Kenya - Saturday, Lake Naivasha, last day in Kenya

Rain stopped play. We were both disappointed and delighted it was raining. Disappointed as it was our last morning birding opportunity for this holiday, delighted as this country badly needs all the rain it can get. So having got up early, we gave up on a walk and after breakfast spent more time catching up on Bird ID’s, packing, etc. It did stop raining mid-morning, which gave us a chance to slide around:

A common bird in some locales, the White-eyed Slaty Flycatcher was the first we spotted:



We might have to re-name this the 'early bird'. Followed by the Grey-backed Fiscal Shrike:



A Brimstone Canary looking resplendent in the sunlight:



An African Citril:



A Blacksmith Lapwing:



We were over-flown by a heavier and all orange bodied swallow a Mosque Swallow. Alas as usual with Hirundines, no picture to accompany the sighting. As always the most numerous bird was the aptly named Superb Starling:



Down on Lake Naivasha a pair of Egyptian Geese were raising a brood of goslings:



We were joined on our walk by Geoffrey the bird guide and hotel boatman who wanted to show us the woods by the yacht club. On the walk there we spotted another bird of prey cruising over-head. We think this raptor is an immature Eurasian Marsh Harrier:



Over in the woods, and before we were shooed away by the yacht club security guards for ‘trespassing’, we spotted our second new species of the day, an Isabelline Shrike:



As you can tell by the light, it had started raining again. Next a Crowned Plover:



A rather thin looking Wildebeest:



In this area there are no predators, just a shortage of land and therefore food. The rain was getting heavier so we scampered back to the hotel, planning on a mid-morning tea break. We did stop to snap another new species, Dusky Turtle Doves:



After the rain had abated, we headed out again, keen to improve on our species list thus far, adding White-headed Barbet:



In the grounds of the Country Club, we bumped into a birder from South Africa in the company of two local guides. We got their business card (http://www.bensecologicalsafaris.com/) on the basis someone who really does know their birds will help us plan both a better itinerary when we head back to this part of the world (we will) and help us to both see and identify more birds than we alone managed. Benson pointed out this Sulfur-breasted Bush-Shrike, while we were chatting:



These Green Wood-Hoopoes were allo-preening:



We headed off back towards the lake shore. This Black-lored Babbler was keeping lookout for a group foraging on the ground below:



Next a very close Streaky Seedeater:



An Amethyst Sunbird:



A male Blackcap, a long way from where we normally spot them, was mostly obscured in the undergrowth. A blurry picture of a Crimson-rumped Waxbill (it had just started raining again, this time with accompanying booms of thunder!):



Summary:

The grand total then, drum roll, is 222 species identified of which 179 were the first time we had seen them. Our life list now stands at 840. Awesome.

Kenya is a wonderful country, offering a unique birding experience. I know a lot of people are wary of visiting Kenya because of the drought and the security situation. The drought is bad, but the way things are structured humans will be the last to notice. In respect of security, the only time we felt in any way vulnerable was when I asked security to leave us alone on the shoreline of Lake Naivasha, at which point we were then vulnerable and (we believe) lined-up for a mugging, but were smart enough to notice and move back to safe territory. We have on occasions felt equally at risk in some of Britain’s larger cities.

The bigger picture stuff was never going to affect us and wouldn’t affect any other tourist. So the risks in Kenya are the same as anywhere else and the safe practices the same too. In my opinion there’s no reason not to travel to Kenya and a lot of positive reasons to travel there. Final comment, if you’re going to a developing country and have an old pair of binoculars or bird guide take them with you and give them to the local guides, they will really appreciate the gesture and it’ll only help them to help you…

We used this trip to find out as much as we could about birding in Kenya. For our next trip, assuming we get an opportunity, we would probably schedule something along the lines of Mombasa and the coastal area, the Masai Mara, then to Nairobi and Sweetwater, Samburu, Lake Baringo, Turkana Forest and back via a different National Park, so a fortnight in all. Maybe that’s two trips?!

Of course Uganda and Tanzania both deserve fortnights of their own too…so many places, so little time!

And finally, a note on the blogging software, it's much improved, thank you Google. Much less painful than last time...

Kenya - Friday, Lake Naivasha, afternoon walk

Another afternoon of bird ID checking, typing, photo (and this time video) processing flew by, just in time for our afternoon self-guided birding walk around the grounds of the Hotel…



Our first encounter, a now familiar White-eyed Slaty Flycatcher:



Not very sharp as these are very quick moving, small birds that like to feed in bushes and trees. A White-browed Coucal:



A pair of Lilac-breasted Rollers, really good looking birds:



An African Dusky Flycatcher, not only plainly coloured but also playing hard to get in the shadow of the trees:



A Winding Cisticola:



This is another Sunbird that doesn’t match any in my guidebook. I suspect this is a Variable Sunbird:



We did see Sand Martins and Scarce Swifts, I have record shots of both, but nothing worth adding to the blog. The Swifts in particular were great to watch zooming around, the fly fast and low and make a great sound as they swish past.

