Simon Thomsett

Category: Raptor Expedition | Date: Mar 09 2009 | By: simonthomsett

We descended Ngorongoro in thick mist to a small town called Karatu, where I had the brakes fixed. Laila had a fright when a quick baboon leapt through the window and leant on her shoulder to grab some food in the front of the car at the park exit gate. We then descended the rift valley wall to Lake Manyara National Park. The roads were some of the smoothest we have encountered. The journey from one park to the next on this northern circuit is easy and of no distance. The altitude suddenly drops into Baobab woodland and the temperature increased.

Manyara is a gem of a park. It is small compared to many, but it has a large park feel about it nevertheless, perhaps because of its large number of elephants. The fig forests and giant trees are fed by spring waters that seep through the rift valley walls.

We drove towards the lake shore away from this thick forest to see a large female Crowned Eagle sitting low down in a thicket. We stopped and watched. Within the thicket was a number of vervet monkeys alarming. Laila started to take pictures, in the hope that the eagle would launch an attack and take a monkey. In this location the hunt would have to be in the open … a very rare event. Unfortunately she became nervous of the situation and flew to a distant perch. She was an unusual type. My first guess at looking at her legs, chest and underwing was that she was 3 years old. But her back and flight feathers proved her to be only about 1 to 1.5 years old. First year Crowned Eagles can be very variable and this is not widely known.

Young Crowned Eagle

It is a shameful admission to admit that our eyes sought not only raptors in the trees, but big cats. Manyara is famous for its tree-climbing lions. The Tsetse flies drive them into the trees apparently. The woodland looked perfect for leopards with its low horizontal branches. We drove south to the hot springs, which have immediately behind them a series of cliffs. On these cliffs are some half dozen Rüppell’s Vulture nests. Not many, but enough to keep an eye upon in case anything changes. Three Lanner Falcons flew out of one of the cliffs. It looked like there would be many more falcons in this ridge.

The following day we were rewarded with lions dangling out of a tree above our heads. Four lionesses lay lazy and fat from a recent meal with hardly the energy to open their eyes. Luckily for us, one urinated after we moved away from being directly below her. A bunch of arrogant baboons strode towards us and we half feared a repeat of the attack experienced yesterday morning. One huge male threw an eye at us, then above our heads … saw a large group of lions and booted it at top speed in the opposite direction!

Tree-climbing lions

We spotted an Ovampo Sparrowhawk and Laila took some pictures of it framed in the branches. Lake Manyara National Park proved to have an enormous potential for raptors.

Ovampo Sparrowhawk

(Photos by Laila Bahaa-el-din)

Tags: baboons, lake manyara, lions in trees

4 responses so far

Category: Raptor Expedition | Date: Mar 08 2009 | By: simonthomsett

When we exited Naabai Hill Gate in Serengeti we continued to drive through the park across vast flat short grass plains. The Ndutu Plains are one of the most notorious grazing lands gaining minerals from the rare carbonate volcanic ash soils spewed from nearby Ol Donyo Lengai. They harboured tens of thousands of Thomson’s Gazelles that shimmered seemingly without legs in the mirages. Among them were a large density of Montagu’s Harriers and a few Lesser Kestrels. We also saw vultures dropping onto distant kills or carcasses. In this open plain we stopped for lunch and I inspected the damage to the vehicle. The poor old (27 years) Range Rover had suffered badly on one of the worst roads it has experienced across the Serengeti. But the damage would hold until we got to Arusha.

When we proceeded from this location in Ndutu towards Ngorongoro itself there was a swift change in wildlife and raptor density. Our raptor count suddenly dropped, as did the density of wildlife. The land looked overgrazed and the human density, while sparse, had made an all too obvious negative impact on the land. However this did not distract from the beauty of the mountains and gorges. The famous Olduvai Gorge slowly inched passed us in the distance as the high mountain tops of Ngorongoro rose daunting and clothed in forests before us. When we ascended wildlife numbers increased, but as we reached the rim of the crater the landscape turned into a community of houses and infrastructure, that was confusing to me given that we were in a conservation area. We were to camp at Simba A camp site. The light was dramatic, with dark thunder clouds sweeping across the crater towards us, and the bright setting sun behind us. This light framed a brief sighting of Eurasian Hobbies that dashed after flying ant alates. We drove out to follow them and stopped by a large police station. The chances of seeing wildlife here seemed slim, but to our surprise our eyes focused on a huge lone male elephant less than 50 meters from a busy main road. The forest quality from this point on was clearly getting higher and denser, but we had to return because of rain and darkness.

Eurasian Hobby

The crater looked as picturesque and magnificent as I expected. Far beneath us I could make out the soda lakes, the forest edges and the open plains. Sadly our budget could not afford the fee required to descend into the crater.

My impressions of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, and that of Serengeti National Park were confused. From a personal experience point of view and the wildlife experience, the park was truly amazing. It may not have been very tourist friendly, but it was certainly prioritizing the wildlife which exceeding anything I had experienced in Kenya. The contrast with the conservation area was stark. It is too easy to conclude from this one trip that differing management systems are the reason.

