Simon Thomsett

Category: Raptor Expedition, vultures | Date: Feb 21 2009 | By: simonthomsett

Mutt the Bearded Vulture was moved to Ol Donyo Laro a few weeks ago. Mark Jenkins had built her a large pen near his house. This was an excellent first base camp for her but it was not intended to be a release location. She was to settle here until she found her bearings and became familiar with the area. Mark had his eye on a rocky high top almost at the summit of the Nguruman’s. Here was a ranger post with radio tower and nearby appearing out of thick forest and rocky cliffs lay a perfect spot. Bearded Vultures like these outcrops of rock to drop their bones. It is called an “ossuary.”

Laila and I flew up to meet Mark and his family. We then took Mutt up the rocky road to the high radio camp. Mutt had to be slightly sedated for the trip as it was long. We passed through some of the best quality forest I have ever seen and deep valleys with formidable cliffs. Truly these forests are a beautiful area of Kenya that deserves protection. When we arrived, I carried Mutt in my arms to a shed perched on one of the finest places in the country. It has a view that beats any lodge or grand home. It looks out down the ridge to northern Tanzania. She can see Ol Donyo Lengai, and even Ngorongoro, past the vast expanse of Lake Natron. In Tanzania, the Bearded vulture is still present, and these distant hills do still have nesting pairs. It is highly likely that Bearded Vultures still fly up and down the Nguruman’s hills and pass directly over her shed.

Simon and Mutt

We even searched the bare rocks in front of her shed to see if there were any smashed bone fragments from wild Bearded Vultures. Of all the possible locations within Kenya, this is certainly the best. It has not only the likelihood of other wild Bearded Vultures, but also it has the commitment of Ol Donyo Laro and 24-hour guard and eminence. The site is secure in this respect. The habitat, too, is likely to be much healthier. Poisoning seldom occurs within this region, and if she ventures into northern Tanzania, the habitat there is much more favourable than in much of central and northern Kenya.

View from Mutt’s shed

After taking a few pictures, we put her in her shed, where she stood on shaky legs from the effects of the sedative. I felt very happy in knowing that she has such a great home. Here she must stay and get focused on new home, prior to release. It is wise to let her stay some months so that she can imprint on her location and return when she is released.

Tags: mutt the bearded vulture, mutt's new home, ololokwe

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Category: Raptor Expedition | Date: Feb 19 2009 | By: simonthomsett

Ololokwe, or Ol Donyo Sabache as it is more properly called, is a huge flat topped, cliff-lined mountain lying just North of the very centre of Kenya. To many it is the doyen of all mountains in the arid lands of Kenya. It forms the subject of cliché paintings of the north. Geographically it appears as an isolated bump lying at the southern extreme of a massive chain of highlands and mountains that extend into the Ethiopian Highlands. Just to its north is the Mathews Range that reaches deep into the Turkana deserts, with sister mountains of Nyiro and Ndutus.

It provides a last physical stop for large migrating raptors that have taken the easy ride down mountain slope winds of the Great Rift Valley. Here they have to summon their energy for a real flight to more distant mountains and hills. It is a natural gathering point that could be found by running a finger down a map. Whether or not it actually does funnel migrant raptors had to be found by hard work, for Ololokwe stands at 6200 feet rising out of flat hot plains at some 2700 feet. It’s a long walk up.

When I lived at Lewa Downs, I had made a few exploratory treks up there pushing through rhino trails. Then it had the Big Five, and it was normal to encounter leopards gamboling about on the flat pans of rock. Buffalo were particularly spooky and ill tempered. The rhino were down to one, when it finally got rescued by Lewa Downs.

A Crowned Eagle used to nest in a broken off cedar tree that lay in a small valley through which clear spring water flowed, and continued some 600 meters on to flow over the cliff edge. It has been gone now almost 20 years.

When I first joined the Peregrine Fund, I was asked to search Kenya for an area of raptor abundance in terms of species diversity and numbers of individuals. It was important to find an area in which migrant raptors were as abundant. The choice took only a moment. Ololokwe has some 60 species of raptors recorded in an area of some 9km/sq. The rate of encounter is impressive. Sit long enough anywhere in Kenya and you get a huge list. But the “rate of encounters” of raptors is a useful way to get a real picture of its importance. There is hardly a moment of the day when eagles, buzzards, vultures and falcons are not airborne.

Laila and I visited Ololokwe and as it is now owned by a community ranch called Namunyak, we had to take the necessary guides and asakaris with us. It is not the way I used to do it, but it worked out well especially as our guide was very knowledgeable and keen to learn more about raptors. The area has changed recently. There is a lodge positioned between two valleys where the rhino used to drink at a spring. Lesser Kudu were once in large numbers here, but now only tracks of a single individual. Obvious was the intensive grazing pressure by livestock, from base to summit. The result has certain led to the impoverishment of bio-diversity at every level, but it is still fantastic and redeemable.

