Im surprised with some of the bird shots, that you were able to get it from a non-dslr camera.. well done! :)

To answer your question; yes we drove with our guide and own vehicle to the camp, and there we used the camps vehicle and guide. Mainly because our guide hadn't been in that area before (Piyaya region, where we were one of the first to use that camp) so the campguide knew the area (and it's game) better. btw, this was were I witnessed the Wild dogs chasing a wildebeest (twice) and killing it (once out of the two times)

Very nice trip and writeup. Great to see names of bird species.

In January, we are already planning to spend 3 days in Samburu (Ashnil Camp) and 1 at Sweetwater (after several days in Serengeti area). We have 2 more days to spend before returning to Nairobi. What would you recommend for getting a variety of birds and animals? Meru sounds interesting for Lesser Kudu or Aberdare for Giant Hog and forest species.

Nikao thanks for the additional info and Sdb2, I'd relish the opportunity for such a discussion. And I apologize for the pun.

Az3,
Recommendations for a variety--You've already taken care of the biggest recommendation, just book the trip. Next, if you are able, choose a privately guided trip so you can concentrate on what interests you and maximize your time in the bush and not cater to others who want 3 hot meals or time at the pool. Then, in your preliminary communications with the safari provider and at the outset with your guide, state your interest in birds and variety. The guides really want to conduct the safari according to your wishes, so let those wishes be known. Finally, take advantage of wildlife/birds around the properties. These are often more relaxed around people and offer nice viewing and photo ops.

Take binoculars of course, so you can appreciate the details of the variety you see. You'll have a great trip.

<U>Flying out of Samburu</U>
Ben emphasized the need to arrive an hour early at the airstrip because flights were known to arrive and depart well ahead of schedule. He recounted some frantic passengers (not his clients) that got left behind because they were merely on time and not early. Too soon it was time to say goodbye to Ben with parting gifts of chocolate covered cranberries from Wisconsin<red>†</red> and the purple towel I had bought in Nairobi for Kinnas Bandas. Ben had provided a wonderful first half of the trip.

<red>†</red> Wisconsin produces enough cranberries to provide every person in the world with 26. Ben got more than 26 AND they were chocolate covered.

<u>Interesting birds in Samburu:</u>
African Orange Bellied Parrot—all over Simba grounds
African Silverbills—at airstrip
Augur Buzzards—courting and mating
Black Faced Sand Grouse-- watching the families of these beautifully marked birds was a highlight
Black Shouldered Kite
Blue Napped Mouse bird
Brown Hooded Kingfisher
Burchell’s Starling—Simba grounds
Chestnut Bellied Sand Grouse—watching the families of these beautifully marked birds was a highlight
Chestnut Weaver
Common Bulbul-Simba grounds
Common Waxbill—Simba grounds
Crowned Plover—including a fluffy chick
D’Arnoud’s Barbet
Donaldson-Smith’s Sparrow Weaver
Fisher’s Sparrow
Gabar Goshawk
Green Barred Woodpecker
Helmeted Guinea Fowl
Kori Bustard
Malachite Kingfisher
Red Billed Hornbill—Simba grounds
Red Headed Weaver
Rufous Chaterer
Rufous Crowned Roller
Secretary bird, including a juvenile
Somali Courser
Sooty Falcon
Speckled Pigeons—Simba grounds
Square Tailed Drongo
Taveta Golden Weaver—Simba grounds
Tawny Eagle
Vulturine Guinea Fowl
White Bellied Bustard, alone and in pairs—It was fascinating to see the male tilt his head, focusing one eyeball up at the sky in search of flying predators, then calling to alert his mate across the way to be cautious.
White Browed Sparrow Weaver—Simba grounds
White Chinned Prinea
White headed Buffalo Weaver—Simba grounds
White Headed Mousebird—Simba grounds
Yellow Billed Hornbill
Yellow necked francolin

************MAASAI MARA, TALEK RIVER AREA*********
The flight from Samburu to Olekiombo Air Strip was about 2 hours and included a stop at the Keekorok airstrip. Once we reached the Mara, endless lines of wildebeest could be seen from the air, but did not photograph well.

Raphael was there to meet me and had been the first vehicle at the airstrip. We confirmed that by phone before I even left Samburu. And he had postcard stamps. Securing postcard stamps to the US was a major undertaking that Ben and I were not able to accomplish despite numerous attempts. So in one of Ben’s conversations with Boaz back in the office, I requested that Raphael bring 10 stamps, which I bought from him. Ben, Raphael, and Boaz all did their part, but a glitch somewhere in the mail means the stamped postcards are still on safari.

<u>Fig Tree</u>
This is a beautiful tented facility along the Talek River with a covered bridge from the parking lot to the camp. Raphael said they had done a good deal of renovating which included the driver quarters, which he said were now very nice--as was everything from the tents to the indoor and outdoor dining rooms to the pool area to the treetop viewing platform. Really lovely!

