Simon Thomsett

Category: Uncategorized | Date: Nov 20 2007 | By: admin

16th Nov 2007

Vero’s is a Verreaux’s Eagle. She is now 13 years old or so. Certainly out of all the birds she is the one that most visitors see up close. She must have sat on the gloved arms of thousands. In this respect she is an extraordinary eagle. Few eagles anywhere in the world would fly to the arm of a complete stranger. None to my knowledge fly (safely) to the arm as those as young as 5 years. School children line up, and one by one don the eagle glove. She patiently waits and then flies in to a gentle landing. Kids are amazed. Vero’s is very gentle. 13 years on, grown-ups come back and say how this experience meant so much to them when they were kids.

There are those to whom she is less kind. Eagles are actually cowards. They do not feel comfortable if there is anyone threatening in a group of visitors. Sometimes I too feel strangely worried by a particular individual but cannot put my finger on just what it is that bothers me. Vero’s knows right away. She’ll stare hard at the person bow down, drop one wing and threaten them. But if they come close she will fly away in panic. I wonder if she would be good as a lie-detector. There are those who she knows she can intimidate. Sometimes she jumps at people just to see if they are on their toes, but doesn’t dream of actually hurting them. In a large group there is invariably one who is wearing an Ipod, cool shades, long baggy trousers, chewing gum, wearing a hat, and walking in an arrogant inner city style. It puts the hairs up the back of my neck, and it puts the feathers up the back of hers. She is happy to attack them as she knows they are more cowardly than she. Usually it is bluff but on 3 occasions she has attacked people and hurt them. Each time though it has been the fault of the victim, they may have dodged in the wrong direction and hit her. I realise with deep concern that this is very bad indeed and quite irresponsible of me to have allowed this to happen. Thankfully each bears scars of which they are very proud. “See these deep wounds, an huge eagle gave those to me”. A great way to break the ice at cocktails.

But out of all the chances in the world this tiny indiscretion is forgivable. By and large she is a sweet bird. She’d never hurt a child. She tip toes around them and understands they are very vulnerable. Just like a large dog she has terrifying potential. But just like a dog she respects everyone, unless she has good reason to think otherwise. Sometimes with big dogs you don’t mind them frightening people. It’s their job.

Vero’s has an odd relationship with my shenzi mutt. This puppy was procured for less than $3 from a cattle boma on the next door ranch. She is typical of her kind, disobedient and shy. But she is also very intelligent and faithful, fearlessly defending the house night and day and ignores the birds who ignore her back. All but Vero’s. When she was small she learnt early on that Vero’s could kill her with one squeeze of one foot. But she would trot past Vero’s and flirt with danger. Vero’s would turn her head upside down in amusement. But when puppy tried to take her food Vero’s would leap out and make a mock attack. Puppy scared witless at first would bolt away. But as this went on puppy got more and more cheeky, taking the game to its limits.

Thud! followed by a squeal. Oh dear, poor puppy I thought as I made my first cup of coffee. Where’s the spade? But on looking outside I saw Vero’s standing next to puppy who was leaping about in good spirits. Vero’s looked annoyed.

Sometimes Vero’s would leap off her perch and whack the puppy, but not hurt her. Puppy has on occasion pushed Veros with her nose off her perch. Now that puppy is nearly full grown these antics have taken on a new twist. Puppy often follows Vero’s and I when we go off together. Puppy gets a bee in her bonnet and runs around in circles in the grass as Vero’s glowers at her, hackles raised. If Vero’s assumes her dignity is being abused she takes off and chases puppy, who has been asking for it. There follows a brief chase, sometimes a thud and a happy dog and disgruntled eagle standing on the ground.

Below are a few pictures that show Vero’s taking off, chasing puppy and nearly catching her. Don’t be alarmed. This happens most days we go out. It is a game they play.

Vero’s taking off with puppy in her sights.

Puppy booting it with Vero’s on her tail.

Puppy making a clever dodge to the left.

Puppy jumps out of reach to the right. Vero’s lands empty handed. In this instance the whole process was repeated, but I had filled the memory card of the camera.