We spent two nights in old cattle rustler’s caves. Laila took some awesome photographs despite the rather gloomy weather. Ololokwe remains Kenya’s foremost raptor place. We spent two pleasant days and nights overlooking vast scenery and watched Peregrines, Ruppell’s Vultures, Verreaux’s Eagles, Augur Buzzards zoom past our faces most of the day. We did not see the Taita Falcon or Barbary, perhaps because of an overly protective pair of adult Peregrine Falcons defending their young

Ruppell’s Vultures stacking

Ruppell’s Vulture flying at sunrise

Peregrine Falcon

Egyptian Vulture

(Photos by Laila Bahaa-el-din)

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Tags: egyptian vultures, ololokwe raptors, peregrine, ruppell's vultures

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Category: Raptor Expedition | Date: Feb 16 2009 | By: Laila Bahaa-el-din

Ololokwe is a mountain in northern Kenya. Simon did work there in the early nineties and knows it to be a particularly good spot for raptors, particularly rare ones such as Barbary and Taita Falcons and Egyptian Vultures. We found John Lesepe, our guide, who was to take us up the mountain and he helped us to organise the donkeys to carry up our equipment and food. We also needed a guard to watch the car at the bottom of the mountain and a guard to take us up. We camped at the base of Ololokwe ready to start the climb at first light.

In the morning, our donkeys arrived and we packed them up. I felt really bad about making them do our heavy lifting and tried to compensate by feeding them some carrots. The donkey handlers laughed at me, saying their donkeys didn’t know what a carrot was. I decided to try anyway and sure enough, they had no idea what to make of it and just turned their heads away.

We reached the top to find a Eurasian Sparrow-hawk, a Peregrine and a Booted Eagle all flying within good photographing range. Unfortunately, the cameras were packed on the donkeys. By the time I had the camera off the donkey and ready, all the birds had mysteriously vanished. We walked to the edge of the cliff where we found ourselves a nice spot and sat waiting for the raptors to emerge. It was pretty cloudy and the photo opportunities weren’t great. Good sightings included two Tawny Eagles having a fight right by the cliff, a Peregrine attacking a young Verreaux’s Eagle, an Egyptian Vulture and lots of Ruppell’s Vultures.

Tawny Eagles fighting mid-air

I slept in my sleeping bag on soft straw in a cave and it was quite pleasant. In the morning, we walked over to the other side of the mountain, to see if the light and quantity of raptors were better. We sat on top of the cliff, watching the vultures go about their morning routines. It was very cloudy all day and the best opportunity I got was of Augur Buzzards stooping down the side of the cliff.

Augur Buzzard

Another night in the cave over, we went back to our cliff site from the first day but, again, it was very cloudy and not many birds were around. Just as we turned our backs to leave, a Peregrine shot past at eye level. We went back to our caves and packed up all our stuff onto the donkeys. It took a while getting the camera equipment balanced on the donkey but it was finally done and we were ready to set off when an Egyptian Vulture flew low and came down to drink some water. We couldn’t believe it! Just when everything was packed! All Simon had was the video camera so he managed to get some footage but what we had been waiting for had finally happened and we didn’t have a camera. Gggrrrr! To make it worse, we saw a Mountain Kestrel and a Booted Eagle after that too.

It was a great few days at the top of Ololokwe and we did see plenty of raptors, though not as many as Simon used to see. I’m sure he’ll write his own blog entry of how he found this experience in comparison to his visits almost two decades ago.

Tags: augur buzzard, fighting tawny eagles, ololokwe raptors

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Category: Raptor Expedition | Date: Feb 14 2009 | By: Laila Bahaa-el-din

We got some welding done on the car in a little town outside Samburu called Archer’s Post and camped there for the night. We went to Shaba, another small reserve, first thing in the morning. We drove through the majority of Shaba without seeing much until we reached a kopje which we drove around. On that small area, we saw a Shikra, a Eurasian Sparrow-hawk and a Marsh Harrier.

We were driving past one spot where there happened to be mobile phone coverage when Simon got a phone call. We were next to a small marsh and I stopped the car and waited while Simon chatted. A Eurasian Marsh Harrier came down and caught something which a Tawny quickly came down to pinch. Then a Shikra flew overhead. All the small birds around the water started alarming and we looked up to find a Peregrine flying overhead. It seems we had found the right spot.

Peregrine overhead

We had heard good things about a lodge called Joy’s Camp. It took us a while but we finally found it in a beautiful spot next to a marsh. We stayed for a while and chatted with the manager who told us all the issues in the area. Back to our raptor search.

We were on our way towards the river when I noticed a falcon perched in a tree. Simon saw it too, and we approached it to find that it was a Red-necked Falcon, just what we had been looking for! It was eating a small bird that it had obviously just killed. As we watched, it flew off to a nearby palm and we heard the cries of youngsters. We went nearer to the tree and saw the chicks in the nest, being fed by the adult. Simon was particularly excited as it was his first time seeing Red-necked Falcon chicks on a nest.

Adult Red-necked Falcon with food

It was getting late and we had to rush back to pick up our guards for the night. They took us to our campsite which happened to be right next to the marsh where we had seen all those birds earlier in the day. In the morning, we went back to the Red-necked Falcon nest where we saw the two adults with a kill. The smaller male falcon was having his share of the bird, then plucked it and flew it to the nest for the chicks. We watched for a while, then left the park as we had to get to the base of Mount Ololokwe. We intended to climb the mountain the following day and had to arrange a guide and guards.

Tags: peregrines, red-necked falcons

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