That night while I cooked a meal in the busy tourist filled camp site, the lone male elephant quietly walked up behind me and gave me a fright. The next day we drove to Manyara.

Tags: eurasian hobby, ngorongoro crater, olduvai gorge

No responses yet

Category: Raptor Expedition | Date: Mar 04 2009 | By: Laila Bahaa-el-din

After all the delays to the expedition, we were dreading the border crossing from Kenya into Tanzania, sure that something was going to go wrong to stop us finally progressing. But, after two hours of running around sorting paperwork for the car and getting our passports stamped, we were through. It felt like a champagne moment. We drove 160km through beautiful landscape covered in kopjes (rocky outcrops), counting the raptors as we went. Perfect habitat for raptors (apart from the amount of people around). We saw two Verreaux’s Eagles over one of these kopjes. We camped outside the Serengeti that night and entered the park the next morning.

We entered through a gate in the west of the park, which lets you into the western corridor, a narrower part of the park which leads you towards the main park area. It’s a beautiful area and we did see plenty of resident plains game such as impala. But the tsetse flies were overwhelming. Every time we stopped the car to scan for raptors or take a photo, we were badly bitten by countless tsetse flies. We felt quite embarrassed about our mad flapping to get rid of the flies as we watched tourists drive by looking calm and unbothered.

Our main goal for the Serengeti was to see the vultures following the wildebeest migration. We had to find the wildebeests first. We had been told they were in the south. The Serengeti is such a large park that we couldn’t make it on that first day.

On the second day, we got distracted by lions on a kill. One lioness guarded the kill from vultures as the rest of the pride lay in the shade of some bushes. It was getting hotter though, and she soon started to move towards the shade. The vultures jumped towards the carcass the second her back was turned and within 30 seconds, there was a whole group of them on the dead wildebeest. The lioness turned to look behind her and saw the scavenging birds eating her meal, and she ran back to the carcass, chasing the vultures away. She guarded a little longer until again was tempted towards the shade. And again she had to run back to chase off the vultures. This performance was repeated several times until at last she gave up for good and vultures and Tawny Eagles flew in for the feast.

Lioness chasing off vultures

The next day, our goal was to reach the large herds of wildebeest early. We got distracted again looking around some kopjes and soon were going in the wrong direction. Simon was enjoying the kopjes and we weren’t burdened with large numbers of tourists, so we kept going. We came across a black rhino, which took fright and ran off. Next came hippos, looking edgy out of the water. I noticed a Peregrine flying over a kopje. This route was proving lucky for us and we kept going, despite an ever-more difficult road (muddy and slippery from the rain).

We finally came across large numbers of wildebeest and there were lots of fresh calves with them. Here we found lots of vultures as well. I noticed a lone calf, looking lost. I followed his line of vision and saw that he was staring at a group of vultures devouring an adult wildebeest. It must have been his Mum. I usually quite enjoy watching vultures go about their cleaning-up duties, but this time it made me feel quite sad, seeing that poor little calf watch his Mum get polished off. I hope it found another female willing to look after it, perhaps having lost her own calf.

Pleased with finally having found the wildebeest, we turned back. The drive back was just as eventful, with a full-grown male lion sleeping in a tree and large numbers of Lesser Kestrels catching bugs in the rain.

Lesser Kestrel

Tags: lions sleeping in trees, serengeti safari

3 responses so far

Category: Conservancies, Raptor Expedition, vultures | Date: Mar 02 2009 | By: Laila Bahaa-el-din

We were finally ready to go! The expedition launched from Nairobi on February 15 and there was no going back (we hoped). We started with a few more days in the Mara to see if we could catch any vultures. Again, we found no dead animals around, making it impossible to try to catch the vultures. We resorted to following hungry-looking lions hunting. We found three prides, all in hunting mode, but never witnessed a kill. We had given up hope, when on our final morning, on our way towards the exit of the Mara (keen to move on to the Serengeti), we spotted five lions. We just had to go and see.

So we got to the spot and watched as the lions licked at the remains of a topi. A few metres away, 10 jackals were fighting over their own small piece of the kill. And on the sidelines, 12 bloodied hyenas lay watching, looking distinctly peeved. Simon concluded that the hyenas must have made the kill and been pushed off by the lions who now lazed about looking fully fed. One thing was for sure, there was nothing left for vultures to come down to.

Lion with topi head

Jackals

Despite not having caught any vultures on this trip or the previous one a month ago, we learned some interesting things about their ecology and the whole Mara-Serengeti ecosystem. It was already known that the vultures were few in the Mara during this time of year while the wildebeests give birth to their calves in the Serengeti. And it’s not surprising! When the wildebeest migration is in the Mara, there are millions of animals and among them, old and sick ones which die and become food for the vultures. The lions, leopards and cheetahs also have a larger prey-base and kill much more often, leaving remains for the scavengers such as vultures. But during this quiet time of year, predators hunt much less frequently, and when they do, they are hungry and don’t leave anything spare. No wonder there were no vultures around!

We looked forward to getting to the Serengeti to see what the vulture situation was down there.

Digg deep! Help us share this story!

Tags: jackals in the mara, lion eating a topi, mara conservancy

No responses yet