Simon Thomsett

Category: Eagle | Date: Jul 30 2009 | By: sheryl bottner

Guest post from Sarah Higgins of The Little Owl Sanctuary

Yesterday, July 25, a poor broken Fish Eagle was brought in. It had been found the previous evening trying desperately to fly and getting nowhere, so it was picked up, put in a cardboard box and brought round to me the following morning.

I checked it over and found a clean break up near the right shoulder but sadly it was a fairly old break and the three inches of exposed bone had the look of an old dog’s bone that had been buried for a week! The bird was underweight and desperately thirsty and had just about given up, although he was feisty enough when anyone approached him. I put him in a small compound and went to get some tape to immobilise the broken wing so that he didn’t keep tripping over it, and by the time I got back he was lying on the ground looking as if he really had had enough. In fact I wondered at that moment if he would make it, but as soon as I approached he threw himself on his back and threatened me with his talons (two of which are missing)!

I taped his bad wing to his body and showed him where the water was by splashing in the bowl. Once he had taken his eyes off my face long enough to glance at the source of the sound he fixed his gaze on the bowl. I quietly withdrew and left him to it and as soon as I shut the door he lolloped over to the bowl and drank and drank. Poor fellow, he must have been desperate.

New Fish Eagle at Little Owl Sanctuary

I rang the Vet who told me to bring him in, so I popped him into a large cardboard box and set off. It is a hundred mile drive to get to the Vet but, for someone as desperate as this poor bird, it was worth the journey. The Vet, a delightfully calm and confidence-inspiring man, checked the bird over and weighed him – he was just 2 kg (a healthy male bird should be 2.5 kgs and a female up to a kilo more!). Sadly, having seen the obvious age of the injury and subsequent lack of blood supply to the bone, it was decided that the only thing to do was to remove the wing.

I brought the bird back home after the operation and by late evening he was awake and thirsty again. The Vet had suggested that I should only give him water with glucose for that evening, which he gulped down. He spent the night in the bathroom where he was warm and safe and I could keep an eye on him. He produced a couple of ‘poops’ in the night so at least that side of things was still working well which is always good news.

This morning we tried him on a small fish which he ate greedily. He had another for lunch and another two for supper. He is still rather miserable and unsure of all the things that are happening to him and around him, but at least he has stopped looking fierce and putting his one good wing out at me every time I approach and is now allowing me to come close and talk to him.

I am referring to him as a ‘he’ as I am really hoping that he is but am not entirely sure yet. Bogoria, our resident mono-winged lady Fish Eagle, would be delighted to have a male companion all of her own!

Tags: little owl sanctuary, new fish eagle at little owl, sarah higgins

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Category: Rehabilitation | Date: Jul 28 2009 | By: sheryl bottner

Here’s another great guest post from Sarah Higgins!

In April, on the shore of Lake Elmenteita, a young pelican waddled up to a weekend cottage and begged for food from the couple staying there. As you can imagine they were somewhat startled by this but they rushed to the fridge and dug out some tilapia fillets, which the little fellow gulped down greedily. They then herded him back to the lake shore. Next morning he was back again so they gave him some nice smoked salmon and herded him back to the lake but, as they turned to go back, so did the pelican! They couldn’t get rid of him and had to assume that something had happened to his parents and that he was otherwise starving to death. As they were only there for the long weekend they didn’t quite know what to do about the bird as they couldn’t exactly take him back to Nairobi. So they rang a friend who suggested that they should bring him to me!

‘Waddlesworth,’ as he became known, arrived in the back seat of a car all wrapped up in a kikoy, looking very miserable, underweight and covered in lice. We put him in a nice warm compound with a bucket of water and I raided a neighbour’s deep freeze for some fish for that day and sent out to the local fish market for a regular supply of fresh fish. We checked him over and he seemed to be unharmed although he did seem to carry his left wing closer to his body than the other one, but there was no sign of any injury. I did notice that he was sort of ‘crackly’ as if he had bubble-wrap under his skin but not knowing anything about pelicans I didn’t take much notice and assumed that is what a pelican should feel like.

