Simon Thomsett

Category: Falcons, cheetah, greater spotted eagle, vultures | Date: Nov 18 2008 | By: Laila Bahaa-el-din

Kina and Gustav, the Swedish overlander couple, stayed with us again at Simon’s house. They intended to stay one night before moving on to the coast. We flew Tim the Lanner in the morning and he is fitter than ever before and his acrobatics are spectacular. He still has his quirky attitude and loves to land on people’s heads. There are a couple of wild Tawny Eagles that have started perching nearby, planning to steal scraps from Tim. As Tim showed off, we noticed a large number of vultures descending fast. We didn’t want to leave Stima, the new young Lanner Falcon, alone at the house as a stray cat roams the area. So we put him in the car between our Swedish friends and off we went to find the kill.

On our way, friends from the ranch, Gray Cullen and Suze, came to check on Stima. They had cameras and decided to join us, too. We got to the spot to find two dead calves covered in vultures and eagles. The vultures took flight and I photographed them as they soared above the car. Then Simon asked me to quickly divert my attention to an eagle that was sitting in a tree just next to the dead calf. I took a couple of photos and we got closer. Simon got very excited and demanded I take as many photographs as possible. He said he thought it was a Greater Spotted Eagle. He only sees them come through once every two-to-three years so it really was special. It cooperated by letting us get quite close and just flying between nearby trees.

Greater Spotted Eagle

Suze and Gray invited us all to lunch and we had a feast. They had bought a football for Tuli, a captive cheetah that lives on the ranch, and were intending to bring it to her that afternoon so we all went along. We all piled into Gray’s car and were driving along when Simon said excitedly “cheetah!” A little further down the road, there she was, beautiful. We stopped the car and spent the following half-hour quietly watching as she stalked impalas and an oryx through the bush. She didn’t catch anything and disappeared into the trees so we continued on our way to see Tuli.

Wild Cheetah facing an Oryx

We arrived to find Tuli lying by the pool. She stood up as we approached and gave Gray an intense look that made him back off a bit. Suze drew Tuli’s attention away from Gray by throwing the ball which she ran after, pounced on, and held it in a lock with her teeth sunk in. She held that pose for at least five minutes, wanting to make sure the ball was dead. We quickly realised that there would be no game unless we got the ball from her but we were all a little nervous to try and take it. I was one of the only people wearing proper shoes and trousers, so I went forward to claim the ball. As I got close, she turned and growled at me, making me jump back. I approached again and managed to slowly draw the ball away with my foot. The game was on! I kicked it into the distance and off she went and everyone joined in.

Football with Tuli

After our long and exciting day, we all crashed out early. I think Gustav and Kina are glad they spent the extra day here and we’re grateful for the amazing luck they brought us.

(For copyright reasons, we can’t post the pictures on the blog that we may want to publish at a later stage.)

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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: Falcons, Raptor Expedition, vultures | Date: Oct 08 2008 | By: simonthomsett

On the night of the 7th, Laila and I took a night game drive around Portland Cement, a neighbouring property. It is a 15,000 acre mining area with livestock ranching and is adjacent to where I live on Swara Plains Conservancy. The amount of wildlife there is incredible. Thousands of plains game such as wildebeest, zebra, Thomson’s and Grant Gazelles occur here in greater abundance than they do in most of our national parks, and perhaps only bettered during the high season in the Mara Reserve.

It remains entirely neglected by all but a few people. It has no conservation status despite its national importance and has vast potential for large wildlife tourism on which it could survive in perpetuity.

Within the first few minutes, armed with a strong spotlight (and still no headlights on the car), we saw an aardvark, busy digging for ants. He (or she) then did a strange thing and walked straight towards the car seemingly happy that its path was being lit before it by the spotlight. It then came within three meters, caught our sent, and bolted off in a hurry! I have never seen an aardvark this close before in my life, nor its strange behaviour.

