Mara Triangle: the Blue Swallow twitch

Over the summer I've been spending time decorating my appartment, gardening, getting in ridiculous shape and reading books. Of course I did a fair bit of camping as well. One trip I really wanted to do was to make the 5 hour drive to Tindaret forest to try for the Red-chested Owl at the campsite. My open invitation did not recruit anybody, until Wilson's availability opened up. Just before we were gonna go, I got an ebird alert that Adrian had seen Blue Swallows in the Mara Triangle. We had a change of plan. The new plan was to drive up on the Sunday, spend two full days in the triangle, then drive back on Wednesday. The targets were: 

Green-capped Eremomela

Blue Swallow

Rock-loving Cisticola

Rufous-bellied Heron

Golden-tailed Woodpecker

Black-backed Cisticola

Schallow's Turaco

We used the Ololoolo Gate which is the furthest gade located next to the escarpment. This is not the ideal gate to start your trip because with the new dumb rule, they will change you for the full day even if you arrive at 6pm. The permits are now 12 hours (which doesn't make any sense, because they don't count nighttime hours when you're sleeping). So they should really just call it a daily permit, not a 12 hour permit. So basically we paid an extra full day's fees (2600 ksh) just to drive 100 meters to the campsite (because it's inside the reserve boundary). Absolute stupidity but I digress. In the future, it would be best to start the safari from Talek Gate, because the campsite is just outside the park boundary. 

On our first day, the sunrise was epic. Hot air baloons were taking off on the horizon, glowing like tiny orange lanterns over the savannah. On our first stop, we checked a flock of cisticolas. They were mostly Pectoral Patch, but there was a single Black-backed Cisticola, singled out by its bright orange rump. This was the only one we got for the whole trip. Lifer! 

Green-capped Erememomela

Next we tried to find a way up the Ololoolo escarpment. We drove up a road that led to two lodges, Agama and Mara West. We were trying for Rock-loving Cisticola. One of the safari guides called ____ said he's had both Rock-loving and Trilling Cisticolas along this track but we came up empty and they seemingly don't respond to calls. We got permission to walk along the entrance road between the gate and the bridge over an artificial pond. We easily got 2 Green-capped Eremomelas there. We didn't have any luck with the Rock-loving Cisticola so we drove back down the road. Wilson had thought he'd glimpsed one earlier while I was driving up the hill but hadn't said anything at the time (he didn't expect to see one so easily). I had the idea to leave the park and drive up a road that goes up the escarpment based on ebird records. I also wanted to try the ___ valley but Wilson and the park staff said that without a guide, we could get unduly harassed by local masai who have been known to basically rob tourists. The local guide wanted 1500 should we choose to call him. We opted not, and tried the main road instead. But it was heavily overgrazed and pretty dead, plus lots of safari vehicles were driving by. We kinda changed our mind and decided to ask one of the locals to take us for maybe 500 bob, but the guys at the corner had disappeared. Wilson was frustrated at all the time we were wasting, so I agreed to give this one up and maybe figure out another plan the next day. We went back into the reserve and made our way toward the area where Adrian had had blue swallows, in the southeastern corner of the Mara Triangle. The main road took us past thousands of zebras and wildebeest. 

While photographing them, I was just mentioning the blue swallows when Wilson literally spotted one fly low across the road in front of us. It was part of a bigger flock of barn swallows and banded martins. We concluded there were 2 Blue Swallows: 1 male, 1 female. I managed some shitty photos of them, but we got really fantastic views as their metalic blue shone beautifully in the mid-day sun. They would soon return to their breeding grounds in the southern Tanzania mountain grasslands. The male's tail forked into two ridiculously long and thin streamers. What an amazing bird that could literally turn up anywhere in Masai Mara...how lucky were we???

Along the main road we also found two ponds that each had a single Rufous-bellied Heron. This is one of those special Mara Triangle birds that was next to impossible to get in the main reserve on my last trip with Dom, Melissa and Kelvin. Nice to get this one under the belt. 

We continued on past the bride to get to Adrian's swallow spot but ended up sidetracked by an interesting track along a river. Wilson got some practice driving stick. We chanced upon a female lion lying in a riverbed, and a male lion lying in the open grassland, from the same viewpoint. Two more for the cat tally, putting us now at 3. 

By this point it was getting a bit late so we turned back toward our campsite, the public campsite beside Serena Lodge was our plan. We followed a track that looked like it would take us in the general right direction, but it appeared that the stream might pose a problem. We tried crossing at one point but it proved too much for my 2wd Xtrail and I was barely able to reverse my way out of it. It took some seriously tactful manoeuvering to get us out of that one. Later on, we tried another crossing point. This time, I got cocky and took the turn too tight, without checking my blind spot which was in front of the left wheel. There was a very steep drop-off there. The result was that my car was teetering on its belly with only two tires in contact with the ground. The front left and rear right tire were up in the air. If you stood on one side of the car, the right back wheel was about 1 foot off the ground. It looked as though we'd be stuck for a long time. But somehow, we were rolling again in 5 minutes. How was that possible? 