A familiar bird from home, the Willow Warbler, which makes me wonder if the previous one might have been a ChiffChaff. So much easier when they are signing their song in late Spring in the UK!



The over-side and under-side of a Montagu’s Harrier. The local guide was as surprised as we were to see this:





I took this picture of the bougainvillea at the front of the hotel:



This group of White-browed Robin-chats were signing together, which was lovely to watch:



Based on the tail and the size of the bird, I believe this is a Square-tailed Drongo:



A Spectacled Weaver - though blurry the black chin makes it clear it’s not a Baglafecht Weaver:



This tree, unusually, has a cactus growing in it:



As the day drew in a troop of Monkeys moved through the grounds:



It turns out the Buffalo, Water Buck, Giraffe and Hippopotamuses also move through the grounds… hence we got moved out of one area we were birding in by some very twitchy security guards.

After dinner, as we walked briskly down to the lake to share our G&Ts with the hippos, we were once again stopped by the same twitchy security guards. Helen is disappointed to report that, despite all the warning signs telling people that they do this or that (parking, walking, breathing) at their own risk, there is no such thing as ‘voluntary assumption of risk’ in Kenya, and you are not allowed to do anything that might be remotely dangerous. Sadly, the hippos were deemed not to be safe to view until the magic hour of 7am (not 6:45am, mind) the following morning. So we instead retired to bed.

Kenya - Friday, Lake Naivasha, amble back to the Hotel

Having got off the boat and on the basis we didn’t have a room yet, we decided to have a slow amble back to reception and see what we could see on the way. I think this is a Tiny Cisticola:



A White-winged Widowbird enjoying the view:



This is probably another Beautiful Sunbird:



A Northern Anteater Chat:



A pair of Red-billed Firefinches hung around briefly:



The last bird of our mid-morning amble is, I think, a Red-fronted Warbler. Tricky one:

Kenya - Friday, Lake Naivasha, morning boat trip

We decided that on Friday morning rather than do another game drive, we’d have breakfast when the restaurant opened and then head straight to our penultimate stop, the Lake Naivasha Country Club. One thing we did see clearly for the first time, before leaving the grounds of Lake Nakuru was a Hippopotamus in a field, of course!



We arrived at Lake Naivasha around 8:45 and booked a 9am trip out on to the lake, a feature that has shrunk dramatically, as have all the lakes of the Great Rift Valley. Some in fact, as we saw on our drive here, are at risk of ceasing to be, the consequences of this will be dramatic on the fauna of the region.

I should comment here that it’s strange to see a drought and dying animals on one side of a fence and see the staff watering the flower beds on the other side of the fence, sinks that don’t hold water and a general human profligacy with what is a very scarce and rapidly diminishing resource.

Another aside…

Water Rates:

1.5 litres of mineral water at Lake Baringo Island Camp cost 100 Kenyan Shillings (KES)
1 litre of mineral water at Savona Lion Hill Hotel at Lake Nakuru cost 240 KES
0.5 litres of mineral water at Lake Naivasha Country Club is 150 KES ($2 for 500ml!)

Beer at Baringo was also 100 KES, 240 at Savona, who knows what this lot will charge (250 it turned out)!

So, to the morning boat trip. They have a lot of hippos in Lake Naivasha:



Apparently they’ll all be out of the water, feeding, this evening, which sounds promising. The lake itself is surprisingly small, of course it has shrunk dramatically in the eight months since it last rained here. We were over-flown by a group of Great Cormorants:



Some Egyptian Geese, flew in to land on the water:



The lake supports a surprising number of African Fish Eagles:



Our first new species of the trip, African Citril:



Another new species followed shortly afterwards, a Streaky Seedeater:



A Pied Kingfisher had caught a days’ worth of calories in a single package:



More Hippos, looking thoroughly chilled out:



A non-breeding Gull-billed Tern, resting for a while:



Another new species, this is the very attractive Black-necked Grebe:



Next a Giant Kingfisher, that didn’t fly away!



A Marsh Sandpiper:



Followed by a Ruff:



Then our first gull of the holiday, a Black-headed Gull:



Followed rapidly by a second, a Grey-headed Gull:



I love the eye on this gull:



London buses anyone? Next-up a new duck, the Hottentot Duck, seen here with an Egyptian Goose and a Cape Teal, far left (also a new species):



And the by-now-familiar, Yellow-billed Ducks and Red-billed Teal:



A breeding plumage Whiskered Tern:



Almost glad I’ve never managed to see one on passage through Pitsford! We saw Little Grebes but they’re common the world over it appears… We got out of the boat around three-quarters of the way around to walk what used to be a channel between two parts of the lake but is now a big wide area of grassland, and spotted a Grassland Pipit:



In what remains of the river between the lakes, Goliath Herons, Yellow-billed Storks, four species of duck, various waders and African Spoonbill all have to make do with what is left of the water:



A small group of three Pelicans were of the Pink-backed Pelican species, another new one:



The last photograph of the boat trip, a couple of Whiskered Terns, showing plumage differences between breeding (left) and non-breeding: