Simon Thomsett

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: Cataract Operation for Rosy, Crowned Eagles, Rosy and Girl in Naivasha | Date: Oct 18 2008 | By: sheryl bottner

From Sarah Higgins

This has been a week of ups and downs. Rosy had an operation on both of his eyes on Saturday the 11th and now we are back to putting drops in his eyes four times a day. He was a very much quieter bird for the first few days after the operation, which was hardly surprising, but there were definite signs that now he really can see something. Prior to the operation he was always ’scanning’ or ‘reading’ (as I am told it is called) which indicated that he could see nothing, but that has stopped altogether since this latest op. Now he points his beak or left eye right at you when you talk to him. I don’t think that he can see too much yet, but part of that is because of the milky steroids that were injected into his eye.

On the 15th he started calling again and called four times that day and was answered twice by Girl who was perched on the branch within her ‘palace’ that overlooks where Rosy spends his days. BUT the same day that Rosy started calling I could see the dreaded fibrin again, poking its way through Rosy’s newly opened right pupil. My heart dropped down to my boots and I sent of a picture of the eye to Doctor Dan. He too was disappointed but not despondent.

Rosy on October 15

The next day when I went to see Rosy I had my camera slung round my neck. I approached him from the left and as I bent forward to greet him the camera swung forward towards him and he nearly jumped out of his feathers. There is absolutely no doubt that he saw something coming at him although he probably couldn’t make out what it was. Despite this, when I looked into his left eye this too was showing signs of the fibrin beginning to fill up behind the pupil, although not nearly as severely as was happening in the right eye. Yet another photo was sent to Doctor Dan who again was not despondent and assured me that the steroids that he injected into the eye should eventually clear everything up. He said that Rosy’s eyes were reacting exactly like a human baby’s eyes do and that things really should start to look better soon.

Because the news was basically depressing I was reluctant to write up my Rosy Report. But today it looks as if the fibrin is beginning to retreat from his right eye and so things are definitely looking rosier. The big boy still chats to me in his silly little un-eagle-like voice when I spend time with him but that same voice is also regularly raised to its full volume as he claims his territory and makes absolutely sure that no one is going to trespass on HIS patch or try to steal his Girl.

Rosy on October 18

Please keep sending your good thoughts to Rosy as I am sure that it all helps in the healing process and we do so want him to be able to see again and be able to go back to his lonely Girl.

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Category: Cataract Operation for Rosy, Crowned Eagles, Steppe eagles | Date: Oct 15 2008 | By: simonthomsett

Rosy stepped out of the kennel and onto the glove with a vigour he has not shown for months. I walked him about and reassured him in soft tones that all was well. For the last few months during his complete blindness, he had been mellow and calm. He also “read” - a term used when a hooded (blindfolded) raptor scans his head back and forth as if reading a book. This habit is a sure sign that he was blind. Now he stood with his head still and looking hard. Today he was nervous. This is great news, and I was hopelessly emotional for only a short while till Mwanzia came walking down the path.

Picture of Rosy this morning

After breakfast, we thanked Sarah and Mike for being such great hosts, for us and the eagles. We got to Nairobi and dropped in to see Dr. Munir Virani, a colleague now heading the African programme for the Peregrine Fund. We then went together to Ngong Forest to view the Crowned Eagle nest where Virani and a photographer friend hope to build a hide. The nest is remarkably exposed, easy to access, and very close to high human density. We discussed various options to minimise the level of disturbance on this apparently tolerant pair. We also talked of the enormous development projects regarding the rural electrification of Africa and the apparent loss of environmental issues in the haste to get this mandate completed. Just what can be done to insure human development and not compromise wildlife and raptors in particular is an enormous challenge.

Approaching home from Nairobi, we turned off into Portland cement ranch. Immediately there were the large herds of wildlife and we aimed for the Martial Eagle nest. This is an odd site as we saw the adult male and female, large chick on nest as well as a 3-year-old sub-adult that was completely tolerated at the nest.

