12h birding rampage at Nairobi National Park

 Just before summer, I scrounged up just barely enough to buy a 2004 Nissan Xtrail. 

My ticket to freedom. 

The first thing I wanted to do upon return from summer holidays was to take it out with some friends. My new Nature Kenya friends Adrian and Getrude answered the call. We aimed to bird from 6am to 6pm, which are the park hours, but it ended up being 6:20am to 6:30pm. 

The biggest challenge of birding this park is getting one's arse out of bed at an ungodly 4:45am and getting to the park without making any wrong turns. This time it went very smoothly, unlike last time. We entered the park and started by scanning the plains near Ngoloman dam for cheetahs. We observed a very strange mating dance from a some Ostrich. 

While filming the ostrich, Adrien picked out the song of a Siffling Cisticola aka Short-winged Cisticola (not sure why - all cisticolas have equally short wings). This was one of those lifers that is common but I just haven't seen or identified for whatever reason (probably because I didn't know the call). We got great looks at a handful of them. 

The main visual field mark of the Siffling Cisticola is it's lack of field marks

Some rangers stopped to check our receipt and gave us a time on some lions between posts 4 and 5. We duly proceeded there to find an mfalme with 2 females. The growing car jam prompted us to continue on our journey through the park. Soon after, a solitary francolin crossed the road. Raising my binoculars, I was ecstatic to behold a Shelley's Francolin, my ultimate Nairobi nemesis. Two lifers in the first hour of the day, not bad!

"Can you feeeel the loooove tonight....."

Hartlaub's or Black-bellied?

A little further, we scanned an area of dense bushes with our bins and spotted a female rhino with a large young running away. We figured them to be Black Rhinos based on the habitat and skittish behaviour. White Rhinos were spotted throughout the day, always out in the open. We drove through alto of black cotton soil looking for larks, but with no luck. While checking a pond for possible squacco herons, we noticed a group of Hartbeest all facing the same direction. Their intent focus betrayed the presence of a lone female lion. We triangulated and drove to a spot where we figured she was headed to. She appeared on the track we were parked on and walked right past the car, then disappeared into an area of whistling thorn acacias. 

Checking for Short-tailed Larks at Hyeena dam (spotted 3 weeks ago), a land cruiser pulled up beside us and an arm reached out and grabbed me. It was my old friend Kelvin Gichuki guiding for Mufasa Tours. We had a very leisurely catch up and bird sightings conversation while his clients waited in the back of the cruiser. We parted ways, and headed to the huge reservoir on the far side of the park with all the Marabou Storks, a nice spot for lunch. We ate cold sandwiches and pizza while spotting birds, hippos and crocodiles. Getrude was quite cold by this point and needed to wear my sweater on top of her hoodie, whilst I was content in my t-shirt. Continuing our birding, Adrian picked out the call of a Scaly-throated Honeyguide in a tiny patch of yellowbark acacias on the lake edge. We photographed a strange-looking Black Kite that looked more like a Black-eared Kite (the Asian subspecies). A Lanner Falcon blazed past and Adrian expertly spotted two Spotted Thick-knees in the grass. 

The strange-looking Kite

From there, the logical part of the park to explore was the acacia forest along the Athi River. The livestock crossing over to the park to graze was a bit of a bummer to see. Also sad was the extend of degradation on the non-park side of the Athi River, where the bank has been denuded of all vegetation to speak of and rendered a bank of dusty, hoof-packed dirt. The river was a sad trickle of eutrophicated green water due to the amount of cows defiling all along its extent, but for a small stretch by the hippo pools. 

The acacia forest was awesome. We had probably 10 species in a mixed flock, including 3 woodpecker species and some Red-throated Tits (Kenya lifer for me). Sulfur-breasted Bush-shrikes brought a splash of colour to the cold and gloomy day. Abyssinian Scimitarbills were also of note. Leaving the woodland, we spotted a group of Mountain Reedbuck on a ridge. I had no idea they were found in Nairobi National Park. 

Mountain Reedbucks

Proceeding to the Hippo Pools, we tried our luck for Finfoot, but I've never been lucky at this spot (maybe early in the morning?). We decided to walk on the non-park side of the river this time, with the company of a ranger. It payed off when Adrian found a Pygmy Kingfisher, a pretty good bird for Nairobi. He also spotted a Wahlberg's Honeybird in the parking lot. Despite the habitat being severely degraded by livestock activity, Adrian revealed that we had seen 71 species on this short walk. A bit ridiculous. 

By this point, Getrude was getting anxious that she would be late to meet her friend at the park gate on time. We were aiming for 6pm, but it looked more like it would be 6:15pm. We were waylaid by a Shelley's Francolin calling from the side of the road, forcing us to stop and capture it in our bazookas. It was counter-singing with another one quite aggressively. 

