Lake Victoria, another stop on our African Wildlife Photography Safari, is the world’s second largest freshwater lake and has an area of more than 40,000 sq miles. The lake itself is not a park or reserve. Being only 3-4 hours from the Maasai Mara in Kenya it’s a good place to stop off before continuing on to the Mara.
Bird species found around Lake Victoria, but rarely if ever seen anywhere else in Tanzania or Kenya, include the Blue-breasted Bee-eater, Blue Swallow, Swamp Flycatcher, Greater Swamp-warbler, White-winged Warbler, Papyrus Yellow Warbler, Carruthers’ Cisticola, Papyrus Gonolek, Red-chested Sunbird, Red-headed Quelea, Slender-billed Weaver, Yellow-backed Weaver, Northern Brown-throated Weaver, Black-throated Seedeater, and the Papyrus Canary. For a list of birds that we may see and photograph on the African Wildlife Photography Safari at Lake Victoria visit Kenya Birds.
Grey-Headed Kingfisher at Lake Manyara on the African Photo Safari
Lake Manyara National Park in Tanzania is a small but scenic park we plan to visit in February as part of my African Photo Safari. It is ideally suited for a few hour’s exploring and wildlife watching at the start of a safari and/or a morning at the end, as it lies on route to and from Ngorongoro and the Serengeti. The park is about 200 square miles with a the alkaline lake covering about 140 square miles of it. The Manyara is an excellent place for bird watching and bird photography with flocks of Pink Flamingoes standing around the shallow lake and several hundred other species of birds including African Gray Hornbill, Grey-Headed Kingfisher, and Vitelline Masked Weaver.
The rivers and riverbeds provide scenic vistas for wildlife watching including elephant, giraffe, cape buffalo and wildebeest. Warthog seem to thrive here, growing notably fat with large tusks. Additionally this is a natural playground for baboons and several species of monkeys.
Sandhill Crane
Bosque del Apache Wildlife Area Photography Tours and Workshops are loads of fun. Having five or six other photographers to talk to and get ideas from enhances for me what is already a great experience. During the afternoon lull we set up a computer projector and view some of our favorite photographs critiquing each others work with an eye for improvement.
Bosque is located off I-25 about 20 miles south of Socorro, NM. It is an easy trip to fly into Albuquerque and either rent a car or have your tour guide pick up. Socorro has several nice motels.
Sandhill Crane
From November to March Bosque del Apache is home to 60,000 Snow Geese, 30,000 Sandhill Cranes, thousands and thousands of waterfowl, eight or so Eagles and a variety of mammals.
You want to be set up at least 20 minutes prior to dawn so you don’t miss any of the action at dawn. At dawn 40 to 60,000 Snow Geese take off at once that sounds like a frieght train going by. Just after dawn the Sandhill Cranes begin to lift off and head for the fields to eat.
After you have taken enough photographs to fill a semi you start driving the 20 or so miles of roads to photograph various wildlife like song birds, waterfowl, cranes, and mammals. At about 10:30 the light is a little harsh so it’s back to Socorro for a nap or down load time, lunch and critiques.
About 2:30 we head back to Bosque and photograph geese and cranes as they leave the fields and head back to their roosting areas on the shallow ponds. We get back to Bosque after dark and generally have dinner prior to returing to our rooms to down load again and get ready for tomorrow.
Sandhill cranes at Dusk
If you have not taken a Bosque del Apache trip you need to consider putting it on your agenda
Elegant Trogon
I have been a busy bee but having a great time. I just realized I haven’t posted any information on Bird Photography Tours and Workshops. Taking photographs of birds is one of my favorite photography adventures. Every time I’m out photographing birds I come away with a good feeling about life and the world. Bird photography helps me put things in perspective. Visit workshops on my web page www.wildlifephototour.com for more information on tours and workshops.
I lead Bird Photography Tours and workshops throughout the southwest and Costa Rica. Southern Arizona is one of the hot spots in the country with hummingbirds and Elegant Trogons in the summer and Sandhill Cranes and raptors in the winter.
Hummingbird
During the summer months I conduct workshops at the Pond at Elephant Head where we concentrate on a variety of wildlife including baby Quail, and Cardinals etc. at the pond itself. When the light gets harsh we move under a canopy and set up the hummingbird photography studio with four flashes and the Photo Trap Photography Trigger System. We also spend time in Madera Canyon one of the Elegant Trogon hot spots. Elegant Trogons are a Neo-tropical bird migrating to the US in the summer and only to southern AZ.
In the winter a photo tour to Whitewater Draw Wildlife Area in southern AZ to photograph the 30,000 Sandhill Cranes is a blast. Many of those Lesser Sandhill Cranes migrate from as far as Siberia. On the agenda for January is a tour to Aransas, TX to photograph the endangered Whooping Cranes. I charter a boat to take just the tour to where we can get great photographs. We tour the central TX coast photographing anything we can find including the Crested Caracara, the spectacular bird on the Mexican Flag.
Sandhill Cranes over the moon
Cactus Wren
