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Tanzania`s Northern Circuit - Home to the LFC`s


mvecht

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Next up was a picnic lunch at Silale Swamps. As this was the green season there were only a few animals present in the swamps.

Shortly after leaving the picnic site we spotted a big Wathog and only seconds later my wife spotted a Lioness on the other side of the road. She had just gotten up and was investigating the Warthog. However her cover was blown by some Grant`s Gazelle so no Lunch for her. She quickly gave up and went back to resting in the long grass being invisible from the road. I Wonder how many sightings we missed due to the long grasses?

Other sightings in the afternoon included a White Bellied Go Away bird, Leopard Tortoise, Bluecheeked Bee-eater, Ground Hornbill eating a small bird, Woodland Kingfishers in front of their nest and not least some very shy Lesser Kudu quite a distance away.

The second last picure is a female Elephant with very impressive tusks!

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Edited by mvecht
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Lovely to se a lush, green Tarangire, and lucky you spotting the Lesser Kudu there, we knew they were a chance down there but missed them. Recognise a couple of your Boababs, will enjoy following you along on your trip.

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Back in camp we had a blackheaded Oriole just outside the tent.

The views from camp were magnificent and often we could spot Elephant and Giraffe in the distance.

There was also a woodpecker sp. and a sort of Caterpillar in camp. Anyone up for naming them?

The next morning we saw about 30 Tawny Eagles resting in 4 different trees all close to each other. A chanting Goshawk, Hoopoes and Cranes were some of the nice birds and Babbons added the fun part of the sightings with all there babies moving around.

A redchested Cuckoo (Cuculus solitarius) was our last sighting in Tarangire before leaving for Ndutu. Tarangire was a lovely park that we would love to visit Again. The only negative point was the long grasses.

 

 

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Love the two Hoopoes! Tarangire is such a beautiful park, even more so in the Green Season it appears.

Edited by michael-ibk
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@@michael-ibk

the two Hoopoes were mother and child. She was actually feeding the Young one when we arrived. The father is on the second photo

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Next up Ndutu Wildernees tented camp. A long and bumpy drive from Tarangire.

We had our lunch at the Ngorongoro picnic site. Lots of Marabou`s around as well as a single very aggressive Yellow billed Kite.

Lots of Wildebeest and Zebra`s as we got close to Ndutu and also a nice sighting of an African Wild Cat. It was however quite shy and the grass relatively tall so no Pictures. The cat disappeard into a hole and was gone.

On the way we saw a Hippo in lake Ndutu which is quite rare as lake Ndutu is saline. The camp consists of 10 tents with flushing toilets and bucket showers. The guide was allowed to eat together with us which was a nice way to get to know him better. Food was very good and plentiful. The camp is located 1-2 km northwest of Lake Ndutu.

 

 

 

 

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I wondered what LFC was! Thanks for explaining! Some great pics so far. Looking forward to more..

I was going to pm a few people to ask them because I was too embarrassed to ask in this report. Now I know. I've seen lots of them and have lots of those photos.

 

Double hoopoe! I see @@michael-ibk noticed too. We share that bird as our fav.

 

You even had a rainbow! I was pleased that you saw cheetah raising young. Hopefully there will be more of them in Tarangire.

Green Tarangire is gorgeous and with lots of eles too. (can't make the bold go away, but it's worth bolding this statement) Edited by Atravelynn
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Day of the cats. This morning we drove down along the Western side of Ndutu towards the plains. First sighting was a male Lion sound asleep as it turned out his Brother was very close sleeping in thicket. This sighting we only had to share with one other vehicle. 30 minutes later we found a Group of females and cubs. We were number two at the sigthing but soon another 10 vehicles joined in. However as this was by a small river that could not be crossed by vehicle the cars were spread out. The Lion cubs had some fun trying to cross the river. Later we saw a Lesser Kestrel and a Black chested Snake-eagle.

 

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There was also a woodpecker sp. and a sort of Caterpillar in camp. Anyone up for naming them?

 

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http://www.eyefetch.com/image/1056682

 

~ @@mvecht

 

The caterpillar which you photographed appears to be Bunaea alcinoe, African Emperor Moth.

It's an impressive image.

Thank you for posting it.

Tom K.

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~ @@mvecht

 

This trip report has pulled me away from my work three times this evening.

The lovely photography is a welcome respite from reading through end-of-the-semester papers.

As a passionfruit juice aficionado it was good to hear that it was served in Zanzibar.

The lovebird image is gorgeous, with such fine colors and contrast.

I'm deeply impressed that you guide, Joseph, didn't resort to the radio for wildlife spotting. A tip of the cap to him.

Tangarire National Park shows itself in finest verdant raiment in your images.

The setting around the elephants crossing a river is one of the loveliest I've ever seen in any Safaritalk trip report.

How I'd love to take a couple of students to look through the fallen rock at the base of the riverfront bluff!