Driving further toward the gate, we were stopped in our tracks yet again by a car-jam. There was a group of 11 lions lying beside the road. We couldn't really see them very well, but then they started walking toward us and crossed our vehicle on both sides. There seemed to be 3 generations of cubs all in one pride. One full-sized female walked right past my open driver window. Getrude was getting visibly distressed about being late to meet her friend by this point. "Well, no way to get around these cars, might as well enjoy the lions," I said. After the lions passed us, the cars dispersed, clearing a path for our exodus. Then a Bat Hawk circled over us. It was about 6:30 by the time we got out. One of the most epic safari days I've had. 

Bat Hawk! A perfect ending to the day

Epic Roadtrip to Tsavo and the Coast!

For my 1-week break in February, I drove to the coast with Ramata and Jack. It almost didn't happen due to lack of transportation, but luckily my neighbor and friend Rosie lent me her Toyota Prado for this one, so long as I covered any repairs resulting from the rip and brought her back with something in the tank. The trip got postponed by a day because of this insane online IB course I was in the middle of. I did just enough work to not get kicked out of the course, told the instructor I was going on safari for the next week and not to expect any posts from me until I got back, and we were on our way. At last, temporary freedom. 

We stopped at a petrol station along Mombasa road to get all our fluids topped up for the road trip. Unfortunately, the test strip/cap for the transmission fluid wouldn't go back in cause of the way the tube was shaped. It took us quite a while for that to get sorted out. The guy went under the car, removed a curved pipe that was causing the problem, rounded it out with a hammer, then put it back in. We were able to put the strip back in and close the cap after a long delay. 

We reached Tsavo West with enough daylight to comfortably drive around for a bit and set up camp in the public campsite. The campsite was totally deserted and pretty wild. We cooked a spicy bean stew and had a campfire. We could hear African Scops Owls and we were pretty sure we heard a Barred Owlet calling as well. A musical rhapsody from our bean stew, and the symphony was complete. 

Public campsite inside Tsavo West

The next day, we were accompanied by the camp caretaker/ranger who offered to show us around for a reasonable fee. We hiked up Mt. Shetani and visited Mzima springs. My photos from Tsavo West seem to have been accidentally deleted, but I have some cell phone pics at least. 

Mt. Shetani (=devil in swahili) is an extinct volvano with an impressive lava field sprawled out on one side of it. Apparently it only erupted about 200 years ago, so the lava rock is fresh and little primary succession has had the chance to occur. I didn't expect a lifer mammal there but we spotted a pair of Klipspringers in the lava field. Marto said he's seen William's Lark here, which I found quite surprising as it is quite far from their known range. We scrambled up the quickly heating lava scree to the top of this volcano and beheld amazing views. It was fun to imagine what the eruption would have looked like for any witnesses present. We got back to the car covered in dust and sweat. You could have easily fried an egg on the hood of the car by this point. 

Shetani lava field

Walking down Mt. Shetani. The rocks were crazy hot by this point

From the inferno of Mt. Shetani, we went to Mzima Springs, a lush oasis in the middle of the dry wilderness. The water trickles through the ground all the way from Kilimanjaro, filtered by the porous rock along the way. It springs out the ground in a perfectly pure state, and was epically refreshing on a hot day. This is one of the few spots in Kenya where you can drink water without treating it. The spring has created large pools filled with crystal clear water, but in parts despoiled by hippos. The oasis supports a small lush forest around it, and multitudes of birds and mammals come to drink. Strange endemic blue fish swim in the waters, which you can view from an underwater glass viewing chamber. We heard Shelley's Francolins again, but were unsuccessful in spotting them. I did get a lifer though: Jameson's Firefinch. As I was dropping off our guide at dusk, we came upon a Donaldson-Smith's Nightjar sitting on the road. I took my shoes off and slowly crept up to it, then gently caressed it in my hands. I'd always wanted to do that! What a beauty. 

Mzima Springs

Tsavo West is pretty unique and amazing wilderness, but it's hard to see wildlife there because of the thick bush. We kept an ear out for Rufous-naped Bush-shrike, Pringle's Puffback and Friedmann's Lark, three special targets for this park. But without special knowledge, it was a longshot. We decided to chop a day from Tsavo West and instead visit nearby Lumo Community Conservancy which Jackson had been raving about. I don't usually need alot of convincing to change plans if it involve epic wildlife. We drove through the park until our permit was almost expiring. However, we had another small car problem. A rear passenger window refused to close. We paid a park mechanic to open up the panel and close it for us, and he disabled the window just in case Ramata was tempted to open it again. We thought we'd gotten to the Lumo entrance with enough time to set up camp, but there was no staff manning the gate. I heard some Shelley's Francolins so I wandered off into the bushes after them. Just as it got dark, I almost had them. They were calling from about 5 meters away, but must have been in the thick grass. I never have any luck with francolins. The guard had returned and we were on our way to the Cheetah campsite. It was a bit expensive for camping, but at least it had hot showers and they made a fire for us. The only complaint was that the showers were too hot! On Ramata's part, she said there were too many "creepy crawlies" in the showers! She is unphased by elephants and massive sea creatures, but a gecko will send her running. 