Waddles in May, 2009

Waddlesworth soon got the hang of being hand-fed and I became ‘Mummy.’ As soon as he saw me with the white ‘fish’ pot he would rush up, bumping into me, flapping his wings, making his baby ‘feed-me’ noises and biting excitedly (but gently) at my legs, his own wings, bushes, anything, in a food ‘frenzy’ - which is exactly how a baby pelican should behave! I have not had any experience rearing a baby pelican and so out came the books. Waddlesworth did exactly what a wild pelican should do and at exactly the right time he started practicing his wing flaps. From then on we allowed him the run of the garden with its two acres of sloping lawn that has a ‘haha’ at the bottom and then acres of wildlife-filled vlei between us and the edge of our rapidly receding lake (we are in a drought situation at present), so he has plenty of room for a long takeoff and safe landing. He quickly settled into a routine: Mornings – bullying the dogs and playing in the bird bath! Afternoons - sleeping off his busy morning.

Waddles and Radar

When he was old enough he put himself on a ‘flight diet’ to loose sufficient weight to be able to take off and then, a few days later, off he went on his maiden flight. He tried a steep turn but didn’t quite make it home and ended up in my neighbour’s hedge, being eyed up by their huge dogs. I galloped round, rescued him from the hedge and carried him home. As soon as I put him down he stomped off to his favourite snooze spot and slept for the rest of the day. Next day he set off again and again miscalculated and ended up in the neighbour’s garden. So I nipped round next door and herded him back home and once more he slept away the rest of the day. After that he seemed to give up all idea of flight and went back to his dog bullying and mucking about in the bird bath (I still haven’t been able to persuade him to float about on the pond, which doesn’t auger well for life on his own!). I had hoped that in the three weeks between his first flight and our intended overseas trip he would have become a good pilot and left home, but no such luck. After much discussion we decided that Waddles should remain in the walled garden beside the house whilst we were away so that he couldn’t get himself into trouble.

On our return we found him in good form but he had now transferred his affections to Sammy, who had taken over feeding duty, and didn’t recognise me any more (I confess to feeling just a tad miffed that he could be so fickle!). We had decided that we should tag Waddlesworth before he went off on his next adventure so when Simon suddenly appeared out of the blue he was asked to do the deed. Waddles now wears a smart yellow (number 56) wing tag. Whilst tagging him, Simon remarked on the odd bubble-wrap feel of the bird but, like me, was not sure if this was normal, but suspected that it might not be. So now I am trying to find someone who knows something about pelicans who might be able to tell us. The crackly ‘bubble-wrap’ is all over his body, even his wings! Can anyone shed some light on this?

Waddlesworth, July 2009

Tags: navaisha, sarah higgins, waddlesworth

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Category: Cataract Operation for Rosy | Date: Jul 27 2009 | By: sheryl bottner

Guest post by Sarah Higgins, who’s taking care of Rosy and Girl and many others. More to come!

There has not been an update on Rosy for a while as there was nothing new to report. Rosy’s sight still leaves a lot to be desired. Dr. Dan came to see him and measured his eyes in January and was able to report that the lenses are nearly perfect and that if everything were OK he should be able to see normally. But, and this is the big ‘but,’ although the fibrin has receded from his right eye he still can’t really see anything out of that eye. He can distinguish light and dark and some movement but will still try to fly through the wall if disturbed. It is assumed that there must have been some damage to the retina in that eye. The left eye was, at that time, filled yet again with the dreaded fibrin and there was discussion as to whether to operate for a third time. We all eventually agreed that we would not rush into this and would wait and see what happens.

Rosy in July, 2009

Rosy’s Girl

Six months later it appears that the fibrin is beginning to recede. There is still a fair amount of it but it is definitely less and just perhaps Rosy can see a little round the outside of it. I’m excited about this and am now full of hope again, although I realise that whatever happens it will not happen instantly. Please keep sending your good thoughts to Rosy, he needs all the help he can get.

Tags: girl and rosy at navaisha, rosy's eyes

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Category: Raptor Expedition | Date: Jul 15 2009 | By: Laila Bahaa-el-din

A guest post by Rob Davies!

