Katuma Bush Lodge

The rains continue

2011-02-25T01:01:00.000-08:00

2011-01-10T22:32:00.000-08:00

The buffalo are in their element with all the water - they can just wallow

The Impala have been dropping their young.

Curious as ever

2011-01-10T03:41:00.000-08:00

A private moment with mommy bushbuck grooming here youngster - we sneaked a photo.

2011-01-10T03:34:00.000-08:00

The Red Chested Cuckoo always heralds the start of the rainy season and he is quite insistent with his "Piet my Vrou" calling. A deffinite first and major "tick" for us is this Narina Trogon seen close to our tent.

2011-01-10T03:29:00.000-08:00

The rains are back, and with them came 5 wilddog - seen twice in one week. They are looking relaxed and extremely healthy. What a pleasure.

As the river dries up more

2010-10-26T01:11:00.000-07:00

As the river gets lower, the birds and animals take advantage of the situation. hundreds of Marabou Storks concentrated to areas where the catfish are flapping in the mud as the water dries up - an amazing sight to see.

A few photos as the river water disappears....

2010-10-17T02:03:00.001-07:00

Marabou storks fishing for the cat fish as they too run out of water. they are taking advantage of the backs of the hippo to do their fishing.

Baby crocodile taking advantage and riding on a hippo = probably to get out of the filthy water

Mom and baby walking in step

Photos from Mr Cav's trip - Mona and Mark Calvzacoli, Buffalo, NY

2010-09-08T00:46:00.000-07:00

Mom moving one of the cubs -gently taking her by the head !!

Mom and and one of the cubs - beautifully posed for the camera

The Katuma pride had 3 sets of cubs in 2009, 3 of the 4 females each had 3 cubs. This was one of the babies from the last set born in 2009. Todate, September 2010, of the 9 cubs there appears to be 6 still with the pride.

White browed Coucal

Photos from a Guests Larissa Sototskaya

2010-09-08T00:03:00.000-07:00

Young waterbuck (defasse) playing on the banks of the river.

Impala males rutting to see who will win the 'ladies'

Hippo on the move.... usuall they are fast asleep on the banks of the river

A family of banded mongeese (mongooses!!)

Elephant about to shake the tree in order to get some of the seeds to eat

Crocodiles 'multiplying' ??

One of Larissa's many excellent sightings - a huge monitor lizard walking across the bridge carrying his 'dinner' - a cat-fish when of hundreds splashing around in the depleting river.

One of our Resident males

2010-05-22T23:55:00.000-07:00

2010-05-18T00:47:00.000-07:00

7 June 2009

2010-05-18T00:39:00.000-07:00

07/06/09

The lion sightings here at Katuma Bush Lodge have been amazing this last couple of weeks or so. The Katuma pride has been in and around camp just about every night. We are now having regular sightings of them lying in the shade on the edge of the Katisunga floodplain, to avoid the midday sun, not more than about 500m from camp. I have often stood on the main deck in the coolness of the morning and watched some of the females walking past, returning to the rest of the pride after a night’s hunting.
I wrote in a previous report, about a lioness from the same pride that looked like her cubs were due any day now. We have as yet not had any sightings of the new cubs, although I am sure they have been born already. I think it is probably still a bit too soon to introduce them to the rest of the pride. However I am glad to say the three other cubs I also mentioned in the same report, are coming along nicely. They have grown a bit since, and all three are looking very well. The last time I saw them they were keeping the two males on their toes as well. . . Oh well who needs sleep anyway.
We had a female leopard in camp two nights ago it was quite amazing. The vervet monkeys have not complained with the lion and hyena being in camp on a regular basis. But as soon as the leopard walked in, all hell let loose. It didn’t sound like she had any luck though.
The parks rangers reported seeing a pack of about eight wild-dogs running along the banks of the Katuma River during the past week. So hopefully these guys will stick around and we will get some sightings of them to.
Mamma fisi (mother hyena), who I also did an earlier report on along with her pup. Well it looks like the pup is now old enough to leave the den as the pair of them are in camp every night. It looks like this pup could be one of her last that she will give birth to, as the gal, aint no spring chicken anymore. It seems it may be up to junior now to keep her legacy going.
The huge herd of buffalo (about 1000 individuals) is once again in front of Katuma Bush Lodge. This herd seems to spend their days grazing contently on the lush grass left by the rains. It takes them about 3 or 4 days to move across the Katisunga flood plains from one end to the other, and then the journey starts again.

