Simon Thomsett

Category: Falcons, stima | Date: Nov 17 2008 | By: simonthomsett

While staying at Hog Ranch a couple of weeks ago, we got a phone call saying that a small falcon had been electrocuted and fallen into someone’s garden on the outskirts of Nairobi. Susanne Goss took it on as she is familiar with caring for raptors, then it went to Zoe Gibbs another ‘carer’ of waifs and strays. It was identified as a Lanner Falcon, which seemed odd to me as it had fallen from a tree nest in the middle of a suburb. Zoe bought it over last week and it was a tiny male with a badly broken left tibia. He had only just left the nest, with all of his flight feathers in the blood. The right leg looked deformed, possibly as a result of keeping its weight on the “good leg.” Zoe took him back to Nairobi to get him X-ray’d the next day. The fracture was in two places but both joints looked fine and there is a good chance of complete recovery of the use of that leg. Stima needs a lot of care as he cannot stand and struggles to keep upright. He must be fed each mouthful and he can make quite a mess! Stima had to be handed over to the Cullen’s who live on the ranch and then Laila and I ended up looking after him for a few days.

Feeding Stima

Stima means electricity, but it is unlikely that this damage was entirely due to hitting an electric fence or by being electrocuted. More likely, he had the fracture in the nest or after he fell to the ground incapable of flight. Like all of his kind he is very intelligent and cute. Lanners look around them and understand who is who and quickly settle down. As a result, Lanners, like a few other falcons, are one of the easiest to get through trauma or illness.

Stima was placed in a sling to get weight off his legs. He looks a bit pathetic but it is a much better solution than lying on broken legs. He was introduced to Tim, the now adult male Lanner. Tim flew in after a night out to find Stima sitting in the early morning sun in his sling. Stima, stunned at the appearance of what he assumes is his father, let out a yell for joy, and kept it up while I placed Tim within arms length. Tim was a bit embarrassed, especially so when Stima lent forward to steal his food. Tim knew the signals, but couldn’t work out the next step required for his unexpected sudden fatherhood, and flew off. He spent the morning ignoring Stima. But now and again he’d fly by to have a look, and little Stima would start yelling again.

As sad as this may sound, Stima is overjoyed and improving fast. He has other problems no doubt. He may have a chest infection as he has a low hum each time he exhales. He kept it up most of the night as he sat in his box next to my head.

He will go into surgery this Tuesday at Dr. Barry Cockar’s clinic. We hope to pin the leg and straighten it out. He will need a lot of intensive care, and Laila and I cannot keep remaining behind our expedition schedule due to new arrivals or accidents. I can now walk a little, and was even allowed to drive the car yesterday.

Stima will stay with the Cullen’s until Zoe gets back in about 10 days. I know they will take good care of him. Meanwhile, we have a busy schedule ahead.

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Category: Raptor Expedition, kwenia, vultures | Date: Nov 11 2008 | By: simonthomsett

Laila wrote about the visit to Kwenia, a temporary lake flanked by massive cliffs, filled with vultures.

It rained heavily during the drive down. But the night was initially wonderful as we sat around the camp fire with Sandy and Sandy, talking of the enormous potential the area had for exclusive high-end tourism. So close to Nairobi and yet unspoiled by electric lights, cell phone towers, tourist lodges, over-development and urban sprawl. But “progress” is on its way and this nationally important asset for Kenya could so easily vanish. Then it rained again, and we retreated to the car. I was very uncomfortable on the way down and could not sit in anything other than an awkward angle in the back of the car. I had to lie down. At 10:30 p.m. I got out to set up the tent in the rain. On crutches and hurting I must have done something that really hurt and I felt violently ill. It seemed like the head of the femur moved and I desperately needed to lie down to straighten it and get the load off. I was helped in to the soaked tent and there breathed a sigh of much needed relief. It had been a long day and I guess I was pushing the leg much too far.

We returned via Magadi, and the next few days we had Gustav and Kina, overlanders we had met in Solio, plus Wesley, a young American, come and visit. We went around the Portland Ranch nearby and our guests were stunned by the amount of wildlife. We went out on a night “game drive” and bumped into a good dozen Spotted Hyena very close to the car. We also saw a tiny Stone Curlew chick follow its nervous mother and push itself under her feathers for warmth.

