On the 25th of July we set out for a two week holiday in Kenya, my favourite country.
25th July:
We arrived in Nairobi late in the evening and went straight to our hotel.
26th July:
An early morning's walk around our the Fairview Hotel's garden in Nairobi, brought me several variable sunbirds, as well as a streaky seedeater and white-browed robin-chat. A magnificent little sparrowhawk, which I had first seen in this hotel garden 6 months, appeared on exactly the same branch that I had seen it in previously. In the sky, there were good numbers of yellow-billed kites gliding around, as well as little swifts and pied crows. A pair of ring-necked doves appeared in the garden and three hadada ibises flew over. There were also a pair of common bulbuls singing alongside a mountain thrush in the little sparrowhawk tree. We then headed to Wilson Airport for our charter flight to N'guru Nit in the Milgis region of north Kenya. On the drive, I picked up a black-headed heron in a roadside field. Spiralling in the skies above the airport were more yellow-billed kites as well as marabou storks. There was also a tree full of speckled mousebirds and house sparrows. We then took our charter, enjoying a stunning flight through the resplendent Mathews mountain range. Upon landing in N'guru Nit, we were greeted by Helen and Pete, our guides for the walking safari upon which we were to embark. We had last gone on this safari back in 2007, and had had the most incredible time. Alongside the airstrip were white-browed sparrow-weavers and red-winged starlings and a red-billed hornbill flew off as we drove up to their riverside camp. Alongside the river were more red-winged starlings as well as superb starlings, several fork-tailed drongos and blue-naped mousebirds. A grey-headed kingfisher was perched in a tree next to the river, and an African pied wagtail flitted around on the rocks in the river. Several African black swifts glided overhead, as did a fan-tailed raven. Later that evening, I discovered a tree of hooded vultures, which also contained a Von der Decken's Hornbill and a emerald-spotted wood-dove.
27th July:
We headed out early the next morning with no hope of being able to walk the 130 kilometres we needed to in order to get to our house at Sarara in six days time. Soon after we started, I found a pale chanting-goshawk and an African hoopoe. A little further on a pair of gabar goshawks were perched in a tree. A group of orange-bellied parrots passed overhead and several white-backed vultures were high in the sky. A greater honeyguide begged us to follow it to the honey hive it had found, and in the same tree was a black-throated barbet. We then found a Nubian woodpecker and my first new bird of the trip, a brown-tailed rock chat. After two and a half hour's walking, we stopped for breakfast. Around the breakfast area were African grey flycatchers, chin-spot batises, brown-tailed rock chats and purple grenadiers. A magnificent Verreaux's eagle swirled ahead, before getting mobbed by a lanner falcon, creating an absolutely stunning scene. There were incredibly large numbers of one of my favourite birds, the pygmy falcon (we saw about 7 of them) just beyond our breakfast site and overall the birds after breakfast were plentiful, with a red-faced crombec, several grey wren-warblers, a shining sunbird, eastern violet-backed sunbird, rosy-patched bush-shrike, white-crested helmet-shrike, red-billed oxpecker, greater blue-eared starling, parrot-billed sparrow, yellow-spotted petronia, white-headed buffalo-weaver, eastern paradise whydah, straw-tailed whydah and a northern grey tit being the new additions to my holiday list. The highlights were the pygmy falcons and a flock of the magnificent golden-breasted starlings. We found a camp in the middle of the bush at about two o'clock, where we stayed for the night. There were several yellow-billed hornbills at the campsite. We had only managed to walk 13 km, so it was hardly a great start and we had ground to make up for on the next few days.
Unfortunately one of the camels that had been carrying our equipment suddenly went mad after we arrived, and was dead within ten minutes seemingly having eaten something poisonous. I had brought my trail camera with me, and was not going to miss this opportunity. The results were extraordinary....
Striped Hyena, Milgis 27/7/12
Spotted Hyena, Milgis 27/7/12
28th July:
We started off hoping to cross the Milgis lugga and push on to make up ground lost yesterday. We started well, pushing on before the sun rose. We picked up rock martin in our camp (actually just a rock in the middle of the bush). There was a group of vulturine guineafowls near our campsite and a pair of tawny eagles in a nearby tree. A bateleur passed over, and there were good numbers of crested and yellow-necked francolins. As we passed a manyatta, a field full birds took off. Amongst the large flocks were crowned lapwings, chestnut weavers, red-billed buffalo-weavers and red-billed quells. As we approached the river, some locals told us that the Milgis was flooded and we would be unable to cross with our 28 camels. We had to make a 10km detour, on which I added little bee-eater, hunter's sunbird, fisher's sparrow-lark, Abyssinian scimitarbill and gymnogene to my holiday list. When we reached the lugga, it was absolutely filled with water, and crossing looked unlikely. Dozens of African palm swifts were enjoying the insects around the river and a pair of Egyptian geese passed. The camels began to cross, but halfway appeared to decide that it was a bad idea and refused to move forwards or backwards. No-one knew what to do and for half an hour no-one moved, the camels, despite the camel-herder's best efforts, refused to move. Eventually, to everyone's great relief, one camel began to cross and the rest followed.
Attempting to get the camels to cross
The camels finally crossing..
and on the other side of the river.
After the two and a half hours it had taken to cross the Milgis, we were forced to stop walking and camped on the riverside. A pair of white-headed vultures flew overhead and a grey-headed kingfisher perched in a branch near the lugga. Later that evening, we had supper in the lugga, and had great views of a slender-tailed nightjar, which flew past, and later returned, mobbing an unidentifiable heron. We had only managed to walk about 12km today, most of which was a detour, meaning we had to travel about 120km over the next four days.
Again I put out my trail camera and again the results were excellent..
Caracal, nr. Milgis Lugga, early hours of 30/7/12
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