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.)

Share This

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.

Share This

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.

Share This

Sandy and Sandy have been endlessly kind to us and have been putting us up in their home. Simon has been progressing really fast and we are almost ready to take on our expedition. Simon’s bad hip is the one he needs for the clutch so I will have to pass my driving test (which embarrassingly I have not yet done) so I can do the driving.

Simon was feeling so well two days ago that with the two Sandys, we decided to go on a camping trip to a cliff site called Kwenia. We made the decision that morning and within a couple of hours were ready with the car packed. We didn’t get too far before the car starting giving us trouble and we had to turn back. That didn’t hold us back for long and we tried again the following day, on Obama Day (Kenya declared a national holiday in honour of Obama winning the American presidency).

It isn’t a pleasant road for the most part, but once we left the main road, we started to see Dikdiks and Kudus. The rain arrived, bringing in the termites which in turn attracted the Hobbies. The scenery got more and more beautiful until we arrived along a huge expanse of cliff faces on one side, mountains on the other and an empty temporary lake in between them, full of golden grass. Sandy and Sandy wowed and we all sat quietly contemplating the beauty of the place. Simon has been talking about Kwenia for a long time and I now understand why. We arrived as night fell, so we started a fire and discussed potential ways in which the place could be protected.

The rain returned and sent us running to the car where we all dozed until the braver of us got out and set up tents. I continued to sleep in the nice dry car. Morning brought light that allowed us to look onto the cliffs and see the real importance of the area: a colony of nesting Rüppell’s Vultures, the largest known in Southern Kenya (at last count, it had more than 200 individuals). We ate breakfast with binoculars glued to our faces as we tried to count them, then watched as they set off to whatever distant locations they may go to. Still so much is unknown about their daily routine but they do travel very large distances. We also had the pleasure of seeing Rock Kestrels and Egyptian Vultures on the cliffs.

Rüppell’s Vultures at Kwenia (How many can you see?)

We set off and took a little detour to Lake Magadi to see the Lesser Flamingos. Simon and I hoped to see a Fish Eagle swoop down on a Flamingo but it wasn’t to be. We did, however, see what Simon believes to be an Imperial Eagle drinking from a puddle. If it was the Imperial, then it is quite a treat as they are extremely rare migrants from Europe. The scenery is beautiful around that area and we all returned pleased from a great little trip. We really do hope that Kwenia’s importance will soon be realised and that it will be conserved.

Gerenuk in Magadi

Lake Magadi

Share This

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.

Share This

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

Share This

I instructed Simon to do some pull-ups at which point we walked over to his water tank which is supported on a large metal frame. He pulled himself up and turned to make sure I was filming as he started his “pull-ups” (he was actually pulling himself up with his feet). Within a split-second, the frame collapsed, coming down on Simon and landing the full 1000 litre tank down on him (264 U.S. gallons). I yelled as I came forward to pull the frame off of him.

Simon lay on the ground moaning in pain, sure his leg, or hip, or both, was broken. The evening was setting in and it was getting cold. Simon was unable to move as he lay shivering in the water and mud. He looked as if he might pass out from the pain. I called for the help and ran for the blankets to keep him warm, treated his open wound with antiseptic and kept talking to him to keep him awake. The first few moments were scary as he lay there under the barbed-wire fence. Scarier still, he started to become a little delirious, looking up at the sky for raptors and talking in a softer voice than I had ever heard from him “look at the hobby catching insects.”

Help finally arrived and people got straight to work moving him as he was laying on his bad hip. Diane Bannister, a nurse who lives on the ranch, arrived and was quick to sort us all out. We got Simon out of his wet clothes and he started to be more alert, even joking as we moved him. Diane strapped his legs and a joint effort got him into the back of the car. Unfortunately for Simon, he was put on his bad hip and every bump on the two hour drive to Nairobi Hospital was hell.

We arrived at the hospital and Simon was seen straight away. As I filled out the endless paperwork, he went for x-rays and it was established that his hip was dislocated and that there may be a small fracture on the pelvis. Nothing required emergency surgery and he was given painkillers. Munir showed up with food which was a God-send and, nearing midnight, we took off back to his house where he and his wife kindly put me up for the night.

Two days on, and Simon is still in hospital but in good spirits apart from being terribly bored. He is sitting next to me writing his version of events. We are both disappointed that this is going to hold the expedition back but so grateful that it was not worse.

Share This

We were both filthy dirty when we arrived in Nairobi and dumped the car on Bali, my old friend and increasingly angry mechanic. He raised his eyebrows and temperature as we rattled off the various mods (modifications) required on the car. Mods we had so recently learnt from the overlanders the day before.

After getting a lift we arrived at home. On arrival we saw a kettle of vultures swoop and fold out of the sky to a dead cow near “my” windmill. Without stopping from a long day driving we pushed on to get pictures. One of the vultures had a yellow tag on its wing, and may have been one of the vultures that Laila and I captured last year in the Mara. We found a dead calf nearby.

Vultures

Laila insisted we make use of the dead calf by holding a “stake-out” for hyenas. We moved it close to the house, and fixed a remote camera with a cheap, and as it turned out useless, remote control firing system. The idea was to get very close up shots of hyenas as they went about their gruesome business. This malfunction was one of a number of others that ruined the evening, including no headlights on the car, the burning out of the spotlight, failure of the flash camera, rain, insects in their thousands and lack of obliging hyenas.

After our disastrous “stake-out,” we returned to the empty house. Laila sat editing pictures while I wrote on another computer. Our studious work time was interrupted by Laila asking from the next room, “What was that”? I went over to have a look and she turned over my briefcase from the wall. There crouching in the shadows was a huge and hairy spider. The body from head to rear was about 6.5 cm, but the legs were fairly short. It gave me the creeps and we both went for the cameras. Laila asked if I would put my finger next to it to show just how big it was while she took a photo. Swallowing hard, I poked a shaky finger at it, whereupon it leapt into the air and let off a growl. No kidding the thing had a voice! (The sound was more like a harsh buzz). When I ran away I was cruelly called a wimp.

