Birding and Birdwatching           

Trip Report - Kenya & Zanzibar 7-27 October 1999 Part 2

9/10-12/10/99 Amboseli National Park

As we headed southwards we passed through the southern end of the Kenyan highlands and into the Masai steppe as we headed towards Namanga. The landscape on the uplands was open farmland and pastureland, interrupted by small towns with their flimsy looking shops, bars and "hotels" (diners are called hotels), surrounded by an unsightly halo of litter. It is densely populated and there are people and their animals everywhere in Kenya. We see our first wild animals on this road, Common Zebras feeding among the herds of zebu cattle and goats.

Birding from the back a large truck on bumpy roads is nearly impossible but I manage to identify a number of birds on the roadside wires. These include single examples of Lanner Falcon, Eastern Pale Chanting Goshawk and Rufous-crowned Roller and more numerous Common Fiscal, Long-tailed Fiscal and Superb Starling. We stopped at one of the towns where I was able to get my first good look at the beautiful Superb Starling as it foraged among the detritus. A Black-headed Heron watched it all from a vantage on top of a telegraph pole.

The further away from Nairobi we got the worse the road became and we entered scrubland grazed by the Masai's cattle, goats and donkeys. We stopped for lunch and I wandered off to see what birds I could find. It was hot and this was hard work but a Tawny Eagle and two White-bellied Go Away Birds were found immediately. A more diligent search found some smaller birds before we continued on to Amboseli.

We reached Amboseli in the late afternoon and drove through the National Park to the public campsite. There were a lot of Common Zebra and Wildebeest in small groups as we crossed a dusty pan. Here we also passed herds of Masai cattle tended by young boys, these were on traditional grazing grounds which have been denied to the Masai by the creation of the National Park. The only birds on this dusty area were a few Masai Ostriches and Yellow-necked Spurfowl.

Soon the landscape changed as we approached the swamps created by the glacier fed runoff from Kilimanjaro. Throughout our stay in Amboseli the Mountain teased us with occasional glimpses of its spectacular peaks through the veil of clouds. These swamps were rich in life including many waterbirds as well as Elephants, Hippos and Cape Buffalo. The approach of winter in Europe was marked by the numbers of Palearctic shorebirds feeding around the edges of the pools among the more exotic Ibises, African Spoonbills and Egrets.

We camped at the public campsite where a Small-spotted Genet joined us for dinner and Elephants browsed on the bushes after we had retired to our tents. The sound of an elephant's digestive system on the other side of a few centimetres of canvas is not my idea of a lullaby. In the mornings there were lots of birds around the campsite including Grey-headed Sparrows, Spotted Morning Thrush, Rufous Chatterers, doves and D'Arnaud's Barbets. In the evenings large numbers of bats flew around as did a Slender-tailed Nightjar. At all our campsites the call of the African Scops Owl was a familiar night sound.

During the day we followed the game drives and I tried to bird when we stopped. I could see larks, pipits and longclaws in the grass and managed to identify most of them as Fischer's Finch-lark and Plain-backed Pipit. The only longclaw I saw was a Pangani Longclaw. Hirundines were plentiful and all appeared to be either Plain Sand Martins or Barn Swallows but I am sure more species must have been present. Birds seen in the thornbush vegetation included White-headed Buffalo-Weavers and because of these I finally spotted a pair of Pygmy Falcons, a species which had eluded me in Namibia last year, which breeds in the old White Headed Buffalo Weaver nests. Superb Starlings were ubiquitous, as they proved to be throughout almost all of Kenya, while larger bush birds included Kori and White-bellied Bustard as well as raptors such as vultures, Eurasian Marsh Harrier, Eastern Pale Chanting Goshawk, Martial Eagle and Tawny Eagle. The common species of Fiscal here appeared to be Taita Fiscal.

On 11 October we left Amboseli and headed over the dry bed of Lake Amboseli towards Namanga. Here we often flushed birds and most of these were Crowned Plovers but I did see a few Black-faced Sandgrouse and a small group of Two-banded Coursers.

With the Masai 11/10/99

We stopped in Namanga where our truck was swamped with hawkers before heading on to a Masai Cultural Centre. This was run by Paul, a Masai who had been educated in the UK. The campsite was better than Amboseli with relatively clean drop toilets. There were birds around the campsite, mostly different species of dove and weaver. In the late afternoon we were shown around a Masai manyatta and Paul explained some things about Masai culture and life, including the an excruciating description of the ritual circumcision of boys as they become warriors which certainly made me cross my legs.

Mount Kenya 12/10/99

We spent the night here, passing through the verdant Mount Kenya foothills on our way to the Mountain Rock Lodge. As soon as we camped I began to notice different birds, especially the easily picked out White-eyed Slaty Flycatchers and the Black Saw-wings. There were also sunbirds including the Amethyst, Bronze and Northern Double Collared. In the evening we went to the bar where a troupe of local performers mixed circus skills with Kikuyu dances.

In the morning the campsite was visited by Red-fronted Parrots and Fischer's Turaco. We went on a walk through the forest to the "Mau-mau" Caves. The only birds I saw on the walk were a Mountain Greenbul, African Paradise Flycatcher and Black Saw-wings. A highlight were a troop of beautiful Black and White Colobus monkeys which disappeared through the trees before the photographers among us could focus.

The caves were a disappointment as they had been destroyed by the Royal Air Force during the Mau-mau rebellion in 1959, killing 300 rebels and destroying the roof of the cave. The walls were covered in graffiti and everyone appeared to be suffering from the altitude on the way back to the hotel.

Samburu/Buffalo Springs 13-15 October 1999

We left Mount Kenya after only one night and headed north to the Samburu National Reserve where we would camp for the next two nights while exploring the reserve and its neighbour, Buffalo Springs National Reserve. As we headed north it was cold and began to rain but when we soon left the green hills of the Mount Kenya highlands behind and entered a semi arid, scrubby landscape reminiscent of many areas in Zimbabwe and Namibia. This landscape continued until we reached the Reserve and camels joined the usual group of African livestock.

It was late afternoon by the time we reached the gate of the Buffalo Springs National Reserve, perfect timing for a game drive to the Usao Nyiro river and across into Samburu National Reserve to pitch our tents. Here we saw our first Beisa Oryx, Grevy's Zebra and Gerenuks as well as Reticulated Giraffe and lots of Impala, Elephants and Thomson's Gazelle. I have always wanted to see Gerenuks, the Giraffe Gazelle, with their long necks and habit of standing on their hindlegs to reach into the tops of Acacia trees.

Large flocks of Guinea-Fowl were in evidence, both the widespread Helmeted Guinea-Fowl and the rarer Vulturine Guinea-Fowl. Among the large numbers of White-crowned Sparrow Weavers were smaller numbers of the less well marked Donaldson-Smith's Sparrow Weavers but most small birds were seen in the campsite including White-headed Buffalo Weaver, Black-headed Oriole, Slate-coloured Boubou, Bare-eyed Thrush, Hunter's Sunbird, Grey-headed Kingfisher, Lilac-breasted Roller and Grey-headed Sparrow. The common plover in this area proved to be the Spur-winged Plover.

In the afternoon of the second day we went to the Buffalo Springs Lodge to use the pool and I saw a pair of Fan-tailed Ravens displaying over the lodge. That morning we had another game drive through Samburu and Buffalo Springs during which we had seen many raptors including Bateleur, Augur Buzzard, Tawny Eagle and Black-chested Snake Eagle. The highlights were, however, a pride of Lionesses with their kill and a mother Cheetah with a well grown cub with another kill.

These reserves are among the most beautiful of African reserves, plenty of wildlife surrounded by mountains clad in semi-arid thornbush. Our next destination, Nakuru, would be a contrast.

Part 1 | Part 2| Part3 |Part 4 |Part 5

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