All tents have a river view. I was in #4 and I thought 4-10 were ideal to minimize noise and traffic. Really, other than Tents 1-2 next to the lobby area, any were fine.

There was entertainment in the dining room each night at Fig Tree, alternating nightly between a comedic musical routine and traditional Maasai dancers. When it came time for the Adumu jumping dance by the Maasai, even the chef wanted a turn and participated in his white uniform and giant chef hat.

Having missed the opportunity to photograph a buffalo in Buffalo Springs, I wanted to make sure I got a nice Fig Tree photo at Fig Tree. I was thrilled to get a Common Bulbul perched neared some figs, with its tongue visible!

The huge central Fig Tree attracted a variety of birds but I thought I’d see more birds in the area and wildlife near the river. A herd of zebra grazed across the river from my tent one afternoon, some vervets occasionally hung around in the trees, A genet and bush baby came some evenings for fruit offerings, and a troop of baboons (mentioned below) were active at times.

Raphael said Fig Tree was not fully booked because for several nights he did not have to share with a roommate in the driver quarters.

One nice thing about breakfast at Fig Tree was that despite the posted hours, there almost always was an early hot breakfast to accommodate those driving to Nakuru. Fig Tree catered to those who drove to/from the Mara in addition to flyers. So our early departures at 6:30 am (when the park opened) were usually on a full stomach.

<u>Aggressive Baboon Encounter</u>
My plans for an early departure on Day 2 were thwarted by a troop of baboons. I had just exited my tent, zipped it up, and stepped onto the raised wooden porch when I was confronted by two large male baboons from a passing troop. At least one hopped up on my wooden porch. I shouted and waved my hands to send the baboons off.

The closest baboon approached me in an aggressive manner. Fight or flight instinct immediately overcame me. My first choice was flight—back into my tent—but turning around to unzip it would leave me too vulnerable. So the only other choice was fight.

I instinctively did an angry King Kong impression. I bared my teeth and raised my hands in claw-like fashion and started to roar, standing my ground. I think I added a few shouts of, “Get out!” Go!” I must have been a humorous sight, but there was nothing funny about the situation.

The two baboons continued toward me undeterred, as if they were stalking. This encounter lasted only seconds, when two security guards pounced onto the scene. They appeared so fast I looked to see if they were wearing capes and maybe a big letter on their chests. One had a bow and arrow and the other had a club, but the weapons were not needed because the baboons fled at the first sight of these guys. I have to give them credit for handling the situation well.

Aggressive baboons (especially the males toward human females) can be a problem anywhere. The quick response is a plus for Fig Tree. The remaining mornings the baboons used a different route for their morning walk and I had no problem. But I did carry a big stick when exiting my tent after that.

Fig Tree had several Maasai Warriors and guards that continually patrolled throughout the premises and were quite pleasant to visit with as they stood guard. Fortunately they were not always engaged in battle with the baboons.

The first animals Raphael and I saw the morning after my baboon incident were members of that same troop, meandering along. There were some nice photo ops but all the photos I took were blurry. Despite the image stabilization device on my camera, my hands were shaking too much for decent shots. Not to get overly dramatic, I was fine within 15 minutes and completely composed for the coalition of three cheetahs later that morning.

I love watching baboons, but wouldn't have wanted a close up encounter like you had Lynn.

atravelynn,

I am so impressed with your bird sightings and identifications (and the beautiful photos). Do you make all the IDs yourself? with help from your guide? I'm assuming you have a bird book - but as a rank amateur bird watcher it always takes me a very long time to find the right page...Any bird watching tips for my safari in Sept?

Raelond,
The baboons were indeed too close for comfort in that case. In contrast, a wonderful baboon encounter is the guided baboon walk in Simons Town, South Africa (near Cape Town) with Baboon Matters. I wanted to include my experience, but hope it does not freak out anybody considering a safari. If you research how many tourists have been attacked and hurt by baboons in Kenya, you'll probably find none. Problems arise when food is not not properly guarded or stored, which was not my situation.

I hope you're continuing to plan for close encounters with the chimps in Mahale.

PA Kathy,
Sept was a great time to go. I'm sure you'll have a fabulous trip.

Some of the common birds I knew and recognized. The guide did an excellent job in spotting and indentifying the birds too.

For the birds around the lodge, I ID'd them with my bird book. I've also found it helpful to shoot some photos and then ask the guide later what he thinks it is.

If birds are important to you on a safari, mention that when booking so you can get a guide knowledgeable in birds.

I know what you mean about paging through the book. Add a bumpy road and a need to put on the reading glasses to see the page, and the problem compounds. If you travel with like minded people, or book your own trip, then taking time to ID the birds and looking them up works better. The guide will likely have a bird book and will probably be able to flip to the species quickly.

