Sept Kenya Private Drive/Fly

[Atravelynn]

* Our first lion pride sighting of about 5 members, including lionesses and cubs, was shared by up to 4 other vehicles, with some coming and going.

 

 

* A pride of 6 lions that included one young male also had up to 4 other vehicles, with some coming and going.

 

A few wisps of mane can be seen on the young male

 

 

 

* A different pride of 6 lions was positioned to attract a whopping 8 other vehicles, so we did not linger. This pride was spotted right near the entrance to Sambura Simba about 10 minutes before the 6:30 pm park close. So everybody passed them on the way back and that contributed to the crowd.

 

The baboons are on Simba grounds, the lions are near Simba but still in the park

[Atravelynn]

Sangeeta, you snuck in there between the vervets and the gerenuk. Thank you Twaffle for your gerenuk support. ...., you've added a historical perspective to the abundant grooming vervets at Samburu Lodge.

 

---------------

* Ben expertly spotted a dead African hare that attracted the attention of another vehicle besides ours. Dead hare, 2 vehicles. I think it would have been funny to try to attract a crowd for this with an all call on the radio.

 

* The next afternoon we were behind a vehicle, both of us advancing slowly, when Ben stated, “There’s a live hare.” When I asked for more explanation of the term “live hare,” he added, “to go with our dead one from yesterday.” The vehicle in front of us never saw it and drove on. We stopped and admired how the light shined through the thin membrane of the hare’s ear. My first ever photo of an African Hare! No other vehicles.

 

 

* Of the many dik dik sightings, a few pictures resulted of these shy creatures and no other vehicle was ever present. I even managed a dik dik perspective shot to show how tiny these creatures are.

Young oryx on the left. Young dik diks

 

Whole family

 

Dik dik perspective. Shot with no zoom. Shows how tiny and camouflaged they are. The dik dik is to the right of the bush.

[wildernessman]

Atravelynn said:

Wildernessman, here is a shot from Aberdare that offers some perspective. There are 2 warthogs, a buffalo, and a GFH.

 

 

My last interruption of your enjoyable report , Atravellyn . Here is a photo I received , do you think it has been tampered with - seems it could be the actuall size of a GFH then or is it an illusion due to perspective ?

[Atravelynn]

Please feel free to interrupt at any time, Wildernessman. That's what keeps things interesting. In fact I'll interrupt myself with a similar oversized pig photo. This one was popular a year or two ago and I think it turned out to be an altered photo.

 

I wonder who has time to enlarge pig pictures?

 

Your photo looks real to me.

 

In keeping with my vehicle tally: Dead Giant Forest Hog, 1 vehicle.

[Bugs]

Great report Lynne. You sure know how to have fun. Great photos and enjoyable.

[Atravelynn]

Great report Lynne. You sure know how to have fun.

 

Good timing Dikdik. I just posted the dik dik shots. In fact I was thinking that the dikdik is one animal I still could get some better photos of. I want a picture like your avatar.

 

Just to be clear that is not me having fun in the last photo after shooting a giant boar.

 

*We saw one distant female Greater Kudu across the river. Meru had been good kudu spotting training grounds for me, and I saw her. Nobody else around to share this elusive sighting with. No one else joined us for the Grant's either.

 

 

* We had finished up watching one of the ele herds when Ben announced, “I have news. Let’s go.” He had heard about a leopard just over the hill. In addition to the radio provided by E&S, Ben had bought his own--at his own expense--for more exclusive communication. I don’t know over which radio the leopard sighting was picked up. We drove to where a leopard was beautifully posed on a termite mound and pulled up for great views. When we left, about 3 minutes later, I counted 11 other vehicles. That’s a lot but all behaved in an orderly manner. The leopard also moved off slowly.

