Pick up at hotel in Arusha at 0600 hrs.
Drive to southern gate Arusha NP to arrive by 0715.
Drive fairly slowly through forested central area of Arusha national park to Momella gate to arrive at 0800 where collect a ranger and drive to Kilimanjaro viewpoint (2200 m) on Mount Meru birding from the vehicle en route.
A leisurely walk in the higher altitude lichen-festooned forest around the viewpoint on Mount Meru (from 0900 for about one hour) should be very productive. Spectacular Crowned Eagles display overhead with attendant Mountain Buzzards, Mottled and Nyanza Swift rush past. Dusky Turtle Dove and Lemon Dove come down to the path for grit; Bar-tailed Trogon and Black-capped Mountain Greenbul remain in the treetops. In the undergrowth and middlestorey are magical White-starred Robins, Mountain Thrush, Dusky and White-eyed Slaty Flycatchers, Cinnamon Bracken Warbler, Brown Woodland Warbler and noisy duetting Hunter’s Cisticolas. The flame flowering 'red-hot poker like' Kniphofias growing around the viewpoint attract gangs of excitable Eastern Double-collared, Taccaze and Golden-winged Sunbirds. Whilst in the herbaceous tangles are far more secretive Abyssinian Crimsonwings best located by their thin high-pitched call.
Some 'typical safari mammal species' will have been seen beside the lower tracks; additionally up here in the evergreen forest are White-throated Guenon (Sykes’s Monkey), Guereza Colobus, Bushbuck and Harvey’s Red Duiker.
We will walk the trail from low stature cloud forest at 2200m, through lofty juniper and podocarpus forest where the understorey is kept remarkably open by the grazing and browsing of African Buffalo, down to Maio waterfall at 1600m. Here we will take an early lunch at 1200. Along this Miriakamba trail (two hours) we shall hear and should see some special birds of the verdant montane forest: confiding Scaly Francolins, raucous Red-fronted Parrots and gruff-sounding Hartlaub’s Turacos, brilliant Cinnamon-chested Bee-eater, oriole-sounding Waller’s and Kenrick’s Starlings, the recently split citrine yellow Stripe-faced Greenbul, highly skulking Evergreen Forest Warblers and that very handsome arboreal finch the Grey-capped Nigrita.
Afternoon (1300): slow drive from Momella gate down to the arid steppe of "Lark Plains" in the rain shadow of Mount Meru (one hour) and along the Osugat track into Longido’s Maasailand. Here we shall search for four special larks: the critically endangered Beesley’s Lark (only found at this one location). near-endemic Athi Short-toed Lark, the locally frequent Short-tailed and a 'cryptic species' the plentiful 'White-browed' Lark Calendulauda intercedens (formerly lumped in the Fawn-coloured Lark complex); no less than five other lark species are also possible here!
There are Ostrich, Lappet-faced and Ruppell's Vultures, many resident, wintering and passage raptors, two species of courser and numerous acacia-commiphora specialities such as Black-faced Sandgrouse, Taita Fiscal, Fischer’s Starling, Red-fronted Warbler, Tiny and Ashy Cisticola, Mouse-coloured Penduline Tit, Southern Grosbeak Canary and Somali Golden-breasted Bunting (1600 to 1815). Also some scarce or local mammals: the kangaroo-like Spring Hare, shy Bat-eared Fox, easily seen Golden Jackal, giraffe-necked Gerenuk and graceful Lesser Kudu.
Return to Arusha (takes one hour) and drop off at hotel about 1930 hrs.