Tanzania Flora & Fauna of the Southern Highlands A Greentours Tour Report 16th – 31st January 2012 Led by Phil Benstead & Rosalind Salter 17/1 Dar es Salaam The group arrived after an overnight flight in reasonable shape to be met by Rondi, who had arrived in Dar es Salaam ahead of the team to sort out a research permit (for independent work to be conducted in Kitulo National Park after the tour). We made our way to the Mediterraneo Hotel, although somewhat slowly, due to the usual morning rush hour (or 3!) made infinitely worse by policemen taking over the traffic lights. After a short wait on the pleasantly breezy sea front, overlooking Msasani bay, we got into our rooms to freshen up. We then embarked our boat from the beach in front of the hotel, destination Bongoyo Island. Sadly, to very soon be limping back to shore due to engine failure. This was not a problem though, we were told by the boatmen, because there was another boat... So off they went to get a new boat and outboard motor...they returned, and we were off again, but disappointingly for the boat to again come spluttering to a halt. The island sat temptingly out of reach. We were out of options so we had a leisurely lunch of fish and chips (minus the head and tail which we would have got on the island) and then contented ourselves with a chance to walk the beach at low tide. It wasn’t our day as the low tide was badly affected by the onshore winds and so never got low enough to expose the mud and sandflats that are famous for the shorebirds, including the peerless crab plover. We had to content ourselves with Saunders’s tern (3) and two fine sooty gulls. The walk produced a nice ephemeral coastal wetland with commonly found sand loving species identified such as beach bindweed and dead sea fruit. Our dragonfly expert Phil spotted Lestes pallidus and Ischnura senegalensis and nearby we found our first water thick- knees. Walking in the mature gardens of the hotel, dominated by flamboyant trees, produced some nice birds including Zanzibar red bishops, blue-capped cordon-bleus and Zanzibar sombre greenbul. Yellowed-headed gecko was viewed on the wooden frames of the dining area and house geckos were commonly seen outside the rooms. Although tiredness had set in, the group managed a short evening hunt for reptiles after dinner but only found tree and house geckos. A frustrating day but not without its rewards. 1 18/1 to Hondo Hondo (Udzungwa Mountains) It was an early start to miss the rush hour traffic. Much of the day was spent travelling in 4WDs equipped with our wonderful Tanzanian drivers Bahati and Saleem, who double up as extremely good wildlife guides. The journey took us West and was punctuated nicely by driving through and lunching within Mikumi National Park and a few good bird stops en route. Mikumi is noted for its Borassus palms, which share the Swahili name ‘Mikumi’ and from which the park’s name is derived. Mikumi covers an area of 3230 km2 but shares its boundary to the South with the Selous Game Reserve, covering an amazing 54,600 km2, which in turn links to the Udzungwa National Park covering 1990 km2. Between them these protected areas span an altitudinal range from 110m to 2576m, encompassing a huge range of habitats including grassland, miombo woodland, lowland forest, sub-montane and montane forest and is one of the largest protected wilderness area in the world. The park provided us with plenty of game viewing including impressive numbers of elephant, along with the usual buffalo, zebra and impala. The sighting of Southern ground hornbills was Phil’s favourite bird spot of the day, one of which was carrying a large Xenopus frog in its bill. Driving on towards the Udzungwa National Park we enjoyed great views of Zanzibar red bishop and fan-tailed widowbird in the wet grassland, along the river within the cane plantations, near Hondo Hondo. Also here malachite kingfishers and white-browed coucals made an appearance. After settling in to our luxury tented abodes on arrival at Hondo Hondo, we had evening sundowners. At the same time we saw the local trumpeter hornbills, returning to their roosts on the forest edge by camp, after their usual day out in the plains of the Selous. Over a sumptuous dinner we saw a bushbuck (in Phil’s super torch light) on the forest edge and heard bush babies calling as well as their red eye shine, picked out by torchlight. The evening frogging session after the rain (which we luckily missed) was fantastic, helped by the new pond situated on the edge of the forest. One frog was identified as an Udzungwa endemic and the energetically calling male saffron yellow Hyperolius mitchelli were really rather splendid. 