So there you have it. A bizarre eagle/dog relationship. In case one should think this sort of thing never happens in the wild, and it is bad practise to encourage a cross genera relationship then rest assured it does happen in the wild. I have seen Chanting Goshawks, Augur Buzzards, Tawny Eagles and African Hawk Eagles follow Banded and Slender-tailed mongoose. They even sit right next to them looking down holes in the hope that something will get flushed out. Tawny Eagles and Lappet faced Vultures will sometimes follow cheetahs, landing very close and presumably hoping that they will kill something they can eat. Baboons will associate with impala and bushbuck. Some infants even ride of the back of adult bushbuck. Many birds feed alongside cattle or ungulates. Most ungulate herds are mixed species. Terrapins sit on Hippos, water dikkops next to crocodiles, Chanting Goshawks next to Honey Badgers and Vero’s next to puppy.

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Category: Falcons | Date: Nov 14 2007 | By: admin

14th Nov 2007.

Yesterday I flew Tim down by the dam. It is one of the best ways to get respite from life’s more stressful or boring moments. Tim is a male Lanner Falcon. He fell from Times Tower in the middle of Nairobi city in early July this year. Fortunately someone in a queue waiting for a licence saw him being beaten up outside and he rushed out to save his life. He then took it to the Ornithology Department National Museums of Kenya, who then phoned up my colleague Munir Virani, who then phoned me. This is how I usually get my birds.

Unfortunately Tim was thrust into a small wire cage at the museum for about an hour. It is a matter that makes me purple but is all too commonly done at vet’s, wildlife institutions and so-called ‘rehabilitators’. It may have killed more raptors taken into captivity than any other practise. The standard response; “Oh, we didn’t know what to do with it”, is a little less upsetting than “Hum, well we take a very dim view indeed of making it tame and sticking jesses on it and much prefer throwing it in a cage so that it can batter itself to an early death“. (The italics part isn’t said……but it is the invariable end result).

The soft part of the nose called the cere and it is like sealing wax. It can be sliced open in one hard hit against a chicken wire cage. If so the quick, the area from which the beak grows can be permanently damaged. Months later the bill can grow out skew and make the bird incapable of eating. The tail is the next to go. Slammed up against a cage the tail is thrust through the mesh and snaps. It takes over one whole year for one flight feather to grow, fall out and be replaced. Two broken flight feathers is just about tolerable for bumbling raptors like kites, but not for falcons and goshawks. Three is too much. It is not usual to get hawks from vet’s with all primaries and all tail feathers snapped (That’s 32 feathers requiring some 2 years worth of captivity for them to grow through properly).

Picture of Tim looking cute . He turns his head upside down as a comic gesture, and if you turn yours he’ll try to out-do you all the more. Note the damage on the top of his cere.(Photo by Laila Bahaa-el-din)</p>

Poor Tim had broken 4 tail feathers and had another 2 pulled out. His cere was damaged, but fortunately not very badly. He had also lost one claw in the cage, but that has grown back. He would have died had he been reared in a cage and released. No question. Unfortunately this is the form of “management” favoured all over East Africa, and is not unknown elsewhere.

Lanner Falcons are one of my favourite raptors, being very intelligent, docile on their perches, and dynamite in the sky. They stoop finer than almost all falcons. The vertical dive straight down from many hundreds of meters is a miracle of the natural world. Peregrines, Sakers, Barbaries are unreal too, but they seldom have the affection of the Lanner, or their consistent and reliable performance. Peregrines and Barbaries are faster but they are arrogant in their mastery and tend to zoom off over the horizon if bored for one minute. Lanners come back. My old Lanner died recently aged about 17. She always had a lung infection and she never did fly that well. She knew she’d never make it in the wild. She’d abandon me regularly for days but walk in through the back door and sit on her perch behind my TV as though nothing had happened. It was a great relationship. Tim is half her size. He is a midget compared to the eagles. But he is mischievous and flashy.

Tim learning to fly on a creance with Laila.

Training raptors is common sense. They come to you for food initially of course but within days they come to you simply because you offer a nice perch and security. In about 4 days most falcons look forward to seeing you and many of these were completely “wild” prior to that. For example, I had one “wild” Martial Eagle, hit of the road eat from my hand 6 hours after being brought in. I never “trained” him, he just got better over the next few weeks and flew to me because he never thought it bad to do otherwise. He hated strangers though, and that was fine, because when he took his leave he was once again “wild”. He was fully trained and hunting in 2 weeks without once ever “tying him up”.

