Wheatear, Western Yellow Wagtail, African Pipit, Yellow Bishop, Eastern Double-collared Sunbird

New Species of Mammal: Serval

New Species of Reptile: Battersby’s Green Snake



Hix

 

Interesting read . I actually think that you saw an African hoopoe, I don't think European hoopoe goes that far south, we get them here in Ethiopia and also northern Kenya. Not that it matters much as they are now usually lumped in one species and they are both awesome

 

Yes, they were the African variety, but as there is some debate concerning the species/subspecies validity (and Clements lists it as a subspecies) I wrote it up as such. They didn't have the white highlights in the crest or the white band through the primaries.



Hix

 

Wow, you have seen some fantastic animals and beautiful scenery!! Thanks so much for posting this trip report and all the pictures. Tanzania is very high on my list too and I already followed your footsteps in Uganda (also with Churchill safaris). I would need to find a budget way for Tanzania, though - I am stunned what you paid for this trip. Any advice for doing Tanzania on a budget? ARe there any companies that do group tours or put individual travellers together in one group, as Churchill does? On the other hand, I am not interested in climbing Kilimanjaro, and that must save a lot of money.

By the way, I totally share your view on tipping. In my country, tipping is not "obligation", and I hate the US tipping culture. When I was in Uganda/Rwanda, I saw tourists from the US throwing huge tips around (I wouldn`t be surprised f some spent hundreds of dollars on tips alone!), but I refuse to take that as an example. I gave smallish tips (mostly to guides, and I usually put something in the tip box at the lodges), but considering how much locals can buy for a dollar or Euro, what I gave is worth much more then what I would have given in Europe.
I would get very angry if someone, especially my guide, critized my tipping, so you must be a patient person that you didn`t get angry with Innocent! I know I would have; I consider his behavoir as very rude.

 

East Africa is just relatively expensive, which is mostly due to expensive lodges and the high entrance fees for many parks... But also renting a car is in general even more expensive than in Europe (though it comes with a driver then)

The best ways of saving money is using public transport (which is pretty good in Tanzania) and camping, which is possible on the grounds of many hotels and lodges.

I am currently planning a 3.5 week trip throughout southern Tanzania (Kigoma - Gombe - Katavi- Kitulo -Ruaha - Udzungwa and Pemba). But even by camping and using mostly public transport costs will be about 3000 USD, which is two to three times as much as one would potentially pay in Ethiopia or Madagascar for a similar itinerary...

 

Yassa,

There are a lot of tour companies running safaris that average from 4 -12 days and incorporate 1 - 4 parks or reserves (usually Serengeti, Ngorongoro, Lake Manyara and Tarangire). They usually offer a range of accommodation options from budget up to luxury - the budget is usually basic camping and you are normally required to help with the cooking and putting up the tents. Twenty or thirty years ago I might have considered that, but not these days - I like a bit of comfort!

Very few companies advertise safaris longer than a couple of weeks, although they should all be able to put together an itinerary for you. The reason mine was so expensive is because we travelled from Lake Victoria to the Indian Ocean coast and back to Arusha (covering more than 2,500 kms), I flew to Mwanza, as well as Eastco Private Tented Camps I stayed at a few more luxury places (like the Ngorongoro Wildlife Lodge) we visited a number of parks and reserves (and you need to pay fees to enter or stay in them), and we went to out-of-the-way places most people don't visit - like Lake Natron, Mkomazi and the Eastern Usambaras.

I also had to pay for the Kilimanjaro climb, and a total of about a week in Uganda before and after TZ, and airfares from Entebbe to Kilimanjaro airport, and my airfares from Australia to Entebbe.

I definitely could have cut costs if I had wanted to, but that would have meant missing out on something and I had decided I wanted a trip worth remembering, and I don't regret the expense one little bit.

Tipping has already been discussed, and my issues with it. I realise it's the culture, but my main gripe is that there don't appear to be any controls or auditing which may lead to widespread corruption (if it's not already established) and everybody expects to be tipped for doing very little or nothing. However, I accept that tipping guides and hotels is appropriate. And had I known that I was expected to tip the camp staff in the private camps, I would have been prepared to do so.

As for Innocent's behaviour, he may have been justified in criticising me for not tipping. I would have preferred he told me immediately, and I could have then instructed him to drive back to camp and paid the boys, but instead I find out about it a week later. There was some friction between Innocent and myself, and unfortunately I contributed to that friction, it wasn't all his fault. I could have behaved better during those tense moments, but I can be a little pig-headed at times. And just because he and I didn't gel, doesn't mean he wouldn't get along with other clients. Had I been part of a group I think things would have been very different (my companions, at least, telling me to stop being a dick).

Having said that, Innocent has some excellent qualities necessary in a guide (as will become evident in the next post) and I wouldn't want anybody to think he is not a good guide. He might not be well-versed in ornithology but he always had a field guide in the car with him, and he was always trying to identify the birds I was photographing. I think with more experience with birds he will get better.



Hix