A day out on the plains of Angyata Osugat in order to see Beesley's Lark is included in the itinerary of most of the tours that I escort on behalf of safari operators here in Tanzania and bird tour companies abroad. Alternatively if you are already here in Tanzania and wish to make the best use of a free morning or day in Arusha, you can contact me and arrange to visit the larks.
The Beesley's site is only an hour's drive from Arusha, along the Nairobi road, and an early start is essential. Normally we collect clients from their hotel at 6.30 a.m. After seeing the larks well, typically by about ten o'clock, we travel east a further 15 km to visit an extensive area of acacia-commiphora woodland along the Ngare Nanyuki river. Here a great variety of dry country birds and wildlife, including mammal species rarely seen on a typical East African safari - e.g. Golden Jackal, Gerenuk and Lesser Kudu - are to be found.
In addition to Chersomanes beesleyi we can expect to see at least six other larks. In the appropriate season there are a number of internationally scarce or restricted range bird species present in this area. The day list should always include at least some of the following: Lappet-faced Vulture, Pallid and Montagu's Harrier, Eastern Chanting Goshawk, Common Kestrel of the race rufescens, White-eyed and Lesser Kestrel, Amur and Sooty Falcon, Buff-crested and White-bellied Bustard, Sombre Nightjar, White-headed Mousebird, Abyssinian Scimitarbill, Black-throated Barbet, Singing Bush Lark, 'White-browed Lark' Calendulauda (alopex) intercedens (currently treated as a race of Foxy Lark), Pink-breasted, Short-tailed and Athi Short-toed Lark, Mouse-coloured Penduline-Tit, Red-throated Tit, Rufous Bush Robin, Schalow's Wheatear, Tiny and Ashy Cisticola, Taita Fiscal, Rosy-patched Bush-Shrike, Hildebrandt's and Fischer's Starling, Steel-Blue Whydah, Southern Grosbeak Canary and Somali Golden-breasted Bunting.
