Why I Like Starlings

I am not afraid to admit it - I like starlings. No - I really do! I can hear most of my birding friends ask "Even if you did like them, why would you admit to liking these invasive noisy birds in a public forum?"

Well, I guess the short answer is that I went to Africa once. It was while I was in Tanzania that I developed my appreciations for starlings. No, not the European Starling pictured above, but the African versions of this family. They are gorgeous.
The starling family, the Sturnidae, has 112 species in 31 genera. Starlings were originally found in Africa, Eurasia, and Pacific Island, but some species have spread throughout the world.
My first experience with starlings on my trip to Africa was at the Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam. I found European Starlings flying around the terminal and realized that this was the first time I had observed this species as a native bird.
Then, when I arrived at the camp in northern Tanzania I was to call home for the next 10 days I truly came to appreciate starlings. This is why:

The Superb Starling was my first introduction to the more colorful members of this group. Their name was soon shortened to a mumbled "Sprb" whenever we saw one. Shortly after the Superb Starlings came the Hildebrandt's Starling:

Even better in my opinion.
Then the Greater Blue-eared Starling.

Wow.
One other species of less showy starling I observed was the Ashy Starling:

Perhaps the most striking starling was one I didn't get a photo of. It is the Violet-backed Starling. An iridescent plum purple and white model that was unmistakable as is flew away from me. Here are a some photos of this one. See what I mean?
There are so many more species of gorgeous starlings in East Africa that I didn't observe last time - I guess I will have to figure out a way to try again.
More information on starlings (as well as all other species of birds) of the world including photos and videos for most species is this wonderful source - the Internet Bird Collection found here.

The Unknown Raptors of Tanzania

One year on and I am still trying to figure out a few birds from Tanzania. Mostly they are raptors. I have ideas on most of them as noted below, but if anyone can help out with the ID's I would really appreciated it (click on each image to enlarge).


The next two images were taken in the Pugu Hills. This bird was out a ways and these are the best images I could manage. The overall darkness of this bird (beyond the apparent exposure problems of the photo), broad, short wings, primaries and secondaries paler than the forewing, pale legs, and the pattern of banding in the tail suggest a Brown Snake-Eagle to me.
[ I apparently am on track with this one]




This bird was photographed on the Kenya border northwest of Kilimanjaro at the old natron mine. It is obviously a harrier and appears to be a first year male just molting into it's first adult plumage. Based on the length of the wings in comparison to the tail and the lack of chestnut streaking on the flanks, I am guessing a Pallid Harrier.
[This one was humbling. Now that I have the suggested ID, my comment that it is obviously a harrier is obviously wrong. Eastern Chanting Goshawk. At least it still looks like an immature bird molting into adult plumage]



This photo was taken in Tarangire National Park. One of the large dark eagles but appearing to be not as heavy built or as large as the Golden Eagle I am familiar with. Lesser Spotted Eagle?
[suggested that this is a Tawny Eagle. I can go with that]




This one was taken at Tarangire National Park. Immature Brown Snake-Eagle?
[At least I can ID Brown Snake-Eagles. This one was confirmed]


This one has me stumped. It was taken northwest of Kilimanjaro and appears to be a buzzard of some sort to me. However, the combination of streaking (rather than barring) on the breast and light, unmarked throat and upper breast do not match any thing in my field guide. Anyone?
[Ayer's Hawk-Eagle. Sounds good to me. Doesn't quite match my field guide, but I am very aware of the range of variability in raptors and it does make sense to me]


The next two were taken on the northwest slopes of Kilimanjaro as it flew high over me. I am puzzled by the shape of this bird. It was quite large and I can't figure out any large raptor with the long tail and the apparent feather pattern and coloring especially in the primaries. Great Sparrowhawk? European Honey-Buzzard?
[This one was suggested as another Eastern Chanting Goshawk. I am having a harder time with this one based on my limited resource, but I can see why this species was suggested. The color and shape and size seem right but the pattern on the primaries is what is throwing me a bit. Maybe I just want it to be something different too much.]

Return to Tanzania

Since it looks like we broke the record for the most snow for the season last night (still snowing now) and the temperature is heading well below the zero mark for the next few days, I think that it is about time to return to Tanzania. But it looks the only way I am going to be able to do that is post about it here.


To recap, I was in Tanzania to train Village Game Scouts (VGS) how to conduct more rigorous natural resource monitoring as part of their regular duties conducting anti-poaching patrols at the Enduimet Wildlife Management Area (WMA).


Enduimet WMA is located west of Mount Kilimanjaro along the border with Kenya.


I was part of a team working for the Department of Interior's Technical Assistance Program. There were ten of us on the team, divided into five teams of two, each team assisting with a different WMA. My partner at Enduimet was Janet, a botanist from the US Fish and Wildlife Service in Alaska.


This is Eric, our driver.


We worked very closely with the Longido District Game Officer (DGO) Stephen (on the right), his local commander Charles (on the left), and Julius (middle), a representative for the African Wildlife Foundation, a non-governmental agency partner in the management of the WMA.


When we arrived at Enduimet, we toured the VGS outposts in the WMA. These guys are amazing. They accomplish a lot with little resources. The shed in the back is where they cook and store their equipment. They sleep in small individual tents scattered around the outpost. The conduct anti-poaching patrols on foot from their outposts and spend four weeks at a stretch on duty.


Our training was conducted at the WMA headquarters in the village of Ol Malog. Each morning the scouts would go through their drills prior to the training.


