Simon Thomsett

Category: Crowned Eagles | Date: Oct 25 2007 | By: admin

Duchess about to perch on a tree branch. You can just make out her curled talons.

Peter reassured me that Duchess and I were welcome for as long as it takes. He suggested going for a buzz in the plane to check out a few areas further to the south. Areas that had forest, but not that much and away from the main bulk of the highland forests. I declined the offer but felt encouraged by his commitment and knew that Duchess could ask for no better a circumstance.

Amos, Duchess and I went to the spring forest that feeds the camp. It is dis-continuous with the main forest block above, but tall and of sufficient quality to support a struggling juvenile like her. There was more game here too. A few herds of impala, lots of buffalo and elephant. Female Crowned Eagles are fond of impala calves. So food was about. I let her go in the stream where she had a drink before flying into a high tree. The raptor species count went up. One pair of Augur Buzzards on a nest, one very young Gabar Goshawk, one Steppe Buzzard, one Ayres’s Hawk Eagle, one Bateleur, one Harrier Hawk and one African Goshawk. As predicted the initial ‘galloping horse’ census was being disapproved.

Went back to camp, collected my back pack and returned. As evening drew to a close a Harrier Hawk flew and settled by Duchess, now in the top of the very tallest tree. After initial look over, peace reigned. Duchess had been anxious to get as high as possible because of the Baboons that came sauntering by on their way to sleep in the fig trees. These frightened her, and that is a good thing.

I made camp by the running stream directly under Duchess. Elephants had torn up the area last night, so it seemed the most obvious place to pitch camp. The odds being low that they would return for a second night. Earlier in the day there had been a donkey killed by elephants, why it was not clear. Amos returned to camp after accepting that all was well. Caught fresh water crabs with the aid of the headlamp and cooked them. Tasty but you need a lot to get any volume.

Today has seen Duchess fly very well, bathe in the stream and she seems more at home. The other locations had been intimidating and she could easily have flown into a very large and rugged area where retrieval would have been many days work. Here the forest was confined in a 4km section. To stay here and be fed and looked after was logistically much easier.

This is the view of the forest where we were.