Jambo! meaning Hello! in Swahili. We are in Kenya.
On the final morning of our 3-day safari to Masai Mara in southern Kenya, our Masai camp guard, Bill, let us know that during the night there was a hippo munching its way through our camp. We would have been happy to have been woken up since it is one of the animals we did not see on safari. But there was plenty else to gawk at — lions, cheetahs, elephants, zebras, giraffes, baboons, jackals, water buffalo, wildebeast, impala, topi, Thompson’s gazelle, eland, and banded mongoose for the mammals, and many, many bird species. (see lists at end)
Our gawking was done from the safety of a pop-up van. The reserve is very strict about not allowing people out of vehicles, and rules about not allowing vehicles to chase or harass animals, so by and large the animals ignore the vehicles. The result is some incredible up close encounters.
The only time we were allowed out of the van in the reserve was when our driver, Joseph, had to fix something that had broken underneath the van.
Photos and videos can hardly do justice to the reality of the animals, but here’s a try:
Click for lionesses at rest video
Click here for classic migrating wildebeast video
Click here for sleepy hyena video
Topi
A lot of time on safari is spent driving the roads, waiting to hear over the radio where some of the more “glamorous” animals are, such as cheetahs and lions. The first day, we were stopping every few moments to take pictures of the zebra, elephants, giraffes, and gazelles. As we became accustomed to these animals, we spent more time asking our driver to stop so that we could identify birds.
Our coup in terms of bird sightings was Mike spotting a Secretary Bird. This predatory bird (described in one bird book as looking like an eagle’s body on crane’s legs) stands nearly five feet tall and kills small prey on the ground either by stomping on it or spearing it with its beak. (It is called a secretary bird because of the crest, which early Europeans thought looked like the quill pens a secretary would store behind their ear!)
We didn’t get close enough for a photo, but here’s a stock photo to give you some idea of this terrestrial bird of prey.
Secretary Bird (stock photo)
Bird Lists
Safari Camp
Yellow weaver, Brown-headed weaver, Black drongo, Brown firefinch, Purple starling, African pied wagtail, D’Arnaud’s (or Usambiro) barbet (f) – see stock photo, right, Common bulbul, Speckled mousebird, White-crested mousebird, Little sparrowhawk, Somalia dove, White-browed robin chat, White-bellied goawaybird, Green-backed woodpecker, Superb starling, Black kite, Speckled pigeon
On Safari in Masai Mara (in addition to the above)
Grey-crowned crane, Tawny eagle, White-headed vulture, Hooded vulture, Common sandpiper, Grey-rumped swallow, Lilac-breasted roller (see stock photo left), Grey-backed fiscal, Little bee-easter, African wattled lapwing, Helmeted guineafowl, Egyptian goose, Common (or Masai) ostrich, Fischer’s sparrow-lark, African grey hornbill, Red-billed oxpecker, Red-capped lark, Rosy-throated longclaw, Crowned lapwing, Ring-necked dove, Secretary bird, Woodland kingfisher, Black-tailed bustard, Marabou stork
Arboretum, Nairobi
Hadada ibis, Abyssinian thrush, Red-eyed dove, Variable sunbird, Scarlet-chested sunbird, White-eyed slaty-flycatcher (see stock photo, right), Yellow weaver bird, Yellow-rumped tinkerbird
Giraffe Centre Bird Walk
Pied Crow, African Golden Oriole, Common Bulbul, Red-billed Firefinch (f), African Harrier Hawk, Village Weaver, Bronze Mannikin, Variable Sunbird, Yellow-breasted Apalis, Olive Thrush, Hartlaub’s Turaco, Golden-breasted Bunting
While 3 of our 5 days in Kenya were on safari, we did mange to visit the Giraffe Centre where (surprise, surprise) you can get up close and personal with giraffes. Click here for a video of Marsha feeding a giraffe. Across from the entrance to the Giraffe Centre, there is a designated bird walk through a sanctuary. We were overwhelmed by the bird life and so the above list records only those birds we could actually identify. Identification usually entailed us writing down a description and then in the evening going through images of birds until we found a match. Part of the learning curve!
Postscript to Travel Notice #3 (see Dec. 3 blog entry)
When we arrived in Nairobi we learned that in 2017 Kenya had banned the use of plastic bags. Anyone producing, selling, or even just carrying a plastic bag is threatened with up to 4 years’ imprisonment or fines of up to $40,000! Glad we were told. While the ban would appear to be working in a number of ways, including a Nairobi without plastic blowing in the wind, as we drove through the slum of Kibera and through other towns outside of Nairobi the plastic trash was just as overwhelming as it was in Thailand and Cambodia. Presumably this was “old” trash but there is as yet little incentive for a clean up.
Green Edges 