3/8/07 Tarnagire N.P. contined

Up again at 6AM. enjoyed a buffet breakfast and then off on another game drive. We cannot travel to the western part of the park because the severe rains several months ago washed out all the bridges except for one near the park entrance to the north. They will repair them when the dry season arrives. We looked at one former crossing andcouold see where the cement had been washed away.

New birds and animals are becoming harder to find but we managed Egyptian Mongoose, two female Reed Bucks, and good looks at a Steinbok in the road. We added Speckled Pigeons outside our balcony this morning. On our drive we also added D'Arnaud's Barbet, African Crowned Eagle, Long tailed Fiscal(a shrike), Levant's Cuckoo and Black and White Cuckoo near each other. Also a Eurasian Marsh Hawk that we watched hunting over the marsh then dive and pick up a hapless baby rail and eat it near our car.

Returning to our lodge we passed numerous elephants. One group had over 24 in it. We again had a pool side lunch and enjoyed resting before starting out again at 4 PM for an afternoon game drive. There is no internet service here so we won't be able to check on our Basketball teams until at least Sat.

This afternoon I got good pictures of one of my favorite birds, the Liliac-breasted Roller. We saw one about every 400' and many were right by the road. We also had a "harem" of 30 female and young Impalas with the alpha male. they actually walked toward our car and cme within 100' of us. On our way back to the lodge we saw 8+ Little Bee-eaters right beside and on the road.

As mentioned before there are numerous species of Francolins and Spurfowl here. These partridge-like fowl liked to dust themselves and sit on the road not wanting to fly. They would often run ahead of the vehicle and flush only at the last moment. Thus we got good looks at many of them. The new one this afternoon was the Coqui francolin.

We stopped by a place where a bridge had been and we could see the road on the other side but the bridge was completely missing and a 6-8' high sheer wall was exposed on the other side of the stream.