My wife, Diane, and I didn’t realize what avid birders (or travelers) we were until we were faced with the decision of whether to follow through with our reservations to go to Kenya birding – in spite of an official travel warning from the US Department of State, and a cancellation by British Airways of flights to Kenya. But all went exceptionally well, and we were able to see over 400 species of birds, and add over 300 to each of our life lists.

We had been to Africa before (Botswana, Zimbabwe, and South Africa), so we were somewhat ready for the tented camps with their mosquito-netted beds, and some rough roads, but after driving over 1200 miles in Kenya in two weeks, we now know what “rough roads” and “tracks” mean. When we signed up we expected a group of up to eight clients and the guide, but, perhaps because of the travel warning, we found out that there were only the two of us – and the trip would go as planned.

This birding safari is run by East Africa Ornithological Safaris, which is owned by Don Turner, the man who wrote the bird book for Kenya. And we came to learn that our guide, Mel Ogola, a native Kenyan from near Lake Victoria, knew the cisticolas (grass or bush-warblers) even better than the author. We were met by Mel at the Nairobi Airport around 9PM after 26 hours of travel, and we had our first adventure before we got to our hotel – the Land Rover had a flat tire in downtown Nairobi, a city in which armed robbers steal approximately ten vehicles every day. Mel handled this quickly and calmly, and we knew immediately that we were in good hands.

The next morning, our drive out of Nairobi, a bustling, modern city, quickly came to a walk along the Thika and Tana Rivers, where we saw mountain wagtail, fire ants, cinnamon-chested bee-eater, African dusky flycatcher, bronze sunbird, Sykes monkeys, black saw-wing, African black duck, black cuckoo-shrike, bronze manikin, Abyssinian white-eye, trumpeter hornbill, red-faced crombec, yellow-breasted apalis, and a white-bellied tit – just to name a few. We were off to a good start. Our destination for the day was the Mountain Lodge, near Mt. Kenya. This hotel has a very active forest waterhole where we saw 48 elephant (one with a wire snare caught around its leg), cape buffalo, and defassa waterbuck, along with an assortment of birds such as male and female silvery-cheeked hornbills and Hautlaub's turaco, as well as black-and-white colobus (monkeys). The local marabou stork gave us a show when he swallowed a whole leg bone – probably about 12” long; now we know what happens to carcass bones on the savannah.

The next morning we were up early for a morning walk to find other types of apalis, a grey-headed negrofinch, and mountain greenbul. Then after (an included) champagne breakfast, we headed for Mt. Kenya National Park. Mel was very consistent in birding continuously – whether by foot or by car – even as we drove up a very steep, rocky, narrow track in the park to the base camp used by hikers to the summit. Here we parked and hiked up another 500’ to pick up some mountain specialties, such as alpine chat. Throughout the trip we were at 5000’ or above, and this hike took us to 10,350’. Other sightings at this park were: scaly francolin, Ayres’s hawk-eagle, grey cuckoo-shrike, purple-throated cuckoo-shrike, and Abbott’s and Sharpe’s starlings. That evening we stayed close by at Naro Moru Lodge on the Naro Moru River.

Again in the morning we were up early – to explore this lodge’s grounds and find black-backed puffback, golden-breasted bunting, brown parisoma, purple grenadier, brimstone canary, scarlet-chested and amethyst sunbirds, grey-backed camaroptera, red-cheeked cordon bleu, and an especially great view of a giant kingfisher. And shortly we were on our way following a dirt track for miles across a grassland savannah. We had now been in a forest, an alpine environment, a river valley, and now a savannah – we were getting an early impression of this land of contrasts. And as time went on, we would also be seeing the stark poverty of many of the people, as contrasted to the ambiance of central Nairobi, or the luxurious camps we were to stay in. But now in the savannah we would find such birds as: red-capped lark, pectoral-patch and stout cisticolas, black-winged and crowned plovers, plain-backed and grassland pipits, long-tailed widowbird, yellow-necked spurfowl, the ubiquitous lilac-breasted roller, and an especially good close-up of a long-crested eagle – all these along with zebra, wart hogs, Thompson’s gazelle, and Jackson’s hartebeest.