It was my favourite thing to do … couple of days in Cape Town, getting back into Africa mode, then that amazing flight into the dry, seeing the vegetation recede and the land redden as one approached the heart of the Kalahari. The sky was gold and the swifts were milling about as I stepped off the little plane in Upington. I spent an hour scoping out the hire cars, watching the swifts and just generally enjoying being back in Africa while I waited.

Life definitely keeps you young in Africa – Simon had not changed an iota since I had seen him last in Kenya 10 years before. Then I had been doing an overland trip in an old Land Cruiser with a friend of mine who studied primates, we had driven up from South Africa to Uganda to see the Mountain Gorillas. So much of this blog of Simon and Laila’s reminds me of that amazing trip – the rains, the vehicle hassles, the challenges but also the wonderful rewards. I was very lucky that Simon and Laila invited me to join them for part of their adventure.

Simon and I first met in Nairobi in 1985. I was very impressed with his knowledge of African raptors and it was great to see his collection of raptors, all very well looked after. I remember driving out of town in his old Land Rover to camp under some cliffs where Lanner Falcons were hawking bats. The bush vehicle that he and Laila picked me up in in Upington could have been the same beast – it had put on a bit of weight and its skin had wrinkled like some tough old rhino hide. I asked him whether he had had it vulcanised but he said no, it was the paint job. This was a seriously bush vehicle, full of tools and customisations and well, stuff. I felt very lacking in ranger stripes in my shiny silver “Mr. Bean” hire car as we drove up to the Kalahari park the next day.

We stopped at one point in the heat to give the vehicles some water and as I looked around I could see golden grass everywhere – we found out later that the Kalahari had received more rain than ever before in the month of February. I was looking for big finch flocks but instead we saw growing numbers of the tiny Namaqua Doves as we approached the park and this set the scene for the amazing photos we came back with - of Lanner Falcons hunting them at the water holes.

The park was fully booked for the next two days so we stayed with my friend Prof Anne Rasa who is famous for her work on mongooses. She owns a beautiful farm just outside the park gates where she takes visitors on walks through the red dunes. Laila has already told you about the little baby meerkat and what a great raptor spotter he was – 25 million years of evolution can’t be wrong! That first evening was Anne’s birthday and we had dinner with other friends including Dr. Gus Mills who is an expert on African carnivores and is running the cheetah research work in the park. I was a bit alarmed when Gus said he hadn’t seen many raptors lately – I had been bigging up this place as the Nirvana for the raptor road trip and had been going on about the Kalahari to Simon for yonks. But Gus as usual was pulling our legs …

Later that evening Laila showed me the photographs she had taken of the raptors and other wildlife along the way. I was completely blown away by the quality and sheer quantity of beautiful images that she has captured. And this is less than half way through their journey! I realised what an amazing project this is and what a brilliant partnership these two make – I don’t think there are many people around who know African raptors as Simon does, and this combined with Laila’s skills with the camera – well watch this space …

Simon and Laila’s trip interested me because this is the first trans Africa raptor road count that I have heard of. It has been great to see this blog, and all the raptor e-mails bouncing around the continent and the world on the new African Raptor list-server. Africa is the only huge continent which straddles both hemispheres of the globe but all of a sudden it seems a bit smaller and more connected. Africa hangs on to the richest diversity of birds of prey against huge pressures from human population growth. We desperately need to take a trans-boundary approach if we are to safeguard these precious birds and their beautiful natural habitats. In addition to the books they are doing, this epic trip of Simon and Laila’s will develop the road count methods as well as generate valuable data for a continent wide database of African birds of prey.

I am glad to say the Kalahari did deliver the raptors in the end as you have seen from some of Laila’s beautiful photographs. I think it has been the highest densities of raptors that Simon and Laila have recorded so far on their trip. We all came away from those 10 days with amazing records and photographs of what we saw, but the best of it was the fun and adventure with Simon and Laila and my cousin Col.

Thanks guys, this adventure of yours is epic, and it was great to navigate some dunes with you in my “Mr. Bean” car!

Rob Davies

Tags: Kalahari, rob davies joins expedition

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