That's such an apt caption — “Giraffe Kindergarten”! The small pink wildflowers near them is a nice touch.

What a terrific Leopard Tortoise portrait! I admire the technical qualities of the photograph.

Both the suckling warthogs and the three in front of their mother are excellent photographs.

Not only have I never photographed warthogs with such fidelity, but I've never seen them so near.

The two hoopoe's together are well-photographed.

What I've especially appreciated about your trip report is that the full EXIF data is available.

Both you and @@Safaridude post images wherein an interested amateur might see the settings of images which they particularly appreciate.

Many of your finest images tend to be photographed at f/7.1, which is a focal length I've almost never used.

As a direct result of admiring your images, I'll experiment with f/7.1 in the upcoming safari.

Your images have rich, saturated colors. While reading your trip report I found myself being favorably impressed by the color tones.

Thank you so much for posting the commentary and images. You were fortunate to have such a fine guide in Joseph.

With Appreciation,

Tom K.

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@@Tom Kellie

As always thank you for your kind Words.

As you can see from the EXIF data I used a Canon EOS 70D and the "old" 100- 400 mm L lens.

My favorite setting is to use Aperture priority at f8. However if light was low I would go to a bigger aperture.

For BIF`s I would switch to shutter priority at 1/2000th and then turn of the image stabilizer.

It was quite a challenge with the camera. I bought it in late October and immediately experienced some problems focusing that I could not compensate for with microfocus adjustment. I sent it to Canon for repair. It came back with the comment that nothing was wrong but "somehow" the microfocus adjust had moved significantly!

Then I realised I had two pieces of rubber/plastic inside the lens so back to Canon for cleaning. This is a known problem as the internal zoomring starts breaking Down over time.

Next challenge was that there is very Little light in Denmark this time of year so it was hard to practice and get confident that the focusing was OK. I still had a few issues in Africa with long distance focusing where I am not 100% sure if it was the camera or the operator :rolleyes:

Next I started checking my old Sigma 24-70mm f2.8. It turned out the the firmware was too old and that it would not Work properly with the 70d. The same for my old Sigma flash and both of them were too old to get a firmware upgrade.

I decided not to bring a PC on the trip instead I stored the Pictures on my Western Digital My Passport where I can download data from the SD Card directly to the harddisk.

I used Large jpeg as well as RAW files. For this report I have only used the jpeg`s. Over the Winter I will start working on the RAW files.

 

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~ @@mvecht

 

Tak for den meget nyttige råd.

I'll be back out on safari within eight days, so safari photography is on my mind.

I've never before turned off the image stabilizer on the EF 400mm f/2.8L IS II lens which I often use.

The next time that I use it I'll experiment by turning it off.

Certain game drives end up being experimental times for me.

Not only is there limited light here where I work and livem but the air pollution limits visibility in midday.

My images are stored in the large memory CF cards I use in the camera. To date there's never been any problems.

As a direct result of your images in this trip report and your comment above, when I'm back on safari I'll make a point of using f/8 and f/7.1 to see how that might work for me.

As it happens, the timing of your trip report and of the comments above is ideal for me, raising new possibilities soon before returning to Africa.

With Appreciation,

Tom K.

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We arrived at the Ndutu plains at app 8 in the morning with no other vehicles in sight. We quickly found a female Cheetah that was interested in a small Group of Thompson`s Gazelle together with some Grant`s gazelle. Every time she advanced 50 meters the gazelle would move 50meters. We decided to have our breakfast box (served on proper china). as we watched the Cheetah. I should mention here that the Cheetah was in the NCA but the gazelle were in the Serengeti National park. We were parked 50 meters from the border and would not have been able to follow a hunt. We decided to move on. Quite a few Wildebeest and Zebra around but the bulk of the migration had already left Ndutu and were not in the Maswa part of SNP. Soon we saw the Next female Cheetah hunting. Quite a few vehicles were following her but I was happy to see that they all kept a good distance. We started driving around and there was plenty to see. Two Lions resting. On the last of the Lion Pictures you can see the line up of cars following the Cheetah.

We had some Hyena, Vultures feeding on a dead Wildebeest and another very young female Cheetah hunting, so even with all the vehicles around it did not feel crowded.

three Lion and three Cheetah sightings in a morning drive was obviously very good but I was missing some action :(

 

 

 

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~ Such fine vulture images!



Very glad to see them in Tanzania.



Tom K.


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@@Tom Kellie

 

I try to use f8 because that is supposedly the sweetspot for my lens.

If you look up the review of your lens on DPReview it seems like you are better of at f4 - f5.6. This may also give you a better bokeh as well as some more light.

I hope that you will have a wonderful trip to South Africa and look very much forward to your trip report. My Next trip will not be nearly as exciting as I am off to Seoul and Tokyo. Both lovely cities but I have been to both of them many times before.