Tim never did need training either. He just flew to you cos he is a pig and likes to eat. Each day he’d eat to repletion. There was no question of not giving him a full belly. But first you have to fly him on a long line (called a creance), before progressing to flying free, which he did in a few weeks. I had great satisfaction in teaching Laila and Gai Cullen the rudiments of training Tim. Two people of differing backgrounds both learning so much about raptors that now each is fervent supporter of their conservation. It is a “no brainer” to understand how this connection can easily be made. The picture below shows Gai flying Tim to the lure. The lure in this case is a (long dead) day old chick on the end of a cord. It is swung around at high speed and Tim comes in as fast as he can to catch it in mid air. He may be hard flying for 10-15 minutes. That this exercise is a thousand times more than that which can be achieved in a cage..no matter what size is immaterial to his hunting ability. At his early stage in his training he is still a buffoon incapable of catching anything as much as he tries. Later his lure got bigger and had old dried wings of francolins attached to it. He knew is was a francolin, but it got hammered nevertheless.

Tim about to catch the lure. (Photo by Laila Bahaa-el-din)

Tim has failed miserably to catch anything substantial since he was brought in. He at first thought he could kill anything. He would fly off to bomb Egyptian Geese at the dam, then after a good smacking he gave up of those (10 times his weight!). He changed his mind and try to take herons, and Ibis, again about 10 times bigger prey than normal! After a while he figured this was tough to do. I have seldom had a falcon longer than a few weeks who did not start hunting much sooner. But I realise the problem is that all my dogs have died. I have used pointers for 20 years and I never really knew until now how useful they were. They find not only game birds like francolin, but also larks, pipits on the ground, and starlings, sparrows and doves in the bushes. Instead of having all day as would a wild falcon to find food, I have 30 minutes each afternoon so find them quickly. Gai has pointers. Pointers were first bred for falcons and not for guns, and it took only a few hours for Tim to realise that Hazel (the pointer) was a good thing to follow around. We have had good flights over Hazel, but not one kill because they are not together often enough. But Tim did get one dove fair and square on his own, and he has taken some small bats near nightfall and a lot of bumble bees. His old problem returns however. The broken tail feathers although imped (fixed with old feathers of another falcon with a metal pin in the hollow shaft) keep breaking. It may be that this is why he just hasn’t been able to get going properly.

One of the fine things about messing around with hawks is learning about their daft sense of humour. I have had generations of falcons swoop down out of the sky in great style to seize dried cow pats. Once caught the cow pat is carried around like a trophy. It is tossed in the air, caught and often brutally strangled. Sometimes they fly up with one to a great height and drop it, only to kill it again half way down. Their sense of play is highly developed. few would dispute a kitten or puppy capable of such pranks. But a noble falcon or eagle seems to be exempt from playing. But in understanding that they do it makes one realise just how advanced an animal they really are. Below is a picture of Tim on his first and unsuccessful stoop on a cow pat. You may be able to see that he missed it and smacked his face into the dirt!

Tim’s first attempt, note cow pats, and how they avoided being taken.

Tim’s second attempt. He returns on foot.

Tim’s third attempt. Success! Poor cow pat.

Tim is fast becoming an expert in the sky. Once he starts to catch real living food he will soon start to think of wandering away for good. Yesterday was a bad day for me. People problems and a day in the centre of Nairobi, followed by a gruelling back-breaking drive home. As soon as I stepped out the car I walked over to Tim and asked him to step onto my glove.

As I drove past the zebra and eland herds with Tim on my left hand on my way to the dam my brooding melancholy started to lift. Getting there, just before sun set, which is usually too late, the sun broke through the clouds as I released Tim. Off he flew with great abandon. Over herons and geese long since used to his silly ways. He very narrowly missed a few doves and tried as hard as he could to catch a Greenshank. As it got nearly dark tiny bats with white bellies emerged and flew over the choppy waves of the dam. Tim did all he could again. Nearing exhaustion he decided to come to my calls. He alighted on the ground behind me and allowed me to pick him up and feed him. We drove home happy.

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Category: Uncategorized | Date: Nov 09 2007 | By: admin

8th Nov 2007.