At the end of each day, or even the end of each game drive, you can review your bird lists. Otherwise it is easy to forget.

What also helps is if you can review the most commonly found birds in an area in advance so you are familiar with what you'll be looking at. Sometimes travel companies will send a list to you in your pre-departure pack. You can even ask your guide at the outset to review in your book what you are likely to see to narrow the focus. Out of a whole bird book only about 5% is what you have a reasonable shot at. Looking at lists from trip reports is another way to prepare.

I've wondered about the birdwatching download or app or whatever it is. That might be useful, but I'm ignorant of that technology. And would it work over there and would it cost a lot every time you looked up a bird?

couple more suggestions--

Those little post-its designed as bookmarks can help for faster location of species in the book if you divide up the sections.

Many camps and lodges have staff that like to share their knowledge and interact with guests. They can be good resources for bird watching or resident animal viewing. You can ask at the desk or sometimes informal conversations can lead to an impromptu midday bird walk on the premises--where an armed escort is not needed. Places like Mara Serena have a formal midday guided birdwalk for a reasonable cost.

Lynn I can't believe I completely forgot that I had a close encounter with a baboon as we stopped on our way to the Crater. As I was looking at the baboons out the left side of our vehicle, a baboon attemped to climb in the open window on the right side. When I noticed him I let out a scream that probably scared the daylights out of him. In my own subtle way I am working on my husband for Mahale in 2013 after I retire.

Waiting patiently for you to reach the Mara Triangle and the Serena Lodge. Would like to get a different perspective on somewhere we just visited.

Will be getting there soon, Indiancouple. Can I use the excuse of being attacked by baboons again to justify my delayed report? Actually I just need to "sync" some photos on Picassa, a process I see you are familiar with. I will get there well before Raelond heads to Mahale.

<i>I fought off the baboons and finished the Mara Talek part. Serena is next. </i>

<u>Other vehicles, sightings, and photos</u>
Overall, I’d break down the vehicle encounters throughout the Mara, with the exception of waiting at the river crossings as:
<b>80%</b> of the time, <b>no other vehicles</b> in sight—pretty good considering the landscape is mostly flat and it is possible to see for miles, viewing vehicles on the horizon
<b>15%</b> of the time, <b>other vehicles were visible</b> as we drove
<b>5%</b> of the time, we <b>shared sightings</b> with at least one other vehicle

* Shortly after departing Olekiombo Air Strip we saw <b>3 vehicles off road</b>, gathered around a clump of bushes. Looking through my binoculars, I saw about 4 sleeping <b>lions</b>. I requested that we continue on and I hoped I wouldn’t encounter a lot of this behavior in the Mara. Fortunately we were able to avoid it most of the time. There really was no need to drive offroad and crowd around to see lions, as we saw lions on every outing except one that was rained out.

* Lioness with a pair of 1-week old cubs. Raphael had heard about this from another guide. Our first outing from Fig Tree was to seek out this special find. It was far away from everything else, which would make sense. After a couple hours of canvassing the general area and one false alarm of a lioness we thought might have been the mother, I saw them in a thicket of grass. We stayed a good distance away and there were no other vehicles in sight. I was pleased that not only did we find the youngest lion cubs I had ever seen, but we had worked on our own to locate them.

Another 3 several hour searches yielded 2 more opportunities to view the <b>lioness and hidden cubs</b>. <b>No vehicles</b> were in sight during any of our visits. When we were departing from our last visit, another car approached to see what we were looking at.

*<b>Courting lions</b> in the shade-<b>no other vehicles.</b>

* Two 2-year old <b>lion cubs</b> out for a stroll—no other vehicles during our viewing, <b>1 other vehicle</b> approached as we left.

* About a dozen sightings of pride members of the lioness with young cubs and of members of another pride. Each <b>lion</b> sighting was <b>alone or shared with one other vehicle.</b>

* A pride of <b>6 lions</b> with up to <b>8 vehicles</b>, spread out nicely so as not to interfere with the cats and allowing everyone good photos. When everyone behaves and disperses, then 8 vehicles does not overwhelm the sighting.

*In 4 outings searching for a coalition of <b>3 cheetahs</b> we were successful twice. Once we joined about <b>12 other vehicles</b>, all behaving very well, remaining on the track. The cheetahs were permitted an unobstructed view of well over 180 degrees in front of them. Unfortunately for the cheetahs there was nothing to catch their attention, nor was there anything behind them. The entire area was devoid of prey. While some of the dozen vehicles came and went, we had about half an hour of civilized, quality cheetah viewing and photographing.