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@@Tom Kellie

 

I try to use f8 because that is supposedly the sweetspot for my lens.

If you look up the review of your lens on DPReview it seems like you are better of at f4 - f5.6. This may also give you a better bokeh as well as some more light.

I hope that you will have a wonderful trip to South Africa and look very much forward to your trip report. My Next trip will not be nearly as exciting as I am off to Seoul and Tokyo. Both lovely cities but I have been to both of them many times before.

 

~ @@mvecht

 

Thank you so much!

I taught in Japan before coming to where I'm at present.

Around the Imperial Palace moat in Tokyo are trees and shrubbery.

During winter, assorted small migrants from more northerly climes are scattered there.

The wood and stone textures of Tokyo's older structures are a welcome challenge for the camera lens.

I've considered returning to Tokyo for the express purpose of taking black & white texture photos.

I hope that your visit to both Seoul and Tokyo will be pleasant in all aspects.

Tom K.

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The afternoon was a little more quiet. We saw a Dung beetle (actually quite a few), Bat-eared Fox at the den, Stilt, LFC (Cheeteah), Long crested Eagle, a dead Vulture in a tree and a young Hyena.

 

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~ There's an image to inspire all aspiring veterinary dental hygienists!



Great image, @@mvecht.



Tom K.


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Great stuff, looking forward to read the rest.

 

Jeg er selv i Ndutu, Serengeti midt, og nord sidst i feb og marts. Bushcamping med min ven og guide Otto.

 

Tak for dit indlæg.

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The next morning we sadly had to leave as Ndutu was my favorite part of the trip especially since offroading was allowed..

We encountered our only European Roller, Flamingoes at lake Ndutu, a very Young Hippo baby at lake Masek (the rest of the Hippoès were on the other side of the lake).

The Giraffe sigthing was quite interesting as they were very fond of each other but also quite shy. After a failed mating attempt we left them alone.

Just before reaching SNP we had another LFC!

The Naabi gate gave lots of opportunities for photographing the Superb and Hildebrandt`s Starlings as well as the Mice.

 

 

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Time to enter the Serengeti.

Unfortunately the grasses were very long and that seriously affected our chances of seeing big cats.

A quick Word about birding. I know that many ST members are afraid to end up in a vehicle with birders. My wife and I like birds and maybe more so as the choice of mammals in Denmark is fairly limited. As a birder you have to be good at using your eyes trying to see any shape, colour or movement that is not supposed to be there. This would be the positive thing about sharing a vehicle with birders. My wife and I are not fanatics so we do not have to stop for any bird we see. I would be annoyed if I had to share a vehicle with such a person :D

However as we did stop several times to look for birds we also had sightings we would have missed if we have not stopped. On this trip it was more than usual due to the tall grasses but we actually had two Lion, one Cheetah and one Hyena sighting we would have missed if we had not stopped for birds.

However the most important one took place just after we entered SNP at a waterhole. Most vehicles zoomed past without even slowing down. Only one vehicle slowed Down to investigate. My wife had spotted a swimming Python!

Soon after we had another LFC at one of the Kopjes.

Other sightings for the afternoon: Kestrels, Black Crake, Hippos, Brown-headed Parrot, Silverbird, Hyrax, Topi, Whiteheaded Buffalo Weavers, Pintailed Whydah, Hoopoe and a male Montagues Harrier.

Our camp was the sister camp of the one in Ndutu located app 6km northeast of the Seronera airstrip.

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Edited by mvecht
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Enjoyed the Lions looking less than majestic with their manes wet and flattened, and the Hyena showing a full set of choppers is a cracker.I wonder, is that little mouse just that, plain old house mouse sharing your banana, or something more interesting?

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@@elefromoz

Sorry, my knowledge about Tanzanian mice is very limited so I have no clue to what species it is.

PS the banana was already there when we arrived.

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Time to enter the Serengeti.

 

 

However the most important one took place just after we entered SNP at a waterhole. Most vehicles zoomed past without even slowing down. Only one vehicle slowed Down to investigate. My wife had spotted a swimming Python!

 

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~ @@mvecht

 

I appreciate your careful explanation about the advantages of birding.

Like you, I'm not an avowed birder, but do enjoy observing and photographing avian species.

I've hesitated about raising a question about the above image, as I lack expertise or standing in herpetology, and I greatly admire your bird identification skills.

If I'd been asked, I'd not have thought that the swimming reptile was a python, but rather might be Varanus niloticus, Nile Monitor.

Several details on the head patterns and the characteristic stripes across the back are compatible with Nile Monitor markings, as is the look of the head.

However, please do ignore me, as other Safaritalk members would be more qualified to assess the image than I am.

In any case it's a superb sighting by your sharp-eyed wife!

Thank you for posting these Serengeti images, especially the LFCs resting on the kopjes.

Tom K.

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