We were on our way across the Rift Valley to Lake Nakuru National Park, which is famous for greater and lesser flamingos in the thousands, great white pelicans and a multitude of other water birds, but equally rich in Hildebrandt's and coqui francolins, secretary birds and many more. The park encompasses grassland, acacia bush and riverine forest. Here we found black and white rhinos, waterbuck, Grant's gazelle, eland, hyena, giraffe, leopard, and lion – completing our “big five” mammals in the first four days of the trip. We had two overnights at Lake Nakuru Lodge. Each evening the lodge had local entertainment: one night dances from western Kenya and the other night a choral group. Our last morning at Lake Nakuru we heard via shortwave radio that there had been a power outage covering a large part of the northeastern US – but all of you here know more about this than we. We had many good birds at Lake Nakuru, including: malachite kingfisher, common scimirtarbill, tawny and Verreaux's eagles, pin-tailed whydah, African and Diederik cuckoos, grey and Nubian woodpeckers, and arrow-marked babbler. Another unusual feature in the park was Kenya’s largest Euphorbia candelabra forest – in which each tree looks like a large cactus (up to 40’ tall) in the shape of a candelabrum.

We would cross the equator several times on this trip, and this time we were headed for the hot springs of Lake Bogoria where we saw a host of weavers: little weaver, lesser masked weaver, white-billed buffalo weaver, chestnut weaver, Jackson’s golden-backed weaver, and Vitelline masked weaver, and also white-throated and Madagascar bee-eaters, woolly-necked stork, and a Verreaux's eagle-owl with its pink eye-lids. As we entered the area we came upon a leopard tortoise, and as we left a klipspringer was springing across a rocky ridge – but then stood a moment for us to see.
We still had an hour’s drive to Lake Baringo, where we arrived near sunset. But now we had a thirty minute boat ride to Baringo Island Camp, and the sky was turning very black in the direction we were heading. As we left the dock, Mel pointed out a bat hawk flying over, but then our attention focused on the weather. It hit us with about ten minutes left on the open lake – and the word “hit” is correct, because we were in a torrential downpour, soaking us to the skin, and thoroughly drenching our luggage and my telescope. The boat crew and the camp staff were as helpful as they could be, but in the rain-filled darkness it was quite an arrival. We spent a good deal of time drying ourselves and our gear. Even though the telescope was encased, it got waterlogged and was unusable for the rest of the trip.

But we dried, as did our clothes. This was our first tented camp for the trip, and it was the next morning before we could begin to get our bearings and the overall layout of the camp. Our tent was on the side of a hill, with a beautiful view over the lake. If you’re not familiar with “tented camps,” don’t be put off – for we had complete permanent bath facilities attached to the back of the tent, and comfortable twin beds in the tent, which was set on a concrete base. The dining room and lounge areas were permanent structures up the hill via a short rock walkway.

Our usual early-morning bird walk on the island led us to: red-fronted barbet, northern brownbul, northern masked weaver, spotted morning thrush, beautiful sunbird, blue-naped mousebirds – mating -- and a hamerkop’s huge (about 3’ in diameter) nest. A hamerkop pair doesn’t build just one of these, they may build half a dozen in their territory – and then they will only use one of them (and that will only be just once). Inside a nest would be evidence of the pack-rat characteristic of the hamerkop: e.g. cardboard, matchboxes, or items from a clothesline.

After breakfast we took a boat back to the mainland to bird around the jetty where we saw white-bellied go-away-bird, African pygmy kingfisher, speckled mousebird, and sulphur-breasted bush-shrike. We then drove a short distance to the base of a cliff that was home for two hornbills: Jackson’s and Hemprich's, as well as green-winged pytilia, white-faced scops owl, bristle-crowned starling, and white-browed crombec.

After a second night at Lake Baringo Island Camp we were on our way again – this time climbing over the western rim of the Rift Valley, and birding as we went (of course). We stopped along the road when Mel heard a Narina trogon, and a short while later stopped to hike in a rocky area to find yellow-rumped seedeater, chestnut-crowned sparrow-weaver, and black-headed batis. Our trip continued with multiple birding stops. We passed through Iten, the community where at St. Patrick’s, a missionary home, Brother William O’Connell trains Kenya’s long distance runners – for the Olympics or the Boston Marathon. In a field close by we found a Jackson’s widowbird in breeding plumage with its kinky tail, an endemic to NE Tanzania and Kenya. Our destination for the day was the Kakamega Forest, Kenya's only remaining patch of the Guineo-Congolian rainforest, a rainforest that once spanned west and central Africa with its easternmost edge in western Kenya. Here we drove six miles along a narrow dirt road off the 'main' highway to Rondo Retreat, a very pleasant enclave that would be our lodging for two nights. As we approached we got our first introduction to the loud, non-musical braying of a collection of black-and-white-casqued hornbills. We had Founders Cottage, one of five cottages, to ourselves – each is decorated and furnished with flair using things “old and new.”

One of our first birds of the next morning’s walk in the area of Rondo Retreat was a Ross's turaco – pretty enough to make it to the cover of the bird book. As we walked around the local tea fields we came across such birds as the grey-throated barbet – with its ‘mini antlers,’ Chubb's cisticola, Ansorge’s greenbul, yellow-rumped tinkerbird, and several types of weavers: brown-capped weaver, black-billed weaver (a misnomer for its name), and Vieillot's black weaver.