 

*A little later in the day we encountered the leopard again. We were alerted by trumpeting elephants who detected the leopard in their midst. The cat was unconcerned with the agitated elephants and was intent on hunting dik dik. Ben expertly maneuvered through the tracks that led around the brush and we watched a couple of chases before the leopard ventured into territory with brush too thick to follow. I counted 10 other vehicles negotiating the maze of tracks through the brush to see the leopard hunt. It did seem to get a bit hectic, but just as the leopard was unconcerned with the bellowing elephant herd it had infiltrated, it seemed oblivious to the stopped vehicles and meandered next to them and between, peeking around the tires. This was one confident cat!

 

 

 

*We had about 15 close sightings of Reticulated Giraffe (1 of the Samburu 5) with no vehicles around. Near the end of our stay we found a couple of giraffes sitting down and took pictures. After one got up, another vehicle also stopped for photos of the remaining seated giraffe.

[Pangolin]

I like the vehicle counts. Will you be giving us an overall average vehicle per sighting at the end of the trip?

 

Great perspective of the leopard and elephants from behind.

[twaffle]

Am enjoying the vehicle count. At the end I would also love to read your impressions of wildlife volumes of the different areas. Not in an exact, statistical manner, but a rough impression. Were the reticulated giraffe hard to spot? There seemed so many at Lewa that I assumed that Samburu would be equally endowed.

 

Love the leopard photos. Ben sounds like one fantastic guide.

[pault]

What a great leopard sighting.. And it's good to know you can still enjoy a Grant's Gazelle sighting on your own in Samburu. You are seeing a lot already and you haven't even got to Animal Central yet. I also hope for statistical analysis of vehicle sightings at the end of the report.

 

Confession: I started to prepare a picture of you with your head replaced by that of a Giant Forst Hog, to illustrate how difficult it is to believe what you see, but then thought better of it as you might (quite understandably, on relection) not be quite sure how to take it. I think I need to get a new job.

[Kavey]

Fabulous fabulous fabulous!

[Atravelynn]

I like the vehicle counts. Will you be giving us an overall average vehicle per sighting at the end of the trip?

Mean, median, mode, range, and standard deviation. Just kidding, #s in bold is about it, with some generalizations.

 

 

Were the reticulated giraffe hard to spot? There seemed so many at Lewa that I assumed that Samburu would be equally endowed.

 

There were quite a few at Samburu. They were more plentiful than the Somali Ostrich or the Grevy Zebra. I don't have a lot of Reticulated Giraffe photos from Samburu, though.

 

Generalizations:

I thought Buffalo Springs and Samburu offered a lot of continual action, though predator sightings were not very common.

 

The variety and abundance of birds at Samburu and Meru far surpassed the Mara, and not just because I had the bird guide in those places. Aberdare had unique mountain species of birds.

 

As for the Mara Triangle vs. Talek River, I found a little more variety in Talek, but that could just be chance during my 4 days in each place.

 

In Meru, we could drive for an hour without seeing much other than birds. Talek is supposed to be better for leopard than around Serena and that proved the case for me.

 

I had read about dwindling #s of cheetah in the Mara Triangle. I saw only 1 there and 3 in the Talek area. But again, with only 4 days each spot, it is hard to generalize.

 

Lions were all over the Mara. We saw some elephants in the Mara, but not that many. I thought the ele viewing in Samburu was outstanding on account of their numbers, the attractive settings, the relaxed nature of the animals, and the lack of other vehicles. I think my count shows just a few other vehicles, but most of the time it was just us with the Samburu elephants.

 

I had heard about the huge number of vehicles entering at the Talek gate. We were alone entering and exiting and spent the vast majority of our time alone in that region. The crossing points did get very crowded, but we stayed at the river the whole day and we able to enjoy the wilde herd on the far side alone for awhile during the middle of

the day.

 

We needed the 5 hour morning outings around the Mara Triangle to get to the areas where the animals were. Oddly, though 10s of thousands, maybe 100s of thousands of wildes crossed near Serena, within hours the plains were empty. So we drove 45 minutes or so and were surrounded by wildes, zebra, lots of hoofed species. Even Raphael stated, "You'd never believe wildebeest crossed through here. It is empty now." Some of that had to do with which regions had been burned more recently.