Driving on, we encountered an over-wintering near-adult Steppe Eagle, and three Tawny Eagles as well as a half dozen White backed Vultures roosting in a few yellow fever trees. It was an opportunity to compare these two similar eagles.

Tawny Eagle

Steppe Eagle

Finally arriving home near sunset, Tim flew in and landed on my back as I ducked down to avoid him. Laila then fed him in the evening light. Poor Tim, he still thinks we are family. Thankfully, he is not stupid and I am sure he would not do this with strangers. I hoped he would leave of his own accord, but as he persists in coming home, another solution may need to be found. We could, for example, release him along with the Bearded Vulture near the Tanzanian border in a beautiful mountainous location.

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Category: Cataract Operation for Rosy, Crowned Eagles, Rosy and Girl in Naivasha | Date: Oct 14 2008 | By: simonthomsett

Rosy stepped out of his dog kennel and onto the glove this morning still groggy from yesterday’s operation. He was a little different from usual in that he was more active in moving his head and scanning the world through open, if bleary, eyes. The eyes themselves were opaque, but that was to be expected given the recent operation and the injections of milky white anti-inflammatory drugs.

Rosy getting his eye drops

He sat on his perch in the early morning sunlight, while I put various eye-drops into each eye. It seemed as though he flickered an eyelid before I touched him. I asked Mwanzia if he could look after him while Laila and I walked to view the lake shore and the incredibly tame herds of zebra and waterbuck. Pied Kingfishers and Great Cormorants offered superb photographic opportunities. The pair of resident Fish Eagles often sit on a flimsy dead tobacco plant overlooking the water and this morning, the male was there allowing us to approach within 50 meters.

We returned for a late breakfast with Sarah and Mike on their verandah accompanied by a menagerie of wild weavers, doves, babblers and finches that busied themselves establishing the pecking order of the day. The ancient pet African Grey Parrot added some pertinent comments to the conversation that could have only meant it understood the gist of what we were saying. I felt a disturbing awareness that I might have been more careful in what I said, lest I offend the bird! I am not a great parrot fan, maybe because I have an uneasy feeling that they know very much more that what you think. Besides, the worst bite I ever had was from a parrot.

After breakfast, we “coped” one of Sarah’s Marsh Owls, who had a slightly overgrown bill. “Coping” simply means trimming the bill or talons of hawks, eagles, falcons and owls. It entails the use of a sharp knife and a file. The idea is to remove the overgrown part and return it to normal shape. The Keratin part of the bill and talons has no nerves or blood supply so it is a painless task. But the owl was very indignant.

Sarah and one of her Marsh Owls

We planned to visit friends Tommie and Annie at Carnelley’s Camp for lunch and then go to Hell’s Gate National Park. But the meal there was so good that we overstayed. Annie took showed us the newly fledged chick of a Fish Eagle, born in a massive tree in their garden. She is looking after one of the ugliest of all things, a baby Hadada Ibis, knocked from its nest at night. Despite its grotesque gargoyle shapelessness it was, of course, adorable.

At Hell’s Gate, we were unable to meet the Warden and the acting deputy. I had worked for some years in Hell’s Gate with students studying Augur Buzzards and Egyptian Vultures, and latterly releasing Bearded Vultures (Lammergeyers). I always had a great affection for Hell’s Gate and its towering cliffs. It is our hope that we can also do a census in the park and its nearby environs in order to continue to promote raptor conservation and awareness.

We returned to check on Rosy. He had not eaten much during the day, but this was not unexpected. He was much more jumpy than he had been since May 2008. As my hand approached his face to put the eye-drops in, he threatened it! I turned my head upside-down and he threatened that, too! Laila stood up and he followed her with his head. He definitely has more vision than at any period in the last five months. We can only pray that this improvement continues, especially as Girl sits confused and lonely in her grand breeding pen. I retired Rosy early to bed where he bounced about with something of his old belligerent manner.

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