The last few days have been unproductive. I saw a comment on the “blog” regarding “What has happened to Duchess?”. I have no idea. There has been no bad news, and I am sure all is well although I remain anxious to make contact. Duchess is very special to me but I cannot expect others to anticipate this and keep me constantly updated. Like a parent dropping off a child at boarding school I fear that I may be seen as overly protective if I pester with queries. Yet I do know things can go badly wrong and very quickly, and things can slip undetected toward a crisis and be misunderstood by those not familiar with eagles. But the fact is that neither the camp or I have good communication right now. I had hoped to drive down and see Duchess, but was unable to do so because I received a new hawk that required constant attention, had promised other commitments and have a lot of urgent extraneous issues to sort out. I admit that in handing over responsibilities to others it has made these chores easier, but at the same time I am worried. But Ol Donyo Laro has the best infrastructure possible and I know that should “anything go wrong” Amos will let me know. If anything does go wrong I will drop everything and go.

On the 6th November a number of juvenile Steppe Eagles were seen feeding on a young Kongoni. It is a particularly interesting time of the year for raptor enthusiasts. Migratory raptors be they from Eurasia or within Africa take advantage of the sudden rainfall to feast on an immediate explosion of “bio-mass”. Steppe Eagles as the name implies, come from the Steppes of Eurasia, as do the Steppe Buzzards.

Juvenile Steppe Eagle 6th Nov 2007

Like all other migrant raptors they usually arrive en masse during rain storms feeding on the concurrent emergence of termite alates (flying ants). Termites are a forgotten food source of incredible bulk and importance. The male and female termites have wings and they fly out of underground tunnels in massive squadrons precisely as the ran falls and often at night. They bash themselves against the light bulb, loose their wings which pop off easily and scamper around the floor grabbing onto the rear end of others like a miniature train set. Off they go to find a hole and set up a new colony….if they do not get eaten. I guess it helps their survival to fly in poor weather and at night. But they pay a price. So heavy is the rain that it is not uncommon to see a flying ant burst in a shower of wings, struck dead centre by a large rain drop and spiral to the ground like downed Sopwith Camels over muddy trenches. As a child (and still as an initiation prank for visitors) I would eat them too. They are turgid with fat abdomens and have a bland nutty flavour. They were once an important food-source for people, but only once did I see someone ever harvesting them. In Embu I saw a large gunny sack held open over a mound, and beneath it was a metal tray with half an inch of water. The elderly man beside it explained that when the winged ants flew up they would hit the sack and then fall back into the tray. I asked him if he could tap the mound to mimic the sound of raindrops and fool the ants into flying. He said he used to be able to do this when others would help, but not now. He’d wait till it rained.

Occasionally some less intellectual colonies would erupt from mounds in broad daylight and fair weather in Kamikaze missions. Waiting outside the holes there may be numerous species of birds and small mammals feasting on them. Once in the Kedong Valley I saw Steppe Eagles, a few Tawny Eagles, one Bateleur, one Martial, one Peregrine, 2 Lanners, a cloud of Eastern Red footed falcons, a cloud of Hobbies, and more than one Eleonora’s Falcon feeding on and over one mound. More surprisingly was the mixed group of hornbills, starlings, Barbets, Kingfishers, sparrows and large Mottled throated Swifts. Nearby a group of baboons were feeding too. It was as if everyone called a truce and friends and foes were at a buffet.

Test for raptor boffins. Not easy. Clue: It is eating flying ants.

Besides termites of which there are many species, there are on grasslands Harvester Ants who go about their life cycle in much the same way. Their flying sexed variety is a tough customer but they too are also consumed in what collectively must be many tons. The rains in our part of the world are brief and life-giving. Dusty dry lands long for rain. There is a dormancy in which plants and animals conserve energy, a period in which it would be foolish to embark on a migration. Our equatorial eastern part of Africa is subjected to the monsoon a notoriously irregular seasonal shift in winds that used to abandon ancient Arabian trading vessels in the doldrums. The accepted notion is that visiting migratory birds, raptors included, embark on their migration as the temperate world gets cooler and less productive at a precise date. As if by good fortune those birds moving in toward our equator from the Northern winter in Eurasia meet what is termed the ’short rains’. On their way back to their breeding grounds they meet the ‘long rains’. These periods of plenty are heaving with life, be it insects, locusts, or small granivorous birds and rodents (which are busily poisoned by man). They gorge themselves with fuel laying down fat for the long arduous journeys ahead. At least that is how the books tell it. The terms “short and long rains” may be incorrect in much of East Africa. In many parts of northern Kenya the short rains bring the highest amount of rainfall. In western Kenya on the edge of Lake Victoria rainfall is pretty much guaranteed all year round, and over-riding all this is the unpredictability of the monsoon and seasonal variation, where rains may never fall at all.