Edited November 27, 2010 by Atravelynn

[Atravelynn]

Confession: I started to prepare a picture of you with your head replaced by that of a Giant Forst Hog, to illustrate how difficult it is to believe what you see, but then thought better of it as you might (quite understandably, on relection) not be quite sure how to take it. I think I need to get a new job.

 

Go ahead and stick my head on that hog. We can use a good laugh in these times!

[Atravelynn]

Confession: I started to prepare a picture of you with your head replaced by that of a Giant Forst Hog, to illustrate how difficult it is to believe what you see, but then thought better of it as you might (quite understandably, on relection) not be quite sure how to take it. I think I need to get a new job.

 

Go ahead and stick my head on that hog. We can use a good laugh in these times!

--------------------------------

 

 

 

Flying out of Samburu

 

at the airstrip

 

Ben emphasized the need to arrive an hour early at the airstrip because flights were known to arrive and depart well ahead of schedule. He recounted some frantic passengers (not his clients) that got left behind because they were merely on time and not early. It was time to say goodbye to Ben with parting gifts of chocolate covered cranberries from Wisconsin† and the purple towel I had bought in Nairobi for Kinnas Bandas. Ben had provided a wonderful first half of the trip.

 

† Wisconsin produces enough cranberries to provide every person in the world with 26. Ben got more than 26 AND they were chocolate covered.

[

Edited November 27, 2010 by Atravelynn

[Atravelynn]

Interesting birds in Samburu:

 

Black faced Sand Grouse Family; Red and Yellow Barbet on Game Drive, also seen on Simba Grounds; Golden Taveta on Simba Grounds

 

 

African Orange Bellied Parrot—all over Simba grounds

African Silverbills—at airstrip

Augur Buzzards—courting and mating

Black Faced Sand Grouse-- watching the families of these beautifully marked birds was a highlight

Black Shouldered Kite

Blue Napped Mouse bird

Brown Hooded Kingfisher

Burchell’s Starling—Simba grounds

Chestnut Bellied Sand Grouse—watching the families of these beautifully marked birds was a highlight

Chestnut Weaver

Common Bulbul-Simba grounds

Common Waxbill—Simba grounds

Crowned Plover—including a fluffy chick

Crowned Plover's head tilted sideways to look for predators from above

 

D’Arnoud’s Barbet

Donaldson-Smith’s Sparrow Weaver

Fisher’s Sparrow

Gabar Goshawk

Golden Taveta--Simba grounds

Green Barred Woodpecker

Helmeted Guinea Fowl

Kori Bustard

Lilac Breasted Roller

 

Malachite Kingfisher

Red Billed Hornbill—Simba grounds

Red Headed Weaver

Red and Yellow Barbet--Simba Grounds

Rufous Chaterer

Rufous Crowned Roller

Secretary bird, including a juvenile

Somali Courser

Sooty Falcon

Speckled Pigeons—Simba grounds

Square Tailed Drongo

Taveta Golden Weaver—Simba grounds

Tawny Eagle

Vulturine Guinea Fowl

White Bellied Bustard, alone and in pairs—It was fascinating to see the male tilt his head, focusing one eyeball up at the sky in search of flying predators, then calling to alert his mate across the way to be cautious.

 

White Bellied Bustard, left. Kori Bustard, right

 

White Browed Sparrow Weaver—Simba grounds

White Chinned Prinea

White headed Buffalo Weaver—Simba grounds

White Headed Mousebird—Simba grounds

Yellow Billed Hornbill

Yellow necked francolin

Yellow necked francolin

[twaffle]

Well, I've just used my cranberry allowance for the next few years to make my Christmas cake.

 

Birds, birds and more birds, fantastic. I hope I see as many. Thanks for the park comparisons, very interesting.