Then, after breakfast, we drove back along the incoming dirt road to a stream crossing, where we got out to walk along the road. As we walked along I realized how dense this rainforest was. We have been in rainforests in the Peruvian Amazon and in Costa Rica, but my impression is that Kenya’s rainforest is more dense and more fertile when cut back. By walking along the road, we were better able to see into the vegetation. We came upon a Luhder's bush-shrike, with its apricot breast climbing a tree, and multiple greenbuls: joyful greenbul, slender-billed greenbul, yellow-whiskered greenbul, Shelley's greenbul, and Cabanis’s greenbul. We also had our first wattle-eye, a Jameson's wattle-eye, a brown-chested alethe, and an equatorial akalat. I am always intrigued with the names of birds, using words used in no other context, and very unusual descriptive adjectives – and these words are used in the “common name.”

Even though we were five miles or so to the nearest village, there was a continuous stream of local people walking or bicycling by, carrying produce or grass for thatching. One group of three women turned and entered the rainforest down an imperceptible path. Some while after they were gone, we followed along that path. Here we truly got a feeling for the impenetrability of this rainforest. But we could see enough at a few breaks to pick up a beautiful weaver called a red-headed malimbe, as well as a blue monkey and a red-tailed monkey.

After lunch we walked a few of the trails around Rondo Retreat. Some birds are called skulking, some shy, but Mel’s name for the snowy-headed robin-chat was a “nightmare to find” – but we were fortunate. We also found common wattle-eye, banded prinia, green-headed sunbird, and African blue flycatcher. We ended our walk just as a thunder-and-lightning storm arrived. At dinner we invited a woman who was by herself to join us. Reenie is a petite, slightly built, charming woman from Knoxville, TN. We learned about Trinity Fellowship, the owner of Rondo Retreat, and how she became involved ten years ago. She is an annual volunteer spending five months a year here overseeing the kitchen staff, food, preparation, etc. She has also set up scholarships for promising local children, many are orphans.

The next morning we were on our way again. We would be traveling all day, with stops along the way. Our first stop was in Kisumu, Kenya’s third largest city, on Lake Victoria, the second largest fresh water lake in the world (after Lake Superior). Along a stream feeding the lake we came upon black-headed gonolek, woodland kingfisher, red-chested sunbird, yellow-fronted canary, African open-billed stork, Madagascar squacco heron, and eastern grey plantain-eater, along with a Nile monitor lizard. Mel had gone to high school in Kisumu, and as we drove along he commented we may even see his dad hanging out along the highway – and without pre-arrangement, we did! Mel still considers this area his home, and plans to return in time. We passed huge fields of tea in a major tea-growing area in Kenya. Kenya is the third largest black tea producer in the world, after India and Sri Lanka. We stopped for lunch on the tea company’s property, and were significantly questioned by their security patrol. At lunch we sighted a Holub's golden weaver and Mackinnon's fiscal.

The road surface changed drastically as we went along. Sometimes it would be good blacktop or hard pack dirt, but sometimes it was continuous, tooth-jarring potholes. People were always walking along the roadway – and we had the feeling of a high population density, in a country about the size of Texas. We were heading for the Masai Mara Game Reserve – but the approach road we were taking was very doubtful. It was bumpy, jarring, muddy, and rutted. At one point we came to a fully loaded truck that had skidded off the muddy track and was in a quagmire – it could be days before they could dig it out. Fortunately Mel was skilled at maneuvering his way through with the four-wheel-drive Land Rover. But at one point we came to a section that had two deep, hardened ruts – one on either side of the track. To put a wheel in a rut would hang up the car’s differential – and we’d be stuck, too. Mel drove on the high ground between the ruts – but the distance between the ruts slowly narrowed so it was not possible to continue without dropping into a rut. At this point, we backed up about a quarter of a mile, winding backward between the ruts, to a point where we could turn and pick up another track.

Some while later we came to an escarpment overlooking the Mara, the shortened name for the Masai Mara Game Reserve. (Both spellings "Masai" and "Maasai" are acceptable although the latter is more usual when referring to the people.) Mara is the Maa word meaning "mottled" – a reference to the patchy landscape, with trees dotting the grasslands. As we came down from the escarpment we had to travel across a plain with tracks going in every which direction – and no signage of any kind. Our destination, the Mara Explorer tented camp on the Talek River, was about 22 miles away, in the center of the Mara. Fortunately Mel was familiar with the area, having been guiding for 20 years – otherwise a GPS would have been handy. We arrived around 6:45PM, having driven about 12 hours.