We spent most of our time outside doing more practical instruction. Here Janet is teaching the scouts how to set up and run a habitat transect to measure vegetation.



We did spend some time inside the WMA headquartes in the village of Ol Malog. Here the scouts are going through the field guides we provided them, The Birds of East Africa and the Kingdon Pocket Guide to African Mammals. I would recommend both guides for any trip to East Africa.


We also taught the scouts how to measure grass biomass using the pasture disk method.


Since there wasn't much wildlife near the village, we improvised and used the numerous cattle, sheep or goats as surrogates when we taught the scouts how to conduct wildlife transect surveys.


At the end of the training we had the scouts run their own transect as a practical test. The transect was run from one of the outposts and this time we had real African wildlife to use on the transect.


At the end of our training we had a ceremony with a number of dignitaries where the scouts received their certificates of completion. Here Obedi is reciting a speech where he expressed the scouts appreciation for being selected to receive the training as well as appreciation for the content of the training.


The primary management challenge at Enduimet is the heart of this type of conservation effort - how to integrate local people and villages into conservation efforts so that the people realize some gain from having wildlife on the landscape. It is a difficult challenge but necessary as more and more people inhabit areas that have traditionally not been heavily impacted by human land use and still have wildlife habitat and populations. More people exert pressure on local wildlife through direct conflict (where the wildlife usually loses) to more subtle, indirect impacts through habitat changes or loss. One example of indirect impacts to wildlife at Enduimet is the increase use of water for agriculture at the upper ends of the watercourses near the mountains. This limits the amount of water that makes it to the area where wildlife have traditionally been able to access the water and puts additional pressure on the remaining sources of water needed by both wildlife and domestic livestock. Competition for scarce water tends to increase the incidents of direct conflict with wildlife.


Grazing by domestic livestock is the primary land use in the WMA.


The transition from unlimited land use to a conservation focus that will realize income from wildlife and wild lands in addition to livestock grazing is an experiment that is progressing, but the hoped for results are still years away if the experiment succeeds. Traditions change slowly.


Another management challenge is unsustainable cutting of firewood in the WMA.


On the other end of the management challenge is improving the infrastructure so that income from tourism related to wildlife can be realized for the villages. Right now the roads in the WMA are not in the best shape. That, combined with the distance from the traditional wildlife tour circuit, currently limits the amount of tourism this area receives.

Enduimet Mammals

Since it is now -6 with a light wind and a couple of feet of snow on the ground here at home, I think it is time to go back to Tanzania again.

Most of my time spent in Tanzania was at the Enduimet Wildlife Management Area (WMA) on the northwest flanks of Kilimanjaro. Enduimet is a southern extension of the Amboseli region in Kenya and much of the WMA is a broad plain between Mount Meru to the south, Kilimanjaro to the east southeast, and Longido to the northwest. This plain gently slopes towards Kenya and is mostly an acacia savanna landscape. The WMA functions as a connection for wildlife moving between the Amboseli system and Kilimanjaro National Park, Arusha National Park and other protected areas to the southwest. I was fortunate to take a couple of trips into the heart of the WMA and I was able to observe a wide range of African wildlife. In future posts I will describe other wildlife I encountered in the WMA, the history of the WMA and what exactly I was doing there but for right now I am going to begin with the large mammals we found during our explorations.

Near the border with Kenya, at the lowest elevation of the WMA, the water table is closer to the surface and supports larger trees than much of the rest of the WMA. There is also an old meerschaum (a magnesium rich clay often used to make smoking pipe bowls) mine near the border where old mine pits now have surface water. Most of the wildlife in the WMA is found near these old pits during the dry season since it is the only source of reliable water in the area. Particularly since much of the water that comes from the mountain slopes is now diverted for human use before it ever reaches the upper stretches of the WMA.


We found lots of zebras (punda milia in Swahili). I love the stripes and could have spent a lot of time just watching these guys.





We also had a small bunch of zebras near the lodge that would come to water at the small concrete lined pond at the main lodge.





I also enjoying seeing the Masai giraffes (ok I really enjoyed all the animals I was able to observe!) We saw many twigas throughout the WMA.













The pattern on this bull giraffe was a bit different than most of the others I saw, with the centers of the brown patches becoming quite dark.



The was another gnu species for me. We saw many Wildebeast (Nyumbu), again mostly at the lower end of the WMA towards Kenya.





We didn't see any elephants (Tembo) during the first trip through the WMA, but on the second tour through we found a couple foraging in the trees.



We saw a small group of Bat-eared Foxes but they were quite shy and didn't allow for a very close approach.



One afternoon I has some free time and went for a short hike around the lodge. I wound up sitting on a small outcrop above the next drainage to the north and watched for a bit. After I had been there for a short while I saw a female Lesser Kudu emerge from the bush and slowly make her way up the drainage towards me. She was soon followed by a few other female and young as well as this bull.



I managed to sneak up pretty close to the group and got this photo of one of the females. When I tried to shift a bit to get a clearer view she spotted me and was gone.



There were lots of Grant's Gazelles, Thompson's Gazelles, and Impala in the WMA. This male Grant's Gazelle sported one of the largest sets of horns that we saw in the WMA.



I couldn't let this post go without at least one bird photo but it is pretty close to a large mammal. We found a few Kori Bustards in the WMA. These are purportedly the heaviest flying bird in the world and although I never saw one fly, the certainly did look quite hefty on the ground.