[Leely]

Lynn, please think of the rest of us and stop raising the trip-reports bar. This is superb!

 

I also think Ben is a great driver/guide. I, a confirmed non-twitcher, became almost as interested in birds as elephants after a few days driving around with him.

[Atravelynn]

No worries about bars Leely, at least not the kind you referred to. If I'm spending time doing a report, then I'm not spending money!

 

MAASAI MARA, TALEK RIVER AREA

 

The flight from Samburu to Olekiombo Air Strip was about 2 hours and included a stop at the Keekorok airstrip. Once we reached the Mara, endless lines of wildebeest could be seen from the air, but did not photograph well.

 

 

Raphael was there to meet me and had been the first vehicle at the airstrip. We confirmed that by phone before I even left Samburu. And he had postcard stamps. Securing postcard stamps to the US was a major undertaking that Ben and I were not able to accomplish despite numerous attempts. So in one of Ben’s conversations with Boaz back in the office, I requested that Raphael bring 10 stamps, which I bought from him. Ben, Raphael, and Boaz all did their part, but a glitch somewhere in the mail means the stamped postcards are still on safari.

 

Fig Tree

This is a beautiful tented facility along the Talek River with a covered bridge from the parking lot to the camp. Raphael said they had done a good deal of renovating which included the driver quarter, which he said were now very nice--as was everything from the tents to the indoor and outdoor dining rooms to the pool area to the treetop viewing platform. Really lovely! All tents have a river view. I was in #4 and I thought 4-10 were ideal to minimize noise and traffic. Really, other than Tents 1-2 next to the lobby area, any were fine.

 

My view from Tent #4 at Fig Tree

 

My Tent #4 at Fig Tree

 

There was entertainment in the dining room each night at Fig Tree, alternating nightly between a comedic musical routine and traditional Maasai dancers. When it came time for the Adumu jumping dance by the Maasai, even the chef wanted a turn and participated in his white uniform and giant chef hat.

 

 

Having missed the opportunity to photograph a buffalo in Buffalo Springs, I wanted to make sure I got a nice Fig Tree photo at Fig Tree. I was thrilled to get a Common Bulbul perched neared some figs, with its tongue visible!

 

Common Bulbul near figs on fig tree at Fig Tree. Note the tongue.

 

The huge central Fig Tree attracted a variety of birds but I thought I’d see more birds in the area and wildlife near the river. A herd of zebra grazed across the river from my tent one afternoon, some vervets occasionally hung around in the trees, A genet and bush baby came some evenings for fruit offerings, and a troop of baboons (mentioned below) were active at times.

 

At Fig Tree-White Browed Robin Chat

Raphael said Fig Tree was not fully booked because for several nights he did not have to share with a roommate in the driver quarters.

 

One nice thing about breakfast at Fig Tree was that despite the posted hours, there almost always was an early hot breakfast to accommodate those driving to Nakuru. Fig Tree catered to those who drove to/from the Mara in addition to flyers. So our early departures at 6:30 am (when the park opened) were usually on a full stomach.

 

Edited November 30, 2010 by Atravelynn

[Atravelynn]

Aggressive Baboon Encounter

My plans for an early departure on Day 2 were thwarted by a troop of baboons. I had just exited my tent, zipped it up, and stepped onto the raised wooden porch when I was confronted by two large male baboons from a passing troop. At least one hopped up on my wooden porch. I shouted and waved my hands to send the baboons off. The closest baboon approached me in an aggressive manner.

 

Fight or flight instinct immediately overcame me. My first choice was flight—back into my tent—but turning around to unzip it would leave me too vulnerable. So the only other choice was fight. I instinctively did an angry King Kong impression. I bared my teeth and raised my hands in claw-like fashion and started to roar, standing my ground. I think I added a few shouts of, “Get out! Go!” I must have been a humorous sight, but there was nothing funny about the situation.