Stone Curlew

Tim the Lanner flew in and Laila took some of the best pictures I have ever seen of a falcon in a stoop. I had lost a lot of what I had gained over the last week and was now back on two crutches. It isn’t easy flying a falcon on crutches! Laila took a picture of what we first thought was a Hobby, but on zooming in turned out to be a Sooty Falcon. The photo is not good, but shows how useful digital photography can be for identifying rare raptors at a long range.

Sooty Falcon

The next day, I was flying Tim when what might have been an Eleonora’s Falcon came down from the gray rain-soaked clouds and mobbed Tim. Eleonora’s are larger than Hobbies, have less of a well pronounced second moustachial stripe, very little buff or rufous on the legs and always a dark head.

Eleonora’s Falcon

As predicted, whenever it rains, be it months out of season, we get visiting small migrant falcons. They feed on the airborne insects that fly only in rain, or just after it has past.

Despite the accident, we are remaining productive and getting some good observations. We hope to get the car fixed soon, and be on our way visiting Tsavo and other protected areas within the week.

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Category: Crowned Eagles, lammergeyer, mountain buzzard, warthogs | Date: Nov 04 2008 | By: simonthomsett

Few things can be as boring as lying in hospital. Laila stayed with Munir Virani a fellow raptor fanatic, and with Sandy and Sandy, friends of ours at Athi. She managed to get in well before visiting hours. I was lucky. Lucky to not have the water tank fall a few inches closer and lucky that Laila coordinated such a cool-headed rescue and stayed and helped me through the following days. We had only just begun a few tentative excursions to the Aberdares, and were trying to be as productive as we could given that we still cannot leave Kenya because there is still the Lammergeyer (the most valuable of all the birds) left for release. We were testing out the vehicle and getting the hang of the cameras and procedure. We were doing quite well under these circumstances and had already got the best photograph I have seen of a Mountain Buzzard. It wasn’t great, but if we dally weeks to get the perfect shot of each of more than 100 species, we will be on the road for years. We cannot afford this. Laila has to get back and continue her life at the end of the year and time can run out quickly. We cannot let this accident slow us down.

I am known among friends and family as being able to bounce back very quickly after an accident. I have had quite a few. But I am older now, and the body just doesn’t do what it used to, nor recover as fast. But the head is the same and I have no intention of drawing this injury out any longer than it should. Laila is very strict that I should do as the doctor orders. I must now behave and listen because this trip is a joint effort. Laila is as much a part of the expedition as I and has as much to lose. We are partners in this work and I cannot let her and the many others down who have an interest in this expedition.

We went by taxi to the outskirts of Nairobi to stay four nights with David Gulden at Hog Ranch. This small sanctuary of indigenous forest and bush is the home of Peter Beard and shares it border with African Fund for Endangered Wildlife giraffe centre. It is a remnant of Karen Blixen’s old farm, unchanged from the original bush she first found there “under the foot of the Ngong Hills.” We stayed in spacious tents, surrounded by a busy family of Warthogs and a herd of Rothschild’s Giraffe. It looked and felt as though you were in the bush, but for the hum of humanity near its borders.

The days passed slowly with little to do but paint. Laila befriended “Becket” a black Lab, and videoed enough Warthog footage to make a documentary. When we arrived there were six babies, one dragging a back leg but in good spirits. Later that day, there were five. Laila thought to go find it to feed it up and make it strong. We went to go look for it, I on crutches. We found he had died in peace under a bush. His siblings thrived and continued to entertain us by pirouetting around in tight circles and having mock fights. Laila got to scratch a huge fat female warthog, while I filmed.

We saw a mewing Steppe Buzzard. It cries like a thin cat mew, high overhead. Odd that it should do so in its wintering grounds. There were distant vultures framed by the impressive Ngong Hills. We saw and filmed the Little Sparrowhawk, who sat bold and perky in a tree. We were desperate to photograph but the cameras were at home in Athi. A video camera was all we had. High overhead one morning, we heard the Crowned Eagle. Beneath in the thick foliage its cry was taken up by Robin Chats that mimic the call of many birds.