Mel had commented earlier that he once had a client that said: “Tented camp! – no way, I’ve paid a lot of money, and I don’t want to stay in a tent.” After the client saw his king size bed, plush camp furniture, and a bathroom larger than his own, with double sinks, shower, and all the amenities, his comment was: “This can’t be a tent,” and was well pleased. And that’s the type of camp we found at the Mara Explorer.

We birded and looked for animals for three full days on the Mara, generally leaving the camp before breakfast, having a safari picnic breakfast somewhere on the Mara, and continuing until late morning when we’d return to camp. Then again in mid- to late-afternoon we’d go out again. Night-time drives are not allowed on the Mara – whether for fear of being lost or quagmired in a very inhospitable place, or because of the impact on the animals. In late afternoon on the first two days we had thundershowers – which ensured that the vehicle tracks would be muddy, and added a question to river crossings, though the Land Rover was designed for these.

Of course most tourists travel to Kenya to see the animals – and we had that in mind also. We picked August because that was said to be a good time to see the migration onto the Mara of the wildebeest, zebra, and all that goes with them. (In February, Tanzania would be the place to go, to see the animals returning there.) And we did see wildebeest – I’d say in the tens of thousands – though my first impression was that there must be 80 trillion. Each day more arrived – in a long line – literally thousands – galloping along – whenever one of them took the notion to start to run. And the lions were there to take advantage of the feast, along with the cheetahs, spotted hyenas, silver-backed jackals, and vultures – each in their turn. Of course there was also hartebeest, waterbuck, cape buffalo, reed buck, topi, Thompson’s and Grant's gazelles, giraffe, wart hogs, baboons, along with crocodile and hippos – this was better than a zoo!!

The Mara consists of a huge grassland savannah, riparian woods, marshes, ponds, streams, and the Mara River. In the savannah we found: a martial eagle family, a banded snake-eagle flying as it called “ha, ha, ha, ha,” black-chested snake-eagle, and Wahlberg’s eagle. Larks included: white-tailed lark, showing its white tail feathers only when landing, flappet lark, and fawn-colored lark. With the larger mammals were yellow-billed and red-billed oxpeckers. We saw yellow-billed and white storks, and a bird always worthy of a picture: saddle-billed stork. Other birds of note were: yellow-throated sandgrouse, which carries water to its young in their ruffled breast feathers, black-bellied and white-bellied bustards, Temminck's courser, quail-finch, rosy-breasted longclaw, and desert cisticola with its black tail, and Zitting cisticola. The vultures are the “professional” scavengers. Many species congregate on the same carcass to feast, but each is specialized to exploit different parts of the kill and, therefore, don’t always compete with each other. The lappet-faced vulture with its heavy, hooked bill opens up the body, a task that others cannot do, thereby exposing the flesh inside for others. The Ruppell's griffon vulture has a sharp-edged bill for cutting meat and a serrated tongue to help swallow it quickly. Also on the scene were African white-backed vultures and white-headed vultures.

On our last full day on the Mara, in the woods surrounding our camp, we were lucky to come upon an African cuckoo-hawk that normally wouldn’t be in the area. Others that we found in the riparian woods of the Mara included: Marico sunbird, bare-faced go-away-bird, scaly-throated honeyguide, grey-headed bush-shrike, black coucal, and a yellow-spotted petronia. In the bushes we came upon rattling cisticola – its environment helping us to distinguish it from the stout cisticola of the grasslands.

In various marshes, ponds and streams we discovered green sandpiper, three-banded plover (similar to our killdeer), sacred ibis, dwarf bittern (showing itself though normally very secretive), rufous-bellied heron (perched, unexpectedly, in a tree), and three other herons: black-headed, grey, and goliath heron – 4’-5’ long. Along the Mara River we found huge crocodiles waiting for the wildebeest to cross, not far from a group of hippopotamuses. (Did you know that a group of hippos is called a bloat, crash, herd, or huddle?)

On our last day’s exit from the Mara we came upon a normally nocturnal spotted thick-knee. We had a 5-hour ride over some rough roads, with some scenic sections, and passed through the Rift Valley again to Nairobi. In Nairobi we’d stop to do a bit of shopping at a very nice craft center, and again realize the contrasts that this country offers.

If you’ve read this far, you can appreciate a comment from another birding tour operator: “Kenya! No superlatives are sufficient to do justice to this middle-sized country that straddles the equator, for Kenya offers not just the best birding in Africa but the best birding on earth! Well over 1000 species have already been recorded from this one country, far more than from any equivalent area on the continent. This remarkable avifauna is a direct consequence of a highly varied topography combined with an extraordinary diversity of climatic conditions and habitats.”