We postponed breaking camp and started our much-anticipated morning game drive. We were headed for a big rock formation famous for its lions. They were not at home, so we continued our exploration. 

Along a river lined with exotic-looking Doom Palms, we kelp our ears tuned for Violet Wood Hoopoes. Eventually we caught up with them. We scrutinized the extend of their violet sheen to eliminate the extremely similar Green-headed Wood Hoopoe, keeping them close by playing their calls on the speaker. While driving along in the grassland dotted with pockets of shrubs, we pulled up next to a pickup carrying some rangers. They pointed at a bush just up the road. There was a lioness sleeping under the bush! We stuck around hoping they might do something interesting, but she just stretched a couple of times and moved her head around. There was a second lioness in the bush further away, and about 4 cubs lounging around between the 2 bushes. Too bad I seem to have accidentally deleted all my photos from Lumo and Tsavo West. 

At mid-day, we reluctantly left the park to finish our drive to Watamu, our ultimate destination. We had 4 days of scuba diving planned ahead of us. We discussed doing another day of game driving in Lumo, but stuck to the plan in the end, the logic being that the cost of a 4 day package was almost the same as a 3-day one. The drive was longer than expected and it was almost dark when we got there. My friend Apoloh met us at the Mida Creek Eco Camp for dinner which we had arranged in advance over the phone.

The first 3 days of diving were pretty standard. The visibility was OK, not the greatest, but good enough to enjoy. The variety of corals and fish on display in the marine protected area was mind-boggling. But the 4th day was by far the best. We came upon a huge Green Sea Turtle AND an Octopus at the same time! After observing them for some time, staying neutrally buoyant and just hovering above the reef, Ramata pointed underneath her. There was a second Octopus hiding in a crevice! The original one was friendly, and would tickle your extended finger if you held it out gently. It rapidly changed shape and colour from dark maroon to white when it got excited. So that 4th day of diving really paid off! Two Alligator Fish were another highlight. 

On the diving boat with BlueFin Diving

On one of the afternoons, we took a trip to Gede ruins. Our excellent guide Saleem interpreted the fascinating history of the long-abandoned Arab settlement. On the way, he called a bunch of Syke's Monkeys by yelling their names, which were funny names like 'Katarina', 'Osama' and 'George Bush'. They would sit on your shoulder for peanuts. 

Gede ruins

On one of the afternoons, we picked up Apolloh and took a drive up to the Sabaki River mouth to see the waterbirds. It was very hot and quite a long walk through sand dunes eventually to the river mouth, and then lots of barefoot walking through the mudflat. Little of particular not was seen, just the usual gulls, terns, shorebirds and lesser flamingos. But the number of birds was impressive. Heuglin's Gull, Lesser Black-backed Gull and Pied Avocets were new Kenya birds for me. In the sand dunes, I picked up Rufous-tailed Scrub Robin, Zanzibar Red Bishop and Coastal Cisticola which were lifers. Violet-breasted and Mouse-coloured Sunbirds were nowhere to be found. 

Mixed flock of Heuglin's Gulls, Lesser Black-backed Gulls, Lesser and Greater Crested Terns and Sooty Gulls

Lesser Flamingos and Sooty Gulls

On the second last day, we hired the legendary David Ngala for the afternoon, mainly just so Ramata could have a chance to meet him (one of my heroes). We didn't have a whole lot of time to twitch birds, so we focused on showing Ramata the amazing Sokoke Scops Owl. David checked so many spots and kept coming back empty, but there is any guide that can pull a bird out of his pocket at the final minute, that's David. His determination finally found us a pair of brown Sokoke Scops, blending in very well in the thick vegetation. A proper photo would have required disturbing the owls, so we kept a respectful distance and contented ourselves with branches crisscrossing the photos. 

Sokoke Scops Owls

As dusk approached, we had just enough time to briefly stop at the elephant watering hole before it got dark. The elephants came out of the forest on cue, and we watched them fooling around and drinking for about 5 minutes before it was time to go. On our way out, we had to stop to allow a couple of them to cross the road, which was quite spooky in the dark forest. 

