4 January 2014 to 5 January 2014
Masi Mara Chui:
SPECIES LIST:
Mammals:
(5 January 2014)
tree hyrax
elephant
leopard
Cape buffalo
Thompson's gazelle
Topi
Coke's hartibeast
impala
side stripe jackal
zebra
warthog
giraffe
baboon
grants gazelle
E. white-bearded wildebeest
Birds:
(4 January 2014)
Kopling Conference Center:
African spoonbill
Sacred ibis
Black kite
Speckled mousebird
Common bulbul
Pied crow
White-eyed slaty flycatcher
African paradise flycatcher
Olive thrush
White-browed robin chat
Bronze sunbird
White-browed sparrow-weaver
Yellow bishop
Baglafecht weaver
African citril
Kenya Wildlife Service Headquarters:
African darter
Yellow-rumped tinkerbird
Grey woodpecker
Collared sunbird
(5 January 2014)
Kopling Conference Center:
African pied wagtail
Rufous sparrow
Rift Valley:
Cape rook
Variable sunbird
Abyssinian crimsonwing
Narok:
Marabou stork
Speke’s weaver
Masi Mara:
Egyptian goose
Senegal plover
Crowned plover
Helmeted guineafowl
White-bellied bustard
Secretary bird
Kori bustard
African white-backed vulture
Tawny eagle
Augur buzzard
Bateleur
Lizard buzzard
White-rumped swift
Malachite kingfisher
Superb starling
Splendid glossy starling
Mammals:
(5 January 2014)
tree hyrax
elephant
leopard
Cape buffalo
Thompson's gazelle
Topi
Coke's hartibeast
impala
side stripe jackal
zebra
warthog
giraffe
baboon
grants gazelle
E. white-bearded wildebeest
Birds:
(4 January 2014)
Kopling Conference Center:
African spoonbill
Sacred ibis
Black kite
Speckled mousebird
Common bulbul
Pied crow
White-eyed slaty flycatcher
African paradise flycatcher
Olive thrush
White-browed robin chat
Bronze sunbird
White-browed sparrow-weaver
Yellow bishop
Baglafecht weaver
African citril
Kenya Wildlife Service Headquarters:
African darter
Yellow-rumped tinkerbird
Grey woodpecker
Collared sunbird
(5 January 2014)
Kopling Conference Center:
African pied wagtail
Rufous sparrow
Rift Valley:
Cape rook
Variable sunbird
Abyssinian crimsonwing
Narok:
Marabou stork
Speke’s weaver
Masi Mara:
Egyptian goose
Senegal plover
Crowned plover
Helmeted guineafowl
White-bellied bustard
Secretary bird
Kori bustard
African white-backed vulture
Tawny eagle
Augur buzzard
Bateleur
Lizard buzzard
White-rumped swift
Malachite kingfisher
Superb starling
Splendid glossy starling
Kipling Conference Center:
Along the road from Nairobi to the Rift Valley:
Kenya Wildlife Service Headquarters Nairobi (Nairobi National Park in the distance):
First view of the Great Rift Valley:
My trip to the Masi Mara started on the outskirts of Nairobi, Kenya near the town of Karen. The tall wall around the Kolping Conference Center, topped with glass shards did not keep out the sounds of the night: traffic, feral dogs barking, strange birds, nightclub music and laughter, and water dripping from faulty faucets.
A local excursion to Kenya Wildlife Services (KWS) headquarters in Nairobi and their adjacent animal rescue zoo acquainted me with the first habitat island of the trip - a well defined border of trees at the edge the Nairobi National Park, a line that is clearly visible from one of KWS's wildlife viewing platforms. The sun was hot and the smells of diesel and red dust from construction mingled with the zoo smells from animals in captivity. The bird watching in the KWS zoo is excellent. I could have easily the spent an entire day there, scanning the tree tops and thumbing through the pages of my bird book.
What I was about to learn in the next few days is that the contrasts between this urban park in Nairobi and the Masi Mara are stark. Nairobi is an urban center with important business offices and one of the largest slums in the world, the Kibera. The fact that they even have a park in the city, where wild baboons and warthogs can run around an urban zoo outside of enclosures, is amazing. I saw my first chui (leopard in Swahili) in a tree at KWS in Nairobi. It was shifting its weight and lounging in the dusty sunshine. I wondered why it did not leave the enclosure when the tall trees appeared to have branches that leaned over the zoo's trails.
Then next day, I saw my second chui in a tree while the sun set in the Masi Mara. It was still and its yellow eyes were more magnificent than the sun. I was wearing dozens of bracelets and a giant Masi wedding necklace, that was both cumbersome and necessary; all purchased from the Masi women at the gate of the game reserve. The air is crisp and pure in the Mara, some of the best I think I have ever breathed.
A local excursion to Kenya Wildlife Services (KWS) headquarters in Nairobi and their adjacent animal rescue zoo acquainted me with the first habitat island of the trip - a well defined border of trees at the edge the Nairobi National Park, a line that is clearly visible from one of KWS's wildlife viewing platforms. The sun was hot and the smells of diesel and red dust from construction mingled with the zoo smells from animals in captivity. The bird watching in the KWS zoo is excellent. I could have easily the spent an entire day there, scanning the tree tops and thumbing through the pages of my bird book.
What I was about to learn in the next few days is that the contrasts between this urban park in Nairobi and the Masi Mara are stark. Nairobi is an urban center with important business offices and one of the largest slums in the world, the Kibera. The fact that they even have a park in the city, where wild baboons and warthogs can run around an urban zoo outside of enclosures, is amazing. I saw my first chui (leopard in Swahili) in a tree at KWS in Nairobi. It was shifting its weight and lounging in the dusty sunshine. I wondered why it did not leave the enclosure when the tall trees appeared to have branches that leaned over the zoo's trails.
Then next day, I saw my second chui in a tree while the sun set in the Masi Mara. It was still and its yellow eyes were more magnificent than the sun. I was wearing dozens of bracelets and a giant Masi wedding necklace, that was both cumbersome and necessary; all purchased from the Masi women at the gate of the game reserve. The air is crisp and pure in the Mara, some of the best I think I have ever breathed.