If you watch enough TV you’ll be amazed at how wildebeest give birth at precisely the right time of year for the optimal survival of their young. Just as the rains start and the grasses turn emerald the calves are dropped. So too it is a miracle of timing that winged alate termites hatched and nurtured by workers deep beneath the ground weeks previously mass in unison to the mouths of their holes for an evacuation just as the first rain falls. But you have to wonder if there must be a bit of ‘hit and miss’, where calves are born in drought weeks, and massing alate termites have to turn back in their holes because the rains never came. This year wildebeest calves were being born in January and it extended to May, whereas they should all have been born in February and March. The termites too have had to wait.

This year the rains are late in the Athi/Kapiti plains. Although the first European Bee Eaters were flying high in early September I saw my first migrant raptor, a male Pallid Harrier followed by a Steppe Buzzard in mid October. By late Oct I had seen Montagu’s and a few Eurasian Hobbies only when it threatened rain. By this time migratory small falcons such as Eastern Red Footeds, and Lesser Kestrels were already in large numbers in South Africa, so they had either flown so high over Kenya as to be unseen, or had flown around us.had it rained a few months ago the migratory raptors would have been here for it. Should it rain next month they will also be here for it. The period in which these migratory raptors appear is very broad and entirely at the whim of the weather. This does not make scientists happy, because they want to know precisely when and where migratory raptors move through or appear in Kenya. There is no easy answer.

With so little rain locally and so few raptors seen we may feel that they have “missed the boat”. But I still hold out hope that that should the rains come, Kestrels, and Hobbies, Eagles and Buzzards will arrive to feed almost exclusively on flying ants. To many this sudden arrival (even this late) may be seen as birds arriving from the North, but I suspect they may well be arriving from the south. Raptors are capable of flying back and forth over the continent should conditions suit them.

These Steppe Eagles were feeding on a cheetah kill, just as do our Tawny Eagle or vultures. Scavenging from carnivore kills is an important food source for them and they must be in some way dependent on a regular supply of both wild carnivores and wild ungulates. On the Ethiopian highlands in sub-zero wind-swept plateaus over 12,000ft I have seen Steppe Eagles congregate in impressive numbers. They feed on the incredible abundance of lemming-like rodents that swarm over the land. Here too these unique rodent eco-systems of gargantuan combined bulk could conceivably be one of the critical fuel depots for migratory raptors. But these natural areas are fast vanishing crushed underfoot by livestock and the plough. Steppe Eagles may suffer more than most migratory raptors because their size and weight oblige that they feed not exclusively on small insects.

As terrestrial wildlife declines and the termite producing grasslands/woodlands are impoverished by overgrazing, wood removal and active poisoning of termentia (Termite mounds), the pattern of movement of migratory raptors must be negatively influenced. Rainfall frequency and quantity is declining in Sub-Saharan Africa and global warming is either already with us, or threatens to continue to dry the region. If migratory raptors are an indication of seasonal abundance in bio-mass, then in theory we should be seeing less of them.

This is true. We are seeing far less of them. But instead of prioritising them (as do many international NGOs), it actually highlights the need to focus on those raptors locked within our borders with no hope of a summer retreat in Eurasia. If factors in Africa negatively effect migratory raptors in Eurasia, what of those that do not migrate out of Africa? Surely they are worse off?

With luck the clouds will burst soon, and the sky will be filled with replete raptors.

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Category: Black Sparrowhawk | Date: Nov 04 2007 | By: admin

4th Nov 2007.