The car was so perfectly balanced on its belly that I lifted it off the ground while Wilson shoved some rocks under the front left tire. I then got him to jump up and down on the rear passenger door opening. This put some weight on the right side which was just enough to get some traction, freeing us from our predicament. But even if we hadn't pulled off this amazing stroke of genius, we ran into Wilson's guide friend not even 200m up the road, who would have gladly towed us out. Some reasons why it is always pointless to panic in any situation! 

That being said, we looked at eachother and both agreed THAT IS THE LAST RISK WE'RE TAKING ON THIS SAFARI! 

We got to the campsite in good time but it was still sweltering hot so we decided to check out another campsite which was quite close by, down inside a tiny patch of forest which would be more promissing in terms of shade and possibly birds. 

The facilities in this camp, which set us back 1000 each, consisted of a drop toilet which also served as a bat roost. In other words, it was wild and primitive. We got a fire going and made a harty beef stew with some of the hardest to chew beef cubes I've ever eaten. I think I am still digesting them. We made a nice fire and kept it stoked throughout the night to keep the beasts at bay....

"What the f*** was that..." I whispered to Wilson, rudely awakened at 5:45am. "Lions" he said. "More than one." In fact, it sounded like they were having a battle. It was getting disturbingly close to the edge of camp. Our tent was strategically set right beside the car so we got out and opened the door to prepare for a quick retreat into the car if necessary. The need never arose, but the battle had come so close that we could see the bushes shaking and even glimpse one lion running away through the bushes. Then it was over. Starting our game drive for the morning, we were abruptly halted in our tracks by one of the victors, a huge male lion lounging on the driveway to the camp. His brother was lying in the bushes nearby. They were probably just shy of 50m from where we'd been sleeping...These guys were battle-marked and were marking their territory on the bushes. Our camp belonged to their territory. 

We drove south, the plan being to meandre along some tracks until we hit the escarpment, then follow the escarpment, crossing through some patches of riparian forest where hopefully we could bump into a Schallow's Turaco or a Golden-tailed Woodpecker. 

The birding was slow and access into forest patches was tricky and limited, but we had managed to come across 3 cheetahs taking a nap, and a few birds here and there, like the Temminck's Courser. 

We then stopped in a riparian woodland near the Ololoolo escarpment. We found a spot that looked like a campsite and made a small fire and roasted some weenies for lunch. We thoroughly doused our little fire with water from a nearby creek. We tried for the Turaco and Woodpecker but no luck. But we happened upon Rufous-tailed Weavers on the road, which was a Kenya lifer. 

We proceeded along the base of the escarpment, heading north, searching for any access up its rocky and bushy slope. One road looked like it led up there and there was a vehicle coming down. But we were told by the security gate people that our car wouldn't make it, that it is too steep. He offered to walk us up there, for a fee. But it was pretty hot and Wilson really wasn't up for that, and to be honest neigher was I. Wilson figured we just try again at the same spot as yesterday. Begrudgingly I yielded and that is what we did. 

Somehow, after like the second attempt, we called in a Rock-loving Cisticola from the road that leads up to Agama and Mara West lodges. It didn't make a single sound but its skulking could not escape Wilson's scrutiny. It spent a couple minutes checking us out and we got decent photos confirming its identity. We were able to study the field marks to full satisfaction, cementing an excelent lifer into our memory. 

From there we made our way back to the public campsite, where we made a hearty beef stew. We agreed that we were pretty happy with the birds we'd gotten so far and would be satisfied to make it our last night. Hopefully, we would not be eaten by lions. While we were setting up camp, Wilson played the call of the Golden-tailed Woodpecker. As luck would have it, a male cruised in and darted across the canopy back and forth, like a game of hide and seek. I cautioned Wilson not to probe too greedily and too deeply into the trees, for it was that exact spot that the lions had fought earlier that morning. Eventually he did give up getting a photo, but we had nice looks. 

While preparing dinner, we saw a safari vehicle parked up the hill, so we drove up to check it out. Our two big boys were back, out for an evening stroll. We followed them out into the plains for a short while. They were menacing beasts. 

The following morning, our aim was to make it to Sekanani Gate before the check-out time of 10 am. Our plan was to skeedadle at 6am and basically not stop unless we saw something really good. We downed our last cup of remaining water and cruised through the open plains as the sun rose, passing dozens of elephants, and thousands of zebra and wildebeest. A pack of hyeenas patrolled the bank of the Mara River. A young elephant trumpeted at us as we drove past. At one point, I spotted a male lion just chillng about 50m from the road. 

Further inspection revealed a female and 2 more males lying in the ditch just up ahead. This put our lion total at 9 for the trip (not incluing the 2 males which were chased away which we heard but did not see at the camp). We hoped they were putting a huge herd of wildebeest in their scopes, but it seemed that breeding was more on their mind, as the 3 males followed the lone female, who was a perfect specimen of a lioness. Another bird we spotted was a Magpie Shrike, which is only the second time I've seen this species in my life. 

We got to the gate at about 8:30, so with plenty of time to spare. We stopped for a cup of chai and some mandazi, and hit the road. Along that stretch, I'm told you can get Karamoja Apalis, but I didn't know that at the time. One for the next trip, together with Tabora Cisticola and Schallow's Turaco. I tropped Wildon off in Mai Mahiu and was hope by about 13:30.