Northern Carmine Bee-eater

The next day, after our epic dive, we made the rather long drive from Watamu to Crocodile Camp, just before the park entrance for Tsavo East, called Sala gate. We'd called in advance to get a 'special price', otherwise we would not have afforded this place! The camp is really nice.  Basically your standard safari camp but it has an epic view of the Galana river right outside your tent which really makes this camp stand out, I would stay there again for sure. What shocked us was that the only other guests that evening besides us were 5 crocodiles of various sizes, sprawled out on the river bank below a stone balcony. The masai guard took us for a short evening drive before dinner, then we promptly went to bed. We didn't find any lifers, but I got 2 lifers: Blue-capped Cordon-bleu and Chestnut-headed Sparrow-lark. 

Chillin' at Crocodile Camp

Chestnut-headed Sparrow-lark lifer

Vulturine Guineafowl

We got an early start, hoping to spot a cheetah on the plains between the lodge and the park, which is prime hunting territory we were told. Not today. We did our formalities at the park gate (always a tedious process) and were at last unleased into the vast wilderness of the park proper. We decided not to follow the Gallana River, but instead to turn southwest, eventually ending up in Voi. The reasoning for this was that most of the ebird sightings for Somali Courser and Somali Crombec were from along this road. 

In Tsavo East (and west), the driving distances are vast and it seems like wildlife is very scarce. But when you tally up what you've seen at the end of the day, it's actually a heck of a lot! Such was the case on this day. 

We started with an excellent waterhole with a huge family of elephants arriving and swimming in the pond. At the climax of the spectacle, an interesting hawk flew in and perched on a snag right in front of the elephants. It was none other than a Grasshopper Buzzard! Epic lifer. 

Elephant eclipsed by a lifer Grasshopper Buzzard! 

Rufous-beaked Sandsnake

Along the road, we spotted some Golden Pipits and a Rosy-patched Bush-shrike in the treetops. There were larks singing all around, both Red-winged and Rufous-naped Larks. Our careful scanning for Somali Courser didn't pay off, but revealed alot of Chestnut-bellied Sandgrouse. But the highlight of the day (and the entire trip) was just up ahead. Driving along at a decent speed, I applied the brakes because I could have sworn I'd seen ears poking up from the grass, in the shade of a large dome-shaped shrub. I deftly put the car in reverse and no sooner had I came to a stop than a large-maned beast emerged from its sleeping spot and stood in the open grass, just staring at us. But it was not a lion as I expected, it was a Striped Hyeena!!! This is a strictly nocturnal solitary mammal of arid regions, which has massive territories and lives at very low density. We were elated and extremely lucky to see it so well. 

Golden Pipit

Rosy-patched Bush-shrike

Striped Hyeena - a wicked find

Chestnut-bellied Sandgrouse

The rest of the drive was mainly just looking at elephants to be honest. There had been some recent rains so they were doing a mini migration from parts to the north, and were literally everywhere. We estimate we'd seen about 300 by noon which is when we left the park. A highlight was when we were driving along slowly in an area of thick shrubs and trees, and two massive bull elephants emerged from the trees right in front of us. The bigger one walked straight at our car as if to impose his authority, forcing us into a backward retreat. He then grazed in the long grass, surrounded by Northern Carmine Bee-eaters taking advantage of the bugs that were stirred up from the grass by the beast. It was like a scene out of an Attenborough documentary. 

Time to put'er in reverse! 

Northern Carmine Bee-eaters were in a rare instance outdone by something more impressive

Grant's Gazelle

I didn't want to leave but Jackson and Ramata forced me to get a move on. By the time we actually got on the highway, it was more like 1pm and we had about a 5 hour drive ahead of us. This turned into a 9 hour drive due to Sunday evening traffic on Mombassa Road. Further contributing to our delay, I stopped to buy a straw basked for my laundry for 1200 bob. Half an hour after leaving that place, I got a message saying that my mPesa hadn't sent the money, due to insufficient funds. I had a moral dillema because I knew driving through Nairobi in the dark would be dangerous, but I also felt really bad about ripping off that unwitting salesman. For some reason, his number wasn't included in the mPesa message. So the only thing my conscience would permit me to do was to drive back and pay the guy. He was very appreciative. 

It was about 10pm by the time we got back to the flats, and I was thoroughly exhausted and traumatized form the hours of overtaking, being cut off and incessantly stopping and starting in traffic. An experience I hope never to repeat! But it was all worth it. We were back in one piece without a singled dent or scratch on Rosie's Prado. 

Following up on that, a few days later, she told me that our little roadtrip had necessitate significant repairs on the car. The bill added up to basically what we would have paid to rend a 4x4 in the end. But I don't have any regrets. As with all of my trips, this one was EPIC.