The Black Sparrowhawk (B Spa) that had a head or spinal injury is much better. At first the bird could not stand and reacted to stimulus slowly. He had partial use of one leg and one wing and held his head at an angle. He was placed in a sling that suspended him upright with his feet just touching a cushion. Initially he was force fed, but even though he lacked co-ordination he soon tried to take chopped up food from a dish. When he failed to defecate I had assumed that his chances of recovery was poor. Because he remained without improvement for days I tried giving him tasks such as lowering the sling until he had to try to support his weight. When food time came round I gave him a whole dead day old chick to eat. He couldn’t of course but it kept him busy. When I returned from 2 days away the slow progress that seemed to stand still, was obvious. I took him off the sling and he collapsed on one side craning his head behind his back. Previously I had assumed the head craning to be a reaction to the annoying bandage sling from which he hung. But it was now obvious that this was part of his brain damage. He is being given thiamine, Vit B complex and Vit A as well as calcium rich diet, in a shotgun approach to solving any particular vitamin deficiency.

Today he stood up for the first time. When placed in a shed alone he managed to half run and half flap his way about the floor. He also was very quick to grab his food and could pluck and eat it unaided. His tail however remains at an acute angle. Sometimes his sits back on it and rolls over. But by and large the slow recovery is rewarding to watch. Even if he does not regain full use of his tail he may be useful for captive breeding in the future. Not that Black Sparrowhawks are an endangered species. In fact they are one of the very few that seem to be doing well and increasing and even colonising areas where exotic plantations of gum trees and high human densities occur. They also like doves, and in most small scale farms doves still do reasonably well. Regrettably they are also partial to domestic fowl. They have inadvertently done more damage to the reputations of all birds of prey by this habit. But the habit pays off, because they can still survive in areas long vacated by those raptors that do not take domestic livestock or chickens.Black Sparrowhawks are bold and aggressive. They ambush their prey at lightening speed. The late Leslie Brown wrote of one taking a chicken between the feet of two old men who were haggling over the price of the chicken!

Although I would have agreed that their range has expanded I have noted a decline in their numerical density in and around Nairobi in particular. In the late 1980’s I could guarantee finding as many as 5 nests spaced about one kilometre apart, in an area where Leslie Brown had considered them (in the mid 1970’s) “rare”. Here their population had exploded. But today these nests are not as numerous and I would put this down to more hazardous conditions such as security fences that now straddle every high wall, gate or circumvent each household. Razor wire coiled on high wall tops have killed Black Sparrowhawks. But much worse is the thin diameter high tensile electric fences that are virtually invisible. I once watched a Red eyed Dove flying at top speed through an avenue of trees in Nairobi, skip over a wall and hit this type of fence at full speed. It died on impact. I thought it may have been flying away from a hidden assailant at the time. Pane glass windows are notorious for impacting birds. It may be fair to say that for every square meter of pane glass window there is so many dead birds. Today it is fashionable to have large patios in the sub-urbs surrounded by panoramic pane glass looking out onto lawns. Birds are not very stupid and would avoid impact if we were not so very clever at making an invisible obstacle. People, myself included put cut outs of raptors on such windows. Birds simply fly around them and still hit the glass. This Black Sparrowhawk was almost certainly one such casualty.

I flew Vero’s the Verreaux’s Eagle this afternoon and she disgraced herself by chasing my dog around. The dog, a complete “Shenzi” (Heinz multiple mix purchased for $3 from a nearby cattle boma) is a brainless dingo-type, with no name. But she is full of beans and likes to taunt Vero’s. I suspect she thinks Vero’s is a potential friend. But Vero’s would much rather eat her.Vero’s has so far failed to catch her and I have a sneaky suspicion that Vero’s actually likes the game and would never hurt her.

Vero’s flying.

Tiny Tim the male Lanner flew well. He chased Crowned Plovers so hard that they dived into a herd of wildebeest and zebra to escape him. He has a messed up tail. Although it has been imped (old term for fixing flight feathers with pins in the soft part of the shaft) he has broken them again. He has only one dove to his credit. Although he looks fantastic in the air and can fly hard for 20 mins at a time he still has a lot to learn.

Rosy and Girl the Crowned Eagle pair seem to have given up on their egg. Rosy (the male) persists in incubating it. I was not sure when it was laid as it appeared next to another egg that died at pip. But I think their time is up. Girl knows, but Rosy still holds out hope.

The B Spa spends his first night standing in his box in the living room tonight.

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