 

The two baboons continued toward me undeterred, as if they were stalking. This encounter lasted only seconds, when two security guards pounced onto the scene. They appeared so fast I looked to see if they were wearing capes and maybe a big letter on their chests. One had a bow and arrow and the other had a club, but the weapons were not needed because the baboons fled at the first sight of these guys. I have to give them credit for handling the situation well.

 

Aggressive baboons (especially the males toward human females) can be a problem anywhere. Executing a quick response is a plus for Fig Tree. The remaining mornings the baboons used a different route for their morning walk and I had no problem. But I did carry a big stick when exiting my tent after that.

 

Fig Tree had several Maasai Warriors and guards that continually patrolled throughout the premises and were quite pleasant to visit with.

 

The first animals Raphael and I saw the morning after my baboon incident were members of that same troop, meandering along. There were some nice photo ops but all the photos I took were blurry. Despite the image stabilization device on my camera, my hands were shaking too much for decent shots. I have no baboon photos from the Talek area. Not to get overly dramatic, I was fine within 15 minutes and completely composed for the coalition of three cheetahs later that morning.

 

 

PaulT, If you want to stick my head on a King Kong figure instead of or in addition to a Giant Forest Hog, feel free.

[Ellie]

Lynn, I'm loving your photos and report! When were you at the Talek River area?

[twaffle]

The image of you and the baboons will stick with me for a long time. Fig Tree looks very comfortable and I like the idea of the wobbling chef's hat during the jumping dance.

Some more really nice photos as well.

[pault]

Lynn, I think I am past that particular "need" now, although it may come back. I didn't get new job and this one is mercilessly beating me for datring to suggest that I needed a new one. Thank you for encouraging me to indulge!

 

Big sticks are good for baboons - but they don't scare easy do they? I think you would have scared me if it makes you feel better, and I managed to scare off a baboon once (or it got bored) so technically... ummmmm.... no, I'm not sure what it proves. But I bet the baboons along that part of the Talek River have seen and heard every kind of dance, charge, roar, scream, fainting fit and wobbly you or I could think of over the years. They won't fall for it.

[Atravelynn]

Ellie, I was in Talek 11, 12, 13, 14, Sept, departing 15 Sept. Fig Tree was indeed very comfortable, Twaffle, and skewed the youngest of the lodges and camps I visited. Insufficient #s for generalizations on ages at bandas. If the urge returns for photoshop nonsense, PaulT, you have my permission in advance. I agree it is best to concentrate on your employment, especially if it supports your travels.

-------------------

 

Other vehicles, sightings, and photos

 

Overall, I’d break down the vehicle encounters throughout the Mara, with the exception of waiting at the river crossings as:

80% of the time, no other vehicles in sight—pretty good considering the landscape is mostly flat and it is possible to see for miles, viewing vehicles on the horizon

15% of the time, other vehicles were visible as we drove

5% of the time, we shared sightings with at least one other vehicle

 

* Shortly after departing Olekiombo Air Strip we saw 3 vehicles off road, gathered around a clump of bushes. Looking through my binoculars, I saw about 4 sleeping lions. I requested that we continue on and I hoped I wouldn’t encounter a lot of this behavior in the Mara. Fortunately we were able to avoid it most of the time. There really was no need to drive offroad and crowd around to see lions, as we saw lions on every outing except one that was rained out.

 

Only reedbuck seen during entire trip

 

* Lioness with a pair of 1-week old cubs. Raphael had heard about this from another guide. Our first outing from Fig Tree was to seek out this special find. It was far away from everything else, which would make sense. After a couple hours of canvassing the general area and one false alarm of a lioness we thought might have been the mother, I saw them in a thicket of grass. We stayed a good distance away and there were no other vehicles in sight. I was pleased that not only did we find the youngest lion cubs I had ever seen, but we had worked on our own to locate them.