It was when the cheetahs began to move out in search of better hunting grounds that all hell broke loose and vehicles started driving as if they were in a parking lot, right next to the cats. The worst offender was a Tanzanian vehicle with no company name displayed. Next was a green van with the name Moyo. Even a couple of Southern Cross mini vans were in pursuit of the cheetah.

Raphael told me that usually rangers would prevent such antics, but in their absence, it was obvious the drivers were taking advantage. I later reported my observations to the rangers who were stationed outside Fig Tree and they apologized, explaining that the vehicle normally patrolling that area was unavailable that day but would be back in service the next day.

As time passed and one by one the other vehicles left, we rejoined the cheetahs, staying on the road or track, and sharing the sighting with 2 other vehicles, then 1, then <b>just us</b>. At that point, one <b>cheetah</b> was sitting right next to a track and we drove up next to him, took a few photos and moved away.

*For the second encounter with the <b>3 cheetah</b>, we discovered them simultaneously with<b> 2 other vehicles</b> and enjoyed them for about 15 minutes before it started getting crowding with <b>10 vehicles</b> and the <b>cheetah</b> started heading out, hopefully to better hunting grounds.

*On one of our cheetah hunts, we did not find the cats, but did see a sizeable herd of buffalo quenching its thirst in the Talek River. The count was about <b>300 buffalo and no other vehicles.</b>

*I was pleased that <b>5 other vehicles</b> pulled up along with us just before sundown to view a <b>Secretary Bird</b> in a tree top. This was a picturesque photo op and it was nice to partake in this non-predator sighting with others.

* <b>Private viewing</b> for <b>all other birds</b>, except one <b>ostrich family</b> with about 15 2-month old chicks, where <b>another vehicle</b> passed by briefly.

*While watching a <b>pair of jackals</b> for about 10 minutes, <b>another vehicle</b> stopped for a moment and then moved on.

*I wished I could have shared my bat eared fox pair sighting with other vehicles. During the 30 minutes that we sat with them and took many photos, at least half a dozen vehicles passed by these highly visible creatures that were conveniently sitting near the road. Only one vehicle even slowed down to check out what we were looking at. So, <b>bat eared foxes had no other vehicles.</b>

* We drove along the Talek River in an area that Raphael knew was good for leopard. We searched with no vehicles in sight for about an hour when a relaxed leopard on a limb came into view and photo range. For 20 minutes we enjoyed the sighting <b>alone</b> as the <b>leopard</b> occasionally changed positions, opened and shut his eyes, and eventually stretched and hopped to the ground. About that time two other vehicles approached on the opposite side of the river. We tried to point out which way the leopard went, but it had disappeared.

* Later in the day we joined <b>7 other vehicles</b> watching a <b>leopard</b> on the move. That was too many for me and besides, the leopard was heading into thick brush. I managed one photo. As we left, I counted <b>15 vehicles</b> converging on the scene of <b>where the leopard had once been.</b> I remarked at the stark contrast between the 15 vehicles and our peaceful morning sighting of a leopard.

* We watched a huge troop of <b>banded mongoose</b>, all scattered over flat terrain. <b>One other vehicle</b> approached, stopped for a few seconds, and did us a huge favor. It caused a group of 5 mongoose of all ages to assemble in picturesque form as they observed the other vehicle.

* <b>Zero vehicles</b> encroached on our <b>antelope and wildebeest</b> sightings.

* <b>Occasionally one other vehicle</b> was around for <b>giraffe and zebra.</b>


<u>Mara Sarova</u>
Enroute between Fig Tree and Serena we used Sekennai Gate and made a stop for fuel at Mara Sarova. What a huge place this is with lovely grounds, bridges, and a place to go fishing. It was nearly 100% occupied so the only room they could show me entailed a 15 minute stroll through the expansive property. The tented camp room looked great and views from it were of brush covered terrain. On the roads we took that passed near Sarova, we saw hardly any vehicles—maybe 2 at most.

The album contains 80 photos of the Talek area. #11-16 are of Fig Tree or wildlife on the Fig Tree grounds.

http://picasaweb.google.com/Violette...wE&feat=email#

cant believe other vehicles didn't stop for the bat eared foxes! they are a lovely sighting!
Very nice that you had the opportunity to enjoy such a nice leopard sighting! I can only dream and hope I will encounter one as well when I return to tanzania ;)

I know what you mean about the Bat! Eared! Foxes! They're a gem of a find.

I really hope we see the Bat-eared Fox! What about Ground Hornbills? Has anybody seen them?

az3; ive seen many Ground Hornbills in Manyara, not so much elsewhere if I remember correctly

Let your guide know of your interest in these fascinating birds. I saw some about every 4-5 days in the Mara. There was a nice family that I saw one time around Fig Tree.

Early mornings and late afternoons are good times for the bat eared foxes.

Wonderful report and photos! Great photos! Been meaning to chime in. Really enjoying your adventure. Thank you!