East Africa - Day 36

Kenya 23 August 2015

I have not been able to upload photographs to my blog because we didn't have any wifi or decent band width but will add my photographs to my blog post as soon as I can.

Today is the fifth day of our birding trip to Kenya which we have organised through local ground agent and bird guide Moses Kandie of Birdwatching Express Tours.  He provided lots of references, who all said that Moses was a brilliant guide and well organised. Having now birded with him, he is a great birder, very focussed on what we want, which is seeing our target birds, and a great guy too.

We had stayed at Soi Safari Lodge at Baringo Lake. This morning Dad grabbed a coffee before we headed off at 6.15 am.  We saw Nik Borrows and the Birdquest  tour group for a quick chat and to say goodbye.

We then went out to a local cliff, where Hornbill roost and then fly out to feed first thing in the morning.  We were here to look for Hemprich’s Hornbill, which we saw two of as well as Jackson’s Hornbill.  We carried on birding in the area for another couple of hours seeing Abyssinian Scimitarbill and another lovely Beautiful Sunbird before going back to the lodge for breakfast.

We then went to Bogoria Nature Reserve where we saw thousands of Lesser and some Greater Flamingos.  We came here to try for African Skimmer, but couldn't find any.  The new bird for the afternoon was Steel-blue Whydah.

We then travelled some hours on dirt road and pot hole tarmac road to Thomsons Falls. 5the falls themselves were quite lovely. He was an explorer and ‘discovered’ the falls as presumably it was considered not to have been discovered before the British!  We were staying at an amazing old hotel, built by the British for the settlers in the region.  It was built in 1931 and was built in that style, identical to much of Frasers Hill in Malaysia.  The hotel has been kept as it was and was lovely.  We made a quick visit to the falls before the evening and a quick bird around the gardens.  

Thomsons Falls is at 2,370 metres on the slopes of the Aberdares range with the highest point being at Satima which is 3,900 metres.  It was much colder here, but there were lots of fires including one in Mum and Dad’s room.  I had an adjoining room but was tempted momentarily to have the extra bed in their room.  In the end, having my own space won.

Trip List – We also had an amazing Trip list – 585 birds for Uganda, 183 birds for Rwanda, total trip list of 612 for Uganda and Rwanda.

About the Writer

Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig on Scilly

Photograph taken by and copyright Chris Craig 

Mya-Rose Craig is a 13 year old young birder, conservationist, writer and speaker. She is based near Bristol and writes the successful Birdgirl Blog, with posts about birding and conservation from around the world. She is loved going Mountain Gorilla Trekking in East Africa and is looking forward to watching Penguins in Antarctica in December 2015, which will be her 7th continent. She has recently been listed with the singer songwriter George Ezra and actress Maisie Williams from Game of Thrones as one of Bristol's most influential young people. Please like her Birdgirl Facebook Page and follow her on Birdgirl Twitter