We were sorry to leave when Sandy and Sandy picked us up and took us to their home at Athi but it’s good to be back and we now have the cameras again.

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Category: Raptor Expedition, Vero's | Date: Oct 28 2008 | By: simonthomsett

A couple of days ago, I read my e-mails and my heart sank when I read the first line on screen. “I am sorry to tell you that Vero’s was killed …”

Martin Wheeler took on Vero’s a couple of months ago because I was closing down the raptor facility at Athi River. Vero’s, a Verreaux’s Eagle, was an Abel rescue from a small mountain near me. She had fallen 75 feet down a cliff and I ended up looking after her. Twelve years have gone by, and we built up a special eagle/human bond that few other than eagle handlers will ever understand.

I dreaded the day when we were to part company. I was too quick putting her in her box and racing to the airfield for her to be flown up to Martin who lives on a great escarpment in Samburu district at Il Ngewsi. In a moment she was airborne, carried away by a small plane. I had hoped to see her again, perhaps if things worked out she may even have joined me again, somewhere new.

Vero’s flying to Laila

Martin informed me that she was killed at night by two Samburu “warriors” as she perched in a small tree. She had killed a dik dik previously and had flown to the tree. Martin was in the process of letting her have her freedom as much as possible. The two men may have had a vendetta of some kind against wildlife for they left her body on the road to be found. Despite conservation projects focusing more and more on sharing benefits with local communities, these sorts of incidents seem to be becoming more frequent. It is very hard for me right now to get my head around the reasons why. I am trying not to be too despairing about the situation.

Vero’s flying

I loved Vero’s, as did Martin and all those that met her. She flew to the hand of hundreds, influenced a generation of people in Kenya and visitors from abroad. She was gentle despite her massive size, and harmless. That two brave warriors felt moved to bash her to death puts so much into perspective.

I was not happy that day and Laila knew it. She thought to make me more light hearted by videoing a “Work out video.” It worked. The video shows me struggling to do sit ups, straining to do some awful lower back exercise. Then we thought it would be fine to finish off with some pull-ups. We were filling in the time waiting for Tim to make his appearance.

I have a 1000 litre water (264 U.S. gallons) tank supported by a cradle of metal scaffolding. It makes a good place for pull-ups. I jumped up and for a laugh decided to fake enormous strength by using my feet on the lower scaffold. The result was recorded: The whole thing spun around and collapsed on top of me. It happened in a flash. The weight was terrifying and I thought in that fraction of time that if the crushing force was to continue I would end up in a serious mess.

The metal twisted and crunched into my left thigh. I howled with pain and the shock of the water bursting added to the confusion. Laila ran to lift up the scaffolding off my leg in a burst of strength. I lay under a barbed wire fence looking up at the sky trying to think straight. The pain was worse than a broken bone. Laila ran to the house and got a blanket and phoned for help. Of all the moments to look up into the sky and see a falcon, one appeared overhead catching termites. I was slightly light-headed but composed enough to think it was Tim returning but it turned out to be a hobby.

Laila yelled for Nicholas and he showed up with Puppy. Puppy, who is otherwise totally aloof, was distraught. She stood with her cold nose in my ear, looking very upset. Darkness fell and the rescue team arrived with David Hopcraft, Phil Tilley, Isaiah, Diane and Tim Bannister. Expertly, they strapped my legs together and got me out of my wet clothes. They put me in the back of a 4×4 truck and Isaiah and Laila took me to Nairobi hospital. It was an agonizing two-hour drive down a bumpy road.

I arrived in hospital to be quickly dealt with. Laila knows more about the next couple of hours as I was given pain-killers that made me funny. Munir showed up and I was then taken to the ward around midnight. The next morning, I was taken to “surgery” where they cleaned my open wounds and stitched me up. I have a small fracture in my pelvis that will need to mend on its own. My dislocated hip popped itself back into place.

I can’t wait to get out of my hospital bed and get back outside and continue with our plans, though they might have to be slightly altered.

More posts about Vero’s:

• Goodbye Vero’s
• Vero’s and Puppy
• 4th Nov 2007

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