Ruaha and Zanzibar - September / October 2014

[FlyTraveler]

Oct. 05, 2014. Ruaha National Park, Tanzania. Last game drive.

The flocks of birds just kept coming in various formations:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I remember that I didn't have to crop at least one of the photos below:

 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 30, 2015 by FlyTraveler

[FlyTraveler]

Oct. 05, 2014. Ruaha National Park, Tanzania. Last game drive.

The Ruaha River bird show lasted for about an hour. Mixed group of Yellow-billed storks and African spoonbills:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At certain point we witnessed the reverse process - the birds started to take off:

 

 

 

 

Egyptian geese sequence:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then we drove a bit away from the river and had our first ever sighting of mating Impalas:

 

[TonyQ]

@@FlyTraveler

There are an amazing number of birds here - I like your birds in flight, the diferent formations - and the goose running along the water as it takes off!

[twaffle]

Those flying hammerkops are wonderful, what a lovely sight.

[Atravelynn]

 

I could use some help with the ID of this bird

I´d say White-Crowned Lapwing.

 

me too

 

The warthog shots did the company justice. Very nice ones. Those bird shots I so admired were back for your final day with even greater variety! Really outstanding photos, balls and all!

Edited June 2, 2015 by Atravelynn

[FlyTraveler]

Thanks for the attention @@TonyQ, @@twaffle and @@Atravelynn!

[FlyTraveler]

Oct. 05, 2014. Ruaha National Park, Tanzania. Last game drive.

Well... Where was I? Right, last game drive, mating Impalas after the spectacular bird show...

 

A couple of Fon der Decken's hornbills:

 

 

Next we saw African fish eagles couple, one of them with a catfish in the claws:

 

 

 

The one with the fish obviously didn't feel like sharing the meal with the other:

 

 

 

 

 

Finally the eagle with the prey felt comfortably enough to start eating the catfish:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited June 12, 2015 by FlyTraveler

[FlyTraveler]

Oct. 05, 2014. Ruaha National Park, Tanzania. Last game drive.

After a while the Fish eagle decided to change the place, so it took the prey and landed on this dry tree. This worked well for me since I didn't mind taking a few shots of the eagle against the blue sky as a background:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Soon this tree also didn't look safe enough to the Fish eagle for having a meal and once again it flew away:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[TonyQ]

@@FlyTraveler

That is a beautiful fish eagle sequence

[xelas]

@FlyTraveler: the Fish Eagle take-off photo ... wow! Perfect timing!

Edited June 12, 2015 by xelas

[Marks]

Love the fish eagles. The blue sky background shots are perhaps the "better" of the two sets, but I might prefer the first group, as the tree branches and distant ground give a sense of the environment, too.

 

In any case, well done.

[FlyTraveler]

Oct. 05, 2014. Ruaha National Park, Tanzania. Last game drive.

After the African fish eagle flew away, we had a chance to pay attention to the crocs basking in the sun at the bank of Ruaha River:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Red-necked spurfowl or red-necked francolin (is it?):

 

 

 

 

These two hippos moved from the small pool to the river proper:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

An idyllic scene - two happy hippos playing in the river, crocs enjoying the sun and a beautiful landscape:

 

 

 

[michael-ibk]

Red-Necked Francolin, yes. Love the landscape shots with hippo - very, very beautiful, poster material.

[FlyTraveler]

Oct. 05, 2014. Ruaha National Park, Tanzania. Last game drive.

Rollin' in the river:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At certain point the bigger hippo felt like lecturing the other one:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then we witnessed a typical hippo behavior for marking a territory - "When the sh*t hits the fan" (a frantic twisting of the tale while defecating thus dispersing chunks of dung around):

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[xelas]

@@FlyTraveler

The second hippo shot, where it swims "mrtvaka" is just hilarious!! What a moment you've captured!

[FlyTraveler]

@@FlyTraveler

The second hippo shot, where it swims "mrtvaka" is just hilarious!! What a moment you've captured!

 

The hippo was actually rolling in the water, they do not swim, they do a "space walk". It was still a good moment, though...

[Marks]

Ha! I've never seen a hippo rolling like that. Your caption set off the Creedence in my head...but then things quickly took a turn for the worse. My hat goes off to you for staunchly photographing such a display.

[FlyTraveler]

I am sorry for the long break, I will make an attempt to continue this report and hopefully finish it in a foreseeable future. :)

Oct. 05, 2014. Ruaha National Park, Tanzania. Last game drive.

After the hippos and the crocs we stopped for a while to watch and photograph a herd of Greater kudus - a male, females and juveniles.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another African fish eagle at the bank of Ruaha River - this one was quite wet:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A ground hornbill in flight:

 

 

[FlyTraveler]

Oct. 05, 2014. Ruaha National Park, Tanzania. Last game drive.

After the Greater kudus and the Ground hornbill we had the last predator sighting for this safari trip - a pride of lions at the bank of the Great Ruaha River:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At this moment the sleeping male lion woke up and if the guide in the other vehicle wasn't that stupid, we all could have had a lot nicer shots with the Ruaha riverbed as a background, instead of the safari version of Toyota Land Cruiser.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[FlyTraveler]

Oct. 05, 2014. Ruaha National Park, Tanzania. Last game drive.

At certain point we noticed that there was a second male in the pride:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then the first male got up and moved, so I was able to take several shots with the Ruaha riverbed as a background:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Marks]

Better late than never!

Quite a bedraggled fish eagle.

[michael-ibk]

That second Lion definitely had a bad hair day.

[xelas]

Wow, some wild party animals are living in Ruaha ! Bad hair day ?? Maybe a hangover also.

[FlyTraveler]

Oct. 05, 2014. Ruaha National Park, Tanzania. Last game drive.

At certain point we just had to go and leave this great sighting (the lion pride with the two males). We still needed some time to pack and get to the airstrip on time for our flight to Zanzibar. On the way made a few very quick stops, like this one, just to photograph our last male Greater kudu before departure.

 

 

 

 

Could not stop taking scenery shots while the vehicle was moving:

 

 

 

A breeding herd of elephants passed by to say good-bye. We had a beautiful blue sky, dotted with white clouds, just like an illustration from a kids book:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On the way to the main airstrip in the park (Msembe) we passed near the Tanzania National Parks (TANAPA) headquarters (right next to the airstrip). These are by far the largest national park HQ that I have seen in Africa - about 300 people live there permanently, the rangers and various other workers and their families. There is a school for the kids, infirmary, auto repair shop, living quarters, canteen, offices etc. There were also two ultralight aircraft parked there (the day before we saw one of them flying over the park and I kept wondering what make and model of plain that was, still wondering).

 

 

 

Edited August 2, 2015 by FlyTraveler

[Alexander33]

What a great shot of the Ground Hornbill in flight at post # 393. Haven't managed that one myself yet. Thanks for sharing this great report.