 

 

 

 

From the first and and third visit

 

Another 3 several hour searches yielded 2 more opportunities to view the mother and hidden cubs. No vehicles were in sight during any of our visits. When we were departing from our last visit, another car approached to see what we were looking at.

 

*Courting lions in the shade-no other vehicles.

 

* Two 2-year old lion cubs out for a stroll—no other vehicles during our viewing, 1 other vehicle approached as we left.

 

 

* About a dozen sightings of lion pride members of the lioness with young cubs and of members of another pride. Each sighting was alone or shared with one other vehicle.

 

 

* A pride of 6 lions with up to 8 vehicles, spread out nicely so as not to interfere with the cats and allowing everyone good photos. When everyone behaves and disperses, then 8 vehicles does not overwhelm the sighting.

 

Edited December 1, 2010 by Atravelynn

[twaffle]

What an excellent photo of the reedbuck and I love the one of the lions on the rocks. I think you have brought a sensible overview to the "massed vehicles" issue in the Mara.

These statistics seem eminently acceptable to me:

80% of the time, no other vehicles in sight—pretty good considering the landscape is mostly flat and it is possible to see for miles, viewing vehicles on the horizon

15% of the time, other vehicles were visible as we drove

5% of the time, we shared sightings with at least one other vehicle

 

I suppose you had remembered to shower and use deodorant!!

[Pangolin]

The statistics don't seem too much different from being in a private concession in Botswana. Quite reasonable to be sharing a sighting only 5% of the time.

 

If lack of shower and deodorant is what it takes to have a little solitude, then turn off the water!

Edited December 1, 2010 by Pangolin

[Atravelynn]

I suppose you had remembered to shower and use deodorant!!

 

You've discovered my strategy.

 

The 5% also takes into account that I'd stay with an animal for 15-45 minutes without others, which increased my time alone and decreased my shared time. If someone zipped around from vehicle gathering to vehicle gathering, snapping a shot and then moving on, the 5% of shared time could be much higher. One other difference between Botswana and Kenya is that for cats, the sharing can be with a dozen vehicles in Kenya not three or four. I'd like to compare high season with low season vehicle numbers.

-----------------------

 

 

*In 4 outings searching for a coalition of 3 cheetahs we were successful twice. Once we joined about 12 other vehicles, all behaving very well, remaining on the track. The cheetahs were permitted an unobstructed view of well over 180 degrees in front of them.

 

Unfortunately for the cheetahs there was nothing to catch their attention, nor was there anything behind them. The entire area was devoid of prey. While some of the dozen vehicles came and went, we had about half an hour of civilized, quality cheetah viewing and photographing.

 

 

 

 

 

It was when the cheetahs began to move out in search of better hunting grounds that all hell broke loose and vehicles started driving as if they were in a parking lot, right next to the cats.

 

 

The worst offender was a Tanzanian vehicle with no company name displayed. Next was a green van with the name Moyo. Even a couple of Southern Cross mini vans were in pursuit of the cheetah. Raphael told me that usually rangers would prevent such antics, but in their absence, it was obvious the drivers were taking advantage.

 

 

I later reported my observations to the rangers who were stationed outside Fig Tree and they apologized, explaining that the vehicle normally patrolling that area was unavailable that day but would be back in service the next day.

 

 

As time passed and one by one the other vehicles left, we rejoined the cheetahs, staying on the road or track, and sharing the sighting with 2 other vehicles, then 1, then just us. At that point, one cheetah was sitting right next to a track and we drove up next to him, took a few photos and moved away.

 

 

*For the second encounter with the 3 cheetah, we discovered them simultaneously with 2 other vehicles and enjoyed them for about 15 minutes before it started getting crowding with 10 vehicles and the cheetah started heading out, hopefully to better hunting grounds.

 

 

 

*On one of our cheetah hunts, we did not find the cats, but did see a sizeable herd of buffalo quenching its thirst in the Talek River. The count was about 300 buffalo and no other vehicles.

 

 

Edited December 1, 2010 by Atravelynn