Other sightings: We have had a family of bush buck living in the camp (male, female and young), but just recently we are only seeing the female and baby. It makes me wonder what has happened to the male, especially with all the lion activity we have had in and around camp.
We are now getting regular sightings of bohor reedbuck and eland on the plains as well as defassa water buck.
Birding.
As I am still getting used to a lot of the East African species, I can tell you birding in this remote part of the world is never boring. My wife and I watched an African Harrier-Hawk one morning from our main deck as it raided the starling nests high up in the borassus and doum palm trees. It was amazing watching what stress and problems it caused for the smaller birds.
Other sightings include: speckled pigeon, Rufus sparrow, we had a brilliant sighting of an immature African Fish Eagle hunting on the Katuma river, black crowned tshagra, Northern white crowned shrike, grey kestrel as well as superb sightings of battaleur and tawny eagles.
As I have said before and I will say it again, there is never a dull moment at Katuma Bush Lodge.
Thanks and kind regards.
Geoff Mullen.

The Pride Brothers

2010-05-18T00:30:00.002-07:00

11 May 2009

2010-05-18T00:30:00.001-07:00

Well what can I say; it has been a fantastic week for game viewing leaving our guests over the week-end a little spoilt for choice. Things have really been happening here and Katuma Bush Lodge and the surrounding Katisunga Plain. Check this out:
Two male lions about 1,5 km from camp, these are two brothers of which Katuma Bush Lodge forms a part of their territory. The rest of their pride with which we had frequent sightings of over the week end consist of, four Lioness and three young cubs. One of the other lionesses is very pregnant and is due to haveher cubs any day now. Another exciting find this weekend was a hyena den not more than 100m from our main deck. The den consits of two adults and one young pup. Other sightings include a pride of fifteen lion on the Katuma River Road, another male lion lying next to a dead elephant not far from the rangers post. We have had a matriacle herd of about 15 ellies in camp, as well as a herd of about 100 zebra in front of our main deck . We are still seeing impressive herds of eland and I have had my first ever sighting of a bohor reedbuck. We also have a young family of bush-buck, male female and a young one living close to the lodge.

Our birding list is coming along nicely even though it’s early days yet. We have recorded 42 spieces so far which include some of the following:
Crowned crane, ground hornbill, purple crested turaco, long toed lapwing, saddle billed stork, white backed vulture, palm nut vulture, African fish eagle, African crowned eagle, brown snake eagle, bateleur eagle, bare faced go-away bird, magpie shrike, yellow-billed oxpecker and ruppels long-tailed starling, just to name a few.
This is really the time of year to be exploring Katavi National Park, the game viewing and birding have been excellent in the four weeks that my wife and I have been here.

Kind regards
Geoff Mullen.

2010-05-18T00:24:00.000-07:00

15 June 2009

2010-05-18T00:21:00.000-07:00

It’s been a week-end of non stop sightings for our guests here at Katuma Bush Lodge. It all started for the honeymoon couple on their drive into camp soon after landing at our airstrip. They got 4 large bull elephants, 3 or 4 hammerkop fishing off the backs of hippo, several sightings of very large crocodile and just before arrival in camp they got 4 lionesses, with three cubs suckling on the one female, accompanied by a large male.
They arrived at breakfast the next morning, very excited that they had sat quietly in their tent and watched an elephant feeding on a tree so close that if it wasn’t for the tent they would have been able to reach out and touch it.
Other sightings the newly weds had during their stay include: buffalo, bohor reed buck, two male hippos having a bit of a territorial dispute, several matriarchal herds of elephant, some with young not much older than a month. They got a beautiful sighting of 3 juvenile Verreaux Eagle owls. One of the things our guests noticed here was that they were the only vehicle out there. What a pleasure being the only people at some of these sightings.
But the best was still to come. This morning which just happens to be the day of their departure, the kind couple thought that a lay-in and a late breakfast before departing would be the perfect morning. Well that was not to be. Just as it was getting light our neighbourly lions decided to kill a Topi not far from our main area. We were all up watching the action. The four females had made the kill and were introducing their three young cubs to it. Hyena, white backed vultures and marabou stork all added to the atmosphere which made an excellent sighting.
Our guests departed very happy people, but sadly . . . . . we miss them already.
Asante sana –ingi
Kind regards
Geoff Mullen.