Bold aardvark

I few hundred yards down the road we came to the object of our night drive, namely a sad event in which two wildebeest had fallen down an exploratory mine shaft left uncovered. We had failed to pull them out earlier fearing that hyenas would fall into the same trap. While doing so, Tim the Lanner came and sat on a tree in the sunset to see what we were up to before flying back home for the night.

Tim at sunset

We hoped the smell of the dead wildebeest would bring in some of the night wildlife that would allow us to test our new camera equipment. We messed up our only opportunity as a young hyena sat low in the grass very close to the car.

The next morning, we went around the ranch to double check that no hyena had tumbled into the shaft. None had, but we noticed two Tawny Eagles across the plains and on arriving there saw butchered meat hanging in the trees. This was clearly wildlife meat poaching, a matter that required immediate resolution as gangs of poachers can work quickly and unnoticed with devastating effect.

Poached meat

We headed off to see the Manager to talk of poaching, commercial illegal wood cutting and worsening security issues. This surge in illegal activity may be due to rumours that land use policy is changing. This would allow rapid encroachment and habitat destruction.

Just a few hundred metres from where we stood talking, vultures descended to a carcass. When we approached the scene, it turned out to be a freshly slaughtered wildebeest, poached and butchered that night.

We went also to view an active Martial Eagle nest, with a sub-adult male and adult female in attendance. A large chick was in the nest, a rare successful breeding attempt so far, for these enormous eagles that fair poorly in modern Kenya.

During the space of one morning before breakfast, we saw thousands of animals, photographed some eagles and saw first hand some of the major concerns facing wildlife. What is clear is that great places with immeasurable value can be under-appreciated. Within this vast commercial cement company, there are those that sincerely wish the land be used to maximize income and still keep its stunning natural wildlife and habitat. It can be done. It needs support from both government, non-government, private owners and shareholders.

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Category: Falcons, Raptor Expedition | Date: Oct 06 2008 | By: Laila Bahaa-el-din

Simon arrived in Shannon, Ireland last Tuesday. The main purpose of his visit was to help transport all the equipment back to Kenya as no airline would allow us to carry it on. He took advantage of this trip to see a little of Clare, a county in the Republic of Ireland. A large area of east Clare was recently put under protection as the Hen Harrier breeds there. We spent a morning looking for it, but it wasn’t to be. We also visited the cliffs of Moher, a spectacular site on the western coast. We hoped to see some Peregrine Falcons but they had just moved inland the week before. The wind, however, was enough to impress us and I had to sit on the ground to avoid blowing away. Simon laughed and took pictures.

Simon at Cliffs of Moher

After baggage hassle and flight delays, we finally made it back to Nairobi early yesterday morning. Despite having been sleep-deprived for a couple of days and having a bad case of tonsillitis, I had a great first day back in this stunning country. As we drove to where Simon’s empty house currently lies, we saw huge amounts of wildlife and, most exciting for us, a secretary bird too busy eating a hare to care that we were so close.

Secretary bird eating a hare

I’ll admit much of the day was spent in and out of sleep on the floor of Simon’s house. The day finished off nicely as Tim the Lanner falcon flew in after a day off gallivanting. Tim was the first bird I flew when I volunteered with Simon last year. It was great to have him back on my fist. He spends his whole days out on his own now and where he goes is a mystery. But he returns at night and Simon keeps him at the foot of his bed to make sure he is not eaten by the genet cats that live in his roof.

Tim and Laila

Many of Africa’s raptor species occur in Kenya so we will be spending quite some time moving around here. We hope to visit Rosy and Girl, the Crowned Eagles, in Naivasha this weekend and get some footage of them. (Simon invested in a duty-free video camera on the way here). We also have a Lammergeyer (Bearded Vulture) to release in a fabulous location. That has had to be put off by a couple of weeks but we will write about all these exciting things as they happen.

Thanks to all the people that have sent very encouraging e-mails and Facebook messages. I don’t have time to respond to all but I really appreciate it and hope everyone enjoys the blog. Please join our African Raptor Expedition Facebook Group.

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