Simon Thomsett

Category: Raptor Expedition | Date: Sep 07 2009 | By: simonthomsett

by Simon Thomsett (Photos by Laila)

We were invited to spend three nights at a beautiful lodge called Kichwa Tembo in exchange for giving the guides a presentation about birds of prey. We were met by the manager, Niall Anderson, who asked if two tents at Bateleur Camp was fine for us. I assumed this to be the driver’s accommodation, somewhere removed from the main lodge and was pleased with that. But no! We were ushered into perhaps the most luxurious tents and exclusive lodge imaginable in the whole Masai Mara! Crumbs I thought, I had better have a wash, shave and give a good presentation!

With bellies full of delicious food, we spent some of our time searching the forest around Kichwa looking for goshawks. This small patch of forest has survived the damaging effect of millions of wild and domestic ungulates and the ravages of elephants, and as a result is amazingly rich in bird life and monkeys. It has both the Blue and Copper-tailed monkeys for example. At Niall’s advice, we took two trips to the escarpment behind the lodge. We sat by Olkurruk Lodge which has unquestionably the finest view of the Mara but burned-down some years ago and since been abandoned. Perched high on a medium sized cliff, we waited for soaring raptors.

View from the escarpment of a Bateleur soaring

We went to Dupoto, a 500 km2 forest currently run by a small and struggling Maasai community. If conservation were done properly, some of the focus on the Mara would be diverted to this neglected forest. True, it does not have the abundance of wildlife and vistas, but it surely holds more species and it is highly threatened. We met our guide, William Naliki, who explained the need for immediate action to conserve this forest. We entered the forest and within a few hundred meters we saw a Crowned Eagle’s nest with an incubating female. I left to explore with the guides, leaving Laila with one scout to take pictures of the eagle.

Crowned Eagle at nest

In the short time we spent there talking quietly in the cool forest with the community guides and chairman, I was struck by the repeated call made by local communities to conserve their land and the near impossibility of bringing those organisations devoted to conservation together. There are enormous organisations with resources dedicated to environmental conservation, forest protection, improving livelihoods and wildlife conservation. There are so many places that must be helped now, before it is too late. But the process required to marry those who can help and those in need is agonizingly long. Here is one relatively easy location that would add so much to the nation’s conservation assets and also benefit its people.

Laila put together a presentation using many of her photographs. I was to give the talk and she made me promise to keep the talk to 45 minutes. But incapable of being brief, I gave a 2-hour long monologue to the guides on our last night at the lodge. No one went to sleep and there was half an hour of questions! We left Bateleur Camp to return to our camping lifestyle.

Tags: conserving smaller forests, kichwa tembo, presentation on raptors