FREDDY resident elephant

2010-05-18T00:11:00.000-07:00

4 May 2009

2010-05-18T00:03:00.000-07:00

Colleen and I were woken early on Sunday morning by a loud rumbling noise outside our tent. Looking through the front flaps we could see Freddy slowly walking past our tent heading out of camp towards the katisunga plain. Freddy is a huge bull elephant that has been resident in and around Katuma camp this past week. As we were leaving the tent to start the day we looked cautiously around us making sure that Freddy was no where near. At first we thought he had gone but when Colleen and I started talking to each other he slowly came out from behind a thick bush and at the sound of our voices he started walking casually towards us. Colleen and I were now standing on the verandah of our tent watching him walking towards us. As he came even closer I was beginning to wonder if now wouldn’t be a good time to get back into bed and try starting our day again a little later on. We stood dead still as Freddy came right up to the verandah and almost rested his large head on the handrails while he sussed us out. After a short while he must have thought we were ok as he turned and once again walked casually backed towards the thick bush and began feeding. Not once did he show any sign of aggression, he was just simply very curious.
Besides Freddy giving us a rude awakening, the game in and around Katuma seemed unusually quiet on Sunday morning. So Peter, one of our guides and me decided to take a short drive to see what is out there, and this is what we came across.
Red-billed hornbill, a small herd of impala, a nice sized herd of zebra, magpie (long tailed) shrike, greater blue eared starling, several male buffalo, sighted along the river. Cattle egrets. About 8 or 9 huge pods of hippo. We had a beautiful close up of the majestic African fish eagle. Giraffe were also sighted along the river as well as lilac breasted rollers, little bee eaters, red necked spur fowl, Egyptian and spur winged geese. And I have never seen such huge crocodiles as I saw on Sunday just sunning themselves on the banks of the Katuma River. Also sighted on Sunday were warthog and baby, yellow billed oxpecker, woodlands, malachite and grey headed kingfisher, grey backed fiscal shrike, white fronted shrike, and white browed coucal. Wattled and long toed lapwing, as well as a breeding herd of elephant, an impressive bachelor herd of eland and to end off the drive we saw a large family of very excited banded mongoose disturbing a grazing herd of impala by playfully running under their legs.
So you see game wise Katuma bush lodge in the Katavi National Park is never quiet.
Geoff Mullen.

Another hectic day in Africa - Katuma lioness

2010-05-16T07:37:00.001-07:00

2

2010-05-15T02:32:00.000-07:00

26/04/09

My wife and I have only been in our new home on the Katisunga plain in Katavi National Park, for a week now and already I feel that this must be Tanzania’s hidden gem. Just driving in on Tuesday afternoon we came across buffalo, giraffe, a nice herd of eland, elephant, topi, zebra, impala. And on the birding side we had great sightings of crowned crane and ground hornbill as well as woodlands kingfisher.

The view of the Katisunga Plain from Katuma bush lodge is stunning to say the least. Home to a wide variety of game which can be viewed whilst relaxing in one of our comfortable deck chairs in the lodge’s main area. This week alone from in and around camp we have seen a huge herd of buffalo that seem to be on the plains in front of the lodge daily. Herds of zebra and topi also on a daily basis as well as giraffe and impala. We get a visit every evening at around seven by a large family of banded mongese. Hippo lion and hyena has been herd every night in and around camp. And on Saturday afternoon we watched from the deck of our main area a lioness stalking a small herd of zebra. Due to a thick tuft of hair growing on her chin our staff have named her SHARUBU which in Swahili means the bearded one. By the way she did not get her zebra. Oh well we can’t win them all. So for a real wild life adventure that’s not for the faint hearted Katuma Bush Lodge in Katavi is the place to be.

Mammal sightings for the week.

Lion, elephant, buffalo, eland, zebra, topi, giraffe, impala, hippo, banded mongees, vervet monkey.

Birding. Crowned crane, ground hornbill, lilac breasted roller, purple crested turaco, helmetted guineafowl, woodland kingfisher, blacksmith lapwing, saddlebilled stork, spurwing and egyptian geese, cattle egret.

Geoff Mullen.