19/1 Sanje and Sonjo (Udzungwa NP) Some of the group were up at dawn but things were slow to get going in the clearing. Things got busier during breakfast and then we headed out with local guides to find and follow a habituated group of Sanje mangabeys. Except Peter, who went off to the Prince Bernard falls with another guide. This particular group of mangabey habituated by 2007 is never too far away but this year we didn’t have to walk far at all (although we had been told earlier that they were further away). 2 We cut through some cultivated land on the edge of the forest by the park HQ and then only after a few hundred metres we were on their trail (mainly following paths made by elephants that frequently pass through this section of forest). The group 68 strong had 3 new babies. We watched as they foraged for grubs on the ground and ate fruit from the trees and then walked with them as they passed through the forest. In the same fruiting trees we also found Angolan black-and-white colobus and Udzungwa red colobus. A noisy baboon fight also broke out. Of course, the odonates stole the show for Phil, the peak of perfection being the Platycypha caligata, found along a small stream, and his first Trithemis aconita. Out in the farmland the small streams produced a superb variety of commoner and more widespread species as well as various butterflies including narrow green-banded swordtail and common bush brown. We took a slightly different route back to Hondo Hondo and our guides made us bridges out of bamboo to get back across some damp ditches in the Shamba (farmland). Lunch back at Hondo Hondo was supplemented with good views of Udzungwa red colobus and black and white colobus from the comfort of loungers in the dining area. In the afternoon Peter walked around the farmland and villages near to Hondo Hondo with his enthusiastic young guide and the rest of us followed the Sonjo trail. Here we saw some nice flowers including a striking blue ginger Siphonochilus brachystemon (left), large yellow member of the ginger family Costus macranthus, pink Impatiens wallerana and Begonia oxyloba. We ended the walk by a pretty waterfall, where many butterflies were dancing, including: large striped swordtail, forest grass yellow and soldier pansy. After another tasty dinner we gathered around a moth trap that had been set up in the clearing and invited in a wonderful array of sphingids, noctuides, cicadas, micro mantis etc. Fewer new frogs were found after a turn of the camp but a common squeaker was nice. 20/1 Sanje Falls trail (Udzungwa NP) We headed up to the top of the Sanje falls at the usual leisurely pace giving us time to take in all the new pretty flowers, towering trees, colourful butterflies and dragonflies, as well as some great sightings of Udzungwa red colobus and black and white (with very handsome epaulettes) colobus and our first (albeit brief) sighting of a blue monkey. Along the trail we saw numerous lovely pink and yellow gingers Siphonochilus kirkii (rose ginger lily), Scadoxus multiflorus (fire ball lily), Gladiolus sp., and red Pentas bussei. The sweet smelling Tabernaemontana pachysiphon, with frangipani-like flowers and large shiny leaves, was frequent as we neared the top of the falls. At the top of the falls we enjoyed sightings of Begonia, Streptocarpus and two new orchids were photographed by Rondi (via slippy rocks) on the other side of the falls. These have been as identified as Cynorkis kirkii and Disperis uzungwae (see below). Another species was found growing in moss precariously situated on the edge of the falls. Initially it looked to be an orchid but has now been identified as the bladderwort Utricularia pentadactyla. The author of this species Peter Taylor was the head of Orchids at Kew before Phil Cribb, but apparently his true love was with carnivorous plants such as this. 3 Cynorkis kirki Disperis uzungwae Saintpaulia ionantha We lunched on the rocks at the top of the falls, overlooking the plains of the Kilombero valley and out towards the Selous. Afterwards we followed aptly named ‘pathfinder’ (Catuna sikorana) butterflies, along a welcome flat path to a second splendid waterfall, where luckily a few purple Saintpaulia ionantha were out in flower. Other striking butterflies seen were the large blue mother-of-pearl and the common but very pretty gold-banded forester. Dragonflies included Bradinopyga cornuta, Zygonyx natalensis and Olpogastra. A highlight of the day were, not 1, but 2 forest vine snakes (both spotted by eagle-eyed Angela). This is a beautiful but deadly snake but fortunately totally non-aggressive.