Big, hairy spider

As Laila sleeps on the floor, she thought it would be best if we removed the spider lest it crawl about her face in the night. My ego bruised, I went and found a huge pan from the kitchen and a sweep. Laila unkindly turned the video camera on us as the battle began. I started scooping it out the door when with a flick, the spider dashed across the floor and vanished. I searched in vain. It occurred to me that it could be nowhere else but climbing up Laila’s leg. This conclusion was crossing Laila’s mind too, and a look of panic crossed her face. I then glanced down and saw it spread large and malignant on her leg, and asked as calmly as I could if I could have the video camera. I guess Laila knew what was coming, but the result was recorded for posterity, with loud shrieks and yells as she bounced about the house. I knocked it off her leg and we did finally get it out the house.

You can see what tough and hardy characters we are from this story … exactly what you need to undertake this trans-African expedition.

Share This

Annie is setting up an ape sanctuary in Solio which should be up and running in a year. It will mainly cater to chimps but Annie will not turn away gorillas if they show up on her doorstep. It is the bush meat trade and deforestation that have orphaned these apes. Keeping animals in sanctuaries like Annie’s maybe the only hope of hanging on to these species until these devastating activities are curbed.

We arrived at Annie’s to find two more Swedish overlander families camping. There was also the overland couple we had met a few days previously who had given tips on preparing our car (visit their Web site). Overlanders are people who kit up their cars and set off on trips by road. Discussions of car parts and expedition sponsorship continued over a few drinks and Annie insisted we stay for dinner and camp out. It was a lovely evening and great to hear from these people who had been traveling for eight months in their cars across some tough countries with their kids in tow (visit the Web site).

All the overland vehicles (including our 27-year-old Range Rover on the far right)

We were a bit groggy in the morning but we got up with the sun all the same and headed back to Solio Wildlife Sanctuary. It had rained during the night which gave us a much more successful wildlife experience than the previous visit. We saw a few migrants such as Eurasian Hobbies, Steppe Eagles and Harriers. We finally found a juvenile Crowned Eagle as well. We must have seen more than a hundred rhinos. A giant forest hog stood feeding knee-deep in the swamp. This was quite a surprise as this species usually occurs in thick forest.

Giant Forest Hog

Annie had seen a leopard the day before. It had taken a kill up a tree so we believed it would still be there in the morning. Sure enough, we did spot it, though it came down the tree and ran off on seeing us so we didn’t get the photos.

Leopard far away

How different the two experiences in Solio were highlights how difficult it is to come to conclusions about wildlife. We are sometimes too quick to judge. The simple thing of the rain falling changed our whole outlook. We would really need to spend a lot more time in Solio to get a real feel for the raptor situation but from what we saw, it is not doing too badly. We hope to return after the big rains have hit for some final photo opportunities and a data count.

Share This

Our target species on this trip was the Mountain Buzzard, a slender and less powerful hawk than the ubiquitous Augur Buzzard. The species, as its name suggests, lives in mountainous (or more properly, high altitude) habitats. The species is very similar to the Steppe Buzzard and Common Buzzards of Eurasia. It has a near relative in South Africa called the Forest Buzzard. They are tough to separate, all having similar wing and tail shape and fairly drab indistinguishable plumage. But the Mountain Buzzard is easy to separate if one gets a close look. They are dark grey brown, seldom with rust red tint on their chest. They have uniform dark spots down the front from chin to belly. They call, make territory flights and nest, whereas all other local look-alikes do not.

Mountain Buzzard

I personally have a disturbing feeling that the species is one of the rarest and most rapidly declining raptors in Africa. In the business of birds, it pays to be a skeptic and I worry about most records of this species. However, in view of the fact that we saw individuals at a lower altitude than I would have thought, perhaps records I had previously doubted may not be erroneous after all.

The mountain buzzard’s preferred habitat is moorland and hagenia woodland, juniper forest fringes to open highland heath. It hunts rodents in the short cropped grasses and herbs and sometimes in the tussock grasses. It is poorly designed for forests. However, the few that we did see close enough to photograph well were tight on the edge of this presumed altitude boundary.

Habitat picture of moorlands

I had on an earlier trip caught a few and took blood samples for DNA analysis with a friend and raptor expert Bill Clark. They were fairly common six years ago, but we took two days of hard searching to find one. Perhaps significantly, we saw many Augur Buzzards, and on our first encounter with a flying Mountain Buzzard, we saw it get dive bombed and driven away by an Augur Buzzard. It is too quick an assumption to make that this species is being out-competed by the more aggressive and more successful Augur Buzzard. A few trips back to Aberdare NP may be more revealing.

Our attention was taken by other animals of course. I was driving when Laila turned and said “Simon!” Only a few meters from her, out jumped a Serval and raced away. We then saw another eight melanistic (black) Servals over the two days we spent on the moorlands. Melanism is predicted to occur at a higher percentage at higher altitudes in vertebrates, but the ratio seems little different with Augur Buzzards (which also has melanistic individuals) at this altitude and those at their lowest distribution.

The black Servals were stunning and we managed to call one close to the camera by mimicking the call of a squeaking rodent. It ran towards us and stopped just in front of the car.

Melanistic Serval

With only an hour left to exit the park and resigned to poor distant pictures of only two Mountain Buzzards, we rounded a bend to see one sitting in a tall tree. Unfortunately it was very high up, but the pictures Laila took are a valuable record of a poorly known raptor.

Share This